La Vague (die Welle) (2009)

La Fura dels Baus, famous for their opening ceremony of the Olympic games in Barcelona and opera stagings in Salzburg, Ruhrtriennale, etc., use in Rheingold 3D computer projections that evoke computer games, organic structures built of athletic performers that recall the "Cirque du soleil". “Uusitalo is a commanding, mellifluous Wotan and although Jennifer Wilson's Brünnhilde is relatively unnuanced dramatically, she sings strongly and sensitively…The youthful Orquestra de la Comunitat Valenciana obediently and expertly delivers the plushy textures and stagey rhetoric Mehta requires” (Gramophone).

La Fura dels Baus, famous for their opening ceremony of the Olympic games in Barcelona and opera stagings in Salzburg, Ruhrtriennale, etc., use in Rheingold 3D computer projections that evoke computer games, organic structures built of athletic performers that recall the "Cirque du soleil". “Uusitalo is a commanding, mellifluous Wotan and although Jennifer Wilson's Brünnhilde is relatively unnuanced dramatically, she sings strongly and sensitively…The youthful Orquestra de la Comunitat Valenciana obediently and expertly delivers the plushy textures and stagey rhetoric Mehta requires” (Gramophone).

Dieses Oratorium ist möglicherweise genau jenes Stück, mit dem Johann David Heinichen (1683-1749) sich die Kapellmeisterstelle am Dresdner Hof Augusts des Starken, des Kurfürsten von Sachsen und polnischen Königs, eroberte und so sein berufliches Schicksal an einen der glänzendsten Höfe Europas band. Das Werk entstand in Venedig, wo Heinichen während eines ausgedehnten Italienaufenthalts 1716 dem sächsischen Kurprinzen Friedrich August begegnete. Dieser zeigte sich von der Musik seines Landeskindes überaus begeistert und empfahl ihn nachdrücklich am heimischen Hof.

Dieses Oratorium ist möglicherweise genau jenes Stück, mit dem Johann David Heinichen (1683-1749) sich die Kapellmeisterstelle am Dresdner Hof Augusts des Starken, des Kurfürsten von Sachsen und polnischen Königs, eroberte und so sein berufliches Schicksal an einen der glänzendsten Höfe Europas band. Das Werk entstand in Venedig, wo Heinichen während eines ausgedehnten Italienaufenthalts 1716 dem sächsischen Kurprinzen Friedrich August begegnete. Dieser zeigte sich von der Musik seines Landeskindes überaus begeistert und empfahl ihn nachdrücklich am heimischen Hof.

Haydn’s Creation, the culmination of his life’s work, in a legendary 1986 performance conducted by Leonard Bernstein in the exquisite Baroque splendor of the Benedictine Abbey of Ottobeuren, Bavaria, now available on DVD for the first time. This spectacular performance also includes Bernstein’s spoken introduction to the performance —always an invaluable addition to any concert.

Bavarian-born composer Michael Bastian Weiß has studied both music and philosophy, and his notes to the two-movement Fragmenta Missarum pro Defunctis (Fragments of a Mass for the Dead) – although not, curiously, for the other work on the disc, the Sonate über die Dunkelheit (Simphonie Nr. 2) – have a philosophical orientation. The Fragmenta Missarum, he said, apply "a topos of recent musical history, namely working with stillness," to the problem of "reacting to a historical disaster that caused considerable pain to countless people." The work was composed in 2000, and this presumably refers to the Holocaust.

Bavarian-born composer Michael Bastian Weiß has studied both music and philosophy, and his notes to the two-movement Fragmenta Missarum pro Defunctis (Fragments of a Mass for the Dead) – although not, curiously, for the other work on the disc, the Sonate über die Dunkelheit (Simphonie Nr. 2) – have a philosophical orientation. The Fragmenta Missarum, he said, apply "a topos of recent musical history, namely working with stillness," to the problem of "reacting to a historical disaster that caused considerable pain to countless people." The work was composed in 2000, and this presumably refers to the Holocaust.