Richard Strauss News

Shortly after conquering the opera world with his scandalous masterpiece Salome, Richard Strauss turned to Hugo von Hofmannsthal's recent adaptation of Sophocles's Electra for his next project. The resulting opera is an intense and still-startling work that unites the commanding impact of Greek tragedy with the unsettling insights of early-20th-century Freudian psychology. The drama unfolds in a single act of rare vocal and orchestral power.

The Met's new production of Richard Strauss's ELEKTRA is something to behold, with Vincent Huguet recreating the original by the late Patrice Chereau from France's Aix-en-Provence Festival. Starring the glorious Nina Stemme in the title role--and backed by the stellar performances of Waltraud Meier as Klytamnestra, Adrianne Pieczonka as Chrysothemis and Eric Owens as Orest--this is a cast that would be hard to better. Add to it conductor Esa-Pekka Salonen's insightful, propulsive performance with the great Met orchestra. And, yet, there was…something missing: catharsis--no burst of rapture and the urge to jump up and applaud.

Carnegie Hall today announced that actor Richard Gere is set to host its 125th anniversary gala benefit concert on Thursday, May 5 at 7:00 p.m.

On Sunday, May 15 at 4 pm, the Princeton Symphony Orchestra (PSO) presents its Passion & Affection concert performed in honor of Arnold H. Snider, III and featuring Sarah Kirkland Snider's Hiraeth, a multi-media work co-commissioned by the PSO with the North Carolina Symphony.

Orange County, Calif.—April 21, 2016—Two all-time favorite pieces of music provide a feast for the ears, while stimulating imaginations with their vivid, arresting beauty, when Pacific Symphony performs one of the most beloved works of the Baroque repertoire and then takes a stunning excursion through the Alps. First, Vivaldi's lyrical masterpiece “The Four Seasons,” which paints tantalizing pictures of the changing seasons, is performed and led by award-winning Russian-American violinist Philippe Quint. Revel in the celebration of the autumn harvest, the warmth of the winter fire and the languor of the summer sun as Vivaldi's Venetian tour de force unleashes all of the drama and splendor of the Baroque period and the lyrical beauty of the strings. Then, led by Music Director Carl St.Clair, the Symphony retraces the majestic, musical depiction of a dawn-to-dusk hike up and down the Bavarian Alps, as brought to life by Richard Strauss' lush, splendid musical descriptions in his “An Alpine Symphony.” 

Music Mountain, America's Oldest Continuing Summer Chamber Music Festival, announces an exciting new collaboration with The Catskill Jazz Factory! Beginning on Saturday, July 16, a variety of jazz musicians will bring their talents to Music Mountain for a 5-weekend concert series. Artists scheduled to appear include Joanna Wallfisch, Dan Tepfer, Peter and Will Anderson Quintet, Chris Washburne's Ragtime Band and Chris Pattishall Octet. Concerts are scheduled Saturday evenings (6:30pm) beginning July 16 and running thru August 13. 'We are absolutely thrilled to have the Catskill Jazz Factory for five consecutive weeks. These not to be missed concerts will lift our Saturday Twilight series to new heights of excitement and popularity, 'announced Nicholas Gordon, President, Music Mountain.

Music Director James Levine Conducts Concerts with Pianist Evgeny Kissin on May 19 and an All-Wagner Program with Soprano Christine Goerke and Tenor Stefan Vinke on May 26;

?HOUSTON (April 20, 2016) – Renowned maestro David Zinman will appear with the Houston Symphony and Chorus to conduct the Fauré Requiem at 8 p.m. April 28 and 30 and at 2:30 p.m. May 1. Zinman is the only American conductor to appear on this season's classical series.

After a sold-out run at the 1998 Lincoln Center Festival, the opera PATIENCE & SARAH returns to New York as a staged concert performance for two nights only - Thursday, June 23rd and Friday, June 24th at 7PM at the Players Theatre (115 MacDougal Street). Considered the first opera to portray an openly romantic relationship between two self-affirming women, PATIENCE & SARAH is composed by Paula Kimper with libretto by Wende Persons.  The work is based on the novel of the same title by Isabel Miller. Paula Kimper is conducting with Douglas Moser directing. Baritone Michael Kelly is featured in the cast of seven.  Tickets are $42- $62 and can be purchased through https://web.ovationtix.com/ or by calling 866-811-4111.

The 2015-16 season's New York Philharmonic Young People's Concerts (YPCs) will conclude on Saturday, May 14, 2016, at 2:00 p.m. with 'Story and Song,' the final program in this season's series, Once Upon a Time, which explores music inspired by stories, poems, and legends. The concert will include selections from Mahler's Des Knaben Wunderhorn and selections from Gershwin's Porgy and Bess, performed by The Mary and James G. Wallach Artist-in-Residence Eric Owens; Rossini's William Tell Overture; a selection from Mahler's Symphony No. 2, Resurrection; and a selection from Copland's Appalachian Spring. Philharmonic Assistant Conductor Courtney Lewis will lead the performance; Vice President, Education, Theodore Wiprud will host.

The New York Philharmonic announces a new album of works by Christopher Rouse, the Philharmonic's second Marie-Jose?e Kravis Composer-in-Residence, and the launch of Alan Gilbert and the New York Philharmonic: 2015-16 Season digital recording series - which will feature ten albums of performances from the current season - for download and streaming.

Carnegie Hall's season-long 125th anniversary celebration reaches its pinnacle on Thursday, May 5 at 7:00 p.m.- exactly 125 years to the day that the Hall first opened its doors in 1891-when many of the world's most beloved musicians take to the Hall's legendary stage for an all-star gala benefit concert.

PITTSBURGH - Be part of the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra's 2016 European Tour from the comfort of a seat at Heinz Hall! On May 22 at 2 p.m. EST, Pittsburghers can cheer on their home orchestra while watching a concert with a simulcast live from Berlin, Germany.

Manfred Honeck will return to the New York Philharmonic to conduct Richard Strauss's Oboe Concerto, with Principal Oboe Liang Wang as soloist; Beethoven's Symphony No. 6, Pastoral; and Suppe?'s Poet and Peasant Overture, Today, April 7, 2016, at 7:30 p.m.; Friday, April 8 at 2:00 p.m.; Saturday, April 9 at 8:00 p.m.; and Tuesday, April 12 at 7:30 p.m. 

Legendary director Patrice Chéreau's final work, an acclaimed staging of Richard Strauss's tragedy Elektra, comes to the Met April 14 with Esa-Pekka Salonen leading a cast headed by Nina Stemme in her first Met performances of the bloodthirsty princess.

He was ridiculed for bringing American musicals to the historic Paris venue, but Jean-Luc Choplin's vision turned the struggling theatre's fortunes around.

The French Institute Alliance Française (FIAF) and the Metropolitan Opera in association with the International Friends of the International Lyric Art Festival Aix-en-Provence will present the talk Discovering Chéreau'sElektra at the Metropolitan Opera, on Wednesday, April 6 at 7pm at FIAF's Florence Gould Hall.

Legendary soprano Kathleen Battle, who starred in more than 220 Met performances over the course of her career, will make her first appearance at the Met in more than 20 years with the recital Kathleen Battle: Underground Railroad – A Spiritual Journey on Sunday, November 13 at 4 p.m. Battle will sing a recital of spirituals inspired by the journey to freedom along the Underground Railroad, the 19th-century network of safe houses that allowed African-Americans to escape from slavery. She will be joined by pianist Joel Martin and by a choir under the direction of James Davis, Jr., Director of Music Ministries and Fine Arts at Harlem's famous Abyssinian Baptist Church.

The French Institute Alliance Française (FIAF) and the Metropolitan Opera in association with the International Friends of the International Lyric Art Festival Aix-en-Provence will present the talk Discovering Chéreau'sElektra at the Metropolitan Opera, on Wednesday, April 6 at 7pm at FIAF's Florence Gould Hall.

The New York Choral Society will present Handel's biblical oratorio Israel in Egypt under the baton of Music Director David Hayes, on Tuesday evening, May 10th, 2016, 8pm at Carnegie Hall's Stern Auditorium. Composed entirely from selected passages from the Bible's Old Testament, Israel in Egypt relates the harshness of the Israelites' captivity in Egypt and their subsequent triumphant escape from the Pharaoh's oppressive regime. Israel in Egypt is atypical in Handel's choral output, as it contains little solo material and is dominated by large-scale virtuosic choruses that exhibit Handel's mastery as a musical storyteller.