Dennis Russell Davies and his Brno Philharmonic Orchestra will conclude the Ars Electronica Festival 2024 with Philip Glass’s “Mishima” Concerto, featuring soloist Maki Namekawa in the Train Hall of POSTCITY.
Tickets:
53€ / 37€ reduced
Tickets are available online and are limited. Please note: FESTIVALPASS(+) holders have access to the concert and require separate registration!
Registration for FESTIVALPASS(+) holders.
Guest performance by Brno Philharmonic with their principal conductor Dennis Russell Davies, who has long been closely associated with Ars Electronica.
Twenty years ago, in 2004, under his musical direction, the now-legendary 3D live visualization of a concert performance of Richard Wagner’s Rheingold took place. This was realized by the Ars Electronica Futurelab using 25 projectors and a screen that encompassed the entire audience area. That same year, Dennis Russell Davies initiated the ongoing and successful collaboration with the Bruckner Orchestra Linz in the form of the Big Concert Night of Ars Electronica Festival. This established a central program line for the festival, bridging traditional concert music with experimental and digital sounds and music.
On the occasion of Dennis Russell Davies’ 80th birthday, Ars Electronica presents one of his recent productions: Philip Glass’ “Mishima” Concerto, which was premiered at the Piano Festival Ruhr with the MDR Symphony Orchestra conducted by Davies.
Photo: Tom Mesic
Photo: archiv Filharmonie Brno
The “Mishima” Concerto is based on the soundtrack of the movie Mishima, composed by Philip Glass in 1985. Michael Riesman has arranged a version for solo piano with orchestra for Maki Namekawa.
The concert at Ars Electronica Festival will feature the Austrian premiere of “Mishima” Concerto, complemented by three rarely performed pieces from the second part of Bedřich Smetana’s Ma Vlast (From Bohemia’s Woods and Fields, Tábor, Blaník)—a unique opportunity for direct comparison with Smetana’s own version for piano for four hands. This will be performed by Dennis Russell Davies and Maki Namekawa the day before.
Bio
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Photo: vog.photoMaki Namekawa
AT/JP
Maki Namekawa is a leading figure among today’s pianists, bringing contemporary music by international composers to audiences. As a soloist and chamber musician equally at home in the classical and contemporary repertoire, Maki Namekawa appears regularly at such international venues as Carnegie Hall and Lincoln Center New York, Musikverein Vienna, Barbican Center and Cadogan Hall London, Citè de la musique Paris, Philharmonie de Paris, Concertgebouw Amsterdam, BOZAR Bruxelles, Suntory Hall and Sumida Toriphony Hall Tokyo, Salzburg Festival, Ars Electronica Festival, Musik-Biennale Berlin, Rheingau Musik Festival and Piano Festival Ruhr.
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Photo: Tom MesicDennis Russell Davies
US
Dennis Russell Davies was born in Toledo (Ohio) and studied piano and conducting at the Juilliard School, New York. His activities as an opera and concert conductor, and as a pianist and chamber musician, are characterized by an extensive repertoire stretching from the Baroque to the latest music of our time. Widely considered to be one of the most innovative and adventurous conductors in the classical music world, Dennis Russell Davies has successfully challenged and inspired audiences on both sides of the Atlantic. He is noted for his exciting and well-structured concert programmes and for close working relationships with many composers, among them Luciano Berio, William Bolcom, John Cage, Manfred Trojahn, Philip Glass, Heinz Winbeck, Laurie Anderson, Philippe Manoury, Aaron Copland, Hans Werner Henze, Michael Nyman and Kurt Schwertsik.
After first appointments as Musical Director of the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra 1972-1980 and Chief Conductor of the American Composers Orchestra in New York 1977-2002, Davies moved to Europe and settled down in Germany and Austria. He held positions as Music Director of the Staatsoper Stuttgart (1980-1987) as well as Chief Conductor of the Beethovenhalle Orchestra, Music Director of the Bonn Opera and the International Beethoven Festival (1987-1995). From 1997-2000 he was Chief Conductor of Radio Symphony Orchestra Vienna, was entrusted with a conducting professorship at the Salzburg Mozarteum in 1997 and was Chief Conductor of Stuttgart Chamber Orchestra from 1995-2006, with which he recorded all 107 Symphonies of Joseph Haydn for CD, only the third complete recording of this oeuvre. In addition, he became Chief Conductor of Basel Symphony Orchestra from 2009-2016, from 2002-2017 he was Opera Director at the Landestheater Linz as well as Chief Conductor of Bruckner Orchestra Linz where he got awarded the title “GMD”in 2014.
As a guest, Dennis Russell Davies has conducted such renowned orchestras as those in Cleveland, Philadelphia, Chicago, San Francisco, Boston and the New York Philharmonic, as well as Yomiuri Nippon Symphony.
In Europe, he has worked with Accademia di Santa Cecilia di Roma, Orchestra Filarmonica della Scala di Milano, Orquesta Nacional de España, Gewandhausorchester Leipzig, Dresdener Philharmonie, the Deutsche Symphonie-Orchester Berlin, the Munich and Berlin Philharmonic Orchestras, Bamberg Symphony Orchestra, the Concertgebouworkest Amsterdam and the St. Petersburg Philharmonic.
After his début at the Bayreuth Festival 1978-1980, his operatic work has included conducting at Lincoln Center Festival New York, Houston Grand Opera, Lyric Opera of Chicago, Metropolitan Opera New York, Opéra National de Paris, Teatro Reál de Madrid, Hamburg and the Bavarian State Operas, Salzburg Festival and Wiener Staatsoper.
During his tenure as GMD in Linz, the new Linz Opera House was inaugurated in April 2013, at which occasion Dennis Russell Davies conducted the world premiere of Philip Glass’s opera “The Lost” as well as Strauss’ ”Der Rosenkavalier”. In addition, he conducted new productions of the whole “Ring des Nibelungen”, “Pelléas et Mélisande”, “Falstaff”, “Salome”, the European premiere of “McTeague” as well as world premieres by Moritz Eggert and Michael Obst at the new “Musiktheater”.
Davies’ work also had a crucial and lasting effect on the concert sector of Bruckner Orchester Linz by reaching out to modernity and new audiences, and frequent touring activity while still working on their core repertoire, e.g. the recording of all symphonies of Bruckner in every version.
In September 2018, Dennis Russell Davies took up his position as Artistic director and Chief Conductor of Filharmonie Brno.
Dennis Russell Davies is a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. In December 2014, the title “Commandeur des Arts et Lettres” was bestowed on Dennis Russell Davies by the French government, in 2017, he received the “Österreichische Ehrenkreuz für Wissenschaft und Kunst 1. Klasse” by the Austrian government.
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Photo: Vaclav HubacekFilharmonie Brno
CZ
The roots of the Filharmonie Brno go back to the 1870s, when the young Leoš Janácek endeavoured to establish a Czech symphony orchestra in Brno. The works of the famous twentieth-century composer constitute thecore of the orchestra’s repertory, and to this day the Filharmonie Brno considers itself to be the authentic performer of his oeuvre. The present orchestra was created in 1956 by merging the Brno-based Radio and Regional orchestras, and since then has been among the leading Czech orchestras in terms of both size and importance. On its tours abroad, it has performed about a thousand concerts throughout Europe, the United States of America, Latin America, and both the Middle and Far East. The Filharmonie Brno is a regular guest at festivals in the Czech Republic and abroad, frequently joining forces for these appearances with the excedent Czech Philharmonic Choir Brno. The orchestra regularly records for the Czech Radio, Czech Television and a number of music labels (Supraphon, Sony Music, IMG Records, BMG, Channel 4), and is also receiving a growing number of commissions from global clientele through the agency Czech Orchestra Recordings. Throughout its history, the orchestra has had a number of Czech and international conductors, including Bretislav Bakala, František Jílek, Petr Altrichter, Jirí Belohlávek, Sir Charles Mackerras, Jakub Hruša or Tomáš Netopil. Maestro Dennis Russell Davies has been appointed the orchestra’s new chief conductor and artistic director beginning with the 2018/2019 season. Since 2000 the Filharmonie Brno has been organising the open-air summer festival at the Špilberk castle in Brno, and in 2012 has become the organiser of the renowned traditional festivals Moravian Autumn, Easter Festival of Sacred Music and Exposition of New Music. The orchestra sponsors the internationally lauded children’s choir Kantiléna, has been involved since 2010 in the young musicians’ festival Mozart’s Children, and in 2014 founded the Filharmonie Brno Orchestra Academy. Today Filharmonie Brno is not only a strong player in the field of symphonic music at home and abroad, but also the primary organiser of the musical season in the second largest Czech city, an active instigator of festivals and a creative leader in orchestral programming. Its home is the beautiful Besední dum (former civic house), the Brno counterpart to Vienna’s Musikverein, built in 1873 according to a design by Theophil Hansen, though the orchestra is now looking forward to its new modern concert hall, which is being designed by a team of Tomasz Konior, Petr Hrůša and acoustician Yasuhisa Toyota.