Summer Night Concert 2024 Featuring Vienna Philharmonic and Andris Nelsons To Be Released This Month

Sony Classical has announced the release of this year's Summer Night Concert 2024 with the Vienna Philharmonic, conducted by Andris Nelsons with soprano Lise Davidsen.

The unique concert experience will be available on CD, DVD, Blu-ray as well as digitally on July 12, 2024. Pre-order is available now. Smetana's - Má vlast, JB 1:112: II. Vltava, “The Moldau” is out now – listen here.

The Summer Night Concert was performed this year on June 7, 2024. It is an annual open-air event, which has been held since 2004 in the magical setting of Schönbrunn Palace in Vienna/Austria. The illustrious conductors who have previously led the orchestra at this event are Georges Prêtre, Daniel Barenboim, Franz Welser-Möst, Lorin Maazel, Christoph Eschenbach, Zubin Mehta, Semyon Bychkov, Gustavo Dudamel, Daniel Harding, Yannick Nézet-Séguin and Andris Nelsons. 

Thanks to its UNESCO World Heritage setting in the Baroque Park of Schönbrunn with the palace as a backdrop, the Summer Night Concert adds great visual charm to its superb musical quality. The idea of making classical music at its very best available for everyone and thus giving a gift to all music lovers still characterizes the event today. Millions of viewers and listeners in more than 80 countries can follow the concert online, on TV and radio.

The focus of this year's program was on popular works from the 19th and 20th centuries from Europe's rich musical heritage. Bedřich Smetana, one of the most important Czech composers, was honored with three works to mark the 200th anniversary of his birth. Andris Nelsons conducted the concert for the second time, while Norwegian opera and lieder singer Lise Davidsen made her début with the orchestra. She sang two arias – from Richard Wagner's Tannhäuser and Giuseppe Verdi's La forza del destino.

Norwegian soprano Lise Davidsen burst onto the international stage in 2015 by winning multiple prizes at the Operalia, Queen Sonja and Hans Gabor Belvedere competitions. These were swiftly followed by triumphant débuts at the Metropolitan Opera, Royal Opera House Covent Garden, Teatro alla Scala, Milan, Bayerische Staatsoper, Wiener Staatsoper, and the Aix-en-Provence, and Glyndebourne Festivals. In summer 2021 she appeared in two productions at the Bayreuth Festival (Elisabeth in Tannhäuser and Sieglinde in Die Walküre). In the same year she was awarded Female Singer of the Year by the International Opera Awards. A frequent recitalist and concert performer, Davidsen has toured with many of the world's leading orchestras and conductors. In March this year, Lise Davidsen made her acclaimed role début at the Metropolitan Opera as Leonora in La forza del destino.

Andris Nelsons is Music Director of the Boston Symphony Orchestra and Gewandhauskapellmeister in Leipzig. These two positions, in addition to his leadership of a pioneering alliance between both institutions, have firmly established Grammy Award-winning Nelsons as one of the most renowned and innovative conductors on the international scene today, with engagements with the world's most important orchestras and opera houses. Born in Riga in 1978 into a family of musicians, Andris Nelsons began his career as a trumpeter in the Latvian National Opera Orchestra whilst studying conducting. He was Music Director of the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra 2008–2015, Principal Conductor of the Nordwestdeutsche Philharmonie in Herford, Germany 2006–2009 and Music Director of the Latvian National Opera 2003–2007. In 2020, Nelsons was also the celebrated conductor of the Vienna Philharmonic's legendary New Year's Concert.

The 182-year old tradition of the Vienna Philharmonic goes back to 1842, when Otto Nicolai conducted a Grand Concert with all members of the imperial “Hof-Operntheater”. This event was originally called “Philharmonic Academy” and is regarded as the origin of the orchestra. Since its founding, the orchestra has been managed by the administrative committee – a democratically elected body – and works with artistic, organizational and financial autonomy. All decisions are reached on a democratic basis during the general meeting of all members.

Program:

1 Richard Wagner Die Walküre: Der Walkürenritt
2 Richard Wagner Tannhäuser: Dich, Teure Halle, Grüß Ich Wieder
3 Bedřich Smetana The Moldau
4 Bedřich Smetana The Two Widows: Polka
5 Bedřich Smetana The Bartered Bride: Dance Of The Comedians
6–7 Giuseppe Verdi La Forza Del Destino: Overture – Pace, Pace, Mio Dio!
8 Augusta Holmès La Nuit et L'amour
9 Aram Khachaturian Sabre Dance
10 Dmitri Shostakovich Suite For Variety Orchestra: Waltz No. 2

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