About the Music

Carnegie Hall salutes Vienna’s extraordinary artistic legacy with Vienna: City of Dreams, a three-week citywide festival during February and March 2014 that features symphonic and operatic masterpieces, chamber music, and lieder, as well as a sampling of new sounds that are emerging from this historic cultural capital. The celebration also goes citywide with events at leading cultural institutions, including film series, panel discussions, art exhibitions, and even a Viennese Opera Ball.

Acclaimed composer David Lang has been appointed as holder of the Richard and Barbara Debs Composer's Chair for Carnegie Hall's 2013–2014 season. Passionate and prolific, Lang embodies the restless spirit of invention with his creation of new forms that defy categorization. The musically omnivorous creator references folk, pop, and jazz influences in his compositions, while at the same time being deeply rooted in the classical tradition.

Carnegie Hall pays tribute to Benjamin Britten, one of the most remarkable British composers of the 20th century in celebration of the centenary of his birth with a series of performances of his vocal masterpieces and other compositions from his vast spectrum of works. This celebration is part of Britten 100, a global celebration of this prolific composer, organized by the Britten-Pears Foundation.

Renowned conductor Osmo Vänskä celebrates his Finnish compatriot Jean Sibelius by bringing his long-awaited Sibelius symphony cycle to Carnegie Hall with the Minnesota Orchestra. Regarded as some of the greatest works of the 20th century, each of the composer's seven symphonies has captivated audiences, from ominous brooding and bleak desolation to triumphant heroism. These masterpieces are performed alongside some of Sibelius's other symphonic gems and celebrated masterworks with distinguished soloists Hilary Hahn and Anne Sofie von Otter.

Emanuel Ax has long championed Brahms's inventive works for keyboard. Ax spotlights the enduring legacy of this seminal composer with this series of concerts, performing works by Brahms alongside compositions by Nico Muhly, Anders Hillborg, Brett Dean, and Missy Mazzoli, commissioned as homages to the iconoclast. These inventive programs highlight Brahms's bold approach to harmony and melody, and his dynamic craftsmanship, inspiring a whole new generation of compositional voices.

In Voices from Latin America, Carnegie Hall pays tribute to cultures—Brazil, Cuba, Mexico, and Venezuela—that have fueled the world’s imagination in a citywide festival.

Osvaldo Golijov has that distinctive ability to transcend musical boundaries and create music that not only reveals personal influences, but also has the emotional power to touch our souls.

Superstar soprano Renée Fleming brings the full breadth of her artistic curiosity to Carnegie Hall’s Perspectives residency.

This group of Israeli, Palestinian, and other Arab musicians continues its mission at Carnegie Hall this season with a complete cycle of Beethoven’s nine symphonies.