New Year’s Concert
Gulbenkian Orchestra
Event Slider
Date
- / Cancelled / Sold out
Location
Grand Auditorium Calouste Gulbenkian FoundationThis concert will be recorded by RTP – Rádio e Televisão de Portugal and broadcast live here on 10 January at 7 p.m. (GMT).
Pricing
25% – Under 30
10% – Over 65
Cartão Gulbenkian:
50% – Under 30
15% – Over 65
- Conductor
- Soprano
- Tenor
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Gulbenkian Orchestra
In 1962, the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation decided to establish a permanent orchestral ensemble. Originally with only twelve musicians (strings and continuo) it was named “Orquestra de Câmara Gulbenkian”. This collective was successively enlarged and today the “Orquestra Gulbenkian” (the name it has adopted since 1971) has a permanent body of sixty instrumentalists, a number that can be expanded depending on the repertoire.
This structure allows the Gulbenkian Orchestra to interpret works from the Baroque and Classical periods, a significant part of 19th century orchestral literature and much of the music of the 20th century, including works belonging to the current repertoire of the traditional symphonic orchestras. In each season, the orchestra performs on a regular series of concerts at the Gulbenkian Grand Auditorium in Lisbon, where it has had the opportunity of working together with some of leading names of the world of music (conductors and soloists). It has also performed on numerous locations all over Portugal, in an effort to decentralize music and culture.
The orchestra has been constantly expanding its activities in the international level, performing in Europe, Asia Africa, and the Americas. In the recording field, Orquestra Gulbenkian is associated to labels as Philips, Deutsche Grammophon, Hyperion, Teldec, Erato, Adès, Nimbus, Lyrinx, Naïve and Pentatone, among others, and this activity was recognized with several international prizes.
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Lawrence Foster
Conductor
Lawrence Foster is known for his exhilarating and expressive performances in a wide range of music and enjoys a major career spanning the US, Europe and Asia. As a champion of the music of Enescu, his interpretations are renowned for their faithfulness to the score: “Lawrence Foster seems to have been put on this planet to conduct Enescu’s music. He is clearly a true believer and he understands every technical nuance and every expressive twist and turn” – The Telegraph. Following his tenure as Music Director of Opéra de Marseille for nine years and Artistic and Chief Conductor of Polish National Radio Symphony Orchestra for four years, Lawrence Foster is invited to conduct an exciting variety of programmes. Lawrence Foster is a long-standing and iconic personality of classical music world. Awarded with the Koussevitzky Prize at Tanglewood in 1966, he became assistant conductor of Zubin Mehta at Los Angeles Philharmonic and chief Guest conductor of Royal Philharmonic Orchestra in 1969. Since then, he has been music director of Houston Symphony, Orchestre Philharmonique de Monte-Carlo, Orchestre de Chambre de Lausanne, Orquestra Simfònica de Barcelona i Nacional de Catalunya, Gulbenkian Orchestra, Orchestre Philharmonique de Montpellier and Aspen Music Festival and School amongst many other positions. Foster is particularly appreciated as an interpreter of the works of George Enescu and has made a comprehensive survey of commercial recordings of Enescu’s music. He served as artistic director of the George Enescu Festival from 1998 to 2001. In 2003, Foster was decorated by the Romanian President for services to Romanian music. Foster has recorded extensively for Pentatone including Schumann’s symphonies, orchestral works by Kodály, Bartók and Ligeti, piano and violin concertos by Bruch, Korngold, Rachmaninov, Grieg and Chopin with various soloists, and operas such as Othello, Madame Butterfly, Fledermaus and Girl of the Golden West. His recording of Enescu’s Oedipe (EMI) was awarded the Grand Prix du Disque from the Académie Charles Cros in France. -
Isabelle Cals
Soprano
Isabelle Cals has sung in many of Europe's major opera houses and concert halls, among them l'Opéra National de Paris, La Scala, Salzburg Festival, Amsterdam Opera, the Barbican Center, Le Théâtre des Champs-Elysées, La Monnaie de Bruxelles, Les Chorégies d'Orange, Il Teatro Regio di Torino, Le Grand Théâtre de Genève, Le Châtelet. Among the conductors with whom she has appeared are Sir Colin Davis (with whom she's recorded The Trojans and Benvenuto Cellini), Alain Altinoglu, James Conlon, Lawrence Foster, Valéry Ghergiev, Daniel Harding, Armin Jordan, Jesus Lopez-Cobos, John Nelson, Antonio Pappano, Michel Plasson. Recent engagements and projects include Kundry (Parsifal), Sieglinde (die Walküre), Marguerite (La Damnation de Faust), the Foreign Princess (Rusalka), the Duchess (Powder her face by T.Adès). She had begun her career as a high mezzo-soprano : among other roles Giulietta (Les Contes d'Hoffmann), Béatrice (Béatrice et Benedict), Ascanio (Benvenuto Cellini), Marguerite (La Damnation de Faust), Mélisande (Pelléas et Mélisande), Hélène (La Belle Hélène), Concepcion (L'Heure espagnole), Carmen (title role). She had then moved into the soprano repertoire with Donna Elvira (Don Giovanni), La Voix humaine, Tatiana (Eugen Onegin), Madame Lidoine (Dialogues des Carmélites), Armide (title role), the Governess (The Turn of the screw), La Chute de Fukuyama (world creation), Alice Ford (Falstaff). Her extensive symphonic repertoire includes among other pieces Berlioz' Les Nuits d'été and La Mort de Cléopâtre, Ravel's Shéhérazade, Wagner’s Wesendonck-Lieder, Beethoven’s 9th Symphony, Messiaen’s Harawi, Strauss' Vier letzte Lieder, Honegger's Jeanne d'Arc au bûcher. Isabelle Cals began her career at the Centre de formation lyrique of the Opera National de Paris, during which time she represented France at the Cardiff Singer of the World competition. She also holds a Master's degree in Chinese and an advanced degree in international relations. -
Nikolai Schukoff
Tenor
The Austrian tenor Nikolai Schukoff opens the 2024/25 season as Don José in a new production of Carmen at the Volksoper Wien, directed by Lotte de Beer. The Maggio Musicale Fiorentino presents the tenor as Herod in a new production of Salome under the baton of Alexander Soddy. After triumphant successes as Jim Mahoney at the Aix-en-Provence Festival and at the Nederlandse Opera Amsterdam, this season he can be seen in this very role in the new production of Aufstieg und Fall der Stadt Mahagonny at the Deutsche Oper Berlin (Stefan Klingele / Benedikt von Peter). Concert engagements will take Nikolai Schukoff to New Year's concerts at the Gulbenkian Foundation in Lisbon and to the Orchestre Symphonique de Montréal with Mahler's Lied von der Erde. Major engagements in recent seasons include a concert tour with Diana Damrau, Walter (Die Passagierin) at Teatro Real Madrid, his return to the Metropolitan Opera New York in Lady Macbeth of Mzensk, his role debut as Tristan (Tristan und Isolde) at the Théâtre du Capitole de Toulouse, Bacchus (Ariadne auf Naxos) and Parsifal at the Liceu Barcelona, Tambourmajor (Wozzeck) in Toulouse, Siegmund (Walküre) at Opéra de Marseille, Herodes (Salome) at Finnish National Opera Helsinki and State Opera Berlin, Florestan (Fidelio) at Teatro Sao Carlos Lisbon, Leoncavallo's Zaza (Milo Dufresne) and Der feurige Engel (Agrippa/Mephisto) at the Theater an der Wien, his scenic role debut as Otello at the Opéra de St. Etienne, Oedipus Rex in concert performances in Madrid, Beethoven's Symphony no. 9 with Simone Young conducting in Tokyo, Parsifal in a new production of the Théâtre du Capitole de Toulouse, Boris in Katia Kabanova at Teatro del Liceu Barcelona, the tenor lead in the world premiere of Glanert's Oceane at the Deutsche Oper Berlin, Jim Mahoney in Weill's Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny in Aix-en-Provence, Mahler's Symphony No.8 under Dmitri Kitajenko in Zagreb as well as under Jukka-Pekka Saraste at the Chorégies d' Orange, the title role in Parsifal at the Finnish National Opera Helsinki, concert performances of d'Albert's Tiefland at the Budapest Festival, and Teiresias in Henze's The Bassarides at the 2018 Salzburg Festival directed by Krzystof Warlikowski and with the Vienna Philharmonic conducted by Kent Nagano. Nikolai Schukoff studied at the Mozarteum in Salzburg. The Parsifal, which he took over for Placido Domingo at the Munich State Opera in 2007, brought his international breakthrough. He subsequently sang this role at many important opera houses. Other milestones included Siegmund/Walküre under the baton of Zubin Mehta in Valencia in 2013 and Carmen at the Metropolitan Opera New York. Further important roles include Erik/Flying Dutchman (Edinburgh Festival, Munich, Hamburg, Seattle, Madrid), Florestan/Fidelio (Lyon, Edinburgh, Prague Spring), Lohengrin (Amsterdam, Mannheim, Saint-Etienne), Jim Mahoney/Mahagonny (Toulouse, Santiago, Buenos Aires), Max (Geneva, Hamburg, Paris), Oedipus Rex (Lisbon and Paris), Eléazar/La Juive (Lyon), Pedro/Tiefland (Toulouse), Siegmund/Walküre (Leipzig Opera). In concert Nikolai Schukoff sings among others Gurrelieder (Musikverein Vienna/Zubin Mehta, Enescu Festival, Canaria Festival), Symphony No.8 (Paris/Christoph Eschenbach and Daniele Gatti, Rome/Antonio Pappano, Valencia/Yaron Traub, Frankfurt/Paavo Järvi, Hamburg, Copenhagen.
Josef Strauss
Johann Strauss II
Emmerich Kálmán
Richard Strauss
Joseph Beer
Franz Lehár
Johann Strauss II
The Gulbenkian Orchestra welcomes the New Year with a concert featuring some of the most celebrated works in the romantic repertoire. Under the direction of Lawrence Foster, the programme includes pieces that revolve around Vienna in the period of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, composed by some of the most iconic composers of that time, such as the Strauss family. The concert will also feature the inspired voices of French soprano Isabelle Cals and Austrian tenor Nikolai Schukoff.
Partner
Gulbenkian Music Sponsor
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