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May 17, 2007
The National Association of Music Critics in Italy has bestowed its top prize, the Premio Abbiati, on Lorin Maazel as Conductor of the Year for 2006. In announcing the awards, the panel cited Maestro Maazel's musical intelligence and insightful interpretations, noting his special affinity for Puccini (as evidenced by the production of Tosca he conduted at La Scala in April 2006), and the many other important concerts he led last year in Italy, including a tour with the New York Philharmonic and numerous concerts with the Symphonica Toscanini.
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May 3, 2005
Lorin Maazel's opera, 1984, receives it world premiere at London's Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, with the composer on the podium. Robert Maycock, critic for The Independent praised the event as "two-and-a-half hours of action and at times a grandeur that constantly riveted the attention." Rupert Christiansen, critic of The Daily Telegraph, called the evening "engrossing and enjoyable" and complimented the composer for his "sure-footed theatricality and sense of timing and contrast." The reviewer concluded: "Maazel knows how to hold an audience and tell a story."
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January 1, 2005
Lorin Maazel conducts the annual New Years Day concert at the Musikverein in Vienna and the concert is recorded for CD and DVD by Deutsche Grammophon for release early in 2005. Coming on the heels of the devastating tsunamis in South Asia, Maestro Maazel addressed the live audience and the millions more watching on telecasts worldwide, prior to leading the final work on the concert, Johann Strauss's On the Beautiful Blue Danube:
In these times of terrible natural disasters and political turmoil, we would like to think that our music-making today has lightened spirits and re-motivated our listeners to help rebuild what Nature and Man destroy. We must reaffirm our belief in the dignity of life, and through constructive action and thinking, offer new hope to human beings everywhere for a better world.
The World Health Organization (WHO), whose task it is to bring succor to the survivors of the tidal wave, estimates there to be five million people in need of help, one million of them desperately.
My colleagues of the Vienna Philharmonic and I have made a modest donation to WHO of one hundred and fifteen thousand Euros. I know you will do your part.
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 Lorin Maazel at the Musikverein, Vienna, on New Year’s Day 2005 |
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December 21 and 22, 2004
Lorin Maazel leads The Arturo Toscanini Philharmonic in two concerts of Beethoven's Symphony No. 9 — one in the Palestinian controlled city of Bethlehem and one in the Israeli city of Jerusalem. The concerts are telecast worldwide on Italian TV on Christmas Day. On his Website Mr. Maazel provides a description of the unusual circumstances surrounding the concerts, which we adapt here. You can find the full description at maestromaazel.com:
In Bethlehem we were escorted with sirens and cars full of Palestinian militia from the checkpoint to the Saint Catherine Church, Nativity Square. We saw the grotto where Mary may have given birth to Jesus and were taken for a stroll outside the walls of the church in the city of Bethlehem. We were surrounded by Palestinian militia and Italian Secret Service folks. The streets were almost deserted.
The Church is barely able to hold 300 listeners. We were thrilled to have the honor of making music in so venerated a venue. The acoustics are superb and we rose to the occasion, I believe!
“As we did in Jerusalem. The mayors of Parma, Italy, and other cities in the area were present, greeted by the Mayor of Jerusalem. From the stage there were many speeches, much giving of gifts and finally Beethoven's Ninth Symphony. The Arturo Toscanini Philharmonic played awesomely. Small wonder. Each member of the ensemble is a soloist in his/her own right. Average age 28!
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May 2004
Lorin Maazel conducts the National Symphony Orchestra at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., in a performance of The Ring Without Words (his own orchestral adaptation of Richard Wagner's Der Ring des Nibelungen). Tim Page of The Washington Post wrote of the performance:
"Maazelhas the best 'moves' in the business: Not since Leonard Bernstein has there been a maestro who seems such a pure embodiment of the species as it might grow in Hollywood soil and public fantasy. The profile! The gestures! The command! — and, like Bernstein, Maazel doesn't forget to follow up with some distinctive and highly personal music-making.
"Maazel played the NSO as if it were a single instrument — an uber-organ or cosmic synthesizer — and the 100-plus players responded reflexively to his every move."
Mr. Maazel is named the music director of the Filarmonica Arturo Toscanini based in Parma, Italy. He began his relationship with the orchestra in 2002 when he made his debut performance with them at the Music Festival of Strasburg.
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April 2004
Lorin Maazel visits the "Hall of Violins" in the Town Hall Palace in Cremona, Italy, which houses many masterpieces of the Cremonese lute-making art. Mr. Maazel had the opportunity to play several violins, including the "Il Carlo IX di Franci," built by Andrea Amati in 1566 — one of the oldest violins in the world — and the "Joachim" Stradivarius, which has been performed on in the past by such violin greats as Oistrakh and Menuhin, among others.
A production of Beethoven's Fidelio at the Genoa Opera (April 4).
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February 2004
Performances with the Pittsburgh Symphony (Feb 20 & 21) of Mahler's Symphony No. 5 and Messiaen's Les Offrandes oublies.
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December 2003
A concert with the European Union Youth Orchestra (Dec 21) at the Italian Senate in Rome, to mark the end of Italy's presidency of the European Union.
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November 2003
Three concerts in Italy with the Filarmonica Arturo Toscanini. Maestro Maazel has developed a close relationship with this orchestra, made up of some of the best young European players, and operated under the auspices of the Toscanini Foundation of Parma.
Two appearances with the Royal Concertgebouuw Orchestra in Amsterdam, including the Dutch premiere of Mr. Maazel's Symphonic Movement, "Farewells," op. 14, written in 1999 for the Vienna Philharmonic and premiered in the U.S. in 2000 by the Chicago Symphony.
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