Name: Salzburg Festival 2012 - Opening Concert
Start: 2012-07-29T00:00:00.000Z
End: 2012-07-29T00:00:00.000Z
Location: Großes Festspielhaus

Organization

Conductor

Valery Gergiev

Tenor

Sergei Semishkur

Stage director

Andreas Morell

Salzburger Festspiele

Others

Konzertvereinigung Wiener Staatsopernchor

Orchestra

Wiener Philharmoniker

Latin

Russian

Salzburg Festival 2012 - Opening Concert

Salzburg

Austria

Großes Festspielhaus

The opening concert of the Salzburg Festival, widely regarded as the most prestigious festival in the world, is traditionally a high-profile event. In 2012, Valery Gergiev conducted the Vienna Philharmonic and conducted a program of outstanding works by Russian composers:

Stravinsky, Symphony of Psalms

Mussorgsky, Songs and Dances of Death (orchestration and interludes by Alexander Raskatov)

Prokofiev, Symphony No. 5 in B flat major, Op. 100

In his Psalms Symphony, Igor Stravinsky (1882-1971) set the Latin translation of the Old Testament Psalms 38, 39 and 150 to music. Choir and orchestra are used here on an equal footing, with the sophisticated orchestration (wind instruments, low strings, percussion instruments and two pianos) providing fascinating sound impressions. The term "symphony" refers only to the sequence of three movements and not to the compositional form of the individual parts. The Psalms Symphony, composed in 1930, is one of Stravinsky's most impressive and popular works.

The cycle "Songs and Dances of Death" by Modest Mussorgsky (1839-1881) can be heard in the arrangement by the Russian composer Alexander Raskatov for tenor and orchestra. The soloist in the four sombre, extraordinary poem settings about life and death is the Russian tenor Sergei Semishkur, who has been a member of the ensemble at the Mariinsky Theater in St. Petersburg since 2007 and has played a number of major roles such as Rodolfo (La Bohème), Hoffmann (Les contes d'Hoffmann) or Lensky (Eugene Onegin) sings. In addition, Semishkur performs regularly as an opera and concert soloist in Europe and the USA.

After the first, the "Symphonie classique", the Symphony No. 5 in B flat major, Op. 100, is the most popular of the seven symphonies by Sergei Prokofiev (1891-1953). It was created during the Second World War in the summer of 1944 on a country estate belonging to the Soviet Union of Composers, to which artists such as Shostakovich, Kabalevsky and Khachaturian had also retreated - Prokofiev to such successful works as the ballet "Romeo and Juliet", the Second Violin Concerto and the film music had inspired "Alexander Newsky". Prokofiev himself called the B-flat major symphony a "song to free and happy people", while Sviatoslav Richter wrote after the Moscow premiere in January 1945, conducted by the composer: " The Fifth Symphony reflects his completed inner maturity and his retrospect ... He looks down on his life and all that was from on high. There's something Olympic about it."

Valery Gergiev is a "superstar" among the conductors of our time. His name can be found in all the world's major opera houses and concert halls, and an extensive discography documents his versatility as a conductor of opera and symphonic music. Born in Moscow in 1953 to Ossetian parents, Gergiev became director of the famous Kirov (Mariinsky) Theater in St. Petersburg at the age of 35 and, with his boundless energy, restored the opera house to the glory of the old days. He founded numerous festivals and regularly conducts at the Metropolitan Opera New York; From 1995 to 2008 he was also chief conductor of the Rotterdam Philharmonic, and since 2007 he has also conducted the London Symphony Orchestra.
Gergiev made his debut at the Salzburg Festival in 1997 with "Boris Godunow" and has since performed there regularly in operas and concerts - most recently with the World Orchestra for Peace, which he conducted.

Production booklet

Further reading