Poemes Renee Fleming, Alan Gilbert, Seiji Ozawa (2012)

Renée Fleming and Andreas Scholl lead a superb cast in Stephen Wadsworth’s celebrated production of Handel’s Rodelinda from the Metropolitan Opera – based on the "Live in HD" transmission to cinemas worldwide. The title role is unique in featuring no less than eight magnificent arias. Renée Fleming’s triumph in the first run of the production was hailed by The New York Times, "Ms Fleming draws on every resource of her artistry in this portrayal: luminous sound, exquisite ornamentation, floating high notes, emotional volatility."

The Vienna Philharmonic New Year’s Concert It has long been a Philharmonic New Year’s Day tradition to present a program consisting of the lively and at the same time nostalgic music from the vast repertoire of the Johann Strauss family and their contemporaries. These concerts not only delight the audience in the Wiener Musikverein, but also enjoy great international popularity through the worldwide television broadcasts, which now reach over 50 countries. The concert was conducted by Seiji Ozawa for the first time in 2002 and the light-hearted nature of the event finds this always engaging conductor at his most impishly playful.

Four decades of friendship and musical partnership brings these two titans of classical music together again. Eagerly anticipated follow-up to their now-legendary recording of the first concerto. Recorded live in concert in Japan in May 2019.

Das war ein Abend, wie Opernfreunde ihn lieben: Tschaikowskis »Pique Dame«, ein Werk des Repertoires und doch selten gespielt, ein Ensemble nicht nur berühmter Namen, sondern großer Singschauspieler, dazu ein Dirigent der Sonderklasse – eine Aufführung, wie sie auch an einem Haus wie der Wiener Staatsoper nicht zum »Alltag« gehört. Der Erfolg der Aufführung, der Jubel waren gleichsam vorprogrammiert. Zumal die Wiener Staatsoper ihrem Publikum noch eine ganz besondere Attraktion anzubieten hatte: Im Mittelpunkt des Abends und schier endloser Ovationen stand eine der großen Heroinen der Opernbühne, Martha Mödl, die hier in den Fünfziger- und Sechzigerjahren des Jahrhunderts als Leonore in Beethovens »Fidelio«, als Isolde und Brünnhilde, aber auch in so manchen Partien des dramatischen Mezzofachs Triumphe gefeiert hatte.

This first-ever, specially remastered collection compiles highlights chosen by Renée of her “most magical experiences”, captured live on stage in this pinnacle of opera houses. Produced by GRAMMY-winning David Frost, the collection features duets with Cecilia Bartoli, Susan Graham, Dmitri Hvorostovsky, Samuel Ramey, Bryn Terfel & more. Since her 1991 debut when she stepped in for Felicity Lott, Renée has performed on the MET stage over 250 times and describes the MET as “my musical home, the theater where I feel welcome amongst friends – backstage, onstage, and in the audience.” Renée will return to the MET on 22 November for the world premiere work by Kevin Puts, The Hours, with Joyce DiDonato & Kelli O’Hara.

The 2nd of September 2010 marks Maestro Seiji Ozawa’s 75th birthday.
This new 11-CD set presents Seiji Ozawa in a wide variety of symphonic repertory with the orchestra’s with which he has been most closely associated since the early 1970s – from the San Francisco Symphony in 1972 in a programme of music centred round Romeo and Juliet, through his twenty-nine years at the Boston Symphony, to the Vienna and Berlin Philharmonics and the Saito Kinen Orchestra in Japan – a celebration of a truly international Maestro.

Swan Lake was the first of Tchaikovsky's three great ballets– works which added a new level of depth and sophistication to what had been a purely superficial art form. Today the music is so well-known and popular that it's impossible to comprehend the difficulties the composer experienced at early performances. Audiences found the music "too symphonic," and the dancers were put off by the prominence given to the orchestra which, they felt, distracted ballet fans from the action on stage. Of course, all of these supposed "defects" are precisely what we admire about the music today, and this elegant but exciting performance reveals the music in all of its glory.

This DVD presents Seiji Ozawa conducting two great choral masterpieces, beloved by audiences around the world. Orff's Carmina Burana, boisterous and lyrical, sets medieval songs in a celebration of life's pleasures. Beethoven's monumental Ninth Symphony, concludes with the uplifting 'Ode to Joy', a timeless plea for universal brotherhood.