Stievie Ray Von

DG presents the 2016 live recording of Lohengrin at the Dresden State Opera, conducted by Christian Thielemann and starring Piotr Beczala in the title role and Anna Netrebko as Elsa. Beczala’s Lohengrin was deemed “nothing short of spine tingling” by Opera News and ON hailed Netrebko’s performance in her first Wagnerian role as “utterly at home in Wagner’s Romantic universe.”

Filmed live in Baden-Baden by the veteran director Brian Large, Renée Fleming makes her debut in the role of Ariadne together with fellow key Strauss interpreters Sophie Koch and Christian Thielemann, following on from their Rosenkavalier triumph. Thielemann conducts the Staatskapelle Dresden, the orchestra to whom Strauss dedicated his Alpine Symphony and which premiered Feuersnot, Salome, Elektra, Der Rosenkavalier and Daphne. Fleming's voice might have been made for Ariadne and she achieved a great personal triumph in this production: “The chief glory of the evening was hearing Renée Fleming, the Straussian soprano par excellence, making her role debut as Ariadne… As the possessor of what is, possibly, the most beautiful soprano voice in the world, she put her vocal treasures in the service of an empathic, nuanced interpretation of the role. From the creamy top, through a rich, warm middle, to the bewitching, darker colours of her lower register, Fleming poured her magnificent sound into Strauss’s enchanting melodic arcs, animating the sadness, vulnerability, and desire of the bereft princess…” Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung

Hans Neuenfelss striking new production of Wagners fairytale opera gives this medieval story of doomed love and sorcery the Bayreuth treatment. As controversial as it is stimulating, this production was the talk of the 2011 Festival, and showcases a new generation of Wagnerian singing talent including soprano Annette Dasch and tenor Klaus Florian Vogt. Lohengrin is staged by the enfant terrible Hans Neuenfels, and offers a thought provoking production of brilliant visual clarity. The performance by Klaus Florian Vogt in the title role is staggering and impressive. There is beauty and purity in his voice, but in this role in particular, one truly senses something unheimlich, other-worldly, which fits superlatively both with work and production. Conductor Andris Nelsons brings out the best in the festival chorus and orchestra. It is a Lohengrin one does not easily forget and puts Bayreuth back in the vanguard of Wagner interpretation.

On July 16, 1999, the 10th anniversary of the death of Herbert von Karajan, the Berlin Philharmonic paid tribute to their late maestro, playing within the confines of the imposing Salzburg Cathedral in von Karajans hometown of Salzburg. Among other works, the orchestra performed Mozart's Requiem in D minor, KV 626, featuring soprano Karita Mattila, contralto Sara Mingardo, tenor Michael Schade and bass baritone Bryn Terfel as soloists. Soprano Rachel Harnisch appeared as soloist on the two complementing arias Betrachte dies mein Herz und frage mich and Laudate Dominum.

The 2021 New Year's Concert was a New Year's Concert like none before. Due to the current Corona protection measures, it was only allowed to be played in the golden hall of the Vienna Musikverein without an audience. The Vienna Philharmonic and Riccardo Muti were alone with the 14 cameras of the ORF. Worldwide, the television broadcast of this traditional concert reached more than 50 million viewers in over 90 countries. It was eagerly awaited to see what the concert would be like without applause, without the traditional interruption of the second encore introduced by clapping, and without clapping along to the Radetzky March.

The Vienna Philharmonic New Year's Concert took place under the baton of Zubin Mehta on January 1, 2015, in the Golden Hall of the Musikverein in Vienna. The Philharmonic's Honorary Conductor Zubin Mehta, with whom the orchestra has enjoyed an artistic partnership for over 50 years, conducted the New Year's Concert for the fifth time.
This year's concert was broadcast in over 90 countries around the world and was seen by 50 million television viewers. The program for the New Year's Concert 2015 featured numerous compositions by Johann Strauss Father and Son, Eduard and Josef Strauss as well as works by Franz von Suppé und Hans Christian Lumbye. Five pieces were performed for the first time as part of the New Year's Concert. The program also commemorated 650 years of the University of Vienna and 200 years of the Technical University of Vienna.

Axel Köhler's production of "Der Freischütz" at the Dresden State Opera was described by Die Presse as 'a minor miracle in Dresden'. In the words of the Salzburger Nachrichten, Köhler 'scored a bullseye' with his sombre and satanic interpretation of Weber's Romantic opera about love, temptation, souls sold to the Devil, obsession and faith. According to the Financial Times, Christian Thielemann and the Dresden Staatskapelle conjured up a sense of 'mortal terror from the orchestra pit. […] Thielemann is in command of every detail. That makes for utterly gripping listening'.

Perhaps no other conductor has done more for Sibelius or has championed him more consistently on record than Herbert von Karajan. Celebrating Karajan’s great affinity to Sibelius, we present the reissue of his complete recordings of the composer’s works on the Yellow Label, across 5 CDs + 1 Blu-ray. The analogue recordings are newly remastered and presented on Blu-ray Audio disc in DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0, 5.1 Surround Sound and Dolby Atmos.

2014 marks a year of celebration recognizing the 150th birthday year of the German late-Romantic orchestral, operatic and lied master composer, Richard Strauss (1864-1949). Arabella (premiered 1933, Dresden) was the last of the half dozen Strauss works to feature a libretto by the great Austrian writer Hugo von Hofmannsthal. This production, from the most recent Salzburg Easter Festival is, after Capriccio, the second of three Richard Strauss operas C Major is releasing in honor of the composers birth, life and work. The star-laden cast includes soprano Renèe Fleming, baritone Thomas Hampson, Albert Dohmen (Covent Garden, Wiener Staatsoper, MET) and Gabriela Beaková (Wiener Staatsoper, Covent Garden). With Christian Thielemann and the Staatskapelle Dresden, the music of Richard Strauss is in the best of hands. (ORF) Thielemann gets the best out of the cast…especially Renée Fleming with her luxurious soprano.