In its Winter Festival (29 January to 7 February) the Festspielhaus of Baden-Baden presents a revised production of the late Herbert Wernicke's ELEKTRA under Christian Thielemann and the Munich Philharmonic.
Katarina Dalayman was to sing Elektra but she was taken ill, and this gave Linda Watson the opportunity to make her debut in this role.
In the role of Aegisth Rene Kollo will appear for the first time. In his 73rd year Rene Kollo, who for many years sang all the Wagnerian Heldentenor roles in Bayreuth and in all major houses of the world, is still in good form. He now concentrates on appearing in gala performances of lighter entertainment and achieved immense popularity with his still charismatic personality, applying to a lighter repertory his profound musicality and still beautiful voice. Having experienced him in all his Wagnerian roles, I expect he will demonstrate, like Placido Domingo with his inexhaustible energy, that advancing age does not condemn a one-time star to be forgotten or ignored.
Thielemann joins Valery Gergiev in choosing the Festspielhaus as a second home. He praises the working conditions in Baden-Baden and compares them favourably with Bayreuth. He will present in the Festspielhaus a complete Brahms Cycle with the Munich Philharmonic in 2011, and for 2012 he will conduct a new production of Ariadne with the Dresden State Orchestra.
Maurizio Pollini will appear in the Festspielhaus for the first time with a solo-recital. Pollini, who is so meticulous in his choice of venues for his rare appearances, is going to enjoy the curious combination of intimacy with the enormous auditorium.
Fazil Saye will appear twice, in a Violin Sonata recital and in a 'Fazil Saye Night' Gala Concert, presenting his own Piano Concerto and Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue.
Hilary Hahn plays Prokofiev's First Violin Concerto only two nights before Vilde Frang appears for the first time in the Festspielhaus in a solo recital with Bartok's Solo Sonata and the Strauss Violin-Piano Sonata. In her recent Wigmore Recital and UK orchestral appearences, audience and unanimous critical reaction greeted Vilde Frang with quite exceptional enthusiasm. She is now an EMI Classic recoding artist and her Sibelius and Prokofiev CD is now being released worldwide. A comparison of her Sibelius with Ginette Neveu's Sibelius recording, once regarded a the finest of of all then available ones, shows not only the advance in recording technology, but how far fearless virtuosity and daring individual interpretation advanced in a few decades... I heard Vilde Frang at Summer Masterclasses a few years ago , still as a student, but already discovered and promoted by Ann-Sophie Mutter. Since then, she, barely 24, has joined that circle of young violinists of supreme talent and individuality, that seems to show that with an irresistible force, Darwinian principles of improvement in the development of talents are not limited to purely technological wizardy.
For further information visit http://www.festspielhaus.de/en/celebrate/.
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