Spanish tour with NDR (Feb 13–18)
Gilbert and the NDR will embark on a four-city tour of Spain and Germany in mid February. At concerts in Madrid, Oviedo, Düsseldorf and Hannover, they reunite with Levit for a reprise of Bartók’s Third Piano Concerto, followed by Gilbert’s interpretation of Brahms’s First Symphony (Feb 13–18). The great Romantic composer was a native of Hamburg, and it was with his First Symphony that the conductor inaugurated his NDR tenure, drawing a five-star review from Classical Source. Likewise, when he and the orchestra undertook the composer’s Second as part of a complete Brahms symphonic cycle, Die Welt marveled: “In Gilbert’s reading, Brahms’s symphony was awakened to full, almost tangible bloom. One could luxuriate in this beguiling hearing.”
Feb 13–18: tour of Spain and Germany with NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchestra
Feb 13: Madrid, Spain
Feb 15: Oviedo, Spain
Feb 17: Düsseldorf, Germany
Feb 18: Hannover, Germany
BARTÓK: Piano Concerto No. 3 (with Igor Levit, piano)
BRAHMS: Symphony No. 1
Parsifal at the Royal Swedish Opera (March 16–April 18)
This spring, Gilbert returns to the Stockholm house to lead Parsifal, Wagner’s final opera. Directed by International Opera Award-winner Christof Loy, the six-performance run will star Joachim Bäckström – “a tenor of fabulously virile elegance” (Westdeutsche Allgemeine Zeitung, Germany) – in the title role, with baritone Peter Mattei, Musical America’s Vocalist of the Year 2020, as Amfortas, and the “absolutely outstanding” mezzo-soprano Miriam Treichl (Seen and Heard International) as Kundry (March 16, 23, 29; April 1, 13 & 18).
A major player on the opera scene, Gilbert has helmed productions at legendary houses worldwide, including Milan’s La Scala, where he conducted a new production of Porgy and Bess and the company premiere of Die tote Stadt, and New York’s Metropolitan Opera, where his account of Doctor Atomic was filmed, released on DVD and recognized with a Grammy Award. Of his semi-staged performance of Das Rheingold with the New York Philharmonic, OperaWire declared: “It was breathtaking musicianship that truly evoked all the colors that Wagner wanted for his music.”
March 16, 23, 29; April 1, 13 & 18
Stockholm, Sweden
Royal Swedish Opera
WAGNER: Parsifal