Marc Minkowski
Marc Minkowski | Picture: Benjamin Chelly

Concert information


Info

Almost everyone knows the festive Wedding March from Mendelssohn’s music to A Midsummer Night’s Dream and Schubert’s lilting entr’acte to Act III of Rosamunde. The complete incidental music to these plays, however, is unjustly neglected. Their sequences of instrumental pieces, dance, vocal and choral movements lead us into the magical worlds of sprites and knights. Marc Minkowski, directing the RIAS Kammerchor and the Karajan Academy, presents a selection of the most beautiful pieces from both works.


Artists

Karajan-Akademie der Berliner Philharmoniker
and Guests
Karajan-Akademie der Berliner Philharmoniker
Marc Minkowski conductor
Alina Wunderlin soprano
Miriam Albano mezzo-soprano
Ladies of the RIAS Kammerchor


Programme

Franz Schubert
Rosamunde, D 797: Suite compiled by Marc Minkowski

Karajan-Akademie der Berliner Philharmoniker, Alina Wunderlin soprano, Miriam Albano mezzo-soprano, Ladies of the RIAS Kammerchor

Franz Schubert
Ballett. Andantino

Karajan-Akademie der Berliner Philharmoniker, and Guests

Franz Schubert
Ballett. Allegro moderato – Andante un poco assai

Karajan-Akademie der Berliner Philharmoniker, and Guests

Franz Schubert
Entr’acte nach dem 2. Aufzug. Andante

Karajan-Akademie der Berliner Philharmoniker, and Guests

Franz Schubert
Romanze »Der Vollmond strahlt auf Bergeshöh’n«. Andante con moto

Karajan-Akademie der Berliner Philharmoniker, and Guests, Miriam Albano mezzo-soprano

Franz Schubert
Hirtenmelodien. Andante

Karajan-Akademie der Berliner Philharmoniker, and Guests

Franz Schubert
Entr’acte nach dem 3. Aufzug. Andantino

Karajan-Akademie der Berliner Philharmoniker, and Guests

Franz Schubert
Entr’acte nach dem 1. Aufzug. Allegro molto moderato

Karajan-Akademie der Berliner Philharmoniker, and Guests

Felix Mendelssohn
A Midsummer Night's Dream, Incidental Music op. 61

Karajan-Akademie der Berliner Philharmoniker, Alina Wunderlin soprano, Miriam Albano mezzo-soprano, Ladies of the RIAS Kammerchor



Chamber Music Hall

21 to 48 €

Introduction
19:15

Series KA: Karajan Academy

Biographies

Marc Minkowski

Marc Minkowski is artistic director of the baroque ensemble Les Musiciens du Louvre and founder of the Ré Majeure festival. His trademark is a refined string sound with what he calls the "right amount" of vibrato. "I believe that a conductor must also be a director - a sound director and advocate of the composer,” he says. 

It is equally important to him to work with the inner structure of a work. "You first have to understand the dramaturgy of a composition. It is essential for the structure of the music and the story being told." Minkowski, who was Artistic Director of the Opéra National de Bordeaux from 2016 to 2021 and Artistic Director of the Salzburg Mozart Week from 2013 to 2017, began his musical career as a bassoonist. However, he switched to conducting at an early age, and studied at the Pierre Monteux Memorial School in the USA. At the age of 19, he founded Les Musiciens du Louvre, which has made a globally-recognised contribution to the renewal of historically-informed performance practice. Marc Minkowski regularly appears as a guest conductor on the world's major stages. He has performed at the Salzburg Festival, the Festival d'Aix-en-Provence, the Bremen Music Festival and the Drottningholm Palace Theatre Festival, as well as conducting the world’s leading orchestras, including the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra and Berliner Philharmoniker.

Alina Wunderlin

Alina Wunderlin is "always vocally supple up to the most heavenly colouratura heights,” reports Bayerischer Rundfunk, and “lends her roles a compelling presence with her effortless, beguiling voice" (Salzburger Nachrichten). A member of the ensemble at the Staatstheater Braunschweig until 2022,  she is winning acclaim on the international opera stage: as the Queen of the Night (Die Zauberflöte) at the Komische Oper Berlin, as Adele (Die Fledermaus) at the Teatro Real in Madrid, at the Theâtre des Champs-Élysées Paris, and as Zerbinetta (Ariadne auf Naxos) at the Salzburg State Theatre. 

Alice Wunderlin initially studied musicology in Frankfurt am Main and singing at the Mannheim University of Music and Performing Arts, and held scholarships from the Yehudi Menuhin Foundation Live Music Now, the Richard Wagner Association Heidelberg and the Handel Academy of the International Handel Festival in Karlsruhe. She made her debut in Berliner Philharmoniker Foundation concerts in 2018 as part of the Ritter Parceval education project. A winner of the Concours International de Chant Marmande, Alina Wunderlin was a member of the Cologne Opera Studio, where she took on the role of the colouratura soprano in Christian von Götz's opera Je suis Jacques at the end of the 2018/19 season, which earned her the accolade of "Newcomer of the Year" from Opernwelt magazine.

Miriam Albano

Soprano or mezzo? Thanks to her wide vocal range, Miriam Albano is at home in both repertoires, which gives her access to an unusually broad range of music - from baroque to contemporary. On the opera stage, which offers her the chance to enjoy colouratura fireworks and fine embellishments, the young singer has been hailed for her "stage presence, round timbre, homogeneity of register, vocal naturalness and great bel canto artistry"(opera online). 

Miriam Albano studied at the Benedetto Marcello Conservatory in her home city of Venice, at the University of Music and Performing Arts in Vienna, and with Brigitte Fassbaender and Anne Sofie von Otter. The winner of numerous international singing competitions, she represented Italy as a finalist in the BBC Cardiff Singer of the World Competition in 2017. From 2016 to 2019, she was a member of the Vienna State Opera ensemble, where she gave her role debuts as Cherubino in Le nozze di Figaro and Annio in La clemenza di Tito. She won praise for her performance in The Fairy Queen at the Salzburg Festival, and appeared as Zerlina (Don Giovanni), Stéphano (Roméo et Juliette) and in the title role of La Cenerentola at the Deutsche Oper am Rhein. Miriam Albano is a regular guest on the concert stage, and has performed at venues such as the Tonhalle Zurich, the Lugano Arte e Cultura cultural centre and the Rheingau Music Festival.

RIAS Kammerchor

The RIAS Kammerchor is acclaimed as one of the best choirs in the world. The ensemble, which is celebrating its 75th anniversary this season, is widely praised for its precision and homogeneity. With an emphasis on the joy of singing and the balance between melodic flow and text comprehensibility, the multinational ensemble is at home in almost all areas of vocal music - from historically informed interpretations of music from the Renaissance, Baroque and Romantic periods to challenging world premières that expand the possibilities of contemporary choral music. 

The RIAS Kammerchor, which was founded in 1948 as a radio ensemble in the American sector of Berlin, has been shaped by the artistic personalities of such conductors as Uwe Gronostay, Marcus Creed, Daniel Reuss and Hans-Christoph Rademann. Justin Doyle has directed the ensemble since 2017/18. The RIAS Kammerchor is one of Germany's leading touring choirs, with up to 50 concerts per season in Germany and around the world, and regularly collaborates with the Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin, the Freiburg Baroque Orchestra and Ensemble Resonanz. Most recently, the choir has performed baroque music with the Berliner Philharmoniker, including Bach's Mass in B minor with Ton Koopman.