This young Greek conductor’s recordings of Mozart operas have redefined music and changed my life with their profound vision, energy and face-punching force
Winner of the KAIROS Prize in Germany, this outstanding musician with a Gothic look has adopted Russia and is revitalizing classical music from a city near the Ural Mountains, far from the usual cultural centers
All year one wonders what 10 recordings really deserve to be included in such a list, and wonders if any potential inclusions might not be a stretch. Then, in the last few weeks, suddenly a slew of recordings, late discoveries that might have been lying about for months or weeks, force themselves upon the ears and one could easily extend the list to 20
Half of this year's top 10 happened to involve early music. Don't ask why; it's probably just a coincidence. But we need perspective in our hyperactive culture, which maybe, down deep, is not changing as fast as Silicon Valley would like us to believe. The relevance of Bach and Handel in particular but other Baroque masters as well can be — and this year was — uncanny. That's reason to rejoice
The Perm Opera and Ballet Theatre is the only theatre in the country that has staged the opera trilogy by Mozart and his librettist Lorenzo Da Ponte: Le Nozze di Figaro, Don Giovanni and Così Fan Tutte. All three productions were created by different directors, and, conceptually, this project can certainly be defined as «Currentzis’ Mozart». This notion includes an aspiration for perfect sound, which is already typical for the conductor and his orchestra musicAeterna, personal freedom of interpretation and a practice of historically-informed performance