Two wonderful pianists and two pairs of high heels on ARTE

Yuja Wang in Verbier last summer.

Yesterday the French-German television channel ARTE broadcast two concerts with two extraordinarily talented young pianists, Yuja Wang and Ingold Wunder.

Yuja Wang has, in spite of her young age, already acquired mega star status. The broadcast with Wang playing Rachmaninoff's third piano concerto together with the excellent Staatskapelle Dresden was recorded at the Verbier festival last summer. It was another stellar performance by Wang, with a relaxed audience enjoying every minute in the beautiful open air setting.

Wang's high heels.

Wang's two pair of shoes in Verbier.

What the television director could have spared viewers, was the attention given to Miss Wang's dresses and high heeled shoes, which were featured several times. She is of course a joy also to look at, but highlighting that side easily distracts from the music.

The other pianist appearing on ARTE last night was the young Austrian Ingold Wunder, who won the second prize and several special prizes at the 2010 Warsaw International Chopin Competition. It was the first time I had a chance to see and hear Wunder in action - and he did not disappoint. One does not often hear a young musician display the style and refinement that characterized Wunder's recital, recorded at the Festspielhaus in Baden-Baden last summer.

Chopin's Ballade Nr.1 and Mozart's "Linz" sonata were my own favorites among the varied works Wunder had chosen to play. One of the encores, Arcadi Volodos' concert paraphrase on Mozart's "Rondo alla turca", gave Wunder a chance to display his technical brilliance.

Televising concerts is not an easy task. Very often the directors choose a much too restless approach, with cameras continuously zooming and panning. This time the director Harald Lettfuss had stricken the right balance, which focused on the music and the way Wunder reacted to his own playing.

What a joy it was to follow how the change of mood was reflected in the pianist's facial expressions!

Wunder in Baden-Baden in the summer of 2012.

Copenhagen - wonderful also in the autumn

The Royal Danish Opera's waterside Opera House was inaugurated in 2005.

Copenhagen, where I had the privilege to live for almost five years not too long ago, is one of may favorite cities. When I revisited Copenhagen in October last year, there were not as many tourists as in the summer months, but still the city was full of life:

A pleasant January day in the Øresund region

Today we have been enjoying a nice and calm January day here in the Øresund region, with temperatures of about 3 - 4° C. 

This was the view over to Kronborg castle and Helsingør on the Danish side of the Sound, about half an hour before sunset:

It seemed to be a perfect afternoon even for canoing:

Our bathing pier is formally closed during the winter season, but that did not stop this brave young man from taking a swim:  

Ships in Øresund 2011 - 2012

Here is a slideshow with some of the photos of ships in Øresund that I shot during the last two years. I hope you enjoy the pictures. (If you have problems getting the embedded video started, click the "watch on YouTube" button, and yous should be able to watch the slideshow).

A great performance to LISTEN to: The Salzburg "La Bohème"

If there would be an international award for best radio broadcast of an opera performance, the winner of the 2012 award would without doubt be the Salzburg Festival's „La Bohème“. What a pleasure it was to listen to the great voices of Anna Netrebko as Mimì and Piotr Bezcala as Rodolfo, when the German 3Sat broadcast the opera this week. Beczala particularly showed that he is one of the absolute top tenors in the world right now. (Beczala also excelled in the Semper Operetta Gala last week).

If you look at the pictures below, I think you will understand why the Salzburg „La Bohème“ is a performance to LISTEN to:

The second prize in the radio award competition also goes to Salzburg: The Salzburg Whitsun Festival's production of Georg Friedrich Händel´s opera "Giulio Cesare in Egitto"  (Julius Caesar in Egypt)  had all the winning qualities, except that the rocket artistic director Cecilia Bartoli rode on, was of a somewhat outdated type. 

The best 2012/2013 European New Year's concerts

Soprano Olga Peretyatko was the star of the evening in Baden-Baden.

For music lovers the turn of the year - when major  European television channels bring out the big names in classical music and opera in their New Year's gala concerts - is always a time to look forward to. 

The New Year's concerts from Dresden's Semper Oper, the Festspielhaus in Baden-Baden, the Berlin Philharmonie, the Grosser Musikvereinssaal in Vienna and La Fenice in Venice were all pure bliss again this holiday "season". Of course there is some kind of competition going on between the orchestras and broacasters about the largest audiences, but that is of minor interest for an ordinary viewer - what is important is that you get a rare chance to watch and listen to some of the world's best musicians, without having to pay the often exorbitant ticket prices for their concerts. 

Christian Thielemann conducting the outstanding Staatskapelle Dresden.

The New Year concert "season" started on December 30 on German ZDF with the Operetta Gala concert from the Semper Oper, one of the most beautiful opera houses in the world. I have already praised the concert in a previous post, so may it suffice just to state that this concert was my own favorite among the four concerts mentioned above. It was just great - and is bound to become a classic! Above all, it was a great evening for the Polish tenor Piotr Beczala, arguably the best tenor in the world in the operetta repertoire. 

Star tenor Piotr Veczala and soprano Ingeborg Schöpf, who saved the evening by standing in for Diana Damrau, who could not sing because of a sudden illness.

New Year's concerts with Sir Simon Rattle and the Berliner Philharmoniker are always first class events. This year's version was no exception. It was great to see Sir Simon so relaxed and really enjoying the evening in front of his magnificient orchestra. I particularly enjoyed Rameau's dance suite Les Boréades, a work previously unknown to me. And of course Cecilia Bartoli brought additional star appeal to the evening. 

Sir Simon was enjoying the evening together with his magnificent Berliner Philharmoniker.

Mezzo soprano Cecilia Bartoli performing Handel's aria »Scherza in mar la navicella«.

Tenor Roberto Villazon and baritone Thomas Hampson were the big names in the Baden-Baden concert, broadcast by French-German ARTE on new year's eve. However, at least for this "reviewer", the real star of the evening was the young Russian soprano Olga Peretyatko, who brought down the house with her Verdi arias. 

Soprano Olga Peretyatko is also a great actress. 

The New Year's Day concert from the Musikverein in Vienna is of course always a very special event. This year Musical Director Franz Welser-Möst appeared more relaxed in front of the Wiener Philharmoniker than last year. It was nice that he had included a piece of Verdi in this year's program, in order to honor the composer's anniversary. 

The flower decorations donated by the city of San Ramo are an important feature of the annual Vienna New Year's concerts.

The dancers of Vienna State Ballet are always a most welcome addition to the annual Vienna New Year's concerts.

Three female members of the Wiener Philharmoniker in the same picture - a sight you did not see ten years ago. 

The New Year's gala concert from the gorgeous La Fenice opera house in Venice has also become a most welcome tradition for television audiences to enjoy. This year it was particularly nice to see early music specialist Sir John Eliot Gardiner in front of the orchestra in a Verdi program, in honor of the composer's 200-year birth-day anniversary. 

Sir John Eliot Gardiner conducting the La Fenice orchestra.

The La Fenice in Venice is one of the most beautiful opera houses in the world.

This year the La Fenice's New Year's gala concert included a performance by members of the La Scala ballet , which probably had a particular appeal to female television viewers.