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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.
Arnold Schönberg, Kammersinfonie Nr. 1 op. 9
Oliver Knussen, Requiem - Songs for Sue, Op. 33
Alban Berg, Chamber Concerto for Piano and Violin with 13 Wind Instruments
Michael Wendeberg, conductor
Katrien Baerts, soprano
Joseph Puglia, violin
Pierre-Laurent Aimard, piano
Asko Schönberg Ensemble
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Piano Concerto A-Major No. 23 K 488
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Requiem D minor KV 626
Michael Wendeberg, piano and complete direction
Ceren Aydın, soprano
Ezgi Karakaya, mezzo-soprano
Safa Korkmaz, tenor
Yiğitcan Tatlioğlu, bass
Presidential Symphony Orchestra
Ankara State Polyphonic Choir, choir
Gustav Mahler, Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen
Igor Strawinsky, The Firebird
Johannes Brahms, Symphony No. 4 in E minor, Op. 98
Andreas Beinhauer, baritone
Landesjugendorchester Sachsen-Anhalt
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 Boulez – 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 will start the 2024/25 season at the Future Lab of the Klangspuren Schwaz festival before conducting Schönberg's 1st Chamber Symphony and Berg's Chamber Concerto with the Asko|Schönberg Ensemble and Pierre-Laurent Aimard as soloist. With the Ensemble Modern, he will be a guest in the Happy New Ears series in Frankfurt and at the Offspring Festival in Prague. He will also be conducting the Estonian National Symphony Orchestra and the Boulez Ensemble in Berlin.
In recent seasons, Michael Wendeberg made his debuts with the Tokyo Symphony Orchestra with Debussy's Jeux and the world premiere of Isabel Mundry's Viola Concerto with Nils Mönkemeyer as well as at the Frankfurt Opera with the world premiere of Vito Žuraj's Blühen, combined with a portrait concert of the composer with the Ensemble Modern. He also returned to the Estonian National Symphony Orchestra as part of the AFEKT Festival. Further concerts have taken him to Birmingham, Bremen and Helsinki. He stood in for Daniel Barenboim at both the piano and the conductor's desk in concerts with works by Mozart, Boulez and Manoury with the Boulez Ensemble in Berlin and at the Philharmonie in Paris. He conducted a project with Simon Steen-Andersen and the WDR Symphony Orchestra in the ‘Musik der Zeit’ series in Cologne.
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.
Michael Wendeberg’s 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 2022 he gave his debut at the Semperoper Dresden with the world premiere of Torsten Rasch’s Die andere Frau. 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. He conducted Le Nozze di Figaro at the Tiroler Landestheater in Innsbruck in 2024.
Michael Wendeberg studied piano with Markus Stange, Bernd Glemser, Stefan Litwin 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 2024/25
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
“The quality of the TLT choir and Tiroler Symphonieorchester remains undisputed, with Michael Wendeberg as a precise conductor, who accentuates and softens in the right places, but also gives the singers the necessary space to shine in the arias.”
Tiroler Tageszeitung, Barbara Unterthurner, 29/4/2024 (on Le Nozze di Figaro at the Tiroler Landestheater)
“The conductor and pianist Michael Wendeberg accompanied all the recitatives with vigour on the fortepiano. Mozart's music was performed in a fresh, direct, virtuosic, and heartfelt manner, stimulating and with tastefully chosen tempi.”
Onlinemerker, Thomas Nußbaumer, 27/4/2024
“[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