Beethoven No 10

Chef d’orchestre le plus médiatisé du monde, mais aussi homme de pouvoir voulant tout régir, homme d’affaires innovateur, travailleur intransigeant, par ailleurs fou de voile, de bolides, d’avion et de technologie tout en étant passionné de yoga et de bouddhisme, Herbert von Karajan est considéré partout dans le monde comme une figure mythique, inséparable de Salzbourg, sa ville natale, tant le chef autrichien a façonné comme il l’entendait la vie culturelle de la ville en en faisant un haut-lieu de la scène musicale ; il est aussi connu comme le champion de l’interprétation beethovenienne et l’interprète qui aura le plus enregistré au monde (près d’un millier de disques DGG, Decca, EMI). Qu’il soit porté aux nues ou controversé, il restera sans conteste comme la personnalité marquante de la direction d’orchestre au XXe siècle, dont le remarquable instinct musical aura lancé bon nombre de jeunes chanteurs ou instrumentistes.

The Dresdner Philharmonie is the orchestra of Dresden, the State Capital of Saxony. Since 2011, Michael Sanderling has been its Principal Conductor, following Kurt Masur, Marek Janowski, Rafael Frühbeck de Burgos and others in this position.

Philippe is a Geneva-based musician, graduate of the the Hautes Ecoles de Suisse-romande where he trained with Paul Coker, Fernando Rossano and Pascal Godart.

Firkušný won praise from his famous colleague Vladimir Horowitz, who once exclaimed, "Rudolf Firkušný can play Schubert, that's for sure. I heard him on the radio this afternoon … playing the three Klavierstücke. Beautiful!" And the noted piano teacher and critic David Dubal called Firkušný "the preeminent Czech pianist of the twentieth century." Firkušný died in Staatsburg, New York in 1994.[4] In 2007, his ashes and those of his wife, Tatiana Nevolová Firkušný, were reburied together in an honorary place at the Central Cemetery in Brno, close to his first teacher, Janáček, and directly next to the grave of Czech composer Jan Novák. In 2012, coinciding with the 100th anniversary of his birth, there was a large festival held by Brno's Janáček Academy of Music and Performing Arts to commemorate the centennial, featuring many of his former alumni from the Juilliard School. In 2013, the Prague Spring Festival established the Rudolf Firkušný Piano Festival held in Prague.

Better known as Gran Partita, Mozart’s Serenade in B-flat major, K 361 is the crowning glory of the Harmoniemusik of the Classical era. Austrian and German nobles in particular often employed small wind ensembles called Harmonien which provided entertainment during banquets and outdoor festivities. In order to satisfy the growing demand for suitable music, countless arrangements of operas and ballet music were made, while original works were supplied by a wide range of composers – Haydn, Beethoven, Schubert and many lesser masters wrote Harmoniemusik. Among their works, Mozart’s Serenade stands out for several reasons. It is on a larger scale than most: with seven movements and a duration of some 50 minutes, it is scored for thirteen instruments rather than the usual eight or nine. But conceived with a cyclical layout and with a highly economic use of motivic material, it also displays a compositional sophistication unusual for the genre. The Gran Partita is here performed by wind players from one of the world’s finest orchestras, the Amsterdam Concertgebouworkest, under the direction of oboist Alexei Ogrintchouk. Ogrintchouk has also chosen the coupling, a set of variations by Beethoven on Mozart’s famous aria from Don Giovanni scored for two oboes and English horn.

When Heitor Villa-Lobos was commissioned to contribute a composition to the 400th anniversary of São Paulo in 1954, he was not disappointed: his 10th symphony "Ameríndia" is a huge work. Oratory?

Rudolf Buchbinder is one of the legendary artists of our time. His piano playing is an unparalleled fusion of the authority of a career spanning more than 60 years with spirit and spontaneity. Few musicians have engaged with Beethoven's music as intensively and over such a long period as legendary Austrian Maestro Rudolf Buchbinder. He has performed the 32 piano sonatas 60 times in cycles all over the world and developed the story of their interpretation over decades. At the Salzburger Festspiele in 2014 he was the first pianist ever playing all 32 Sonatas on several recitals in one festival season.