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Bamberg Symphony Concert
The concert opened with Haydn’s Symphony No. 103 “Drum roll”. Compared to the sharp interpretation of the Haydn Orchestra, the Bamberg Symphony’s Haydn is in a German style. The tone is very beautiful but sounded old style Haydn like the early 90s. Then followed 3 Mozart arias "Chi sa, chi sa, qual sia" "Vado, ma dove? oh Dei", and "L'amero, saro costante” with Simona Saturova, who was replacing Ruth Ziesak. After the intermission came Dvorak’s Symphony No. 7. The roots of Bamberg Symphony go back to the German Philharmonic in Prague. The orchestra inherits Czech tradition. With Adam Fischer’s central Europe flavour, the orchestra performed freely and it was the best Dvorak. The full house audience thanked
the performer with enthusiastic applause. Go back to Top
Popular Janacek Opera at Zurich, „The Cunning Little Vixen”
This is a story about a little vixen, which was captured and brought up by the human forester as a pet. One day she chews through her rope, attacks chickens and escapes. The vixen married young fox and got children, but at the final act, she is shot by the poacher. The poacher gives the vixen’s fur to his bride Terynka. The forester, who loved Terynka sits at the tree grieving the loss of both the vixen and her. Then comes the baby vixen just as the beginning, showing the cycle of death leading to new life. Janacek wrote this opera based on the serialized comic printed in the news paper. He transformed himself to the forester and his young lover Kamila to Terynka and vixen. Although the composer’s message is philosophical reflection on the cycle of life and death, it becomes popular as an opera for childresn because many animals and insects come to stage. The Zurich Opera planned many performances including several matinee for young audiences. The entire concept of the production is enjoyable to a small child as well as an adult. After the first act, a group of flies, played by the ballet school made a comical joke. After the second act, the frog played by young Marlon Götz, read the funny story and won a big applause by the audience Most of singers sang in masks. Martina Janková sang title role in her mother language. Oliver Widmer was the forester. Most impressive singer was Peter Straka, who sang the school master. The stage was so crowded by the performers at the curtain call. Adam Fischer and the Zurich opera orchestra played the lively music and expressed the life in the forest. Not only for children, is the production quality good enough for an adult opera lover. Go back to Top
Haydn and Händel – Internationale Haydntage 2006
Since its foundation in 1989, the Internationale Haydntage in Eisenstadt is growing in popularity and now is established as one of the best music festivals held in an historic venue. Under the title “Haydn and Händel” the festival took place from 7-17 September 2006. The guest ensembles this
year were Collegium Viennese, Händel and Haydn Society Boston, Amsterdam Baroque
Orchestra with Ton Koopman, etc. The Gala evening was a recital by Ian Bostridge.
The orchestra in residence, the Austro-Hungarian Haydn Orchestra conducted by
Adam Fischer performed 3 programmes. On 13th September, Adam and the orchestra again performed an oratorio. It was Händel’s masterpiece “The Messaiah”. This piece inspired Haydn to write “The Creation”. The original version was composed for a baroque orchestra and sung in English. In 1789 Mozart re-arranged this piece for the orchestra of his day. This Mozart arrangement, sang in German, is what was performed. Unfortunately, Olesya Golovneva was indisposed and replaced by the American soprano Andrea Lauren Braun. Although she is young, she has a lot of experience of Händel, Bach and Mozart. As well as the famous mezzo-soprano Iris Vermillion, her aria was very impressive. On the other hand, the tenor Markus Schäfer and the bass Mathias Hausmann were a little bit subdued. Since both have a background of baroque and church music, sometimes their voices were hidden behind the orchestra or choir. Still their performances were convincing. Above all the Vienna Singverein’s powerful and dynamic performance was the centre of the piece. Händel is not familiar with Adam Fischer and Haydn Orchestra, but they performed wonderful Händel with a lot of Mozart flavour. This two and half-hour long performance was loudly acclaimed by the capacity audience and it was unanimously agreed to be the highlight of the festival. As
usual, the festival closed with the Sunday matinee concert by Adam Fischer and
the Haydn Orchestra. The concert titled “for queens” started with Händel’s
“Arrival of the Queen of Sheba” from “Solomon”. The two oboe players of the
Haydn Orchestra, Thomas Höniger and Stefan Natschläer played a beautiful
ensemble After the intermission the program was Haydn’s Symphony No. 102. Adam and the orchestra recorded it in 1988. Since then the interpretation has changed a lot. Using non-vibrato strings Adam and the orchestra proved progress of experienced ensemble. They played the 4th movement of Symphony No. 97, and as usual, the adagio from the “Farewell” Symphony No. 45 as encores. The 2007 Haydntage will start on 6th September. Adam Fischer and the Haydn Orchestra will play the oratorio “The Seasons”, Dvorak “from the new world” and several symphonies. Go back to Top
Three different Parsifals by Adam Fischer
After the success of “Der Fliegende Holländer” at the Bavarian State Opera, Adam Fischer has been seriously involved in the last work of Richard Wagner “Parsifal”. Since April he has conducted three different productions at three major venues. Just before the Easter holidays, Adam Fischer conducted Peter Konwischny’s “Parsifal” at the Bavarian State Opera. It is a modern production in black and white. When the production premiered in 1995, it provoked loud booing but 11 years later it seems to be accepted. Juha Uusitalo sang Amfortas, Robert Gambill as Parsifal, and Walraud Meier as Kundry. On 10th and 17th June were the Wagner Days in Budapest. This is the first performance of a big project led by Adam Fischer, which is to perform all Wagner’s works by 2013. Although the “Parsifal” was announced as a concert performance, the orchestra played in the pit and the stage was used only for the singers and chorus. Without any stage set, the production was intended to express the original idea of the composer. Singers sang in regular concert costumes, only Kundry changed her dress for each act. The center of the production is the music. Christian Franz showed high quality to distinguish innocent Parsifal and Parsifal with wisdom. Matti Salminen was a stable Grunemanz, Günter von Kannen was a dark Klingsor. This was the first time for the Hungarian Radio Symphony Orchestra to play a complete Wagner opera. It was an enormous challenge since they didn’t know the music well, however, the orchestra worked hard to realize Adam Fischer‘s idea. It was a huge success and the audience applauded warmly. Wagner lovers from all over the world, including the composer’s great-grand daughter, Mrs. Nike Wagner were satisfied with the performance. The last “Parsifal” was at the Bayreuth Festival 2006. The production by German film-maker Christoph Schlingensief was premiered in 2004. Adam Fischer tokk over conducting this year. Since this production was so confusing and many ideas seem no relation to the story, it was very unpopular among the Bayreuth visitors. However, all the singer, especially Kundry Evelyn Herlizius showed impressive performance and Adam Fischer‘s music was of course wonderful. Go back to Top
Zurich Opera “Aida” new production
Adam Fischer has appeared at the Zurich Opera frequently in the past, and has premiered many important productions, such as “Nina” and “Linda di Chamounix”. When Adam was very busy in Mannheim, he had to reduce his Zurich appearances. Since the beginning of this season, he returned and conducted the new production of Aida in May. I had the chance to see the last performance in this season during the Zurich festival. Adam last conducted Aida at the New York Metropolitan Opera in 1997 and since then he has been away from it. Compared to the New York Met, the Zurich Opera is small and can’t expect a spectacular production with huge temple in Egypt. On the other hand, Zurich was never behind musically with seasoned singers. Nina Stemme made a role debut of Aida in this production. Last year she sang successful Isolde at Bayreuth Festival. Not only Wagner, she proved her quality in Italian opera too. Luciana D'Intino was the strong princess Amneris. It was very difficult to decide who won between two singers. Compared to these two female singers, Radames sang by Salvatore Licitra was
not as powerful as them. He sang very beautiful “Cereste Aida” but his volume of
high tone was too small in comparison with the two strong sopranos. Amonasro by
Juan Pons was very reliable, but the Ramfis by Pavel Daniluk did not express
emotion at all. It was said that the premier cast Matti Salminen was stable and
better. The somewhat traditional production by Nicolas Joel was not liked by all the critics. He shifted the setting to the 19th century. Radames is not an Egyptian soldier but an English soldier. Ramfis is not a priest. The King was not a king but only a governor. This concept worked at the beginning. But in the second act, prisoners of war were in a cage shabbily dressed. It didn’t seem like the 19th century. And of course the English army would never confine a trader in a pyramid. It seems that whenever contradiction occur to the story, the time went back to ancient Egypt. However because of the fine music, the audience liked this production very
much. This “Aida” is also in the next season conducted by Adam Fischer. The
European TV station Arte made television production and already broadcasted. It
may be sold as a DVD production. Go back to Top
Adam Fischer and Peter Konwitschny presented superb Wagner production
Although his popularity in Hamburg or Stuttgart is so great, Konwitschny has not really been successful with the traditional audience in Munich. His Wagner premieres have so far been booed in the past. In complete contrast, his third Wagner production, “The flying Dutchman” was premiered at the National Theatre in Munich with huge success on 26th February. Adam Fischer and the strong cast contributed a lot to this success.
The first act was unusually traditional. The Dutch sailors were in 16th century
costume. Daland and his crew appeared in modern clothes. Not much of
Konwitschny’s surprises, other than the Angel, who helps save the Dutchman. The third act is the conflict between the old Dutchman’s world and Senta’s new world. After the big fight between the Dutch and Norwegian crew, Senta throws a candle to a barrel filled with gun powder and blows up everybody, including the audience. After a blast, the final music comes from speakers, not from the orchestra in the pit. Anja Kampe sang a superb Senta. She has already appeared at Bayreuth as Freia, but in this performance, she showed that she is ready for much bigger Wagner roles. The Finish baritone, Juha Uusitalo sang the Dutchman. His romantic voice made his monologue convincing and the duet with Senta was so beautiful and joyful. Matti Salminen was Daland. Although he replaced an injured Kurt Moll at the last minute, he won the largest applause because of his comical acting and colourful voice. From the beginning of the overture to the end of the performance, Adam Fischer was always in charge of the performance and supported the singers to express their abilities. Especially, the third act was so exciting. After the convincing chorus of Norwegian and Dutch crews, the trio by the Senta, Erik and Dutchman, was thrilling. It was a little pity musically that the finale was cut because of the production, however, the entire performance was one of the best and it is the top runner in the “Production of the year” race. Go back to Top
Mozart’s 250th birthday in Salzburg
His birth place Salzburg is the center of the celebration. Mozart lovers gathered for the annual Mozart week in January and enjoyed the world’s best Mozart music. The much-in-demand Mozart interpreter Adam Fischer was also invited together with his Austro-Hungarian Haydn Orchestra on 31st January at the large concert hall of Mozarteum foundation. The concert started with Mozart’s small g-minor symphony No. 25. The wild accents of strings and four horns made the atmosphere very dramatic. After the first movement, much of the audiences gave an affirmative nod silently to the very emotional interpretation. This was the one of the very best Mozart performances. The second piece was also an emotional one, not by Mozart but Haydn. The Cantata “Berenice, che fai” was composed for the Italian Primadonna Brigida Giorgi Banti to perform at the King’s theatre in 1795. Full of energy and emotion, the Argentinean soprano Veronica Cangemi sang this virtuoso aria. The full house audience responded with a storm of applause.
After the intermission the concert was more relaxed and fun. First the guest
soprano Cangemi sang the recitative and aria “A questo seno deh vieni – Or che
il cielo a me ti rende” by Mozart. Then the final piece was Haydn’s symphony No.
97. This symphony was also called “The first London Symphony” premiered in 1792.
From the twelve of Haydn’s Salomon Symphonies, this is one of Adam’s favorites.
He has performed it many times with the Haydn Orchestra and others. In the
second movement, Adam tried a lot of interesting tricks of bowing which sounded
very funny. For Haydn symphonies, Adam Fischer and the Haydn Orchestra are still
definitely one of the best.
The next Salzburg Mozart week will starts with Adam Fischer’s “The Messiah”
performance on 26th January, 2007. Go back to Top |
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Content © 1996 -
2008 Adam Fischer & Haydn Orchestra Fan Club
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Some people call Peter Konwitschny “a revolutionary of opera”. Ever since he
became famous in the opera world, Konwitschny has made many controversial
productions in many theatres in Germany, mainly Hamburg. He won “the opera
director of the year” award several times. 
On 27 January in 1758, at 8 p.m., a boy was born in a house on Getreidegasse in
Salzburg. The boy was named Joannes Chrisostomos, Wolfgang, Gotlieb. He wrote a
lot of pieces of music and became the most beloved composer Wolfgang Amadeus
Mozart. After 250 years, the world celebrates his birthday.