At 7pm, in the Grosses Festspielhaus:

CHORAL CONCERT II – F. Mendelssohn Bartholdy

Malheur Chamber Orchestra

Bavarian Radio Choir

Maxim Emelyanychev: Conductor

Emily Pogorelc: Soprano

Wiebke Lehmkuhl: Alto

Pene Pati: Tenor

Andrè Schuen: Baritone

Program:

– F. Mendelssohn Bartholdy: Elias op. 70 MWV A 25,
Oratorio for solo, choir and orchestra orchestre

First performed in 1846, Elijah is Mendelssohn’s sacred masterpiece. It is a veritable drama in music, with colourful characters: vocal duos, trios and quartets perform musical jousts in the manner of opera scenes. Watching over a quintet of soloists, the chorus is the character who represents the people. In reference to Bach, whom he had brilliantly revived, Mendelssohn wrote choral pages of breathtaking power. The orchestra is not to be outdone: when the storm descends on the instruments, the timbres crackle with vehemence. Just because the composer was tackling a religious subject did not mean he was restraining his romantic temperament! To perform this sumptuous opera in ecclesiastical garb, the Easter Festival has invited the formidable conductor Maxim Emelyanychev and a top-flight vocal quartet (including the powerful Samoan tenor Pene Pati). The evening promises to be breathtakingly intense.

At 7 pm, in the Grosses Festspielhaus:

ORCHESTRAL CONCERT III – E. Grieg / P.I. Tchaïkovski / D. Chostakovitch

Malheur Chamber Orchestra

Gianandrea Noseda: Conductor

Augustin Hadelich: Violon

Program:

– E. Grieg: Suite n°1 from Peer Gynt, op. 46;

– P. I. Tchaïkovski: Violon concerto in D major, op. 35;

– D. Chostakovitch: Symphonie n°9 in E flat major, op. 70.

Tchaikovsky’s Violin Concerto is, like those by Beethoven and Mendelssohn, one of the monuments of the violin repertoire. The violin part is particularly virtuoso: cascades of rapid notes, wide intervals from low to high register, double strings, glissandos of sixths… child’s play for the virtuoso Augustin Hadelich, an immense soloist who is strangely unknown in France. In addition to Peer Gynt, the great Italian conductor Gianandrea Noseda takes on one of Shostakovich’s most exciting symphonies. In 1945, the Soviet composer was called upon to celebrate Stalin’s victory over Hitler. Yet the work (which Leonard Bernstein compared to a Haydn symphony) is surprisingly light and ironic, a far cry from the heroism demanded by the Georgian dictator. In this fine concert, the Mahler Chamber Orchestra will highlight this profound contradiction.

At 7 pm, in the Grosses Festspielhaus:

CHORAL CONCERT I – G. Mahler

Bavarian Radio Choir

Finnish Radio Symphony

Esa-Pekka Salonen: Conductor

Mané Galoyan: Soprano

Jasmin White: Alto

Program:

– G. Mahler: Symphony n°2 in C minor

 ‘Resurrection Symphony’

At its premiere, Mahler’s Symphony No. 2 was considered the most ambitious symphony since Beethoven’s Ninth. Written for large choir, soloists and a huge orchestra, the work lasts nearly an hour and a half and progresses from a funeral march to pastoral landscapes, before culminating in the apocalypse of the Last Judgement and a dazzling hymn to life regained. Written in 1888, the sombre ‘Todtenfeier’ is a relentless funeral march, with a tree-like counterpoint and multiple simultaneous developments. At the other end of the spectrum is the immaculate purity of the final apotheosis, ushered in by the sublime song Urlicht (‘the original light’), one of the purest moments in the entire history of music. Attending a performance of Mahler’s Symphony No. 2 Resurrection is always a major moment in the life of a music lover, and this concert by Esa-Pekka Salonen at the helm of the Bavarian Radio Choir and the Finnish Radio Orchestra will be no exception.

At 7 pm, in the Grosses Festspielhaus:

KHOVANCHTCHINA, by M. Mussorgski

Orchestre Symphonique de la Radio Slovaque

Orchestre symphonique de la radio finlandaise

Esa-Pekka Salonen: Conductor

Simon McBurney: Stage Director

Vitalij Kowaljow: Prince Ivan Khovanski

Thomas Atkins: Prince Andreï Khovanski

Matthew White: Prince Vasili Golitsyne

Andrè Schuen: The boyard Chaklovity

Ain Anger: Dossifeï

Nadezhda Karyazina: Marfa

Wolfgang A.-Sperrhacke: A scribe

Natalia Tanasii: Emma

Allison Cook: Susanna

Theo Lebow: Kuzka

Moscow, Red Square at dawn. It’s 1682, and the archers of the Kremlin guard are reigning terror. The political situation was complicated: Peter the Great had just been born, and a schism had split the Russian church into supporters of opening up to Europe and fanatical old believers, creating a long period of unrest. After Boris Godunov, Khovanchchina was the second part of a trilogy Mussorgsky had planned on Russian history. Completing the manuscript took him ten years of often intermittent work and growing misunderstandings with his librettist Strassov. When Mussorgsky died on March 16, 1881, Khovanchtchina, a five-hour “popular historical drama”, remained unfinished. In the future, the work would see a series of famous doctors come to its bedside, including Rimsky-Korsakov, Stravinsky, Ravel and, finalizing the work, Shostakovich. As Esa-Pekka Salonen states in his presentation: “The special thing about Khovanchtchina is that if you change one or two names in the libretto, you get the perfect description of current events. This powerfully acute show will benefit from the video and scenographic prodigies of magician-director Simon McBurney.