Schedule

The beautiful Mariinsky Theatre in St. Petersburg formed the background for the 1996 edition of the annual Europakonzert of the Berliner Philharmoniker. In honour of the Russian hosts, the concert opened with highlights from Prokofiev's 'Romeo and Juliet', followed by the Cavatina from Rachmaninoff's opera 'Aleko'. After the intermission, Kolja Blacher featured in the two 'Violin Romances' by Beethoven, followed by a performance of his 'Seventh Symphony'. The orchestra is led by maestro Claudio Abbado.

Daniel Harding leads the Orchestra and Choir of the Maggio Musicale Fiorentino and four vocal soloists in a magnificent performance of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s Requiem in D minor, K. 626. The soloists are soprano Christiane Karg, mezzosoprano Sara Mingardo, tenor Matthew Swensen, and bass Gianluca Buratto. The Austrian Count Walsegg commissioned Mozart to compose a Requiem in July 1791 to commemorate his late wife, Anna. At the time, Mozart was busy working on his operas La clemenza di Tito and The Magic Flute. By the time he started on the Requiem, in the fall of that same year, his health was seriously declining. Mozart passed away in December 1791, leaving the Requiem uncompleted. His pupil Franz Xaver Süssmayr completed Mozart’s swan song in the form known today, based on Mozart’s sketches and possibly verbal instructions. This performance was recorded at Teatro del Maggio Musicale Fiorentino in Florence, Italy, in 2021.

Raúl Delgado conducts the Orquesta Sinfonica de Minería in a concert program dedicated to Mexican composers. This program, which includes the second part of the concert, features the following works: Blas Galindo's "Sones de Mariachi", Arturo Marquez's Danzón No. 2, José Pablo Moncayo's "Huapango", and Genero Codina's "March of Zacatecas". This concert was recorded at the Academia de Música del Palacio de Minería in Mexico City in 2019.

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 Serenade No. 10 for winds in B-flat major, K. 361, also known as the ‘Gran Partita’. The composition is written for twelve winds and double bass and consists of seven parts. The piece’s duration is longer than the composer’s other chamber music works. Remarkably, Mozart chose to use a larger instrumentation. To the eight instruments of the common wind octet, Mozart added two basset horns, two additional horns, and a double bass. This performance was recorded at Philharmonie de Paris, France, in 2015.

Russian pianist Nikolay Lugansky has received world-wide praise for his interpretations of the music of Sergei Rachmaninoff. In this wonderful recital, the great pianist presents works by the Russian Romantic composer as well as Ludwig van Beethoven and Alexander Glazunov. Lugansky opens his concert with Beethoven’s Piano Sonata No. 14 in C-sharp minor, Op. 27 No. 2, ‘Moonlight’, followed by Alexander Glazunov’s Piano Sonata No. 2 in E minor, Op. 75. Then Lugansky performs a selection of works by Rachmaninoff: Rachmaninoff’s piano transcription of J. S. Bach’s Partita No. 3 in E major; a selection of Études-Tableaux (Nos. 1, 2, 4, and 8, Op, 33, and Nos. 5 and 6, Op. 39); Lilac (Op. 21, No. 5); Prelude in C minor, Op. 23 No. 7; and Rachmaninoff’s transcription of Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky’s Lullaby (Op. 16 No. 1). This performance was recorded at the Tchaikovsky Concert Hall in Moscow, Russia, on June 4, 2021.

Russian violinist, conductor and composer Aleksey Igudesman and British-Korean pianist and composer Hyung-ki Joo started their dynamic duo in 2004, when they created their show “A Little Nightmare Music,” a humorous take on Mozart’s “Eine Kleine Nachtmusik.” Since then, they have been performing at international festivals and touring internationally, often collaborating with artists from within and outside of the classical genre. “Big Nightmare Music” adds an orchestra to their two-man show. On top of favorites from their duo show, like Mozart Bond, Alla Molto Turca, and Cleaning vs. Riverdancing, the show boasts several uproarious sketches, tailor-made for a symphony orchestra, drawing everyone into their act, from the first violinist to the last percussionist. Their 2017 performance at the Grieghallen in Bergen, Norway, is conducted by Andrew Litton.

This Sonata for Violin and Harpsichord No.6 BWV 1019 is the last of the set of sonatas that Johann Sebastian Bach composed before 1725, probably while working as chapel master in Köthen. He presumably wrote these sonatas for Prince Leopold and later adapted them for further use in Leipzig. Maybe this is why these pieces are well playable for amateurs, while every sonata still has the finesse that can offer a challenge to professional musicians. The different pieces are meant to be a set, just like the Brandenburg concertos, but this last sonata is different from the others in that it has five sections instead of four.

Anton Bruckner's Symphony No. 9 can be seen as a farewell to life. Even as Bruckner began working on it in 1887, his health had begun to fail. He expressed the hope that "God will grant me enough time to complete it," and worked on it assiduously over the next years. But by late 1894 he had completed only the first three movements. When he died on 11 October 1896, he left six different versions of the finale, all of them incomplete. Despite its incompleteness, the work is monumental and evokes the grandeur of a majestic cathedral. The details of this architectural colossus are worked out with astonishing transparency by Franz Welser-Möst and the Cleveland Orchestra. The orchestra’s powerfully contoured and sharply profiled interpretation was recorded live in late October 2007 at the magnificent "Golden Hall" of Vienna's fabled Musikverein where the work was given its premiere.

The 2007 Europa-Konzert takes place in Berlin, on the occasion of the 125th anniversary of the Berliner Philharmoniker. Under the theme "The Year 1882", the acclaimed orchestra is lead by conductor Sir Simon Rattle as it interprets Brahms’ “Concerto for violin, cello and orchestra”, his Fourth Symphony and Wagners’ “Prelude to Act I” from Parsifal - the piece that marked the orchestra's first recorded work of September 1913 under the baton of Alfred Hertz. The soloists are Lisa Batiashvili (violin) and Truls Mørk (cello), established as sought-after young virtuosos and appearing regularly with leading orchestras and in recitals throughout the world. The “Kraftwerk und Kabelwerk Oberspree (power and cable factory)”, the remarkable venue of this concert, is one of the most impressive historical industrial building from the late 19th century in Berlin. As its impressive presence is infused with Brahms and Wagner, there is an air of total commitment, only enhanced further by the unusual surroundings. The collaboration of Lisa Batiashvili and Truls Mørk ensures a moving performance of Brahms’s last orchestral work, his Double Concerto. Following this, Rattle and the orchestra continue to demonstrate their outstanding musicianship, delivering Wagner's amazingly fresh and dynamic Fourth Symphony.

Maestro Mariss Jansons conducts the Berlin Philharmonic in a performance of Hector Berlioz' Symphonie fantastique, Op. 14. This performance is part of the Europakonzert 2001, recorded at Hagia Irene in Istanbul, Turkey.

Bernard Haitink conducts the Berliner Philharmoniker at the Easter Festival in Baden-Baden, 2015. On the program is Ludwig van Beethoven’s Symphony No. 6 in F major, Op. 68. The composer wrote his Symphony No. 6 between 1802 and 1808. Nicknamed "Pastoral Symphony," this piece is one of the few examples of program music for the German composer. Unlike other Beethoven symphonies, this piece has not four, but five movements, each with a programmatic title.

In May and June 2021, Argentinian star pianist Martha Argerich celebrated her 80th birthday performing at Château de Chantilly, France. In this concert, recorded at the festival Les Coups de Cœur de Chantilly, Argerich is joined by three musicians who are particularly close to her heart: cellist Mischa Maisky, violinist Maxim Vengerov, and pianist Iddo Bar-Shaï. They perform with the orchestra Les Siècles under the baton of Romanian-Austrian conductor Ion Marin. The concert opens with Ludwig van Beethoven’s Triple Concerto in C major, Op. 56, with Argerich, Vengerov, and Maisky as soloists. Written in 1803, it is Beethoven’s only concerto for more than one solo instrument. This is followed by Camille Saint-Saëns’s musical suite The Carnival of the Animals (Le carnaval des animaux), featuring Argerich and Bar-Shaï as the pianists. This musical suite from 1886 consists of 14 movements, each depicting a different animal. The work was published posthumously in 1922, as Saint-Saëns was concerned that his animal miniatures, full of delightful jokes, might damage his reputation as a serious composer. This performance was recorded at Château de Chantilly, on May 4, 2021.

Austrian conductor Franz Welser-Möst leads his Cleveland Orchestra in a performance of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s Divertimento No. 2 in D major, KV 131, and Arnold Schoenberg’s Variations for Orchestra, Op. 31, recorded at Severance Hall in Cleveland, USA. In addition, Welser-Möst takes a walk through ‘his’ Vienna, enlightening us on this musical capital that was home to both Mozart and Schoenberg. He contrasts the Divertimento No. 2, written by 16-year-old Mozart, with Variations for Orchestra, by the mature Schoenberg.

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’ string quartet – consisting of David Grimal (violin), Hans Peter Hofmann (violin), David Gaillard (viola), and Xavier Phillips (cello) – performs Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s String Quartet No. 19 in C major, K. 465, ‘Dissonance’ (Op. 10 No. 6). The String Quartet is the last in the set of six quartets that were dedicated to Joseph Haydn. Written between 1782 and 1785, these are also known as the Haydn Quartets (Op. 10). String Quartet No. 19 is remarkable for its slow, dissonant introduction, giving the piece its nickname. This ominous passage suddenly gives way to the bright Allegro in C major. This performance was recorded at Opéra Comique in Paris, France, in 2015.

Mexican conductor Carlos Miguel Prieto leads the Orquesta Sinfónica de Minería in a performance of Sergei Prokofiev’s Peter and the Wolf, Op. 67. Written in 1936, Peter and the Wolf is a short, narrated orchestral suite, telling the story of a brave boy named Peter, who lives with his grandfather on the edge of a forest. With the help of his animal friends, Peter outsmarts a villainous wolf and captures it, eventually leading it to the zoo. Maestro Prieto gives an introduction to the different parts of the suite. In each part, each character is represented by a different instrument or instrument section, offering a vivid introduction to the orchestra's instrumental families. This performance was recorded at Auditorio Nacional in Mexico City, in 2021.