"There is no other youth orchestra to touch them"
(Richard Fairman, Financial Times 26. August 2011)
The GUSTAV MAHLER JUGENDORCHESTER’s summer tour of 2011 has just come to an end with a triumphant concert at the BBC Proms given in London to a packed Royal Albert Hall. Acclaimed by audiences and press alike,
Sir Colin Davis and
Susan Graham made their mark on the GUSTAV MAHLER JUGENDORCHESTER’s Summer Tour 2011. Concerts in Bolzano and at the Salzburg Festival, and now the opening concert of the season at the Semper Opera House as guests of the Dresden Staatskapelle for a third time as well as their London Promenade concert - already something of a tradition - serve to emphasize the special place held by the GUSTAV MAHLER JUGENDORCHESTER in international concert life. Both the artists mentioned had already toured with the GUSTAV MAHLER JUGENDORCHESTER, Sir Colin Davis having last conducted the GMJO in the summer of 2008, and Susan Graham had appeared as a guest artist on the Summer Tour of 2006.
© Gregor Khuen Belasi / Chris Christodoulou
Susan Graham received enthusiastic praise in Ravel’s song cycle Shéhérazade, which was last featured on the programme for Easter 2003 with Pierre Boulez and Anne Sophie von Otter ("irresistibly beautiful" - Stephen Walsh, The Arts Desk 27.8.2011. "The combination of Susan Graham and Ravel’s Shéhérazade is a match made in heaven" - David Wordsworth, Classical Source.com 24.8.2011). Sir Colin Davis and the GUSTAV MAHLER JUGENDORCHESTER preceded it with their interpretation of Stravinsky’s Symphony in Three Movements; Tchaikovsky’s Symphony no.4 in F minor was performed in the second half of the concert. The press was unanimous in its judgement here as well: "This was a five-star winner from beginning to end" - Geoffrey Norris, The Daily Telegraph 25.8.2011.
Previous to this, the GUSTAV MAHLER JUGENDORCHESTER was conducted by David Afkham, winner of the Nestlé and Salzburg Festival Young Conductors’ Award 2010 and assistant conductor of the GUSTAV MAHLER JUGENDORCHESTER since 2009. They gave a performance of Mozart’s clarinet concerto with the orchestra’s first clarinettist Aljaž Beguš as soloist as well as Tchaikovsky’s Symphony no.5 in E minor in concert in Bolzano that was itself much praised.
© Gregor Khuen Belasi
Ainārs Rubiķis, winner of the Nestlé and Salzburg Festival Young Conductors’ Award 2011, competed together with cellist Alisa Weilerstein in the prize winner’s concert at the 2011 Salzburg Festival. The 33-year-old Latvian convinced the audience and critics alike with a demanding programme of Debussy’s Prélude à l’après d’un faune, Shostakovitch’s Concerto for Violoncello and Orchestra no.2, Britten’s Four Sea Interludes, and Stravinsky’s The Firebird (1919): "an astonishing visiting card" - Karl Harb, Salzburger Nachrichten 16.8.2011. "An emotionally charged experience!" - Joachim Lange, Der Standard 15.8.2011.
© Silvia Lelli
The Summer Tour 2011 of the GUSTAV MAHLER JUGENDORCHESTERS was sponsored by
ERSTE Group and Vienna Insurance Group - Partner des GUSTAV MAHLER JUGENDORCHESTERS.