Danusha Waskiewicz / Andrea Rebaudengo SONGS FOR VIOLA AND PIANO

Born in Würzburg (Germany) in 1973, Danusha Waskiewicz began to study the violin at the age of 6 and the viola at the age of 10.
From 1992 to 1994 she was the pupil of the violinist Walter Forchert, concertmaster of the Bamberger Sinfoniker, at the University of Frankfurt, while from 1994 to 1999 she studied with the violist Tabea Zimmermann.

During her carrier she has won numerous competitions such as the Competition Lenzewski and the Deutsche Violagesellschaft. Internationally she affirmed herself in the 2000 ARD competition in Munich, receiving also the Brüder Busch Gesellschaft and Wilhelm Weichsler special prizes.

Danusha Waskiewicz began her orchestral experience with Frankfurt Radio Symphony Orchestra, going on to become first viola in various orchestras including the Chamber Orchestra of Europe, the Mahler Chamber Orchestra, the Camerata Bern, the Orchestra della Scala of Milan, the Münchener Philharmoniker and the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra.

At only 25 years of age she became a member of the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra and after two years she won the qualifying competition for the leadership of the viola section.
Since 2004, at the invitation of Claudio Abbado, she is the first viola of the Orchestra Mozart of Bologna. With them she recorded the Sinfonia Concertante by Mozart in 2007 for “Deutsche Grammophon” and later Bach’s Brandenburg concertos for the “Euro Arts” label.
Since 2010 she is also a member of the Luzern Festival Orchestra. 

Andrea Rebaudengo was born in Pesaro, Italy, in 1972. He is the winner of the International Piano Competition in Pescara (1998) and he was tributed the third prize at the Robert Schumann International Piano Competition in Zwickau in 2000. He took part into several Italian music seasons such as Serate Musicali in Milan, Unione Musicale in Turin; Teatro Ponchielli in Cremona, Amici della Musica in Verona, Amici della Musica in Ancona. As a soloist, he was invited by the Orchestra I Pomeriggi Musicali in Milan, Philharmonic Orchestra in Zwickau, Philarmonic Orchestra in Pescara, Symphony Orchestra “G. Verdi” in Milan and Accademia Filarmonica Urbinate. He performed in Germany, U.S.A., Spain, England, Ireland, Poland, Russia, Uzbekistan, Turkey, Serbia, Emirates. He performs regularly with the ensemble Sentieri Selvaggi in contemporary music festivals and seasons (Accademia Filarmonica Romana, Rome; Settembre Musica, Turin; Teatro alla Scala, Milan; Biennale Musica, Venice; Skif Festival, St. Petersburg; Illkhom Festival, Tashkent). In duo with Cristina Zavalloni they performed in Rome, Teatro de la Maestranza in Sevilla, West Cork Chamber Music Festival, Aterforum Festival in Ferrara, Cheltenham Festival, Music Garden Festival in Warsaw and more. He graduated in Milan at the Conservatorio “Giuseppe Verdi” with Paolo Bordoni. He then attended master- classes in Salzburg with Andrzej Jasinski and Lazar Berman at the Accademia pianistica in Imola, Italy. He has just released a cd on piano solo, published by Bottega Discantica, with music by Stravinsky, Bartòk, Milhaud, De Falla.

Isabelle Druet / Anne LeBozec SHAKESPEARE SONGS

There are thousands of vocal and instrumental settings of Shakespeare's texts, drawn from his comedies, tragedies and sonnets alike. The music celebrating his verse covers more than four centuries: this fascination has lived on into the 20th century and does not appear to be running out of steam.
A linguistic virtuoso, a master of human emotions, an expert in Machiavellian stories of intrigue and tyranny, and a bard of love and of the moment - these are but a few of the many facets of the Shakespearian message. We follow him into the heart of humanity and its excesses, from madness to the burlesque, from despair to bonhomie, from hatred of one's fellow man to universal love. So is it really surprising that so many composers in so many languages have used such a rich tapestry of humanity, or that we - the singers at the end of this great chain - have decided to devote a recital to him? Several figures recur: Ophelia “in her sweet madness” and Desdemona in her despair, two women of high birth, infinitely fragile, victims of the machinery of power, of the vengeance and jealousy that eats at the hearts of men. Also appearing regularly is the fool or jester, the only member of the court - where everyone is muzzled - who can tell the truth in the form of a caricature or lament.
But this program also has a certain lightness, for it too undergirds the world, and Shakespeare celebrates it with Silvia or Cymbeline: idealized female figures who are depicted with ardor, astonishment, and rapture.
Shakespeare shows us the path through this labyrinth. He knows where the world is headed.
Let's follow him! (Isabelle Druet & Anne Le Bozec)

Anna Prohaska / Eric Schneider BEHIND THE LINES

Judging from the photos used to publicise Anna Prohaska’s new album – one of them is dancing merrily above this review – this gorgeously gifted soprano should have been singing this spin-off recital wearing an army great coat. She compromised with a severe black tunic and trousers with military references and a slight science-fiction cut: she could almost have been a futuristic soldier from the old Korda film Things to Come. In her case the things that came were the complete tracks of her Deutsche Grammophon CD Behind the Lines: songs from around Europe and America about war and the pity of war; songs of drummer boys, valiant grenadiers, mothers, ghosts. Joan of Arc made an appearance too, via Liszt’s dramatic scena Jeanne d’Arc au bûcher. As she launched her programme’s European tour I wondered if Prohaska’s voice – bright, lightweight and magically lyrical – would actually suit a repertoire marked with male bravado, bitter ironies and intense cries of pain. I need not have been bothered. Supported by Eric Schneider’s always conscientious piano accompaniment, she was magnificent, and very penetrating in her top register. When she sang Liszt’s repeated line about saving France I’m sure France heard her. Lower down, if the notes sped by fast, the sunshine of her voice did, it’s true, get a bit clouded over. Hugo Wolf’s Eichendorff setting "Der Soldat" certainly needed clearer projection for the words to carry their full zing. But, whatever the register traversed, Prohaska’s emotional identification and acting skills always helped fill out the song’s picture. No characterisation was better than the child thrilled with her mother going off to war in Eisler’s typically trenchant "Kriegslied eines Kindes". The grisly abandon of the child’s drum imitations; the relish when Kaiser Wilhelm’s name was intoned; the white calm that descended when the child visualised the mother wounded in hospital: every line of this wonderful song delivered a sharp sardonic kick. What joy, too, to find two artists creating a concept album and recital that actually makes musical and intellectual sense. The 25 songs about the dreams and realities of soldiering often involved big jumps in style: another of Eisler’s firecracker songs, from the Hollywood Liederbook, exploded right after one an exquisite meringue by Roger Quilter, "Fear No More the Heat o' the Sun". But in this year marking the anniversary of the First World War, every juxtaposition, sometimes bridged by songs sharing the same key, made the audience think and feel. Prohaska and Schneider’s most stunning coup was to follow the high romance of Schubert’s "Ellens Gesang", to flowery words by Sir Walter Scott, with the Expressionist screams of a poem by Georg Trakl, belligerently set by a young Wolfgang Rihm. I needed the interval to recover. Along the way, Prohaska suggested that she was impressively fluent in every language, not perhaps surprising given her own mixed family background (Austrian, English, Irish, Czech). In Rachmaninov I felt the Russian earth move. French vowels fluted impeccably in Poulenc’s "Le retour du sergent" and the peaceable encore from Fauré. American English bobbed up too in a button-holing trio of Charles Ives, including the marvellous "In Flanders Field", and the concluding duo, less musically satisfying, from Weill’s settings of Walt Whitman. But German remained her chief meat and drink, with the emotional peak probably reached in Mahler’s Wunderhorn song about the girl visited by her soldier sweetheart’s ghost: a song indeed heard many times before, but rarely with Prohaska’s degree of lyrical tenderness, or so much of the art that conceals art. Even if she’d sung this recital wearing bright pink, we’d still have been left heartbroken, lying at her feet. (Geoff Brown)

Magdalena Kožená / Christian Schmitt PRAYER Voice & Organ

“If we live on this planet, we must surely believe in a higher power, whatever that may be. That is something I feel when I perform this music.”-- Magdalena Kozena

The new recording from Magdalena Kozena features deeply-felt interpretations of sacred songs from the Baroque to the 20th Century In a rare recording collaboration, she is joined by virtuoso Christian Schmitt, in music for voice and organ from the sacred traditions of Germany, Austria, France and England, as well as her native Czechoslovakia.
Of course, the album includes music by J.S. Bach – a composer with whom Magdalena Kozena has long been associated - with sacred aspects of German song represented by Hugo Wolf and Schubert The French tradition is heard in the music of Bizet, Ravel and the great Parisian organist Maurice Durufle.
Bizet’s Agnus Dei and Verdi’s Ave Maria reveal less familiar aspects of composers more often associated with opera houses than churches, whilst Henry Purcell’s setting of The Blessed Virgin’s Expostulation showcases Magdalena Kozena’s extraordinary ability to inhabit musical drama Her continuing commitment to the music of her Czech homeland sees the inclusion of music by both Dvorak and Janacek.
‘The Czech mezzo . . . produces one of the loveliest sounds to be heard on the world’s stages – a flowing, spring-water-like tone that evokes the term ‘luminous’.’ - Opera News For this recording, Christian Schmitt plays the 2009 Goll organ of the University for Catholic Music & Teaching, Regensburg.