Musique des Lumières / Facundo Agudin VIKTOR ULLMANN Der Kaiser von Atlantis

Viktor Ullmann arrived in Theresienstadt on 8 September 1942. He was 44 years old, a Jew and a former officer of the Austrian army. Being an accomplished composer, well known for his organizational skills, he was immediately solicited by the Freizeitgestaltung to organize concerts and conferences, to write musical reviews (he authored 26 such texts), and to compose. In fact, during the two years before his transport to Auschwitz, he wrote several instrumental and vocal works, including song cycles for baritone and piano, one sonata for violin and piano, his third string quartet, three piano sonatas (numbers 5, 6 and 7) as well as an opera in one act on a libretto by the young poet Peter Kien Der Kaiser von Atlantis oder die Tod-Verweigerung (The Emperor of Atlantis, or the Disobedience of Death). Ever since his arrival in the ghetto, Ullmann seems aware of the precariousness of his future, as is shown in the quite openly ironic remark on the manuscript of his piano sonata nº 7, dated 22 August 1944: “The performance rights are reserved by the composer until his death”, so, not for long.

Christina Landshamer / Gerold Huber ULLMANN - SCHUMANN Lieder

Christina Landshamer was born in Munich and initially went to the Academy of Music and Performing Arts in the city, where she studied under Angelica Vogel, following which she studied in Konrad Richter’s singing classes and in Dunja Vejzović solo classes at the State University for Music and Performing Arts in Stuttgart.

Following initial guest performances at the Stuttgart State Opera, she sang at the Opéra du Rhin in Strasburg under Marc Albrecht (Fidelio/Marzelline) as well as at the Komische Oper in Berlin (Susanna). In 2009 ‘the triumphant and virtuoso Christina Landshamer’ had her very successful debut at the Theater an der Wien in Vienna as Clarice in Haydn’s Il mondo della luna under Nikolaus Harnoncourt. This was followed by performances at the Paris Théâtre du Châtelet (with a stage version of the Messiah) and at the Salzburg Festival in Frau ohne Schatten (Hüter der Schwelle – Stage direction: Christof Loy) under Christian Thielemann in 2011. She performed at the Salzburg Festival again the following year as Frasquita in Carmen, this time under Sir Simon Rattle with the Berlin Philharmonic. Also in 2012 she had her debut at the Baden-Baden Festival, again under Christian Thielemann (Ariadne auf Naxos, Najade). Later that year, Christina Landshamer made her highly acclaimed debut as Pamina in Simon McBurney‘s celebrated new production of Mozart’s Magic Flute at the Amsterdam Opera under Marc Albrecht. In 2014 she can be seen in Handel’s Rinaldo as Almirena in Glyndebourne. In 2015 she will collaborate again with Christian Thielemann (Freischütz/Ännchen), this time at the Semperoper in Dresden.

She is particularly fond of singing lieder: a recital of duets with Maximilian Schmitt at the Vienna Konzerthaus marks her first collaboration with Gerold Huber, with whom she had several guest performances in 2013 with a number of recitals, such as at the ‘Musik im Riesen” in the Essen Philharmonic and the Rheinvokal, with lieder by Schumann, Ullmann and Brahms. This season’s programme will be recorded on CD.