Interchanging Idioms

New documentary about the famed English contralto is released along with a complete collection of her Decca recordings Sunday April 22, 2012 marked the centenary of one of the finest and most beloved singers of the 20th century – the English contralto, Kathleen Ferrier. Her international career lasted just eight years, from 1946 until her untimely death in 1953 from cancer at the age of 41, but her unparalleled artistry still has an impact today. Renowned conductor Bruno Walter once said: “The greatest thing in music in my life has been to have known Kathleen Ferrier and Gustav Mahler – in that order.” Decca Classics, the label that recorded so much of her output during her short career, celebrates her centenary with a collection of releases and a new documentary. Decca is proud to release a brand-new DVD documentary to commemorate Ferrier’s life, available May 29. The film is a touching portrait of an extraordinary woman and features a rare audio interview recorded at the peak...

Deutsche Grammophon continues to release significant opera performances from the greatest stages around the world on DVD and BluRay with this Anna Bolena, live from the Vienna State Opera starring Anna Netrebko. Not only was Netrebko’s role debut considered a triumph but she was joined by an all-star cast including Elīna Garanča and Ildebrando D’Arcangelo (both Deutsche Grammophon recording artists) in this new production. The excitement surrounding this production prompted the performance to be live broadcast on radio and in movie theaters throughout Europe. The DVD release is available today and will be followed by the BluRay in late December. With her sensational role debut at the Vienna State Opera, Anna Netrebko takes “one giant leap forward to claiming the title of diva assoluta del mondo” (Opera News) with a performance of rare vocal and dramatic power. As the unjustly accused wife of King Henry VIII, she sings the role “veering between indignant fury and tender righteous...

“A singular harmonic convergence is recounted in Music Makes A City , Owsley Brown III and Jerome Hiler’s enlightening documentary about how Louisville, KY., became a locus for contemporary music in the mid-20th century. In striking synchronicity, a mayor, a conductor, and a robust postwar generation of composers intersected to make the city a hub for visionary composition” – New York Times Music Makes a City , a “tale of artistic vision” (Symphony), is released today on DVD. The feature-length documentary film tells a tale of civic aspiration, cultural ingenuity, and how Louisville, Kentucky became the world's unlikely capital of new music in the 1950s. According to Sedgwick Clark, of MusicalAmerica.com, “anyone interested in classical music should see this uplifting story of American ingenuity at its best.” In 1948, a small, struggling, semi-professional orchestra in Louisville, Kentucky began a novel project to commission new works from contemporary composers around the worl...

The Cleveland Orchestra and Music Director Franz Welser-Möst’s live DVD recording of Bruckner’s Symphony No. 8 is being released in the United States on May 31. The Cleveland Orchestra in Performance: Bruckner Symphony No. 8 will be telecast in Northeast Ohio on WVIZ/PBS ideastream® on June 16 at 9 p.m., and in Europe on ORF TV on June 23. The DVD includes a bonus concert preview discussion by Franz Welser-Möst and video director William Cosel hosted by ideastream® producer Dee Perry. Recorded during concerts on August 11 and 12, 2010 by WVIZ/PBS ideastream® at the Orchestra’s home, Severance Hall in Cleveland, this performance of the 1887 revised version of Bruckner’s Symphony No. 8, edited by Leopold Nowak, is the fourth DVD in a series featuring the Orchestra and Franz Welser-Möst performing Bruckner’s music in historic venues. Previous releases feature Bruckner Symphony No. 5 recorded at St. Florian Cathedral in Linz , Austria and Bruckner Symphony No. 9 recorded at the Mu...

A DVD of Jonathan Kent’s Fellini-esque Glyndebourne Festival production of Mozart’s Don Giovanni – with Gerald Finley in the title role, soprano Kate Royal as Donna Elvira, Luca Pisaroni as Leporello and Vladimir Jurowski on the podium – headlines EMI Classics’ releases this month. Other May highlights from EMI Classics include a “terrific” (Los Angeles Times) set of Schumann’s complete (and unjustly neglected) works for Piano Trio, featuring pianist Leif Ove Andsnes, violinist Christian Tetzlaff, and cellist Tanja Tetzlaff, and three special releases – including a legendary recording of Wagner’s complete “Ring” cycle – celebrating the 125th anniversary of the birth of Wilhelm Furtwängler (1886-1954), one of the truly legendary conductors of the 20th century. From Virgin Classics this month, a transcendent recording of Brahms’s German Requiem, performed by the Frankfurt Radio Symphony Orchestra, led by Paavo Järvi and featuring soprano Natalie Dessay, to mark the ensemble’s 80th birt...

A 90-minute high-definition DVD of Pierre Boulez conducting The Cleveland Orchestra in works of Mahler, produced by WVIZ/PBS ideastream® with international production partners CLASART Classic, ARTE, Accentus Music, and Deutsche Grammophon, has just been released. The world premiere telecast took place on Sunday, May 1, at 4:30 p.m. on WVIZ/PBS ideastream®, with a prime-time rebroadcast on Saturday, May 7, at 9:30 p.m. The program will be aired in Europe on ARTE TV on May 15. The program, produced and directed by William Cosel, was taped during live performances presented in February 2010 at Severance Hall. It includes Mahler’s Adagio from Symphony No. 10 in F-sharp major, and his Des Knaben Wunderhorn (“The Youth’s Magic Horn”), Songs for Voice and Orchestra, with vocal soloists Magdalena Kožená, mezzo-soprano, and Christian Gerhaher, baritone. An audio recording of this program was released by Deutsche Grammophon in 2010. It was cited as “Disc of the Month” by BBC Music Magazi...

To Be Released on DVD, May 24 “A singular harmonic convergence is recounted in Music Makes A City , Owsley Brown III and Jerome Hiler’s enlightening documentary about how Louisville, KY., became a locus for contemporary music in the mid-20th century. In striking synchronicity, a mayor, a conductor, and a robust postwar generation of composers intersected to make the city a hub for visionary composition” – New York Times On May 24, Music Makes a City , a “tale of artistic vision” (Symphony), will be released on DVD. The feature-length documentary film tells a tale of civic aspiration, cultural ingenuity, and how Louisville, Kentucky became the world's unlikely capital of new music in the 1950s. According to Sedgwick Clark, of MusicalAmerica.com, “anyone interested in classical music should see this uplifting story of American ingenuity at its best.” In 1948, a small, struggling, semi-professional orchestra in Louisville, Kentucky began a novel project to commission new works ...

Filmed as part of the Metropolitan Opera’s Live in HD series In April of 2010 the Metropolitan Opera mounted the company premiere production of Rossini’s opera Armida starring American soprano Renée Fleming in the title role. Fleming had previously triumphed at the opera house in other lesser-known operas ( Il Pirata, Thaïs, Rodelinda and others) and so it was with great acclaim that the Met staged this bel canto rarity specifically for the soprano. The May 1, 2010 performance was broadcast as part of the Met’s Live in HD series and it is now brought to DVD by Decca – available February 15, 2011. For this new production and Met premiere, the opera company not only engaged Renée Fleming for the title role but also enlisted a stellar supporting cast, including Lawrence Brownlee as Rinaldo. Having previously triumphed in La Cenerentola (available on DVD from Deutsche Grammophon) at the house, Brownlee brought the audience to its feet with his warm, lyric voice and thrilling...

Famed mezzo-soprano Cecilia Bartoli recreates the 1828 triumph of the legendary Maria Malibran – original star and dedicatee of Halévy’s “tragi-comedy”, Clari – in this newly recorded DVD from Decca. Bartoli’s fascination with Malibran is well documented, most dramatically with the mezzo’s recording project, Maria, from 2007. This now forgotten opera received the star treatment from Bartoli and the Orchestra ‘La Scintilla’ of the Zurich Opera in this new production.

Any other startling secrets you’d like to share? Sondra Radvanovsky: We are both goofballs. Every show of Trovatore, he’s done something to me onstage. Dmitri Hvorostovsky: Anything, you know, to make her laugh in front of the audience. S.R.: He blacked out a tooth. He painted a devil the size of a fist on his chest—and right when I’m singing to him, he pulls his shirt open and shows it. I lost it. D.H.: Eyeballs! S.R.: Oh, yes, he drew eyeballs on his eyelids. I mean, seriously. "True Verdi soprano" ( Opera News ) Sondra Radvanovsky and Dmitri Hvorostovsky--"the Verdi baritone of our time" ( Los Angeles Times )--will release an album of Verdi Scenes with encores digitally on February 1, 2011 and physically on February 22, 2011. Fresh from their respective solo disc triumphs, Radvanovsky and Hvorostovsky are thrilled to come together for this project. Verdi Scenes will be available before its official release at the Metropolitan Opera gift shop during a s...

LA Opera’s productions of rarely performed works as part of the Company’s Recovered Voices series conducted by Music Director James Conlon were filmed for release on DVD and Blu-ray. The 2008 double-bill of Alexander Zemlinsky’s Der Zwerg (The Dwarf) and Viktor Ullmann’s Der zerbrochene Krug (The Broken Jug) is available now, and the 2009 presentation of Walter Braunfels’ Die Vögel (The Birds) will be released on November 16, 2010. The videos, released on the Arthaus Musik label, will be distributed by Naxos Music. James Conlon conducts all of LA Opera’s Recovered Voices presentations, an initiative that began when he became Music Director of the Company in 2006. “The creativity of the first half of the 20 th century is far richer than generally known,” said Mr. Conlon. “We have taken an important step toward reviving the music of those composers whose lives were impacted and whose music was banned by the Third Reich between 1933 and 1945. For complex reasons much of it remai...

“If you’re new to the composer’s delights, DiDonato’s [Rossini arias album] is the place to start: today’s gold standard.”– Time Out New York The story of mezzo-soprano Joyce DiDonato’s wheelchair-bound performances last summer as Rosina in Rossini’s beloved Il barbiere di Sivigli a at London’s Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, is already the stuff of legend. Now, this once-in-a-lifetime production – DiDonato’s pink cast and all – is immortalized in a new DVD from Virgin Classics, complete with a bonus-feature interview with the Kansas native, who tells the story of her “wheelchair Barber” with characteristic wit and irresistible warmth. DiDonato’s embodiment of Rosina in Rossini’s Il barbiere has been celebrated around the world, having been seen by millions in opera houses, international broadcasts, and high-definition transmissions, including one from New York’s Metropolitan Opera. But her most famous turn as Rosina came last June after she broke one of her legs in a slip o...

at The Jerome L. Greene Performance Space Thursday, December 3rd 6:30 pm The poignant and tragic love story of Robert and Clara Schumann told in words and music will be webcast live on WNYC.org, followed by audio stream of conversation with Sting and Trudie hosted by WQXR's Elliott Forrest Proceeds from this event will benefit the Music Unites Youth Choir and the Royal Opera House Education Programs New York, NY – On Thursday, December 3rd, WNYC’s The Greene Space and Classical 105.9 WQXR together with Music Unites will host the New York premiere of Twin Spirits , a poetic meditation on the passionate relationship between composer Robert and wife Clara Schumann. Following the film, WQXR host Elliott Forrest will convene a conversation with the film’s leading couple, Sting and Trudie Styler. In addition to the live studio audience, listeners around the world will be able to watch the film online through a live video stream at www.wnyc.org/thegreenespace and www.wqxr.org begi...

PBS Now Streaming Keeping Score Documentary Episodes On Demand Coinciding with the current PBS telecasts of the second season of the San Francisco Symphony’s Keeping Score documentary series hosted by Michael Tilson Thomas, the orchestra is releasing on CD concert performances of all of the works featured in the series. The CDs include Berlioz’s Symphonie fantastique, Ives’s Holidays Symphony paired with Copland’s Appalachian Spring, Shostakovich’s Fifth Symphony, Stravinsky’s Firebird and selections from The Rite of Spring, Beethoven’s Eroica and Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No. 4. These CDs are in addition to the orchestra’s releases of all Keeping Score documentaries and performances on DVD, as well as the Season 2 documentaries and performances on Blu-Ray. The Season 2 Keeping Score documentaries, currently airing on PBS stations across the country (check local listings), explore the music and stories behind Hector Berlioz’s symphonic love letter Symphonie fantastique, Charles Ives’s...

Recorded at Severance Hall in Cleveland in September 2008 CLEVELAND, October 27, 2009 – The Cleveland Orchestra and Music Director Franz Welser-Möst’s live recording of Bruckner’s Symphony No. 7 will be available on DVD from Tuesday, October 27 in the United States . Recorded by WVIZ/PBS ideastream® at the Orchestra’s home, Severance Hall in Cleveland, during subscription concerts on September 25 and 26, 2008, the recording is the Orchestra and Franz Welser-Möst’s third Bruckner DVD. Clasart produced the recording, which will be distributed by Arthaus. The Cleveland Orchestra and Clasart have had a long-term partnership resulting in all three Bruckner DVDs. The Cleveland Orchestra acknowledges both Raiffeisenlandesbank Oberösterreich and Clasart for their generous support of the DVD release. The new DVD represents an ongoing collaboration with WVIZ/PBS ideastream. On June 11, 2008, PBS broadcast “The Cleveland Orchestra in Performance: Bruckner Symphony No. 5,” recorded in ...

The poignant and tragic love story of Robert and Clara Schumann told in words and music released on Opus Arte September 29th DVD sales to support the vital work of the Royal Opera House Education Program On September 29th, Opus Arte presents Twin Spirits , the story of the passionate romance and subsequent marriage between composer Robert Schumann and piano prodigy Clara Wieck, available on DVD and Blu-Ray disc. This production from the Royal Opera House brings together nine diverse performers of the highest caliber: Sting, an artist who defies simple classification, joins his wife, actress and producer Trudie Styler to read from the letters between Robert and Clara. Their story, narrated by Sir Derek Jacobi, is illustrated and interwoven with music composed by Robert – whose spirit is embodied by pianist Iain Burnside, baritone Simon Keenlyside and violinist Sergej Krylov – and by Clara, who is evoked by pianist Natasha Paremski, soprano Rebecca Evans, and cellist Natalie Clein. ...

“Renée Fleming’s soprano is not only beautifully in place for this music, but it is employed with a rare flexibility and sensitivity for the text.” – International Herald Tribune Renée Fleming appears on DVD in one of her greatest roles – the Marschallin, in Richard Strauss’s bittersweet comedy of love, Der Rosenkavalier . Her peerless performance is supported by “a galactic cast” (Christian Thielemann), which includes Sophie Koch as Octavian, Diana Damrau as the young Sophie, Franz Hawlata as the boorish Baron Ochs and Jonas Kaufmann, making a guest appearance as the Italian Singer. Herbert Wernicke’s celebrated Salzburg Festival production was specially restaged at the Festspielhaus Baden-Baden for this high-definition film. R. Strauss: Der Rosenkavalier Fleming / Koch / Damrau / Hawlata / Kaufmann Christian Theielmann / Munich Philharmonic / Baden-Baden Release Date: October 6, 2009

Norwegian pianist Leif Ove Andsnes has embarked on a major collaboration with South African-born artist Robin Rhode, creating a special program entitled “Pictures Reframed”. At the core of the project is Mussorgsky’s epic piano suite Pictures at an Exhibition , and it combines music, film and still imagery. The world premiere of “Pictures Reframed” takes place at Lincoln Center on November 13 & 14, but National Public Radio provides a preview – including interviews with the artists – on Friday, August 21 during All Things Considered , broadcast between 4:00 pm and 6:00 pm eastern time (the segment is currently slotted to run at the end of the first hour of the program – approximately 4:50pm New York time). Visit NPR's newly designed music web site at http://www.npr.org/music/ to see video footage of the development of the project; and for those who miss the radio broadcast, the ATC audio segment will be available online, at the same link, after 7pm eastern time. EMI Cl...

The poignant and tragic love story of Robert and Clara Schumann told in words and music to be released on Opus Arte September 29th DVD sales to support the vital work of the Royal Opera House Education Program On September 29th, Opus Arte presents Twin Spirits , the story of the passionate romance and subsequent marriage between composer Robert Schumann and piano prodigy Clara Wieck, available on DVD and Blu-Ray disc. This production from the Royal Opera House brings together nine diverse performers of the highest caliber: Sting, an artist who defies simple classification, joins his wife, actress and producer Trudie Styler to read from the letters between Robert and Clara. Their story, narrated by Sir Derek Jacobi, is illustrated and interwoven with music composed by Robert – whose spirit is embodied by pianist Iain Burnside, baritone Simon Keenlyside and violinist Sergej Krylov – and by Clara, who is evoked by pianist Natasha Paremski, soprano Rebecca Evans, and cellist Natalie C...

Washington National Opera’s acclaimed 1998 production of Puccini’s La Rondine , which was nationally televised on PBS, is now available on DVD. Decca is proud to add this title to its impressive collection of opera-on-DVD, especially as this is the first available performance of the controversial “third ending” which Puccini completed in 1921. After extensive investigative research and tireless efforts, the director, Marta Domingo, has reconstructed the tragic version of this opera. Rather than having Magda fly off like a swallow at the end, the story ends with her taking her own life. This alternate edition of the score presents a very different Magda and dramatic arch. Seen not only in Washington DC but also Los Angeles , this production is a deeply moving addition to the standard repertoire and this DVD a valuable document of Puccini’s experimentation with drama and theatricality.