English
The Real Traviata
A new biography, rich in detail, at times somewhat dense, which aims to tell us everything about the woman who was, in her time (the era of Lola Montez, Cora Pearl, or La Paîva, of Céleste Mogador or Alice Ozy), one of the most famous of the great courtesans, one of the most brilliant, most celebrated, most courted, and most publicized of the demi-mondaines of 1840’s Paris: Marie Duplessis. René Weis ...
Mikko Franck at home in Rautavaara, Prokofiev, and Debussy
I cannot imagine a better, more definitive performance of this music. Despite Mikko Franck's presence in the Helsinki music scene as both artistic and general director of the Finnish National Opera until 2013, in recent years he has been conspicuously absent from the podium of the main Helsinki orchestras. Based on this evening's performance, one certainly hopes that Franck will come back very soon. While I admit that my knowledge of Rautavaara's ...
Das Orchester becomes a Jury Member of ICMA
The German music magazine das Orchester has joined the International Classical Music Awards (ICMA) as Jury Member. Published since 1953 eleven times a year by Schott Music in Mainz, das Orchester reaches out into 45 countries with features about orchestral activities of all kind, festivals, world premiere performances, competitions and reviews of books, scores, CDs and DVDs. ICMA President Rémy Franck says: « We are proud to count now one of the ...
A Very Fit ICMA Jury Met At The Grand Resort In Bad Ragaz
The Jury of the International Classical Music Awards (ICMA) held its General Assembly this weekend during the Next Generation Festival at the Grand Resort in Bad Ragaz, Switzerland. The Jury decided upon the Special Awards for the coming years and took important steps in order to get stronger promotion possibilities for young artists. “I think we are on a turning point, with the ICMA getting more and more respected as ...
Benjamin Appl, baritone
German baritone and "BBC New Generation Artist", Benjamin Appl begins his "Rising Stars" tour through the European concert in October. In January he was in Paris for a concert bringing a new song cycle written by Nico Muhly inspired out of the correspondence of soldiers in World War I. He’ll release an album in February with Champs Hill Records (Heinrich Heine-Lieder). ResMusica : You’ve been chosen as a BBC New Generation Artist ...
James Feddeck, conductor
"There is no replacement for reaching out and taking time to create lifelong connections to the arts." Winner of the Sir Georg Solti Conducting Award in 2013, James Feddeck has held the posts of Assistant Conductor of the Cleveland Orchestra and Music Director of the Cleveland Orchestra Youth Orchestra. In this interview, Feddeck discusses his broad musical background, guest conducting on short notice, and this thoughts for reinvigorating classical music audiences. ...
ICMA 2016 – The winners
The Jury of the International Classical Music Awards (ICMA) announced today the Awards for 2016. Soprano Dame Felicity Lott is honoured with the Lifetime Achievement Award. Composer, trombonist and conductor Christian Lindberg is Artist of the Year, cellist Pablo Ferrandez Young Artist of the Year. For the first time the new Discovery Award for musicians from 12 to 18 is awarded to flutist Nikolai Song, born in 2002, of Korean-Russian ...
Anna Vinnitskaya, pianist
“With Koroliov, it was not just how to become a pianist, it was just about music” In 2007, Anna Vinnitskaya won first prize in the Queen Elisabeth Competition at the age of 24 following, in particular, a masterful performance in the finals. Since then, she has been having a brilliant career and now is counted among the greatest living concert pianists showing a serene power in anything she does. With her ...
Piotr Beczala, the Polish tenor with a French connection
Piotr Beczala is Werther this month on the Bastille stage, one of his signature role. Interview with a true promoter of the French romantic opera, who is not in need of projects, such as put on stage The Haunted Manor, the most important Polish opera of the 19th century, or opening a school for singers which would not overlook the psychological dimension that is so important to their art. "Bring French romantic opera that I ...
Ekaterina Litvintseva plays Chopin’s Concertos No.1 & 2
Romantic, virtuosic and young, this is the repertoire of Russian pianist Ekaterina Litvintseva, and the fact is that this choice suits her well. After a first disc featuring Mozart’s Concertos No. 9 and 12, Ekaterina Litvintseva is back with the Klassische Philharmonie Bonn and its conductor Heribert Beissel. The latter, a pupil of Günter Wand, first founded a choral ensemble in 1959 to play the repertoire of the electoral court of ...
Happy 150th birthday, Jean Sibelius!
Without a doubt, this was one of the great En Saga performances. It has certainly been a busy year for Finland’s favorite musical son. Although Sibelius’ is a regular fixture in the Finnish musical scene, this year has seen Sibelius-admiration taken to the next level (and beyond). Numerous complete symphony cycles, several competitions, books, a new documentary series, examinations of obscure works, seminars, museum exhibitions, you name it--if it has to do ...
Finnish Independence Day Concert, edition 2015
Under Lintu's direction, the Finnish RSO played with their usual discipline and attention to detail. The annual Finnish Independence Day concert in the Helsinki Music Center is one of the major highlights of the Helsinki orchestral season. Every year, Helsinki audiences are treated to a "tasting menu" of Finnish orchestral music, featuring combinations of both new and old as well as familiar and unfamiliar. This year's concert showcased three generations of ...
ICMA Finalists For 2016
The ICMA Jury is progressing in the voting for the Audio and Video Awards 2016. Today we are able to publish the Finalists, in other words the three productions of which one will be the winner. The Finalists come from a list with 364 nominated releases from 115 labels. Here is the PDF document for all categories : ICMA 2016 Finalists The final result with the winners will be published on January ...
The Pettersson project continues: Christian Lindberg and the Norrköping Symphony
To play this music both passionately and convincingly is truly a massive achievement, and the Norrköping band under Lindberg’s direction have done it yet again. One could argue that there are countless composers in the classical music universe who have been unjustly neglected. The reasons for this are many; the composer is too unfamiliar, the music is too difficult to play, too difficult to conduct, or too difficult for the audience ...
ICMA Nomination List 2016 Is Available
The ICMA nomination list for 2016 is available. For the 2016 awards the Jury of the International Classical Music Awards (ICMA) has nominated 364 audio and video productions (up from 248 in 2015) from 115 labels (up from 85 in 2015). There are significant increases in the Early Music and Contemporary Music sections with + 50% in both categories. With 21 nominations, Harmonia Mundi is once more on the first place, ...
Dima Slobodeniouk conducts the Helsinki Philharmonic in Prokofiev’s second symphony
Dima Slobodeniouk's skillful direction and clear affinity for this music made this performance one of the major highlights of the current Helsinki concert season. Dima Slobodeniouk is currently Music Director of the Orquestra Sinfónica de Galicia in Spain and a regular presence in the Helsinki orchestral scene. On this evening's performance, Slobodeniouk led the Helsinki Philharmonic in a program of Harvey, Hummel, and Prokofiev. Opening the program was Jonathan Harvey's Tranquil Abiding, ...
Homecoming: Susanna Mälkki, Chief Conductor Designate of the Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra
"The most essential thing is to keep the musical standards very high" ResMusica: You began your professional career as one of the principal cellists of the Gothenburg Symphony--one of the top orchestral cello positions in Scandinavia if not Europe. However, after only three years you decided to pursue conducting full-time. Did you always aspire to be a conductor, or did other events inspire you to take your current path? Susanna Mälkki: Actually, the ...
All-Finnish with John Storgårds and the Helsinki Philharmonic
Storgårds was able to find the elusive balance between presence and clarity. Music by living Finnish composers is an important part of programming for the Helsinki Philharmonic. While the "big three" composers Lindberg, Saariaho, and Salonen receive fairly regular performances, the Helsinki Philharmonic also ensures that lesser-known Finnish composers have their orchestral works performed in concert. On this evening's program, the Helsinki Philharmonic presented two new works by Finnish composers along ...
All-Russian with Susanna Mälkki and the Helsinki Philharmonic
With Mälkki on the podium, the Helsinki Philharmonic has to be heard to be believed. The appointment of Susanna Mälkki as the next music director of the Helsinki Philharmonic has been met with an almost overwhelming sense of elation among Helsinki audiences. Nevertheless, there may be a sense of fear in some corners that contemporary music will be featured even more prominently with Mälkki on the podium. A brief review ...
Original Sibelius and an Aho premiere: Hannu Lintu and the Finnish RSO
Sibelius is getting the royal treatment in his home country this year, as the music world celebrates the 150th birthday of the great composer. While performances of the usual suspects (the symphonies and the most popular tone poems) are found in abundance in Finland this year, the Finnish RSO has decided to take a different approach to the celebrations by presenting earlier versions of established masterpieces. At least based ...
Osmo Vänskä at the Lahti Sibelius Festival
"One felt as though they could hear every detail in perfect balance." Although Finland is home to some of the world's greatest Sibelius interpreters and orchestras, the Sinfonia Lahti/Osmo Vänskä partnership is not only the most prolific but arguably the most enlightening. Vänskä's fanatical adherence to the score as well as his clear and searingly intense interpretations have won him deep respect in this repertoire. Not surprisingly, Vänskä's return to the ...
Sibelius con gioia: Sakari Oramo and the Chamber Orchestra of Europe
"This was Sibelius writ large, played with joyful abandon" This year the music world celebrates the 150th birthday of Sibelius, and it should come as no surprise that fans of the great composer are spoiled for choice in Finland this year. Numerous complete symphony cycles, performances of early versions of established masterpieces, and the Sibelius violin competition are just some of the many highlights taking place this in Finland this year. Sibelius' ...
Women Composers of Classical Music in 369 Biographies
The primary great value of Mary F. McVicker’s work is that she has succeeded in cataloguing an overwhelming mass of material for those of us who would never have known how to, or been capable of, either undertaking the task or completing it. She has organized her book by time periods (The Renaissance Transition, The Baroque Area, The Beethoven Watershed etc…), by countries (Italy, France, the United States, Poland, Romania, ...
Tribute to Henri Dutilleux by the French conductor Pascal Rophé and the Orchestre National des Pays de la Loire (ONPL)
In 2016, music lovers and all music business are going to celebrate the 100th anniversary of one of the greatest French composers : Henri Dutilleux (1916-2013). The Orchestre national des Pays de La Loire and Pascal Rophé (new Music Director since 2014) are already working on this event. Dutilleux shared his life between Paris and La Loire's river banks near Angers. They just recorded a set of rare and unknow pieces by Dutilleux for ...
Croatian Radiotelevision Has Joined The ICMA Jury
ICMA (International Classical Music Awards) announces the Croatian Radiotelevision HRT as a new full Jury member. With headquarters in Zagreb, HRT (Croatian: Hrvatska radiotelevizija) is a public broadcasting company. It operates several radio and television channels. The official delegate for the ICMA Jury is Mrs. Sanda Vojkovic. HRT is the 17th member of ICMA and Croatia the 14th country represented in the Jury. ICMA President Rémy Franck says: « We are very ...
Leonard Slatkin, from Detroit to Lyon
"I'm not into maintenance. I'm into forward thinking." Leonard Slatkin is currently Music Director of the Detroit Symphony Orchestra and the Orchestre National de Lyon, having previously held positions with the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra, the National Symphony Orchestra, and the BBC Symphony Orchestra. In this interview, Slatkin reflects on his beginnings in music, his accomplishments, recovering from a protracted musician's strike in Detroit, and making music in Detroit and Lyon. ResMusica: ...
New Festival In Katowice: Kultura Natura
ICMA’s partner for the 2018 Award Ceremony, the Polish National Radio Symphony Orchestra presents a new festival, Katowice Kultura Natura which will run from the 15th until the 24th of May 2015. Under the artistic direction of the NOSPR’s Artistic Director and Chief Conductor Alexander Liebreich, this music festival will showcase renowned soloists, ensembles and orchestras from Poland and abroad, in varied and ambitious programmes. The Festival was established by the ...
Okko Kamu completes his Sibelius symphony cycle
Perhaps the most remarkable aspect of Kamu’s performance was his ability to make this arguably perfect work sound even more perfect. It should come as no surprise that lovers of Sibelius will find an embarrassment of riches in Finland this year, the 150th anniversary of the great composer’s birth. The Sinfonia Lahti has arguably done more for Sibelius’ recorded legacy than any other orchestra, and it seems only appropriate that this ...
