VA - Orff: Carmina Burana (Live from the Forbidden City) (2019) [Hi-Res]

Deutsche Grammophon, the world’s oldest classical label, celebrated its 120th anniversary with a concert of great cultural and historical significance at Beijing’s Forbidden City on October 10. This is the first classical concert to be hosted there since 1998 and the most important one since the Three Tenors stood on stage together in 1994.

In front of an audience of 1,200 specially-invited Chinese and international guests, Long Yu, the first Chinese conductor to perform at the Forbidden City, led the Shanghai Symphony Orchestra in their interpretation of Carl Orff’s Carmina Burana, in partnership with the mixed adult voices of the Wiener Singakademie and the Shanghai Spring Children’s Choir. Among other works performed, the virtuoso Russian pianist, Daniil Trifonov, a leading member of DG’s younger generation of artists and part of the evening’s multinational cast of musicians, played Rachmaninov’s Second Piano Concerto.

DG’s anniversary concert was the first to be held at the Imperial Ancestral Temple (Taimiao) since Zubin Mehta led a production of Puccini’s Turandot there twenty years ago, an event whose worldwide significance contributed to the 2008 Olympics being awarded to Beijing.

“The gala concert was unforgettable,” commented Dr Clemens Trautmann, President Deutsche Grammophon. “The concert’s historic nature was enhanced by its iconic setting in front of the Imperial Ancestral Temple and the walls of the Forbidden City. Those exquisite buildings echoed to the magnificent sounds of the Shanghai Symphony Orchestra, Wiener Singakademie and an international cast of soloists under the direction of Maestro Long Yu, the first Chinese conductor ever to perform there.”

Aida Garifullina, soprano
Toby Spence, tenor
Ludovic Tézier, baritone
Mari Samuelson, violin
Daniil Trifonov, piano
Wiener Singakademie
Shanghai Symphony Orchestra
Long Yu, conductor