All of Wagner’s operas require a sure hand in the pit: no run-of-the-mill répétiteur will do. But two works, in particular, depend on the conductor as much as anyone on stage for success in performance Tristan and Parsifal. By choosing these two for the first complete Wagner dramas he’s committed to disc, Thielemann is letting us know just how important Wagner’s music is to him and how seriously he wants to be taken as a Wagner interpreter. With this new Parsifal, the conductor demonstrates that he’s a Wagnerian with a point of view, and a master of the composer’s huge musicodramatic structures.
Maurizio Pollini's second Deutsche Grammophon release with Christian Thielemann and the Staatskapelle Dresden is a live concert recording of Johannes Brahms' Piano Concerto No. 2, a fitting follow-up to his successful 2011 CD of the Piano Concerto No. 1 in D minor. That recording marked Pollini's triumphant return to Dresden, but this 2013 recording is less about the significance of the concert and more about the consolidation of Pollini's working relationship with Thielemann and the orchestra.
The Beethoven cycle of the 21st century! Christian Thielemanns and Wiener Philharmonikers recording of BEETHOVEN 9 had been their first recording in HD of all nine Beethoven symphonies, accompanied by nine hour-long documentaries, one on each symphony, featuring Thielemann and Prof. Joachim Kaiser. From insights into Beethovens musical thinking to interpretational comparisons, including excerpts from performances by Karajan, Böhm, Bernstein, Järvi etc., to historical perspectives no aspect of Beethovens symphonic oeuvre will remain untreated! Thielemanns recordings of the Beethoven symphonies stand head and shoulders above the countless and mostly undistinguishable versions on offer. (Die Presse) The Vienna Philharmonic literally grew beyond itself that evening in the Konzerthaus. (Neue Züricher Zeitung) Missa Solemnis: Thielemann conjured up the gigantic cosmos of the Missa with such lightness and grace that its mystery seemed to reveal itself.
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.
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.”
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'.
This is a Beethoven Symphonies Cycle of the 21st century! Christian Thielemann and the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra perform Beethoven Symphonies Nos. 1 – 9 incl. and each DVD includes a one-hour-long documentary for each symphony.
Includes an hour-long documentary for each symphony where Maestro Thielemann and Joachim Kaiser (the most famous German music critic) discuss and analyze in an entertaining conversational exchange Thielemann’s interpretation, complemented by excerpts from rehearsals as well as by comparisons of Beethoven cycles with Karajan, Bernstein etc. – no aspect of Beethoven’s symphonic œuvre will remain unaffected!
The Beethoven cycle of the 21st century! Christian Thielemanns and Wiener Philharmonikers recording of BEETHOVEN 9 had been their first recording in HD of all nine Beethoven symphonies, accompanied by nine hour-long documentaries, one on each symphony, featuring Thielemann and Prof. Joachim Kaiser. From insights into Beethovens musical thinking to interpretational comparisons, including excerpts from performances by Karajan, Böhm, Bernstein, Järvi etc., to historical perspectives no aspect of Beethovens symphonic oeuvre will remain untreated! Thielemanns recordings of the Beethoven symphonies stand head and shoulders above the countless and mostly undistinguishable versions on offer. (Die Presse) The Vienna Philharmonic literally grew beyond itself that evening in the Konzerthaus. (Neue Züricher Zeitung) Missa Solemnis: Thielemann conjured up the gigantic cosmos of the Missa with such lightness and grace that its mystery seemed to reveal itself.
The Beethoven cycle of the 21st century! Christian Thielemanns and Wiener Philharmonikers recording of BEETHOVEN 9 had been their first recording in HD of all nine Beethoven symphonies, accompanied by nine hour-long documentaries, one on each symphony, featuring Thielemann and Prof. Joachim Kaiser. From insights into Beethovens musical thinking to interpretational comparisons, including excerpts from performances by Karajan, Böhm, Bernstein, Järvi etc., to historical perspectives no aspect of Beethovens symphonic oeuvre will remain untreated! Thielemanns recordings of the Beethoven symphonies stand head and shoulders above the countless and mostly undistinguishable versions on offer. (Die Presse) The Vienna Philharmonic literally grew beyond itself that evening in the Konzerthaus. (Neue Züricher Zeitung) Missa Solemnis: Thielemann conjured up the gigantic cosmos of the Missa with such lightness and grace that its mystery seemed to reveal itself.