The new musicAeterna orchestra and soloist program focuses on the late symphonic and chamber works of Dmitri Shostakovich. The composer wrote all three performed compositions during the long days of hospital imprisonment. He focused on thinking about life and death, renouncing bodily ailments. An in-depth and mournful study of the meaning and limits of human existence, a violent protest against non-existence is the central theme of both Alexander Blok's Seven Poems, the Thirteenth Quartet, and, in particular, the Fourteenth Symphony.
A major vocal and symphonic cycle dedicated to the various guises of death is an unprecedented phenomenon in the music of the 20th century. The poems of Lorca, Apollinaire, Rilke and Kuchelbecker, chosen by Dmitri Shostakovich for the Fourteenth Symphony, are bright, contrasting scenes full of specific signs of place and time: an Andalusian tavern, a French prison cell, Pushkin's Petersburg ... Spanish malaguena , grotesque march, dramatic dialogue, sarcastic recitative coexist with lyric-philosophical monologues, and serial technique with elegies reminiscent of the Russian romance element. An extremely unusual cycle in eleven parts was written for soprano, bass and small string orchestra with an enhanced percussion group.Shostakovich created the score in just over a month in the winter of 1969, when he was undergoing unsuccessful treatment in the hospital,
Shostakovich turned to Blok's poetry in the fall of 1966, when he was hospitalized with a broken leg. He chose seven of the poet's early poems filled with spiritual anxiety and forebodings of impending cataclysms. The composer gave two of them his own names - "Storm" and "Music". The soprano in this chamber-vocal cycle is not the leading voice, but one of the equal members of the ensemble. Violin, cello and piano form duets and trios with the voice, and only in the last number all the performers participate. The cycle of songs was completed at the very beginning of 1967 and is dedicated to Galina Vishnevskaya.At the premiere in the Great Hall of the Moscow Conservatory, the composer wanted to play the piano part himself, but because of the unremoved plaster, he transferred the role of the pianist to his devoted friend, composer Mieczysław Weinberg:
The Thirteenth Quartet was also repeated in its entirety at the Leningrad premiere. His Shostakovich began to write while in an orthopedic clinic in Kurgan in 1969, and finished in August 1970. The one-part quartet is dedicated to the violist of the Quartet. Beethoven to Vadim Borisovsky and written as if for a solo viola and a string trio. The soloist's monologue is interrupted by a tense dance macabre with dodecaphonic themes and bow strikes on the decks. Returning in the finale, he does not bring enlightenment and breaks off with a scream on an extremely high note.
Teodor Currentzis is the founder and artistic director of the musicAeterna orchestra and choir, and chief conductor of the German SWR Symphony Orchestra.
Born and raised in Greece, where his musical education began. From the age of four he studied playing the piano, and from the age of eight - the violin. Later he studied vocals with Dion Arivas and Kostas Paskalis. At the same time, he studied chamber music and conducting with Professor Georgy Hadjinikos, who had a great influence on him. Since 1994, when Teodor came to study with the legendary professor of the St. Petersburg State Conservatory, Ilya Musin, his life has been closely connected with Russia.
In 2004, being the chief conductor of the Novosibirsk Opera and Ballet Theater (2004-2011), he founded the musicAeterna orchestra and choir, which has become one of the most sought-after musical groups in Europe. In 2011-2019, he was the artistic director of the Opera and Ballet Theater in Perm, where the musicAeterna musicians moved with him. As the artistic director of the Perm Opera, Teodor Currentzis has updated the repertoire traditional for the Russian musical theater.With musicAeterna, he works on medieval sacred music, baroque operas and experimental works by contemporary avant-garde authors, including those written for him, such as the choral opera Tristia by Philip Ersan (2016), the opera Cantos by Alexei Syumak (2016) , the Violin Concerto Sergei Nevsky (2015), Kurlyandsky's opera Nosferatu (2014).
One of the founders of the international festival-school of contemporary art "Territory", founded in 2006. Since 2012, Teodor has been Artistic Director of the Diaghilev Festival, which takes place in Perm, the hometown of the famous impresario Sergei Diaghilev.
In 2019, Teodor Currentzis and musicAeterna move to St. Petersburg, Dom Radio becomes their creative residence. Since the 2018/19 season he has also been Principal Conductor of the Southwest Radio Symphony Orchestra of Germany (SWR Symphony Orchestra) in Stuttgart, the largest symphony orchestra in Europe.
Together with musicAeterna and other orchestras, Teodor Currentzis regularly tours Europe and the world, performing at the most prestigious venues such as the Vienna Konzerthaus, Berlin, Elbe, Munich and Paris Philharmonics, concert halls in Cologne, Madrid, The Shed in New York, Suntory Hall in Tokyo, Royal Albert Hall in London, Festspielhaus Baden-Baden and La Scala Theatre. As a conductor and musical director, he collaborated with the largest opera houses in Europe and Russia, such as the Paris National Opera, the Bavarian State Opera, the Zurich Opera, the Royal Theater in Madrid, the Bolshoi Theater, and the leading masters of the western stage: Robert Wilson, Romeo Castellucci, Peter Sellars, Dmitry Chernyakov, Theodoros Terzopoulos. Teodor Currentzis is a regular participant of festivals in Salzburg, Lucerne, Aix-en-Provence and RUHRtriennale in Bochum. In 2017, the joint production of Mozart's Titus' Mercy by Currentzis and Sellars opened the opera program of the Salzburg Festival. Since then, musicAeterna has become a regular participant of the festival: in 2018, a complete cycle of Beethoven's symphonies was performed, and in 2019, Mozart's Idomeneo (together with Sellars and the Freiburg Baroque Orchestra). Together with Wilson, Currentzis staged the opera La Traviata in 2016. The production was recognized as the main event of the 2016/2017 theater season in Russia, receiving three awards from the Golden Mask National Prize. The premiere of the dramatic oratorio "Joan at the stake", staged by Currentzis and Castellucci, took place in 2018, becoming the owner of two "Golden Masks". In 2017, the joint production of Mozart's Titus' Mercy by Currentzis and Sellars opened the opera program of the Salzburg Festival. Since then, musicAeterna has become a regular participant of the festival: in 2018, a complete cycle of Beethoven's symphonies was performed, and in 2019, Mozart's Idomeneo (together with Sellars and the Freiburg Baroque Orchestra). Together with Wilson, Currentzis staged the opera La Traviata in 2016. The production was recognized as the main event of the 2016/2017 theater season in Russia, receiving three awards from the Golden Mask National Prize. The premiere of the dramatic oratorio "Joan at the stake", staged by Currentzis and Castellucci, took place in 2018, becoming the owner of two "Golden Masks". In 2017, the joint production of Mozart's Titus' Mercy by Currentzis and Sellars opened the opera program of the Salzburg Festival. Since then, musicAeterna has become a regular participant of the festival: in 2018, a complete cycle of Beethoven's symphonies was performed, and in 2019, Mozart's Idomeneo (together with Sellars and the Freiburg Baroque Orchestra). Together with Wilson, Currentzis staged the opera La Traviata in 2016. The production was recognized as the main event of the 2016/2017 theater season in Russia, receiving three awards from the Golden Mask National Prize. The premiere of the dramatic oratorio "Joan at the stake", staged by Currentzis and Castellucci, took place in 2018, becoming the owner of two "Golden Masks". in 2018 a complete cycle of Beethoven's symphonies was performed, and in 2019 Mozart's Idomeneo (together with Sellars and the Freiburg Baroque Orchestra) was performed. Together with Wilson, Currentzis staged the opera La Traviata in 2016. The production was recognized as the main event of the 2016/2017 theater season in Russia, receiving three awards from the Golden Mask National Prize. The premiere of the dramatic oratorio "Joan at the stake", staged by Currentzis and Castellucci, took place in 2018, becoming the owner of two "Golden Masks". in 2018 a complete cycle of Beethoven's symphonies was performed, and in 2019 Mozart's Idomeneo (together with Sellars and the Freiburg Baroque Orchestra) was performed. Together with Wilson, Currentzis staged the opera La Traviata in 2016. The production was recognized as the main event of the 2016/2017 theater season in Russia, receiving three awards from the Golden Mask National Prize. The premiere of the dramatic oratorio "Joan at the stake", staged by Currentzis and Castellucci, took place in 2018, becoming the owner of two "Golden Masks".
Teodor Currentzis and musicAeterna have signed an exclusive contract with one of the big three labels in the music industry - Sony Classical. Their recordings of Mozart, Mahler, Beethoven, Tchaikovsky, Rameau and Stravinsky were highly appreciated by music critics and won prestigious music awards: ECHO Klassik Award, Edison Klassiek, Japanese Record Academy Award, BBC Music Magazine's Opera Award. Teodor Currentzis is also a nine-time laureate of the Russian national theater award "Golden Mask", a laureate of the KAIROS award. He was also awarded the state award of Greece - the Order of the Phoenix and the state award of the Russian Federation - the Order of Friendship.In 2018, the musicAeterna choir was officially recognized as the best in the world, becoming the laureate of the International Opera Awards Opera Awards.
