Here is a fresh new way to present music in concert. The University of Maryland Symphony Orchestra performs Debussy's Prelude de l'apres-midi d'un faun to a very high musical standard.
Last week the Houston Symphony announced that Andres Orozco-Estrada would succeed Hans Graf as the orchestra's music director. Orozco-Estrada, 35, was born in Colombia and studied at the Vienna Academy of Music.
Orozco-Estrada will conduct 13 concerts with the HSO next season then 12 weeks of concerts each year for five years starting with the 2014-2015 season. Orozco-Estrada will become the 16th music director of the orchestra following in the footsteps of Graf, Eschenbach, Comissiona, Foster, Previn, Barbirolli and Stokowski.
Andres Orozco-Estrada will be the HSO's first Hispanic music director and that will be a major asset in a community that has a large Hispanic population.
Andres Orozco-Estrada is principal conductor of the Basque National Orchestra in Spain and music director of the Tonkunstler Orchestra in Vienna. In this video he conducts the Tonkunstler Orchestra in one of the Ten Basque Melodies by Jesus Guridi, at a concert recorded live in Vienna's Musikverein.
Another 70th birthday celebration for a great conductor! This one is for Mariss Jansons who turned 70 on January 14, 2013. This birthday greeting video comes from the Oslo Philharmonic, an orchestra which was proud to call Jansons music director at one time. The spoken tribute comes from CEO Odd Gullberg - an odd tribute, one might say. The orchestra is rehearsing Mozart's Magic Flute Overture and the conductor is Eivind Aadland.
Mariss Jansons is currently music director of the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, and the Bavarian Radio Symphony in Munich. Both of them are outstanding orchestras.
Daniel Barenboim recently celebrated his 70th birthday (November 15, 2012), and shows no signs of slowing down as pianist, opera or concert conductor. He recently conducted Wagner's Lohengrin at La Scala to open the season there, and will soon lead the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra on an American tour with several all-Beethoven programmes. For more on Barenboim's activities visit his website at www.danielbarenboim.com.
In an unusual video conductor Simon Rattle made a rare appearance as a pianist wishing Barenboim Happy Birthday on behalf of the Berlin Philharmonic, and with the cooperation of American bass Willard White. Incidentally, Rattle has just announced that he will be stepping down as music director of the BPO in 2018.
Just a few months ago Dutch conductor Jaap van Zweden gave his first concerts as music director of the Hong Kong Philharmonic. This video celebrates the occasion.
Hong Kong is one of the crown jewels in the development of China in the past 20 years. The former British crown colony has retained much of its independence even while coming under the control of Beijing. China has been as good as its word in this respect. Political expression is not as free as some would like but otherwise the citizens of Hong Kong pretty much do as they please. And that includes culture. Artistic expression is flourishing in Hong Kong with new concert halls and museums popping up nearly every year.
One of the beneficiaries of all this energy is the Hong Kong Philharmonic. It is rapidly becoming one of the finest orchestras in Asia. It has had some fine music directors including David Atherton and Edo de Waart. But Jaap van Zweden is capable of taking the orchestra to another level altogether. He has the knowledge, the drive and the charisma to create both quality and excitement. Hong Kong is in for some wonderful music-making.
The music featured in the video is from Beethoven's Seventh Symphony which van Zweden has already recorded with his other orchestra, the Dallas Symphony.
La Scena Musicale's award-winning website SCENA.org has been a world leader of classical music and arts news since 1996. Today's Classical Music Video Blog is our video pick of the day.
Read the press release at http://bit.ly/LSMPRVidBlog . Submit your favourite video to todaysvideo@lascena.org.
