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World premiere of the year: Vito Žuraj's first full-length opera Blühen came to the stage in Frankfurt in early 2023 under the musical direction of Michael Wendeberg and has now been named premiere of the year by Opernwelt magazine. In our interview, Vito Žuraj talks about his collaboration with librettist Händl Klaus, director Brigitte Fassbaender and the Ensemble Modern.
Before his career as a conductor, Michael Wendeberg was a member of the Ensemble Intercontemporain as a pianist and worked closely with Pierre Boulez. On the fifth anniversary of Boulez’ death, his complete recording of the composer's piano works were released.
Jüri Reinvere, Flute concerto
György Ligeti, Lontano
Kaija Saariaho, Ciel d’hiver
Jānis Petraškevičs, Dead Wind für Orchester
Galina Iwanowna Ustwolskaja, Symphony No. 3
Monika Mattiesen, flute
Estonian National Symphony Orchestra
Michael Wendeberg, conductor
György Ligeti, composition
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Die Zauberflöte
Gewandhausorchester Leipzig
Matthias Davids, stage direction
Ludwig van Beethoven, Piano Concerto No.1 C major, Op.15
Wolfgang Rihm, Symphony No. 1
Matej Bonin, Eppur si muove IV
Karl Amadeus Hartmann, Sinfonia Tragica
Michael Wendeberg, piano and complete direction
Oskar Laznik, saxophone
Simon Klavžar, percussion
Slovenian Philharmonic Orchestra
Richard Strauss, Sinfonia Domestica
Robert Schumann, Ouverture to 'Manfred'
Johann Nepomuk Hummel, Gran Concerto in F major for bassoon and orchestra, WoO 23
Presidential Symphony Orchestra
Michael Wendeberg’s interpretation was gripping, with sharp and accurate dotted notes and impactful climaxes, yet also with room for rest and contemplation. Mitteldeutsche Zeitung, 19/2/2020
Classical repertoire – from Bach to Schoenberg – comes to conductor and pianist Michael Wendeberg with just as much ease as his dedicated work with new music. In 2020/21 and 2021/22 he acted as Chief Conductor Opera at the Bühnen Halle (Saale), where he held the position of “Erster Kapellmeister” since 2016. Most recently he conducted first performances of Britten’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Wagner’s Tristan und Isolde, and Paderewski‘s Manru among others.
Michael Wendeberg has conducted renowned orchestras and ensembles including the Staatskapelle Berlin, WDR Symphony Orchestra, SWR Symphony Orchestra, Radio Symphony Orchestra Berlin, Junge Deutsche Philharmonie, Mahler Chamber Orchestra, Slovenian Philharmonic Orchestra Ljubljana, Klangforum Wien, Ensemble Modern, Remix Ensemble Porto, Ensemble intercontemporain, Birmingham Contemporary Music Group and the Basel Sinfonietta. He has made guest appearances at the Lucerne Festival, Munich Biennale, Beethovenfest Bonn, Bregenz Festival, Venice Biennale, ECLAT Festival Stuttgart, Ultraschall Berlin Festival, Acht Brücken Festival Cologne and Klangspuren Schwaz as well as at Wien Modern. He served as Music Director of the Ensemble Contrechamps in Geneva from 2011 to 2018.
In the 2022/23 season, Michael Wendeberg gave his debut with the Tokyo Symphony Orchestra with Debussy's Jeux and the world premiere of Isabel Mundry's Viola Concerto with Nils Mönkemeyer, his house debut at the Frankfurt Opera with the world premiere of Vito Zuraj’s Blühen as well as conducted a portrait of the composer with the Ensemble Modern. He also returned to the Estonian National Symphony Orchestra in Tallinn to conduct works by Chaya Czernowin, Jüri Reinverse and Malin Bang as part of the AFEKT Festival. Further he lead concerts in Birmingham, Bremen, and Helsinki. In 2023 he replaced on short notice Daniel Barenboim, as conductor as well as pianist, in concerts at the Pierre Boulez Saal in Berlin and at the Philharmonie de Paris. In the season 2023/24 he will return to the AFEKT festival in Tallinn as well as to Ankara, Bursa, and Ljubljana. He will also lead a project with Simon Stehen-Andersen with the WDR Symphony Orchestra as part of the “Musik der Zeit” series in Cologne.
His opera repertoire ranges from Handel's Orlando to Mozart, Beethoven, Donizetti, Verdi, Bizet, Puccini, Strauss, Wagner, and Britten, and includes numerous world premieres. In 2017 he returned to the Staatsoper Berlin for performances of Die Zauberflöte and for a new production of Aribert Reimann's Gespenstersonate. In Halle, he conducted Beethoven’s Fidelio, Verdi’s Aida, Puccini’s Tosca, as well as the premieres of Mozart’s Don Giovanni and Strauss’ Ariadne auf Naxos, followed by a new production of an adapted version of Mozart’s Der Schauspieldirector.
As a pianist, Michael Wendeberg has won several national and international piano competitions and performed as a soloist at renowned festivals and with prestigious orchestras under conductors such as Jonathan Nott, Marek Janowski, and Daniel Barenboim. From 2000 to 2005 he was a member of the Ensemble intercontemporain and worked closely with György Kurtag and Pierre Boulez. In 2015 he appeared with Boulez’s complete works for piano as part of celebrations at the Staatsoper Berlin and in 2018 at the Boulez Saal, in 2021 a CD production of the complete sonatas was released on the label bastille musique.
Michael Wendeberg studied piano with Markus Stange, Bernd Glemser, and Benedetto Lupo, and conducting in Toshiyuki Kamioka’s masterclass in Saarbrücken. During this time, he worked as Toshiyuki Kamioka’s assistant at the Wuppertaler Bühnen. After graduating, Michael Wendeberg held positions at the Nationaltheater Mannheim, Lucerne Theatre, and the Staatsoper Berlin, where he assisted Daniel Barenboim and guest conductors such as Pierre Boulez and Sir Simon Rattle.
Season 2023/24
This biography is to be reproduced without any changes, omissions or additions, unless expressly authorised by the artist management.
CONDUCTED PROGRAMME 1
CONDUCTED PROGRAMME 2
PIANO PROGRAMME 1
PIANO PROGRAMME 2
“[In Mozart's Gran Partita] Wendeberg's conducting is energetic, almost fiery.”
Diapason, Pierre Rigaudière, 5/5/2023
“The orchestra under the sovereign baton of Michael Wendeberg, who stepped in at very short notice, accompanied very sensitively and emphasised the expressive singing in perfect harmony. Already in the first half of the concert, the Philharmonic had produced glowing colours, explored the greatest possible dynamic contrasts, and luxuriated in rich sonority with sweeping gestures."
Weser Kurier, Gerd Klingeberg, 26/2/2023
On Blühen at Frankfurt Opera“The Ensemble Modern under Michael Wendeberg bring Vito Žuraj's music, which is as complex as it is sensuous in every moment, to life and glow.“
BR-KLASSIK, Jörn Florian Fuchs, 23/1/2013
On the opening concert in the Pierre Boulez Saal“Michael Wendeberg is an absolute Boulez expert. He plays not only competently down to the last detail, but also full of wit and irony. I have rarely experienced this notation of Boulez more sensually.“
rbb kulturradio, Andreas Göbel, 6/9/2022
On Ein Traumspiel at Halle Opera“In the pit, the music is in the best hands with Michael Wendeberg. What he makes of the score with the Staatskapelle is of captivatingly clear transparency.“
nmz, Joachim Lange, 10/5/2022
On Manru at Halle Opera“The orchestra's precise articulation, the sense of overriding formal progressions, the plasticity of the permanently blossoming sound images are all captivating.“
Opernwelt, Jürgen Otten, May 2022
“Conductor Michael Wendeberg powerfully brings the music to the foreground.“
Concerti, André Sperber, 21/3/2022
On Tristan and Isolde at Halle Opera“In the prelude, the orchestra and conductor are projected onto dividing stage curtains. So you can see that the fabulous Michael Wendeberg gets along without notes or a podium. The orchestra that will one day secure him as GMD can count itself lucky - in Halle he has the status of a prophet in his own country.“
nmz, Joachim Lange, 8/1/2022
“The Staatskapelle Halle plays in outstanding form both in the details and in the musical climaxes and in the great arcs - from the quiet very calm beginning of the prelude to the magnificent Liebestod - under the sovereign and extremely secure direction of the acting principal conductor Michael Wendeberg (he would make a terrific GMD), who conducted the huge score from memory.”
Klassik begeistert (Blog), Guido Müller, 6/1/2022
On A Midsummer Night's Dream at Halle Opera“The Staatskapelle played with enchanting precision and, under the baton of Michael Wendeberg, met the special challenge of contributing the atmospheric part of the Gesamtkunstwerk quite brilliantly.”
Concerti, Joachim Lange, 19/9/2021
“Michael Wendeberg and Nicolas Hodges succeed in consistently interesting interpretations because they breathe real life into the pieces. In the early works some emotion penetrates Wendeberg’s sensitive, singing playing.“
Pizzicato, Remy Franck, 18/2/2021 - on the CD Pierre Boulez: Constellation-Miroir
“Boulez specialist and conductor Wendeberg, who worked with the composer himself during his lifetime [...] sets the tone: dynamic, energetic, and assured.”
Tagesspiegel, Christiane Peitz, 21/10/2020 - on the piano duo recital with Nicolas Hodges / Pierre Boulez's Structures
“From the orchestra pit, Michael Wendeberg (who frequently delivers and whom one could well imagine in place of the Staatskapelle's GMD Ariane Matiakh, who seems to again have gone astray) ensured a supple orchestral sound that always supported and spurred on the singers, without falling into a by-the-numbers revue.”
nmz, Joachim Lange, 2/3/2020 - on Don Giovanni (Oper Halle)
“Wendeberg also places special emphasis on the tender and introspective musical passages of this opera. A touching musical interpretation.”
Klassik begeistert, Guido Müller, 29/2/2020
“Michael Wendeberg’s interpretation was gripping, with sharp and accurate dotted notes and impactful climaxes, yet also with room for rest and contemplation.“
Mitteldeutsche Zeitung, 19/2/2020
“With relish, Michael Wendeberg inspires the musicians of the Staatskapelle to traverse both the precision of chamber music and the full opulence of Strauss.”
nmz, Joachim Lange, 24/2/2019
Janáček's piano works | Sonata 1, X. | Oper Halle |
Michael Wendeberg @ Pierre Boulez Saal Berlin 2018
I. Stravinsky: Fire Bird
G. Verdi: Messa da Requiem | Oper Halle
Michael Wendeberg, Nicolas Hodges
destille, 2021, bm16