Organization

Conductor

Mariss Jansons

Singer

Soprano

Nina Stemme

Salzburger Festspiele

Orchestra

Wiener Philharmoniker

Vienna Philharmonic 2 • Mariss Jansons

Salzburg

Austria

Großes Festspielhaus

The Latvian conductor Mariss Jansons, born in Riga in 1943, received his first musical training from his father, the conductor Arvid Jansons. He studied music in Leningrad, continued his education with Hans Swarowsky and Herbert von Karajan and in 1971 was a prizewinner at the Berlin Karajan Competition. He gained valuable experience as an assistant to Yevgeny Mravinsky in the Leningrad Philharmonic. From 1979 to 2000 he was chief conductor of the Oslo Philharmonic Orchestra, in 1992/93 Mariss Jansons became principal guest conductor of the London Philharmonic Orchestra, and in 1997/98 music director of the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra. As successor to Lorin Maazel, he took over the direction of the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra in Munich in September 2003. In autumn 2004 he also became chief conductor of the Koninklijk Concertgebouworkest in Amsterdam; at the end of the 2014/15 season, Jansons is giving up this post.
Mariss Jansons received the Ernst von Siemens Music Prize 2013. The award recognizes the conductor's life's work. The prize, which is endowed with 250,000 euros, is also known as the "Nobel Prize in Music". On October 4, 2013, Germany's Federal President Joachim Gauck ceremoniously presented Mariss Jansons with the Grand Cross of Merit with Star.

Richard Strauss (1864-1949) was only 24 years old when, under the strong impression of Richard Wagner's music, he composed a "great hit": The symphonic poem Don Juan op. 20 is based on a romantic version of the story by the poet Nikolaus Lenau . Here Strauss managed to find his own style and develop his unique musical language. A full orchestra of triple woodwind, harp and glockenspiel is used to great effect. The famous sound of the horns aptly characterizes the title hero. Strauss himself conducted the extremely successful premiere on November 11, 1889 in Weimar.

Richard Wagner (1813-1883) wrote the Wesendonck-Lieder cycle in the years 1857 and 1858. The texts were written by Mathilde Wesendonck, the wife of the merchant Otto Wesendonck, who was a friend of Wagner's and with whom Wagner, who was married in her first marriage, had a relationship. The five songs were written while Wagner was working on "Tristan und Isolde" and indeed their atmosphere is shaped by this milestone in operatic history. The soloist is the Swedish soprano Nina Stemme, who is one of the most sought-after singers in her field on the international musical scene. Richard Wagner's major roles form a focal point in Nina Stemme's repertoire, which has received numerous important awards; in April 2012 the Vienna State Opera appointed her a chamber singer.

Johannes Brahms (1833-1897) worked on his Symphony No. 1 in C minor, Op. 68, for more than 25 years because for a long time he felt Beethoven's symphonic heritage to be overwhelming and blocking: "I will never compose a symphony! You don't have one understanding of how we feel when we always hear a giant marching behind us," Brahms wrote to a friend in the early 1870s. He had been working on the First Symphony since 1850 and only finished it in 1876. The work, whose final theme bears a resemblance to the "Ode to Joy" from Beethoven's Ninth Symphony, has long been part of the popular standard symphonic repertoire.

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