On April 17, 2015, the label “Berlin Classics” released the second album of the ECHO laureate Felix Klieser. Unlike his first CD, his second is dedicated to the music of the classical era: Joseph and Michael Haydn and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. For this recording, the exceptional horn player has found the perfect musical complement in the Württembergisches Kammerorchester (Württemberg Chamber Orchestra) Heilbronn conducted by Ruben Gazarian. “We have worked together with much intensity and passion but also with lots of fun and delight in music. I most cordially invite you to share this joy with me,” Felix Klieser says.
Immediately after conducting the opening night of Mozart’s Così fan tutte in Heilbronn, Ruben Gazarian flew to Poland to give his debut with the Wrocław Philharmonic Orchestra. The program included works of Richard Strauss, Sergei Prokofiev and Kurt Weill; the russian piano virtuoso Andrei Korobeinikov was the soloist. Gazarian’s collaboration with the orchestra was such a resounding success that he was promptly invited back for the 2016-17 season.
- A remarkable new departure has deepened the long-standing fruitful collaboration between the Württembergisches Kammerorchester (Württemberg Chamber Orchestra) Heilbronn and the municipal Heilbronner Theater: For the first time ever, these two organizations launched an original production in a joint venture with the Musikhochschule (Music Academy) Stuttgart, and for starters, they chose one of the most frequently performed works from the operatic repertory: Mozart’s Così fan tutte. Mozart’s ingenious creation saw its Heilbronn premiere on April 4, 2015. The audience acclaimed all participants with standing ovations.
- Likewise, all critics praised the production unanimously: “The guarantor of this orchestral delectation is placed in the pit: the Württembergisches Kammerorchester Heilbronn under the baton of its music director Ruben Gazarian. Already the overture turns into a masterpiece of precision, so delicate, ethereal, and enormously lively in its quick runs… The standard for this night is set, and it is set high.” (Heilbronner Stimme); “Ruben Gazarian turns out to be… a naturally born Mozart conductor who knows, above all, how to instill a flexible legato and clear intonation into the string section. This becomes evident already in the overture, bristling with vigor… As a conductor, Gazarian has, in any case, a knack for the orchestration abounding in minute details.” (Der neue Merker) “And how Gazarian here guides his musicians through the score, on the waves of the sea and of love, and how the young singers get supported throughout this marathon for six voices…” (Rhein-Neckar-Zeitung) “Singing and acting were perfectly supported by the Württembergisches Kammerorchester, whose initial weightless sound seemed to grow to that of a full-bodied symphony orchestra in the course of the evening, and precisely coordinated by Ruben Gazarian.” (Bachtrack.com).
- The opera will be performed on a total of nine nights, remaining on the playbill of the Heilbronner Theater until the end of July 2015.
Cast and crew of the Heilbronn production of Cosi fan tutte right before the opening night.
Photo: Thomas Braun
