In June and July 1967 the opera ensemble toured North America, with visits to the World Exposition in Montreal (Canada) and New York. In addition to six modern works (including Jenufa and Mathis der Maler) the programme also featured Der Freischütz, which according to Liebermann “was virtually unknown in the United States.” In order to avoid any “stylistic hiatus” with the modern operas, the company decided to perform a concert version of Weber’s work. The tour concept was an enormous success, with tickets being traded at black market prices. In August 1967 the company made the first of 13 recordings for television.
75 Jahre Donaueschinger Musiktage (1921-1996) - this interesting and amazing Box Set offers to meet with the most celebrated masters and composers in the history of music and get acquainted with their creativity.
The Donaueschinger Musiktage is an annual music festival, providing a platform for contemporary composers in the eponymous south German town. In 1996 col legno published a 12-CD set with highlights of the (then) 75 years history of the event, complete with an illustrated 125-page booklet. 15 hours of exciting modernist compositions from Stravinsky to Lachenmann. The first of these festivals was held in 1921 but there were interruptions in the Nazi years.
Some of Stephen Hough’s most exquisite recordings come from his collaborations with EMI and Virgin Classics during this early period, offering a taste of the pianist’s impeccable touch, his musical and intellectual rigor, and his fondness for the short showpieces that filled late 19th-century salons and peppered the 78 rpm records of golden-age pianists. In the two all-Liszt recitals, Stephen Hough is also in his element, creating atmospheric colors, with notes flowing like streams of pearls, shaping and magnifying the dramatic depth of these works. From Mozart to Schumann, Brahms to Britten, looking back at the great virtuoso tradition while looking forward through his own arrangements, Stephen Hough presents, through these early recordings, a fascinating portrait of a young artist whose brilliant, artistic intellect and appetite for creativity remains unmatched today.