RICHARD STRAUSS ALSO SPRACH ZARATHUSTRA TOD UND VERKLARUNG WIENER PHILHARMONIKER GUSTAVO DUDAMEL “Dudamel gets the Vienna Philharmonic dancing” (Salzburger Nachrichten) RICHARD STRAUSS Since his debut at the Salzburg Festival in 2008, the young Venezuelan ALSO SPRACH ZARATHUSTRA conductor Gustavo Dudamel has excited both the audience and the world’s most famous orchestras. He now returns to Salzburg, to the rostrum of the TOD UND VERKLARUNG Vienna Philharmonic, in order to pay homage to Richard Strauss. The co- founder of the Salzburg Festival is being celebrated with two of his so called WIENER PHILHARMONKER tone poems, Strauss’s monumental “Death and Transfiguration” and “Thus spake Zarathustra”. The concert is complemented by the contemporary work GUSTAVO DUDAMEL by the Graz composer and Vienna Phil musician “Time Recycling”. The tone poem “Death and Transfiguration” depicts the death throes of a terminally ill individual: riddled by cramps and haunted by memories of his RICHARD STRAUSS youth, he longs to attain the ideal that he has been unable to realize during his Tod und Verklärung, Op. 24 lifetime. Only when the soul departs the body – illustrated by the 32 soft beats on the tam-tam – does he behold his ideal in the afterlife. RENÉ STAAR Time Recycling, Op. 22n Transience is also the motif of the contemporary work “Time Recycling”, though not expressed with the same basic solemnity: inspired by the fact that time RICHARD STRAUSS cannot be reversed in human terms, René Staar’s work strikes the orchestra Also sprach Zarathustra, Op. 30 up in playful manner: “leader Rainer Küchl plays salsa (…) but it is above all the double basses that begin to dance with their sound furniture (…)” (Salzburger Nachrichten). What is remarkable about this performance is that for the first Orchestra Wiener Philharmoniker time in the 170-year history of the orchestra, the Vienna Philharmonic’s Conductor Gustavo Dudamel musicians have commissioned a work from one of their own members – and it has to be said, with great success: “Staar (…) was rewarded with a veritable (…) Produced by BFMI standing ovation” (Giornale della musica online). Video Director Henning Kasten Strauss’s opulent tone poem “Thus spake Zarathustra” after Friedrich Length: 102' Nietzsche’s poem, on the other hand, takes up the concept of a cyclical Shot in HDTV 1080/50i understanding of time which is evident in “Time Recycling” too. Strauss set Cat. no. A045500370000 the predominant ideas of Nietzsche’s philosophy of eternal return. Under A production of UNITEL CLASSICA Dudamel’s baton the Vienna Philharmonic unfolded its vast aural splendour: in co-production with ZDF/Arte “Gustavo Dudamel understands (…) how to light a fire” Die( Krone). in cooperation with the Salzburg Festival and the Wiener Philharmoniker World Sales: All rights reserved · credits not contractual · Different territories · Photos: © Mark Hanauer, Vern Evans · Flyer: luebbeke.com Flyer: · Evans Vern Hanauer, contractual Mark Different Photos: © territories credits · not rights · All reserved · Tel. +49.30.30306464 [email protected] Unitel GmbH & Co. KG, Germany · Tel. +49.89.673469-630 · [email protected] www.unitelclassica.com.