Tomatito & José del Tomate

Café del Mundo

Two chairs, two guitars and two microphones – that’s all the two guitarists Jan Pascal and Alexander Kilian need to touch hearts, to enchant, to travel off their chairs and to release a wide range of emotions that transcend all boundaries. Café del Mundo plays a unique sound. From the very first note, their finely tuned guitars radiate that southern joie de vivre that celebrates life and at the same time moves you deeply – that’s what guitar sounds like today! As artistic personalities, the two are opposites: Alexander Kilian is regarded as a guitar prodigy, highly virtuosic, extroverted and award-winning, sometimes dancing across the rows of chairs. Jan Pascal is the poet with depth, meaning and a feel for the melodies of life. A concert by Café del Mundo is an experience, an encounter, a tribute to the great love of life, to the interconnectedness of everything and everyone and to the pure joy of the moment – »guitartainment«.

Simply... Philharmonic!3: Specchio del mondo

La Morra, photo: Dirk Letsch Around the middle of the fourteenth century, the previously dominant musical centres of Italy – Milan and Verona – began to lose their position to Florence. Gherardello da Firenze is considered to be the earliest composer associated with this city. Although he was a clergyman, it is mainly his secular works that have survived to our times. However, the most important Florentine Trecento composer is considered by scholars to be Francesco Landini, slightly younger than Gherardello, who at the time composed the largest number of works written in Florence. Interestingly, during his lifetime, Landini was known mainly as an outstanding organist, working at the Florentine convent of Santa Trinita and later at the Basilica of San Lorenzo. In the surviving musical sources associated with Landini, his name often appears with an annotation referring to his instrument. Admiration for Francesco’s playing was expressed in 1389 by the lawyer and writer Giovanni Gherardo da Prato, in his work Il Paradiso degli Alberti, describing Florence at the time. An organetto (portative organ) even accompanies Landini on his tombstone portrait. Perhaps his outstanding talent as a performer and appreciation during his lifetime explain why a relatively large number of his works have survived to this day. However, they are exclusively secular compositions. Simply… Philharmonic! Project 3: Both historical eras and cultural centres are often associated with outstanding individuals who represent the art created in a given place and time. However, confining ourselves to the individual perspective often distorts the full picture of the artistic reality of the time. For Baroque Italy, such a point of reference is certainly Antonio Vivaldi. Although he was an outstanding violinist, he also wrote concertato works not intended for string instruments, as did another violinist, Georg Philipp Telemann, who today remains in the shadow of the great Baroque luminaries from Saxony – Johann Sebastian Bach and George Frideric Handel. Unlike Vivaldi, Telemann was a multi-instrumentalist, also experienced in playing wind and keyboard instruments. Francesco Landini can be considered a symbol of Florence, and also of the entire Italian output of the Trecento. He too delighted his contemporaries with his performance art, specialising in organ. The most outstanding composer of the Polish Republic of the first half of the fifteenth century known to us today was Nicolaus of Radom. Very little is known about his life, but he can certainly be associated with his activities in early Jagiellonian Cracow. Daniel Laskowski

Latin American guitar sounds – Sombras del Fuego

Alejandro Carrillo Gamboa is regarded as one of the best guitarists in Europe and is appreciated for his dazzling musical virtuosity, which is rich in tonal colours and artistic forms of expression. He delights his audiences in renowned concert halls such as the Elbphilharmonie Hamburg and the Konzerthaus Berlin and Vienna. The programme »Latin American Guitar Sounds – Sombras del Fuego« is a musical journey through Latin American and European music. Alejandro’s fiery, gentle sounds evoke longing memories of a warm summer evening. Just the right programme for the cold season! A very special highlight of the evening will be the artist’s own compositions and vocals. Alejandro will surprise his audience with songs from his latest winter album.

Vinci: Oratorio per la Madonna del Rosario

Besides Venice, Naples was also one of the most important musical cities in Italy from the 17th century. French lawyer and scholar Charles de Brosses even described it as the »capital of the music world«. The »Neapolitan School« – a group of composers originating from Naples who for over a hundred years significantly influenced the history of opera and moved stylistically between late baroque and pre-classical were a large part of this assessment. Besides composers Alessandro Scarlatti and Giovanni Battista Pergolesi, still very well-known today, Leonardo Vinci was also part of this circle. With his »Oratorio per la Madonna del Rosario«, 300 years after its premiere, you can now experience a real rarity and rediscovery at the start of the »Viva Napoli« Festival. Leonardo Vinci’s operas also remained on the repertoires for a long time after his death in 1730 – evidence of the tremendous reputation of the composer. Yet the oratorio to honour the Madonna of the rosary was only handed down in a unique script and was virtually not performed at all any more since its origin around 1723. A challenge which seems to be made for the early music ensemble Arsenale Sonoro, formed in 2014. It has set itself the objective of reviving forgotten musical gems from the baroque period using painstaking research and passionate dedication. With the rediscovery of Vinci, the composer now celebrates his debut at the Laeiszhalle.

RSB on Tour: Torre Del Lago

La Fanciulla del West (The Girl of the West)

California in 1850: hundreds of thousands have fallen for the gold rush – and some of them also for the barkeeper Minnie, at whose saloon various fortune seekers meet every evening. Among them is Sheriff Jack Rance. Minnie, however, falls in love with the stranger Dick Johnson. It soon turns out that Johnson is a wanted robber: the sheriff wants to see him hang and have Minnie to himself. A round of poker is to decide about Dick’s life: is there yet another trump up Minnie’s sleeve? Puccini certainly held a trump with his Fanciulla, and even considered the piece his best: after world hits such as La Bohème and Madama Butterfly he had reinvented himself with this “spaghetti western”. In La Fanciulla del West, he combined ragtime rhythms, allusions to gospel singing and the music of the native Americans with Italian melodiousness, resulting in a lushly orchestrated broadband sound. This did not fail to affect the audience at the first performance at New York’s Metropolitan Opera in 1910. And yet, compared to Puccini’s major hits, the piece languished in the shadows for a long time – until the musical gold diggers set out to reclaim it… Director: Vincent Boussard Set Designer: Vincent Lemaire Costume Designer: Christian Lacroix Lighting Designer: Guido Levi Premiere: 01.02.2015

La Fanciulla del West (The Girl of the West)

California in 1850: hundreds of thousands have fallen for the gold rush – and some of them also for the barkeeper Minnie, at whose saloon various fortune seekers meet every evening. Among them is Sheriff Jack Rance. Minnie, however, falls in love with the stranger Dick Johnson. It soon turns out that Johnson is a wanted robber: the sheriff wants to see him hang and have Minnie to himself. A round of poker is to decide about Dick’s life: is there yet another trump up Minnie’s sleeve? Puccini certainly held a trump with his Fanciulla, and even considered the piece his best: after world hits such as La Bohème and Madama Butterfly he had reinvented himself with this “spaghetti western”. In La Fanciulla del West, he combined ragtime rhythms, allusions to gospel singing and the music of the native Americans with Italian melodiousness, resulting in a lushly orchestrated broadband sound. This did not fail to affect the audience at the first performance at New York’s Metropolitan Opera in 1910. And yet, compared to Puccini’s major hits, the piece languished in the shadows for a long time – until the musical gold diggers set out to reclaim it… Director: Vincent Boussard Set Designer: Vincent Lemaire Costume Designer: Christian Lacroix Lighting Designer: Guido Levi Premiere: 01.02.2015

La Fanciulla del West (The Girl of the West)

California in 1850: hundreds of thousands have fallen for the gold rush – and some of them also for the barkeeper Minnie, at whose saloon various fortune seekers meet every evening. Among them is Sheriff Jack Rance. Minnie, however, falls in love with the stranger Dick Johnson. It soon turns out that Johnson is a wanted robber: the sheriff wants to see him hang and have Minnie to himself. A round of poker is to decide about Dick’s life: is there yet another trump up Minnie’s sleeve? Puccini certainly held a trump with his Fanciulla, and even considered the piece his best: after world hits such as La Bohème and Madama Butterfly he had reinvented himself with this “spaghetti western”. In La Fanciulla del West, he combined ragtime rhythms, allusions to gospel singing and the music of the native Americans with Italian melodiousness, resulting in a lushly orchestrated broadband sound. This did not fail to affect the audience at the first performance at New York’s Metropolitan Opera in 1910. And yet, compared to Puccini’s major hits, the piece languished in the shadows for a long time – until the musical gold diggers set out to reclaim it… Director: Vincent Boussard Set Designer: Vincent Lemaire Costume Designer: Christian Lacroix Lighting Designer: Guido Levi Premiere: 01.02.2015

La Fanciulla del West (The Girl of the West)

California in 1850: hundreds of thousands have fallen for the gold rush – and some of them also for the barkeeper Minnie, at whose saloon various fortune seekers meet every evening. Among them is Sheriff Jack Rance. Minnie, however, falls in love with the stranger Dick Johnson. It soon turns out that Johnson is a wanted robber: the sheriff wants to see him hang and have Minnie to himself. A round of poker is to decide about Dick’s life: is there yet another trump up Minnie’s sleeve? Puccini certainly held a trump with his Fanciulla, and even considered the piece his best: after world hits such as La Bohème and Madama Butterfly he had reinvented himself with this “spaghetti western”. In La Fanciulla del West, he combined ragtime rhythms, allusions to gospel singing and the music of the native Americans with Italian melodiousness, resulting in a lushly orchestrated broadband sound. This did not fail to affect the audience at the first performance at New York’s Metropolitan Opera in 1910. And yet, compared to Puccini’s major hits, the piece languished in the shadows for a long time – until the musical gold diggers set out to reclaim it… Director: Vincent Boussard Set Designer: Vincent Lemaire Costume Designer: Christian Lacroix Lighting Designer: Guido Levi Premiere: 01.02.2015

Orchestra del Teatro La Fenice / Vikram Francesco Sedona / Markus Stenz

Nomen est omen: true to its name, Venice’s legendary opera house, the Teatro La Fenice (Italian for phoenix), rose from the ashes in 2003 after a devastating fire. Since its reconstruction, the theatre has once again stood for splendour and radiance as well as impressive acoustics. The theatre is also home to a renowned orchestra, with which Richard Wagner and Richard Strauss worked. It gave important Verdi premieres, has a special history and is now bringing some of this aura to the north. Felix Mendelssohn’s Violin Concerto is one of the most popular works of all time, rich in beguiling melodies, full of romantic intensity and rousing in its gesture. Accordingly, the solo part demands highly expressive playing, and this is precisely what the violinist Vikram Francesco Sedona, who trained partly in Venice, is known for. Anton Bruckner’s Symphony No. 7 forms the crowning finale with its sacred-sounding grandeur, monumental Wagnerian references and late-Romantic, smoldering expressiveness. »Bruckner’s music seems to me to breathe inexhaustibly. At the same time, his constantly evolving sounds allow flexible arcs to be spanned – Romantic, grand music,« says conductor Markus Stenz.