Salzburg Festival 2011 Opening Concert

I In the Mahler anniversary year 2011 Pierre Boulez, the “grandseigneur of subtle minimalism and exquisitely beguiling sounds” (Der Standard), was given the honor of conducting this year’s traditional opening concert of the Wiener Philharmoniker at the Salzburg Festival. As a tribute to the composer, the concert centers around Mahler’s “Das klagende Lied” and begins with two works by his pupil and admirer Alban Berg. The first, the “Lulu Suite” of 1934, is compiled from Berg’s unfinished opera of the same name and contains music for the tragic temptress. She is sung here by “dazzling” (Der Standard) and “sensational” (Die Presse) young British-Austrian soprano Anna Prohaska, while Dorothea Röschmann delivers a “masterful interpretation” (Die Presse) of Berg’s concert aria “Der Wein”