Accentus Music filmed the first performance at the Lucerne Festival of the Berliner Philharmoniker with their designated chief conductor Kirill Petrenko
Kirill Petrenko feels extremely devoted to Austrian composer Franz Schmidt, one of the last of the Romantics, who had to endure a traumatic experience when his only daughter, Emma, passed away in March 1932. He subsequently wrote a kind of Requiem with his Fourth Symphony, which includes elegiac laments, a wide-ranging funeral march, and, at the end, a celebration of farewell: “a dying in beauty,” as Schmidt said, “with the whole of one’s life passing in review.”
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The Georgian Republic: An orthodox multi-ethnic mix in the wild Caucasus, the borderland between the East and West. The Zakaria-Paliashvili Music School for gifted children is located on a hill above the capital city of Tbilisi. The plaster is crumbling, and the stairs are riddled with holes. Hardly any instrument can be tuned anymore, and many teachers are so old that they could be the great-grandparents of their students.
Those who are allowed to step through the battered main entrance after the strict entrance examination do so with pride because former Paliashvili students regularly conquer the world’s stages. The violinist Lisa Batiashvili and pianist Khatia Buniatishvili were taught here. more
Accentus Music has recorded a breathtaking all-Ravel program with the Lucerne Festival Orchestra and Riccardo Chailly to celebrate the orchestra’s 15th anniversary. Founded in 2003 by Claudio Abbado, the Lucerne Festival Orchestra quickly grew into much more than “just” another festival orchestra.
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The first film about the most famous “weekend composer”: Charles Ives
As a teenager, he composes dance melodies as well as church hymns, becoming the youngest organist of all Connecticut at age 14. As a natural talent in sports, he is appointed captain of the football team at the elite Yale University before the former music student becomes the most successful life insurer in the United States. more
“Music is emotion; music is something we share from our life experiences, from our feelings, from our own discoveries and from the appreciation we feel when we are attentive and open to great masterpieces.” more
Because of Tchaikovsky’s imaginative music, “The Nutcracker“ is one of the most popular works of the ballet repertoire, instantly bringing to mind scenes of a splendidly decorated Christmas room, dancing snowflakes and the waltz of the flowers. The plot of “The Nutcracker“ is based on a novella by E.T.A. Hoffmann. more
The Gewandhaus season 2017/18 celebrates two momentous occasions: the appointment of Andris Nelsons to the position of the 21st Gewandhaus Kapellmeister and the 275th anniversary of the inception of the Gewandhausorchester. A four-week festival in February and March 2018 was devoted to the new music director. more
The great seminal catastrophe of 1914 was not merely a historical upheaval for politics and society. Music had also lost its political innocence. But can music be political? Already in the 19th century, an increasing number of composers and musicians had started to adopt political agendas, and to this day many musicians position themselves politically. more
A new era in Leipzig has just begun: Andris Nelsons started his tenure as the 21st Gewandhaus conductor. The inaugural concert combined the world premiere of Relief, a new piece by composer Steffen Schleiermacher, with one of the most important premieres in the history of the orchestra. In March 1842, the Gewandhausorchester performed the famous Scottish Symphony by Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy under the direction of the composer himself for the first time. more