The Best European 2013-2014 New Year's Concerts: The Dancers of the Wiener Staatsballet "stole the show"

Dancers from the Wiener Staatsballett

The televised New Year's concerts from the Berlin Philharmonie, the Dresden Semper Oper, the Vienna Musikverein and La Fenice in Venice are the eagerly awaited best "delayed Christmas presents" for music lovers in Europe and many countries on other continents.

This year was no exception. All four concerts were wonderful in their own way.



Sir Simon Rattle

The Berliner Philharmoniker under Sir Simon Rattle have been doing their "own thing" quite successfully for years now. The Philharmoniker web page describes it in this way:

For classical music fans, jaunty dance rhythms are just as much a part of New Year’s Eve as the sound of corks popping and fireworks. But need it be waltzes from Vienna, the city on the Danube, ringing in the New Year? By no means, according to the Berliner Philharmoniker and Sir Simon Rattle – and they traditionally programme different music for their New Year’s concerts along the river Spree.

The highlight of the Berlin New Year's Eve concert this year was Sergei Prokofiev's Third Piano Concerto, with the Chinese virtuoso Lang Lang as the brilliant soloist. The entire evening was a great success, with the Philharmoniker and Sir Simon in top form.

Klaus Florian Vogt, Renée Fleming and Christian Thielmann

The Staatskapelle Dresden's "competing" New Year's Eve concert has during the last few years focused on operetta music. The fact that Christian Thielemann, the orchestra's eminent chief conductor, is a self-confessed lover of operetta, is of course a god sent gift to all of us who share his passion.

This year's concert was another smash hit, with the wonderful, velvet voiced Renée Fleming as the highlight of the evening. What an entertainer this multitalented lady is! She certainly knows how to charm an audience. German star tenor Klaus Florian Vogt was as good as was to be expected, and sounded great also in the duets with Fleming.

The Vienna New Year's concerts do not need any introduction. The Wiener Philharmoniker's concert on January 1 is the world's most famous and well known annual music event. I belong to those who in the 1960s and 1970s always looked forward to see the legendary Willi Boskovsky conduct the Vienna concerts on television.

Since1986 the orchestra musicians have chosen a different conductor every year. This year it was great to see maestro Daniel Barenboim in charge of the orchestra, which - as always - sounded great.

But for this "reviewer" the greatest stars of the event were the dancers from the Wiener Staatsballett: Maria Yakovleva, Nina Poláková, Irina Tsymbal, Ketevan Papava, Prisca Zeisel, Kirill Koundraev, Mihail Sosnovschi, Ene Peci, Kamil Pavelka and Alexis Forabosco.

I have never seen more beautifully danced and choreographed concert performances than the ones in this New Year's concert. Kudos to Ashley Page for the choreography! An the dresses by Vivienne Westwood were gorgeous.

Diego Matheuz at the La Fenice New Year's concert

The last of the New Year's concerts was the one from La Fenice, broadcast on ARTE in the evening of January 1. This year the orchestra's young chief conductor Diego Matheuz had chosen a nice mix of well known, mainly Italian opera music by Rossini, Verdi, Bellini, Puccini, Mascagni and Donizetti for the concert. It was again a memorable evening of bel canto from one of the world's most beautiful opera houses. The two soloists, Italian soprano Carmen Giannattasio and American tenor Lawrence Brownlee, were excellent.

 The wonderful dancers of the Wiener Staatsballett: 

 

Suddenly the dancers turned into a painting! It was magical television!

 

The Last Night of the Proms 2011 on BBC HD channel last night

Conductor Edward Gardner and the BBC Symphony Orchestra in front of the audience in the Albert Hall.

One reason why I always look forward to the Christmas season, is that the European television channels include so many fine classical music and opera performances in their programme schedule. In addition to the great live broadcasts - e.g. from Vienna, Dresden, Berlin and Venice - there are also many rebroadcasts of older favourites, like the Last Night of the Proms 2011, shown on the BBC HD channel last night.

What a great evening, with the young conductor Edward Gardner in charge of the BBC Symphony Orchestra and the BBC Symphony Chorus and the soloists Susan Bullock (soprano) and Lang Lang!

Particularly I enjoyed Benjamin Britten's The Young Person's Guide to the Orchestra, and Britten's wonderful arrangement of the British National Anthem.

Soprano Susan Bullock was quite a sight when she sung Rule Britannia!

Edward Gardner was the youngest conductor since Henry Wood to conduct the Last Night of the Proms.

The "father of the Proms", Henry Wood.

There is no audience like the audience on the Last Night of the Proms!

PS

Just in case you are interested:

The 2014 Proms Season launches on 24 April
and the booking opens on 17 May.

The Gala Opening of the Mariinsky II on ARTE: Ah, Those Mariinsky Ballerinas!

As part of its Christmas programming, the ARTE television channel last night brought us the opening gala concert of the Mariinsky Theater Second Stage, which took place on 2 May this year.

The concert, which featured such mega stars as Plácido Domingo, Rene Pape and Anna Netrebko, and of course the host Valery Gergiev, was a stunning display of music and dance on the highest level.

However, the ones who made the evening truly memorable, at least for this "reviewer", were the Mariinsky ballerinas. To me, they are the essence and the beauty of the Mariinsky tradition:

Yekaterina Kondarouva

Yekaterina Kondarouva

The Mariinsky Children's Chorus was another of the evening's highlights:

 

And, of course, Boris Godunov in all his splendour:

Evgeny Nikitin

 

Still another highlight: The Song of the Volga Boatmen

 

Bass Mikhail Petrenko and the Mariinsky Chorus

The Musikantenstadl - A wonderful German language popular folk music television program

The Viennese born singer and entertainer has since 2006 hosted the Musikantenstadl.

When it comes to music, I'm pretty much a "omnivore", although I nowadays mainly listen to classical music and opera. One of may favourite televised music entertainment programs outside of the classical genre is the German language popular folk music show Musikantenstadl, broadcast live on three European TV channels, ORF1, Das Erste (ARD) and SRF1.

The Musikantenstadl owes much of its popularity to its presenter, the Viennese-born
singer/entertainer Andy Borg, who has hosted the show since 2006. Borg's good natured down-to-earth style clearly makes both live and television audiences feel at home.

The latest Musikantenstadl, broadcast live from the St. Jakobshalle in Basel on November 16, was a joy to watch. Among the many talented popular musicians and other guests, my own favourites were the three young Swiss sisters Geschwister Weber and the precision drum corps Top Secret Secret Drum Corps from Basel.

Geschwister Weber from the Swiss canton Basel-Landschaft.

 

Sandra Weber

The Top Secret Drum Corps from Basel - one of the best precision drum corps
in the world.

Carlo Brunner (on the left) and his Superländlerkapelle were one of the bands
appearing at the Musikantenstadl in Basel.

The lively audience enjoying the evening in Basel.

The ski lodge set with tables on the floor.

 Presenter Andy Borg

"A Celebration of Classic MGM Film Musicals" - An unforgettable evening at the 2009 Proms

Sarah Fox and Sir Thomas Allen at the Prom 22, 2009.

 

 

One of the nice things about the BBC Proms is that they cover such a wide range of music. Late last night for example the BBC HD channel rebroadcast Prom 22, "A Celebration of Classic MGM Film Musicals", one of the absolute highlights of the 2009 Proms.

Soprano Sarah Fox.

Conductor John Wilson and his hand picked orchestra, the Maida Vale Singers and an array of star vocalists, including Kim Criswell, Sarah Fox, Sir Thomas Allen, Curtis Stigers and Seth MacFarlane, made this celebration of the golden age of Hollywood musicals truly unforgettable. John Wilson had painstakingly reconstructed the original orchestral scores, which were lost when the studio destroyed its music library to make way for a car park.

Sir Thomas  Allen.

Sir Thomas Allen and Sarah Fox.

Kim Criswell

For friends of all those great movie classics, including The Wizard of Oz, Meet Me in St Louis, Seven Brides for Seven Brothers, High Society, Gigi and Singin' in the Rain, this stunning evening of great film music is fortunately available also on DVD.     

The highlight of the Verdi year: ARTE's broadcast of Verdi's Messa da Requiem from Teatro alla Scala




 

At least for this "reviewer" the Arte broadcast on October 20 of Verdi's Messa da Requiem, recorded last year at the Teatro alla Scala, has been the absolute highlight of the composer's 200th anniversary.
It is difficult to imagine a finer combination than La Scala, Daniel Barenboim, soprano Anja Harteros, mezzo-soprano Elīna Garanča, tenor Jonas Kaufmann and bass René Pape for what sometimes - slightly ironically - has been called Verdi's "finest opera".

I cannot but agree with what the critic Richard Morrison wrote in The Times:

"If you were to devise a dream casting for this most theatrical of sacred masterpieces you might well come up with Anja Harteros, Elina Garanca, Jonas Kaufmann and Rene Pape, plus the Chorus and Orchestra of La Scala, Milan, under their current maestro, Daniel Barenboim... I was blown away by this Requiem... Kaufmann’s first entry was like an erupting volcano. Garanca was as mesmerising, floating creamy legatos while mustering a thrilling chest voice that I never thought she Read more possessed. Harteros, looking like a distressed pre-Raphaelite beauty, turned the final movement into the most sublime death scene never to appear in an opera. And that incredible chorus, with their barrel-voiced basses and wonderfully hammy rolled consonants and gasped aspirates, hurled out the apocalyptic moments as if determined to blast the roof off.”

I am particularly happy about what Mr Morrison said about the La Scala chorus. What a joy it was to watch and hear the power of this mighty instrument! Without a first class chorus even the best of soloists and orchestras cannot make a great performance of the Verdi requiem.



The Teatro alla Scala chorus was a revelation.

Members of the chorus.

Soloists Harteros, Garanča, Kaufmann and Pape.

 

Tenor Jonas Kaufmann.



Barenboim with soloists.



Harteros and Garanča.