Modern Merriment in Ostrava

By Frank Kuznik, 31 August 2015

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Reviewed at Janacek Conservatory, Ostrava on 29 August 2015

Mincek, Harmonielehre

Berg, Kammerkonzert

Ligeti, Double Concerto for flute, oboe and orchestra

Richter, Rivulose

Zimmermann, Nobody knows de trouble I see

Janáček Philharmonic Orchestra Ostrava

Hana Kotková, Violin

Daan Vandewalle, Piano

Keiko Shichijo, Piano

Reinhold Friedrich, Trumpet

Daniel Havel, Flute

Jan Souček, Oboe

Petr Kotík, Conductor

Roland Kluttig, Conductor

Rolf Gupta, Conductor

Czech Janáček Philharmonic lift Cadogan Hall’s roof in Shostakovich

Roy Westbrook, 18th February

The Czech orchesta and Daniel Raiskin bring Janáček from Ostrava, along with evergreen Bruch and a noisy Shostakovich Tenth Symphony.

****1

Underscoring the power of the orchestra: Ostrava Days

Kurt Gottschalk, 27th August

Comprised of some 60 musicians from 16 countries, the Ostrava New Orchestra paint pictures of prisons and caves, gardens and machines, in works by students and 20th-century masters.

****1

Hamburg's Die Tote Stadt: excellent singing but muddled staging

Ako Imamura, 13th October

Hamburg's revival of a 2015 production is a musical success, but the director's concepts are sometimes too dense to tell a straightforward story.

****1

Modern terror: Salome in Stuttgart

Ako Imamura, 1st December

Director Kirill Serebrennikov gives us a frightening new reality of the modern world beset by war and terrorism in his reimagining of Strauss's Salome

****1

Erschütternde Dramatik von Weinbergs Passagierin in Weimar

Michael Vieth, 11th April

Vielleicht die bedeutendste Oper der Gegenwart: Am Deutschen Nationaltheater Weimar gelang eine überaus kompetente und stimmlich herausragende Inszenierung von Mieczysław Weinbergs Die Passagierin.

*****

Wer ohne Sünde ist... Katja Kabanova an der Oper Graz

Isabella Steppan, 18th March

In einer Inszenierung, die letztlich zu überladen ist, um zu berühren, sorgen Orchester und Sänger für einen exzellenten Abend.

****1

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Frank Kuznik

Frank Kuznik is the former Editor-in-Chief and Culture Editor of The Prague Post, Central Europe’s premier English-language weekly newspaper. He currently divides his time between Prague and his hometown in the US, Cleveland, where he covers northeast Ohio's dynamic classical music scene. In Prague he is an habitué of the Rudolfinum, National Theater, State Opera and other storied classical music venues, and an unabashed fan of Czech music.