By ANDREW POWELL Published: July 29, 2017 PASSAU — What more heavenly way to mark your 90th birthday than conducting a favorite symphony in four cathedrals on four successive nights, and with an orchestra that adores you? This, at least, was Herbert Blomstedt’s thinking, amenably realized by the Bamberger Symphoniker — in Bamberg’s Dom St […]
Read the rest of this article »By ANDREW POWELL Published: July 6, 2017 MUNICH — Under the incongruous stewardship of Valery Gergiev, the Munich Philharmonic intends to stress its Bruckner credentials the next three Septembers with filmed visits to the Stiftsbasilika St Florian. There, where the composer worked and rests, just south of Linz, the MPhil will record for DVD his […]
Read the rest of this article »By ANDREW POWELL Published: July 4, 2017 OBERAMMERGAU — Amplification makes it possible; amplification limits the achievement. That is the dilemma for opera in this neat Bavarian town’s Passionstheater (1930), built to service a post-plague pledge made 384 years ago. Raked seating in the barn-like house confronts a fixed templar structure on a stage open […]
Read the rest of this article »By ANDREW POWELL Published: June 23, 2017 MUNICH — Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony, complete, is slated for President Trump’s second orchestra concert on the job, to take place, like the first, in Europe, specifically at Hamburg’s new Elbphilharmonie. Details of the July 7 event, part of the 12th G20 Summit, were announced Wednesday by a spokesman […]
Read the rest of this article »By ANDREW POWELL Published: June 16, 2017 MUNICH — Today Berlin got as close to Munich as Vienna already is: four hours by rail. Deutsche Bahn test-trains for the first time ran the recently completed high-speed track between the two German cities, 400 miles apart, and the company promised passenger service starting Dec. 10, the […]
Read the rest of this article »By ANDREW POWELL Published: June 16, 2017 MUNICH — An odd thing happened during the curtain calls last evening after a taut, riveting Rusalka here at Bavarian State Opera. The orchestra players made various signs of approval for the cast members’ work, as is customary, and then essentially none for the conductor (and leading lady’s […]
Read the rest of this article »By ANDREW POWELL Published: June 3, 2017 SALZBURG — When artistic control of the Whitsun Festival here moved to Cecilia Bartoli nearly six years ago, its programming changed from a steady focus on one period and place (18th-century Napoli) to shifting annual themes. First there was “Cleopatra.” Next came the idea of “sacrifice.” Then the […]
Read the rest of this article »By ANDREW POWELL Published: May 19, 2017 RAVENNA — Sometimes a musician just needs a good partner. Cellist Alban Gerhardt and pianist Steven Osborne work magically together but have a habit of starting their recitals apart, as if to establish credentials. So it was April 11 here at the Teatro Alighieri, home of the Ravenna […]
Read the rest of this article »By ANDREW POWELL Published: May 17, 2017 MUNICH — President Trump will next Friday (May 26) attend his first orchestra concert since taking office. Scheduled for 7 p.m. al fresco at the Teatro Antico in Taormina, Sicily, the program consists of Italian opera overtures and intermezzos: Puccini – Madama Butterfly: Act III Sunrise Rossini – […]
Read the rest of this article »By ANDREW POWELL Published: May 16, 2017 MUNICH — Nikolaus Bachler’s Bavarian State Opera has been having its idea of fun with the taxpayer money it receives. In connection with a new Tannhäuser, due May 21, it commissioned for its quarterly Max Joseph magazine a discussion of Wagner’s bacchanale of distant bathing naiads and sedate […]
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