Salzburg Feaituval Archive

Audio News for December 30 2016

by Audiophile Audition | Dec 30, 2016 | Audio News

The 2016 Year in Classical Music –  Two of the most influential musicians of both centuries took their final curtain calls during 2016: Pierre Boulez (who blew minds in conservative classical music with his compositions) and Nikolaus Harnoncourt, the Austrian cellist, conductor, music researcher and founder of historic performance practice.  Also deceased was Peter Maxwell Davies, Master of the Queen’s Music at the British court and composer of symphonies, concertos, operas, ballet and film music. South African tenor Johan Botha also died, a celebrated singer of Wagnerian roles. Terrorist and other attacks in other Bavarian cities affected the 2016 Bayreuth Festival.  German conductor Hartmut Haenchen stepped in with little rehearsal time and was well received, but the same didn’t go for the new stage director Uwe Eric Laufenberg. The Salzburg Festival had a varied program, including works by Thomas Ades and Friedrich Cerha. The Schleswig-Holstein Music Festival revolved around the central theme of Joseph Haydn. Next year it will be Maurice Ravel. At Bonn’s Beethovenfest, director Nike Wagner present a program with the theme “Revolutions.” A number of prizes were handed out: Greek-Russian conductor Teodor Currentzis got one, as did Cecila Bartoli and German conductor Thomas Hengelbrock. Turkish pianist/composer Fazil […]