La Traviata

The annual New Year’s Eve Concert is one of the highlights in the calendar of every classical music fan in Berlin and beyond. On New Year‘s Eve, the Berliner Philharmoniker invite an exceptional soloist for a festive gala. Together, the musicians bid farewell to the old year and welcome the new. The 2017 concert was conducted by Simon Rattle and featured Joyce DiDonato (mezzo-soprano). On the programme: Antonín Dvořák:Carnival: Overture, Op. 92 , Igor Strawinsky Apollon Musagète. No. 8, Pas de deux 5:03, Richard Strauss: Zueignung Op. 10, No. 1; Wiegenlied Op. 41, No. 1; Muttertändelei Op. 43, No. 2; Morgen Op. 27, No. 4; Die heiligen drei Könige aus Morgenland Op. 56k, No. 6, Leonard Bernstein: Three dance episodes from "On the town“, Take Care of this House from "1600 Pennsylvania Avenue", Dmitri Shostakovich: Suite from The Golden Age, Op. 22a, Antonín Dvořák: Slavonic Dance Op. 72, No. 2, Johannes Brahms: Hungarian Dance No 1 in G minor.

Rolando Villazon's Baden Baden version of the Donizetti's opera set as an early Hollywood shoot of a western.

In The Chairman Dances, John Adams makes Mao dance and Nixon play the piano. In a completely different vein, Harmonielehre pits percussion against melody and strings and winds against rhythm. In Bartók's concerto for two pianos, timpani and xylophone provide a third solo part. David Robertson conducts the Frankfurt Radio Symphony Orchestra.

The Berlin Philharmonic, conducted by Jakub Hrůša, takes the audience on a journey through Bartók’s monumental work *Concerto for Orchestra*, which the composer wrote whilst in exile in the United States. The Czech conductor is a frequent guest with the Berlin Philharmonic. As is often the case, Hrůša looks to the East and presents Bartók’s unbridled music, which celebrates a European humanism.

Wagner’s sixth opera, “Lohengrin,” tells the medieval legend of the Knight of the Swan: the knight Lohengrin is sent to protect Duchess Elsa of Brabant, who has been unjustly accused of murder. Johannes Erath directs the production, and Joana Mallwitz conducts the orchestra. Piotr Beczała plays the title role. Rachel Willis-Sørensen plays Elsa of Brabant.

A staging of Verdi's opera "Nabucco" by Andreas Homoki. Recorded at Opernhaus Zürich.

At the Baden-Baden Easter Festival, the Berliner Philharmoniker and conductor Jakub Hrůša perform the Concerto for Orchestra, a work composed by Béla Bartók during his exile in the United States. Also on the programme is Beethoven's Piano Concerto No. 5 performed by South Korean pianist Seong-Jin Cho.

In this Baden-Baden concert, Simon Rattle presents a sonorous snapshot of the European music scene in the early 20th century. It includes Richard Strauss’s self-confidently impressive Don Juan, sumptuous songs by Alban Berg, Ravel’s overwhelmingly sensual song cycle Shéhérazade and finally Stravinsky’s both groundbreaking and nostalgic Petrushka. The star guest is the Latvian mezzosoprano Elina Garanca.