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Arts & Culture

Great Performances: Vienna Philharmonic Summer Night 2012

The Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra performs under the stars in the magnificent gardens of Austria’s Imperial Schönbrunn Palace, June 7, 2012.
Courtesy of Richard Schuster
The Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra performs under the stars in the magnificent gardens of Austria’s Imperial Schönbrunn Palace, June 7, 2012.

Airs Friday, August 31, 2012 at 9 p.m. on KPBS TV

Distinguished conductor Gustavo Dudamel leads the fourth annual "Vienna Philharmonic Summer Night Concert 2012" concert to be telecast on GREAT PERFORMANCDES. This year’s theme revolves around “Dances & Waves,” as exemplified by the works of Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky, Alexander Borodin, Claude Debussy, Richard Strauss, Amilcare Ponchielli, Gerónimo Giménez and Johann Strauss II.

The Music

Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky: Polonaise from the Opera "Eugene Onegin,” op. 24

Alexander Borodin : Polovetsian Dances from the Opera "Prince Igor"

Claude Debussy: La Mer

Richard Strauss: Salome's Dance from the Opera "Salome,” op. 54

Amilcare Ponchielli : Dance of the Hours from the Opera "La Gioconda"

Encores:

Johann Strauss: Wiener Blut, Waltz, op. 354

Gerónimo Giménez: Intermezzo from the Zarzuela “La Boda de Luis Alonso”

The outdoor concert under the stars in the magnificent baroque gardens of Imperial Schönbrunn Palace is free to thousands of attendees in Vienna, and serves the orchestra’s objective of making classical music accessible to a broad spectrum of concertgoers beyond its usual, core audience.

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Dancers of the Vienna State Opera Ballet join the orchestra for the celebration. The concert was recorded June 7, 2012.

Gustavo Dudamel was born in Venezuela in 1981. His career has been meteoric, and at the tender age of 31, he conducts and has conducted the world’s most prestigious orchestras.

He spearheads a most unusual project in his native country which, through classical music, brings together children and young people from all social backgrounds. Since 2009 he has also been musical director of the Los Angeles Philharmonic.

Combining the Los Angeles Philharmonic and the Venezuelan Simon Bolivar Orchestra, he recently established a record, performing Gustav Mahler’s Eighth Symphony, “Symphony of a Thousand,” with more than 1,000 musicians in Caracas. The event was broadcast worldwide in cinemas.

He originally planned to study the violin, but at the age of 12 his talent for conducting was spotted and thanks to Venezuela’s publicly financed voluntary sector music education program, “El Sistema,” he enjoyed his rise to fame.

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"Vienna Philharmonic Summer Night Concert 2012" is directed by Michael Beyer, with John Walker as producer. For "Vienna Philharmonic Summer Night Concert 2012," Sandra Marchart and Heidelinde Rudy are producers. For GREAT PERFORMANCES, John Walker is producer; Bill O’Donnell is series producer; David Horn is executive producer.

GREAT PERFORMANCES is on Facebook. Gustavo Dudamel is on Facebook, and you can follow @GustavoDudamel on Twitter.

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Watch Vienna Philharmonic Summer Night 2012 Preview on PBS. See more from Great Performances.

Join conductor Gustavo Dudamel and the renowned Vienna Philharmonic under the stars in the magnificent gardens of Austria’s Imperial Schönbrunn Palace. Vienna Ballet dancers join the orchestra in celebration of the world of dance in music by Tchaikovsky, Mussorgsky and Richard Strauss. The concert also features performances of Debussy’s “La Mer” and the Austrian favorite “Wiener Blut” (“Viennese Blood”) by waltz king Johann Strauss.
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Watch Vienna Philharmonic Summer Night Concert Dance of the Hours on PBS. See more from Great Performances.

Under the baton of the dynamic and electric guest maestro, Gustavo Dudamel, the Vienna Philharmonic performs the finale of Amilcare Ponchielli’s “Dance of the Hours” from the opera “La Gioconda.”