(Photo: Swanhild Kruckelmann) Gallic Grandeur, Tepid Text: An Unbalanced “Amadis” at the Internationales Bachfest Hamburg The Internationales Bachfest Hamburg, now in its fourth edition, marks an intriguing evolution in the festival’s identity. What began as a focused tribute to the Hamburg Bach, C.P.E. Bach, has drifted toward a broader celebration of the collective Bach family legacy. The centerpiece of this {…}
(Photo: Georg Lichtensteger in 1745) At St. Michaelis Church Hamburg, with its vast interior and long reverberation, opening concerts of the Bach Weeks often feature works that exploit the acoustic space—Biber’s 53-part “Missa Salisburgensis” was a perennial choice, and this year is no exception. Telemann’s oratorio “Komm wieder, Herr, zu der Menge der Tausenden in Israel,” written for the 1762 {…}
Unknown, perhaps, to a vast majority of concertgoers, Blagoje Bersa (1873-1934) ranks as a seminal figure in Croatian national musicography. His compositions, including orchestral music, opera, songs, exude all the frenzied sophistication of fin-de-siècle eclecticism that Marija Kuntaric, in her monograph on Bersa, derives “from the cantabile Italian melody, then the various masters of German Romanticism (Wagner, Mahler, R. Strauss) {…}
The Fundación Baluarte has announced its 2024-25 season. Here is a look at the vocal performances from the Pamplona season in Spain. Hannah Morrison, Maartgen Engeltjes, Krystian Adams, and Kresimir Strazanac lead Händel’s “Messiah.” Performance Date: Dec. 19, 2024 Perry So conducts Vedi’s “La Traviata” with Nina Minasyan, Santiago Ballerini, and Juan Jesús Rodríguez starring. Henning Brockhaus directs. Performance Dates: Jan. 31 & {…}
Christophe Rousset and Les Talens Lyriques will pay homage to Johann Sebastian and Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach at the Thomaskirche in Leipzig on June 11, 2022. This showcase will be a restaging of the 1786 charity event originally organized by Johann Sebastian’s son, Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach, in support of a medical institute for the poor; that concert featured the {…}
(Credits: www.opera-online.com / © Katrin Penschke) The Musikfest Berlin has announced its 2021 slate. For the purposes of this article, we will focus on the vocal works only. The Inaugural concert will feature the Bundesjugendchor performing choral works by Brahms, Schumann, di Lasso, Harvey, Hofmeyr, Rihm, Denner, and MacMillan. Anne Kohler conducts. Performance date: Aug. 28, 2021 Famed American soprano {…}
