In between a highly acclaimed production of The Lighthouse at the Kammeroper and a very successful performance of Tosca at the Theater a d Wien in Vienna, Michael Zlabinger conducted his Munich Radio Orchestra debut last December.
You can watch it again on Bavarian Radio’s website:

Anna Duczmal-Mróz has been announced as the recipient of the prestigious Taki-Alsop Conducting Fellow 2022: Over the coming two years, Anna Duczmal-Mróz will work closely with Marin Alsop, in addition to give her debuts among others in Ravinia and Aspen:

Following his critically acclaimed production of Peter Maxwell-Davies The Lighthouse at the Kammeroper Wien in October 2021 (in a joint debut with his brothers Georg and Martin, stage director and stage design respectively), conductor Michael Zlabinger is giving his Theater a d Wien debut with a performance of Tosca (Kristina Opolais, Gabor Bretz) on 30th January

Deutschlandfunk Kultur presents first recordings of the new  Boosey & Hawkes / Exilarte Winterberg Edition with the Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin (RSB). Jonathan Powell plays the 1st piano concerto by Hans Winterberg, and is responsible for the critical edition:

After having worked on all major European stages from Covent Garden, to Madrid, Vienna, Zurich, Munich, Salzburg and Glyndebourne, the three brothers Zlabinger joint forces for their debut production at the Vienna Kammeroper with Peter Maxell-Davies’ masterwork The Lighthouse this October;

‘Director Georg Zlabinger succeeds not only in creating an exemplary, but also an intense, credible and exciting portrayal of the characters, which allows the audience to share in the anxiety and tension in the lighthouse. Michael Zlabinger conducts the highly motivated Vienna Chamber Orchestra, which has taken on the twelve parts of the orchestral cast, at the highest level. He also succeeds in making the mysterious and mystical audible and tangible from Peter Maxwell Davies’ score’.

The Alban Berg Ensemble Wien is performing it’s debut at the Leuven Festival 20:21 with the program of their internationally acclaimed debut recording for Deutsche Gramophon on 26th October:

Jonathan Powell talks to Arnt Cobbers in his podast series for the German Crescendo magazine (in English) about Hans Winterberg, whose first piano concerto he has just recorded for the first time, his composition lessons with Alexander Goehr, what interests him in Russian rarities of the early 20th century, why Kaikhosru Sorabji wrote pieces for piano solo of five, six or eight hours – and how to survive their performances as a pianist. 

The violinist Liv Migdal talks to Arnt Cobbers in his podcast series for the German Crescendo magazine why she campaigns for ostracized composers and especially Paul Ben-Haim, what she learned from Reinhold Goebel, why she enjoys studying autographs and why she prefers to play by heart. She also plays a chaconne made by Biber.

Michael Zlabinger is invited to conduct his debut at the Holland Festival this June in Marlene Monteiro Freitas’s production of Pierrot Lunaire from the Vienna Festival (Wiener Festwochen):

https://www.hollandfestival.nl/en/program/2021/pierrot-lunaire/

This concert will be streamed live from the Great Hall of the Franz Liszt Academy in Budapest,
and is available free of charge on Facebook, Youtube and the streaming site of the Academy:

Eine neue, ausgezeichnete Besprechung der Debüt CD des Alban Berg Ensembles im Voklsblatt:

‘Innovationsfreude und Hellhörigkeit’
‘Gesegnet sind alle mit bester Musikalität, intensivem Ausdruck oder auch dem Gefühl für ein risikoreiches Grenzgängertum’

The eighth episode of « Backstage, a Conversation with… » introduces you to Peter Puskás, Director of Puskás International, artist management and consultancy agency.

Since ten years, Jonathan Powell is a guest a the Janáček Academy’s International Festival for New Music in Brno. Jonathan performs works by Saariaho, Erkoreka, Berio, Vitauskaite and others in a stream hosted by the Janacek Academy on 8th December:

Erik Langeveld writes an enthusiastic review of Artur Pizarro’s new Schumann CD, released in November on Odradek Records:

‘Pizarro’s playing comes across as authentic, without looking for effects, with a bright touch full of color, sometimes soft as velvet, but muscular and virtuoso if necessary.
 Yet he is not a keyboard lion in the classic sense of the word. Pizarro represents a more modern, more professional school of piano playing in which technique and virtuosity are unconditionally at the service of the composer’s intentions. 

With Pizarro, Schumann gets it all. He convincingly portrays a composer who is not inferior to Beethoven, but deserves a place alongside his great predecessor.

We are already looking forward to Pizarro’s next travelogue.’

You can read the full review on Klassiek Centraal by clicking on the cover below:

At the personal request of Igor Levit, Jonathan Powell will perform Sequentia Cyclica in 5 concerts over 3 days as the highlight of the 25th anniversary edition of the Heidelberger Frühling in 2021,

Watch the press conference (in German), starting from about 28’00”:

The Alban Berg Ensemble Wien debut CD with Deutsche Grammophon has been nominated
by the Limelight Magazine for their ‘Recording of the Year’ award, according to their review
‘a fascinating debut of rare intensity’:

Playing the 2nd Beethoven piano concerto with the Deutsche Staatsphilharmonie Rheinland -Pfalz and Chief Conductor Michael Francis, Artur Pizarro receives an enthusiastic review for his ‘brilliant rendition’ and ‘joyful music making’:

‘…no doubt there is someone, for whom the joy of making music together means more than complacent soloist brilliance….

With Pizarro, all this sounds like a completely relaxed warm-up exercise: completely unagitated, he lets the solo part glitter over the orchestra with a crystal-clear touch, presenting himself as a master of the punch line, as a Beethoven interpreter who above all wants to express the playfulness of the titan of the keyboard. The Staatsphilharmonie is infected by a joy of playing and demonstrates a high degree of homogeneity, despite the large corona distance of the winds from the rest.’

‘Die Tradition hinterfragt sich selbst…
und das Alban Berg Ensemble Wien stürmt gerne mit in die neuen Klangwelten.’

An excellent review of the Alban Berg Ensemble’s debut CD on Berlin’s radio RBB:

Wien um 1900 ist eigentlich ein mittlerweile arg ausgelaugtes Thema. Dass auch mit bekannten Werken noch etwas zu entdecken sein soll, möchte man kaum glauben. Das 2016 gegründete Alban Berg Ensemble Wien jedoch vermag dem Thema noch eine Facette abzugewinnen, wenn es das Adagio aus Gustav Mahlers Zehnter, Arnold Schönbergs erste Kammersymphonie und Richard Strauss’ “Rosenkavalier”-Suite in Bearbeitungen für kleine Besetzung aufnimmt.

Das Ensemble selbst, bestehend aus Wiener Orchestermusikern und dem Hugo Wolf Quartett, spielt bei großer klanglicher Fülle mit sehr bedachter Phrasierung, die dem kammermusikalischen Klang gemäß nicht ins romantische Extrem geht – ein gelungenes Debüt. Peter Uehling stellt es vor.