Schedule

Italian conductor Beatrice Venezi leads the Orchestre national de Metz Grand Est and the Choeur de l'Opéra-Théâtre de Metz Métropole in a performance of Giacomo Puccini’s tragic opera Madama Butterfly (1904). The story revolves around Cio-Cio-San, the young Japanese geisha ‘Butterfly’ who marries the visiting American officer Pinkerton. Faithfully awaiting his return, she cannot accept that Pinkerton has abandoned her. Stage director Giovanna Spinelli’s 2021 production sets the story 35 years after the events of Puccini's original opera. It opens in a hospital room where an ailing Pinkerton, consumed by remorse, lies on his deathbed. Watched over by his American wife, Kate, and their son, Dolore, Pinkerton reveals the long-held secret of his son's birth mother. As he recounts the past, the room comes alive with its ghosts, presenting the story across two timelines at once. By shifting the narrative perspective, Spinelli delivers a gripping and moving new interpretation of this classic work. Among the soloists are Francesca Tiburzi, Thomas Bettinger, Vikena Kamenica, Jean-Luc Ballestra, Daegweon Choi, and Aurore Weiss. This performance was recorded at Opéra-Théâtre de Metz Métropole, France, in 2021.

A crossover experience inspired by the music of Mozart: the surprising and original Spirits of Mozart. In this crossover concert, outstanding personalities from the fields of pop, jazz and classical music interpret Mozart`s compositions in their personal musical languages for a broad public of the 21st century. These performances show that the impact of Mozart`s music reaches far beyond the boundaries of classical music. Performers like Dee Dee Bridgewater, the young violinist Benjamin Schmid with jazz band and orchestra, Jethro Tull’s singer-flautist Ian Anderson and many others present Mozart arrangements in a rousing, electrifying mélange of classical, jazz and pop culture.

Stefano Conticello leads the Orchestra of Teatro Comunale di Bologna in a Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart program. The concert opens with the Overture from Mozart’s popular opera “The Magic Flute”. This is followed by Piano Concerto No. 25 in C major, K. 503, with Maurizio Baglini as the featured soloist. Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 25 is just one of the twelve great piano concertos he composed during 1784 and 1786. The concert ends with Symphony No. 35 in D major, K. 385, also known as the “Haffner Symphony”. On the occasion of the ennoblement of Sigmund Haffner in 1782, the prominent Salzburg Haffner family of businessmen and philanthropists commissioned Mozart to compose a new piece. Mozart agreed, and initially wrote a serenade before recasting it as a symphony a few months later: the “Haffner Symphony”. This performance was recorded at the Teatro Comunale in Bologna, Italy.

Every year, the Europakonzert is hosted by the Berliner Philharmoniker in a notorious concert hall or on a special location. This years concert is performed at the magnificent Royal Albert Hall in London. The Dutch conductor Bernard Haitink starts with Tchaikovsky's Fantasy Overture from "Roméo et Juliette". The second piece by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart is his famous Violin Concerto No. 3 in G major K. 216 played by the German violinist Frank Peter Zimmermann. During his career he played with a lot of famous orchestras and conductors such as the Boston Symphony Orchestra and Mariss Jansons. He has a great passion for chamber music and plays a lot of recitals with the Italian pianist Enrico Pace. The concert closes with Stravinsky's The Rite of Spring which he wrote in 1913 for Sergei Diaghilev's Ballets Russes. The première caused a lot of sensation and near-riot in the audience because of the avant-garde nature, music and choreography of the piece. The Rite of Spring is now considered as one of the masterpieces of classical music history and has influenced many 20th-century music composers. The encore is Tchaikovsky's Flower Waltz from the Nutcracker.

Iván Fischer conducts the Budapest Festival Orchestra in a concert recorded at the Béla Bartók National Concert Hall in Budapest, Hungary in 2015. The concert opens with Sergei Prokofiev's Overture on Hebrew Themes, Op. 34. After this, Thomas Zehetmair stars as solo violinist in Prokofiev Violin Concerto No. 2, Op. 63. The second part of the concert is features music by Igor Stravinsky. On the program is music composed for the ballet 'Jeu de cartes' (1937) and the Firebird Suite, No. 2 (1919). 'Jeu de cartes' is one of Stravinsky's neo-classical works and consists of three parts ('deals'). The Firebird Suite, No. 2 is based on the music from the ballet of the same name, which was written for Sergei Diaghilev's Ballets Russes and premiered in Paris in 1910.

This splendid Christmas concert was recorded live from the Freiburg Cathedral in 1999. It features soprano Barbara Bonney, recognized worldwide for the clarity of her voice and the precision of her diction, and the baritone Matthias Goerne, one of the most promising singers of his generation. Accompanied by the Baroque Orchestra of Freiburg and the German Brass, they perform pieces from Bach's Christmas Oratorio (BWV 248), Mozart's Mass in C minor (KV 427), and Handel's Messiah.

Gioacchino Rossini's Petite Messe Solennelle was written in 1863, "the last", the composer called it, of my "péchés de vieillesse" (sins of old age). For its first performance (1864) Rossini arranged the work with only two pianos and harmonium. Partly for fear that it would be done anyway after his death, Rossini discreetly orchestrated the Petite Messe Solennelle during 1866-67, without losing its candor and subtlety. The resulting version had its first public performance on 28 February 1869, three months after the composer's death. "Mr Chailly's genius for the Rossini style has ripened with the years. His performance has daring and velocity”. Chailly conducts the Gewandhausorchester Leipzig, the Gewandhauschor and the Choir of the Leipzig Opera in an orchestral version from the Gewandhaus in Leipzig in 2008.

Léon Spierer conducts the Orquesta Sinfonica de Minería during the Concerto de San Silvestre. Soloist is soprano Jéssika Arévalo. The first part of this anniversary concert, shown in this program, features the following works: Johann Strauss Jr.'s Wiener Blut, Op. 354, "Meine Lippen, sie küssen so heiß" from Franz Léhar's musical comedy Giuditta, the Ouverture from Gioachino Rossini's opera Barber of Seville, "Vilja's Lied" from Franz Léhar's musical comedy Die Lustige Witwe, Johann Strauss Jr.'s An der Schönen Blauen Donau, Op. 314, "Carceleras" from Ruperto Chapi's Las Hijas del Zebedeo, and Johan Strauss's Sr.'s famous Radetzky March, Op. 228. This concert was recorded at Academia de Música del Palacio de Minería, Mexico City.

Pianist Adrian Herpe (France/Ukraine, 2000) performs Novellette No. 8 in F-sharp minor from Robert Schumann’s Novelletten, Op. 21; Domenico Scarlatti’s Sonata in B minor, K. 27, and Sonata in E minor, K. 98; and Guido Agosti’s transcription of Igor Stravinksy’s The Firebird Suite (Danse infernale, Berceuse, and Finale), during the first round of the Piano Edition of the Concours musical international de Montréal 2024 (CMIM). This performance was recorded at the Bourgie Hall of the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts.

Les Dissonances is a collective of artists founded by violinist David Grimal in 2004. The conductorless ensemble consists of musicians from the most prestigious European orchestras, international soloists, and young talents. In this performance, Les Dissonances play Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s Violin Concerto No. 4 in D major, K. 218. Leading violinist Grimal features as the soloist. With the exception of the first violin concerto, Mozart composed his other four violin concertos in 1775 at a time when he was concertmaster at the Salzburg court. Among his five concertos, Violin Concerto No. 4 is one of the best-known. This performance was recorded at Cité de la Musique, France, in 2014.

With three singers and three instrumentalists Ensemble Leones is ready for one of the finest gems of the Burgundian era: the Chansonnier Cordiforme, a manuscript of Italian and French love songs in the shape of a heart. Containing works by the most renowned polyphonists of the 15th century – Dufay, Morton, Binchois, Ockeghem – this manuscript represents a rich source of high-quality court music.

The 2019 documentary ‘Approaching the Maelström’ follows the process leading up to a recording of American composer Philip Glass’s composition ‘A Descent into the Maelström’. The work is based on American writer Edgar Allan Poe’s 1841 short story of two fishermen caught in torrents raging between the mountainous islands of Lofoten, Norway. Glass’s work, originally a choral piece for the Australian Dance Theatre, was only ever performed at the Adelaide Festival of Arts in 1986. Over thirty years later, in 2019, Beacon Isle Films recorded a symphonic arrangement of Glass’s work, performed by the Arctic Philharmonic Orchestra and Choir conducted by Tim Weiss with soprano Berit Norbakken Solset as the soloist. Their recording was made against the backdrop of Lofoten’s spectacular landscape: the very surroundings that inspired Poe’s story. Moreover, this inspiring documentary features a rare interview with Glass.

The Berliner Philharmoniker is one of the world’s finest orchestras, its fame stretching all the way to Japan. Unsurprisingly, this 2000 concert, recorded at Tokyo’s magnificent Suntory Hall, was a resounding success. Mariss Jansons conducts a beautiful program that includes Antonin Dvorák’s Symphony No. 8, Carl Maria von Weber’s Overture to Oberon, and Dmitri Shostakovich’s Violin Concerto featuring star violinist Hilary Hahn (*1979)

Misha Fomin performed romantic piano works at the Amsterdam Concertgebouw in November 2020. His recital opened with Ludwig van Beethoven's Piano Sonata No. 10, Op. 14/2 and Sonata No. 15, Op. 28 'Pastoral'. He continued the program with a performance of Frédéric Chopin's Nocturne Op. 9/1, Etude Op. 25/7, and Johannes Brahms's technically demanding 'Variations on a Theme by Paganini', Op. 35 (Book II). As an encore, Fomin performs Chopin/Liszt's Chant Polonais No. 5 'Meine Freunden'.

Soprano Heidi Baumgartner (Austria, 1998) and pianist Asuka Tagami (Japan, 1991) perform Franz Schubert’s Suleika I, Op. 14 No. 1, D. 720; ‘Er ist’s’ from Hugo Wolf’s Mörike-Lieder; Bart Visman’s Vermeer’s Gold; ‘Sua katselen’ (Looking at you) from Kaija Saariaho’s Leino-Laulut (Leino songs); and ‘Pantomime’ and ‘Apparition’ from Claude Debussy’s Quatre chansons de jeunesse, during the semi-finals of the International Vocal Competition 2021 – Lied Duo. This performance was recorded at Het Noordbrabants Museum in ’s-Hertogenbosch, the Netherlands.

After its initial rejection, Verdi’s unique opera La Traviata became one of the most acclaimed works of this composer. This love story brought the tragedy of Violetta Valéry and Alfredo to light. The rich courtesan has everything she wishes for, including money, friends, and lovers, but when she falls in love with the young Alfredo, she gets in trouble. Giorgio Germont, Alfredo’s father, disapproves the relationship and tells Violetto that she should leave Alfredo forever. This story brought Verdi legendary status through music with a profound sense of humanity and psychological portrayal of the characters and their feelings. Stage director David McVicar sets this drama in a world of romantic references while retaining an up-to-date perspective. The performance features Ermonela Jaho (Violetta Valéry), Francesco Demuro (Alfredo Germont) and Juan Jesús Rodriguez (Georgio Germont). The orchestra and chorus of the Teatro Real Madrid play under the baton of Renato Palumbo.