There was a lot of post-production to complete but there was time for a brief visit in between to Berlin for the filming for TV (arte)/Unitel of Anna Netrebko’s recital of Russian songs, accompanied by Daniel Barenboim in the Philharmonie.
The renowned baritone Thomas Hampson is co-editor of a new edition of Gustav Mahler’s Des Knaben Wunderhorn. The new edition brings to light numerous inaccuracies in previous ones and for a first recording based on this version Hampson asked Christopher to produce the sessions near Vienna with the Wiener Virtuosi.
After almost 3 months of unbroken snow in Hamburg it was good to spend a week in Rome, especially as the reason to be there was to record the new album by Jonas Kaufmann of verismo arias for DECCA. The other star on the disc is the orchestra of the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia under the baton of the irrepressible Antonio Pappano. News came from Korea that Sumi Jo’s new album Ich liebe dich was top of the pop charts.
For Universal Korea the soprano Sumi Jo is their commercially most important artist. Her new album of German Lieder in arrangements with various chamber ensembles had to be recorded and a master produced in record time for her April tour, and so they asked Christopher to produce the sessions in Cologne. Despite a harrowing schedule (also for the singer!) the master was delivered to Universal only 10 days after the sessions. Lang Lang’s move from Deutsche Grammophon to SONY was announced in the press worldwide. His first recording for his new ‘home’ was in connection with a recital in Vienna and he asked Christopher to produce the discs, which include works by Beethoven, Albeniz, Prokoffiev and Chopin.
Christopher was asked by SONY to make the debut recording of the exciting young Italian tenor Vittorio Grigolo. Sessions took place in Parma with the orchestra and chorus of the Teatro Regio di Parma under the direction of Pier Giorgio Morandi.
Two months full of piano recordings: firstly in Zürich with Yundi (formerly known as Yundi Li) who has been signed by EMI to make a complete traversal of Chopin’s piano works over the next five years. Here we recorded the complete Nocturnes for release in early 2010. The second recording was in Neumarkt with the young German-Korean pianist Christopher Park of transcriptions by Russian composers, and then the third in Hamburg with the celebrated Armenian pianist Sergei Babayan of works by Rachmaninov.
For the inaugural concert of Gustavo Dudamel's tenure as Music Director at the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra, Christopher Alder was asked to be the audio producer for US and international TV broadcasts as well as preparing an iTunes download version in record time. The download in the Deutsche Grammophon Digital Concert s series is available from 20th October.
The prestigious German ECHO opera award was given to the recording of Bellini's I Capuleti e i Montecchi with Anna Netrebko, Elina Garanca, Joseph Calleja and the Wiener Symphoniker conducted by Fabio Luisi, produced by Chris Alder in 2008 for Deutsche Grammophon.
After a recording of a Liszt programme with Andrew von Oeyen, an exceptional US pianist Chris is in Copenhagen for Danish Radio as audio producer for two concerts, one with Anna Netrebko and Massimo Giordano, conducted by Emmanuel Villaume; the other a gala event, the so-called Crown Prince Concert (“Kronprinsparrets Kulturpris”) both of which take place in the wonderful new DR Concert Hall designed by Jean Nouvel.
At the Lucerne Festival Chris Alder was the audio producer for EuroArts for concerts with the Lucerne Festival Orchestra under Claudio Abbado. The soloist was Magdalena Kozena and the Mahler symphonies will appear on DVD. The Financial Times critic wrote of the concerts: “There is a life-or-death immediacy, coupled with a level of technical perfection that has no equivalent anywhere in the world…This was a religious experience.”
Martin Engstroem, founder of the Verbier Festival, asked Chris to produce the second half of a concert (“something different and entertaining”) with the three bass-baritones René Pape, Thomas Quasthoff and Bryn Terfel. Chris made a medley of numbers from Broadway shows, and some evergreens such as Delilah and New York, New York, and asked Matthias Kosel to arrange them. The accompanying piano trio consisted of Vadim Rapin, Mischa Maisky and Lang Lang. The programme demanded much of the singers including some tricky ensembles, and for the instrumentalists it was unusual fare. The public loved it and their roars of approval could be heard right down the valley!
At the end of the month Chris was in the studio again, recording Schubert’s cycle “Die Schöne Müllerin” with the tenor Jonas Kaufmann and Helmut Deutsch, piano. This rush release is due out in October.
The recording of German arias "Sehnsucht" by tenor Jonas Kaufmann - "surely the finest of the world's young tenors" (Daily Mail) - is released in Germany and immediately rises to the top of the classical music charts. Chris Alder produced the album in Parma in November 2008. Kaufmann is partnered by the Mahler Chamber Orchestra, conducted by Claudio Abbado. Chris Alder produces a new recording of works by de Falla with the Spanish National Orchestra and their principal conductor Josep Pons, the first of a wide-ranging series of discs for Universal Music, Spain with that orchestra over the next few years.
Chris Alder was in Naples for the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra Europakonzert. He was the audio producer for the worldwide TV broadcast from the newly-renovated Teatro San Carlo in a programme of works by Verdi, Martucci and Schubert with Violeta Urmana, mezzosoprano, conducted by Riccardo Muti.
A busy month: first a recording of Bach's Das Wohltemperierte Klavier Book 1 with Maurizio Pollini in Munich (to be completed in summer) and then on to Paris to complete an opera with the tenor Roberto Alagna and New York with Angela Gheorghiu.
The Chicago Symphony Orchestra's new Music Director from the 2010 season is Riccardo Muti. His first concerts with the CSO since the announcement are in January, and the CSO has asked Chris Alder to produce the recording of the Verdi Requiem for the CSO Resound label. The release will also be in surround sound on SACD as well as a conventional stereo release.
In September Chris Alder was in Berlin recording at the Deutsche Opera with Angela Gheorghiu and Roberto Alagna in Mascagni's opera L'Amico Fritz, conducted by Alberto Veronesi. This grand opera was followed in October by a recording of the intimate sounds of the classical guitar with the renowned Swiss guitarrist Christoph Denoth.
The year closed with a return to the world of opera with a recording in Parma, Italy, of German arias by the German tenor Jonas Kaufmann. The Mahler Chamber Orchestra was conducted by Claudio Abbado in arias by Wagner, Beethoven, Schubert and Wagner and will be Kaufmann's second release for DECCA. His first disc Romantic Arias was also produced by Chris Alder.
Chris Alder has finished the post-production work on two Chopin recordings: a solo recital with Maurizio Pollini which is due for release in Fall 2008 and both concertos with Lang Lang, the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra and Zubin Mehta due out shortly, both for Deutsche Grammophon.
The DVD release of the Berlin Staatsoper production of Massenet's Manon with Anna Netrebko and Rolando Villazón is in August. Directed by Vincent Paterson and conducted by Daniel Barenboim, Chris Alder was the audio producer for Unitel.
At the Lucerne Festival this year, Chris Alder will be the audio producer for the TV broadcasts and DVD production for EuroArts of the concerts with Hélène Grimaud, the Lucerne Festival Orchestra and Claudio Abbado. The programme includes Rachmaninov's Piano Concerto No.2 and Stravinsky's Firebird Suite.
Puccini's La Bohème with an all-star cast of Anna Netrebko, Nicole Cabell, Rolando Villazón, Boaz Daniel, Vitalij Kowaljow and the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra conducted by Bertrand de Billy. Chris Alder was the executive and recording producer. Recorded last April in Munich, the soundtrack is also the basis for a film directed by Robert Dornhelm which will be in cinemas worldwide in Autumn.
Chris was recording another opera, Donizetti's I Capuletti e i Montecchi in Vienna in the last two weeks of April. Anna Netrebko, Elina Garanca and Joseph Calleja, accompanied by the Vienna Symphony Orchestra conducted by Fabio Luisi.
Chris Alder was in Pyongyang as audio producer for EuroArts - part of an international team from both Koreas, Germany, and France –who were responsible for the broadcast and recorded the “unprecedented concert” (Reuters) given by the New York Philharmonic under Lorin Maazel on 26 February, which made headlines around the world. The first time in over 50 years that a US cultural organisation has been allowed into the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, the concert was telecast live in both North and South Korea, and was watched the same day by over 200 million viewers in the USA, Japan and Europe.
In January, Chris is recording in Vienna with the Vienna Philharmonic (Puccini Arias with Violeta Urmana, Plácido Domingo) and Leoncavallo’s opera “Fedora” in Brussels with Plácido Domingo and Angela Gheorghiú, Alberto Veronesi conducting.
Anna Netrebko's "The Russian Album" was nominated in the category of 'Best Vocal Album'. Chris Alder was both Executive and Recording Producer for this disc, which was recorded in the Mariinsky Theatre, St.Petersburg with Valery Gergiev conducting. The winner wil be announced in February 2008.
Recording of Puccini’s La Bohème in Munich with an all-star cast including Anna Netrebko, Rolando Villazón, Nicole Cabell, and Bertrand de Billy conducting the Bavarian State Radio Symphony Orchestra (due for release in early 2008)
Maurizio Pollini
Chopin
Nocturnes
2 CD 477 5718
- Los Angeles: Grammy Award for Chopin’s complete Nocturnes (Maurizio Pollini) – for which Alder was both Executive and Recording Producer – in the category “Best Instrumental Soloist Performance”
- Grammy Award for Intimate Voices (Emerson String Quartet) as “Best Chamber Music Performance” (Chris Alder was Executive Producer, Recording Producer: Da-Hong Seetoo)
- Chopin’s complete Nocturnes (Maurizio Pollini) – for which Alder was both Executive and Recording Producer – in the category “Best Instrumental Soloist Performance”
- plus three discs for which Alder served as Executive Producer: Intimate Voices (Emerson String Quartet) as “Best Chamber Music Performance”; Consider, My Soul (Betrachte, meine Seel) (Thomas Quasthoff) as “Best Classical Vocal Performance”; and Mozart’s C minor Mass (Paul McCreesh and the Gabrieli Consort & Players) as “Best Choral Performance”.
- DVD release of this year’s concert from the Berlin Waldbühne, with Anna Netrebko, Rolando Villazón and Plácido Domingo. It achieves Gold status in Germany within three weeks of release.
- Maurizio Pollini’s recording of the complete Chopin Nocturnes is nominated by French critics as “Record of the Year” (La Victoire de la Musique)
- Anna Netrebko’s Russian Album with the Mariinsky Opera Orchestra under Valery Gergiev is released and enters the German pop charts at number 8 – the highest entry of a classical album since the legendary “3 Tenors” CD in 1990. It achieves Gold status in Germany and Austria in four weeks and easily achieves six-figure sales internationally. Gramophone magazine writes that “the recording, especially the balance between voice and orchestra, is fine throughout. This is the best disc Netrebko has made so far.”
- Gramophone names Mozart’s Zauberflöte conducted by Abbado as “Best Opera Recording” in their annual awards in London.
“Listening to this new CD…you hear a man in love…. He plays Mozart with real feeling, leading us into the music’s depth, its inner melodies, never content with the surface…the music always moves forward, developing, growing, with the subtlest range of colours …These are performances of conversational intimacy”– The Times (London).
* Christopher Alder, producer
“It is Abbado's conducting that compels attention, making this as good as any new version of Zauberflöte released on disc since Otto Klemperer's set more than 40 years ago.” – The Guardian (London)
“It's hard to remain level-headed with the sound of Claudio Abbado's new version of Die Zauberflöte – recorded in Modena last year during his tour of the work – ringing in the ears…Every bar matters, and every detail is considered afresh…It doesn't matter how many Zauberflöte recordings you own, you will need this one too.” – Opera (London)
“Clear-textured, articulate and wondrously natural…You will seldom hear such unmannered and graceful Mozart playing.” – The New York Times
“Claudio Abbado leads this “live” performance of The Magic Flute with a nimble, light hand, stressing the playful elements of the score and turning the experience into a sheer delight…Excellent sonics.” – Classics Today.com

- Piano Sonata in B minor

- I Medici

- Ich liebe Dich

- Complete Nocturnes