Kristjan Järvi conducts Milhaud, Mahler and R. Strauss – With Stephan Genz

Kristjan Järvi, son of Neeme Järvi and Paavo Järvi's brother, has been music director of the MDR Leipzig Radio Symphony Orchestra since the 2012-2013 season. He is also conductor of the Gstaad Festival Orchestra, the founder of the New York City Absolute Ensemble, the founding conductor of the Baltic Youth Philharmonic (BYP), etc. He is a regular guest of the greatest orchestras, and has a predilection for the post-romantic, modern and contemporary repertoires, for which he is at the pinnacle of his talent.

The German baritone Stephan Genz is known for his Lieder performances. He has received lessons from Hans Joachim Beyer, Elisabeth Schwarzkopf and Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, and is laureate of many international competitions, partly thanks to his Brahms and Hugo Wolf recitals. In 1999, he was awarded the very prestigious Gramophone Award in London.

La Création du Monde, Darius Milhaud's work written for a one-act ballet, was inspired by Blaise Cendrars's Anthologie nègre. It was composed for a small orchestra of seventeen instruments, with a solo part for saxophone.

Mahler's Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen will also be performed. Its topic is one of the favorites of the German repertoire: a disappointed and doomed hero, travelling with no purpose, trying to ease his suffering. Divertimento for small orchestra by Richard Strauss will also be played; the composer would have turned 150 this year.

Credits

Picture: © Aline Paley