Harnoncourt — Monteverdi: Operas (Diary 2015-08-04)
Harnoncourt / Ponnelle’s legendary Zurich Monteverdi cycle on DVD — and memories of getting addicted to its live performances at the Zurich Opera in the late 1970’s
Zurich
Sophia Jaffé / H.M. Förster — Zurich, 2015-02-15
With the entrance of the solo violin, though, the attention turned towards Sophia Jaffé, who presented herself as an experienced, expressive violinist, with a sonorous, full tone, delivering a solid, convincing interpretation.
de la Salle, Luisi / Philharmonia — Zurich Opera, 2015-01-18
The first part of this evening was devoted to Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concerto No.3 in D minor, op.30 — a well-respected benchmark among pianists of the top league. Lise de la Salle played this concerto eloquently, with compassion — she visibly lived with the music, also in the orchestral parts: her playing is fluent, competent, aimed at a full, rounded sound…
Albrecht Mayer, Norrington / ZKO — Zurich, 2014-11-25
(…) The last position in the program (after the intermission) was Mozart’s Symphony No.40 in G minor, K.550, in its first version (without clarinets), preceded by some explanations (in English) by the conductor. Sir Roger Norrington first alluded to numeric relations between the two symphonies (No.4 vs. No.40 — second vs. second-to-last symphony), then referred to the fact that K.550 is overused, known too well even, and played in warehouses and escalators…
Igor Levit — Tonhalle Zurich, 2014-10-21
Igor Levit was born 1987 in Nizhny Novgorod (Gorky); in 1995 his family moved to Germany; he grew up with the piano (his mother is a pianist whose teacher had once studied with Heinrich Neuhaus), did his musical studies at the Hochschule für Musik, Theater und Medien Hannover and finished with the best notes ever given by that institution. Aged 17, he was the youngest participant at the International Arthur Rubinstein Piano Master Competition in Tel Aviv, in 2005; he won the second prize, plus several special awards, such as the special prize for chamber music, and the audience award…
Wang, Sahatçi, Grossenbacher — Tonhalle Zurich, 2014-09-14
(…) For this season (2014/15), the Chinese pianist Yuja Wang is “Artist in residence” at the Tonhalle. This position / title entails a number of concert (limited, though, considering the demand she faces all over the world), the first two of which were the opening concerts of the season, a third one was on Sunday, 2014-09-14, with chamber music: she was joined by two prominent musicians from the Tonhalle Orchestra…