Dallas Symphony Announces New Video Releases In Next Stage Digital Series

The Dallas Symphony Orchestra (DSO) has announced two additions to its Next Stage Digital Concert Series, now available on the DSO's YouTube channel – Franz Schmidt's Das Buch mit Sieben Siegeln (The Book with Seven Seals) and the DSO's new Symphony Stream.

Schmidt – whose 150th birthday arrives this December – was a late-Romantic composer who also wrote four symphonies, two operas and works for piano and organ, but his monumental achievement was Das Buch mit Sieben Siegeln, based on the prophetic vision of the final violent destruction of the world in the Book of Revelation. Grammy-winning Louise W. & Edmund J. Kahn Music Director Fabio Luisi led the performances of the work at the Morton H. Meyerson Symphony Center, March 1–3, 2024.

See Luisi and the DSO perform Franz Schmidt's The Book of Seven Seals Also added to the DSO's YouTube channel is Symphony Stream, a continuous playlist of recent concerts recorded as part of the Next Stage Digital Concert Series.

Viewers can drop in to Symphony Stream at any time and watch a curated playlist of live performances, including Tchaikovsky's Eugene Onegin (nominated for a Lone Star Emmy), Mahler's Symphony No. 5, Liszt's A Faust Symphony, and Brahms's four symphonies. The DSO Symphony Stream is available here.

Born in 1874 in what is today Bratislava, Slovakia, but at the time was in the Hungarian part of Austria-Hungary, Franz Schmidt studied composition and cello at the Vienna Conservatory, eventually obtaining a post as a cellist with the Vienna Court Opera Orchestra, where he frequently played under the direction of Gustav Mahler. He was also a brilliant pianist, and much of his career was dedicated to teaching cello, piano, counterpoint and composition at the Conservatory. Luisi has long been a champion of Schmidt's music in general and Das Buch mit Sieben Siegeln in particular, conducting performances of the latter around the world, but the video release is especially appropriate this fall, as December marks the 150th anniversary of the composer's birth. Luisi explains: “I believe that this work, together with Britten's War Requiem and Frank Martin's Golgotha, is one of the most important oratorios written in the 20th century. The visionary energy of St. John's Revelation is put in music with both grace and power, actually, and quite surprisingly without bombast. It trusts old forms such as the fugue, developed in a very virtuosic manner, and therefore creates a connection with the older style of this genre, especially with Mendelssohn and, of course, Bach and Handel. I hope listeners are seduced by the energy, the gravitas and the important meaning of this work, which also features great vocal parts and fantastic choral moments.”

About the DSO's interpretation of the oratorio, the Dallas Morning News raved: “It's hard to imagine a performance more compellingly conceived and lovingly detailed than Luisi's. Soloists, chorus and orchestra did him proud.”

The inspiration for the DSO's Symphony Stream came from the Criterion Channel's 24/7 stream, where viewers can drop in and watch whatever happens to be programmed by the channel. Denise McGovern, the DSO's Vice President of Communications & Media, comments: “We have built a robust catalog of videos since the launch of the DSO's Next Stage Digital Concert Series. Symphony Stream is a unique way to view some of our favorite concerts and to bring back the fun of tuning in to a broadcast and catching something new or unexpected.” Symphony Stream will begin in a limited run of two weeks starting today, Monday, August 5, and will re-launch with new programs during the 2024/25 season.

The Dallas Symphony Orchestra's Next Stage Digital Concert Series began in September 2020 as a response to the COVID pandemic. Since its launch, the DSO has released over 90 concert videos and fourteen programs for broadcast, which have aired on PBS, Bloomberg Media, Ovation TV and locally on WFAA. Select DSO concerts are also available on medici.tv, where they are reaching a wide international audience. Programs have been recognized with a Daytime Emmy nomination, three Lone Star Emmy nominations and one Lone Star Emmy win. On-demand viewing of select Next Stage Digital Concert Series programs, along with artist interviews and behind-the-scenes videos, may be viewed on the DSO's YouTube channel. 

DSO video release of Franz Schmidt: Das Buch mit Sieben Siegeln (The Book with Seven Seals)

Fabio Luisi, conductor
Paul Appleby, tenor (St. John the Divine)
Franz-Josef Selig, bass (The Voice of the Lord)
Meghan Kasanders, soprano
Kelley O'Connor, mezzo-soprano
Matthew Pearce, tenor
Hadleigh Adams, bass
Bradley Hunter Welch, organ
Dallas Symphony Chorus
Anthony Blake Clark, chorus director
Recorded at concerts March 1–3, 2024, as part of the Texas Instruments Classical Series
Morton H. Meyerson Symphony Center, Dallas, Texas Contact:

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