Schedule

Watch the series ‘Discovering Masterpieces’, your audio-visual concert guide to the great masterpieces of classical music. The series brings you 20 half-hour documentaries on 20 classical masterpieces: acclaimed experts, famous soloists and outstanding conductors take you on a journey back to the time and place of composition. In today’s documentary, Hector Berlioz’ ‘Symphonie Fantastique’. This ‘Fantastic Symphony’ is widely regarded as one of the most important and representative pieces of the early Romantic period. Leonard Bernstein once called it “the first musical expedition into psychedelia” because of its hallucinatory and dream-like nature. The German musicologist Wulf Konold describes the idea behind and the realization of this fascinating work.

In ca. 1600, composer Claudio Monteverdi (1567-1643) wrote new works for choir and soloists. In this period, Monteverdi combined traditional styles with newer ones, such as the madrigal and liturgical compositions. These compositions became an enormous success, cementing the composer’s reputation as one of the important figures in Baroque music. His example set the standard for all significant religious Baroque music styles, such as the oratorio, the cantata, and the passion. Actively combining various styles was not only put into practice in religious music, but also in opera. A great example of combined styles is the work ‘Vespro della beata vergine’ (ca. 1610), also known as the ‘Vespers for the Blessed Virgin’. Vespers like these were performed mainly in Roman-Catholic churches. Soloists: Dorothee Blotzki-Mields, Katharine Fuge, Mark Padmore, Jan Kobow, Furio Zanasi, Dominik Wörner.

Chinese pianist Lang Lang performs some of the greatest works in the piano repertoire at Berghain in Berlin in 2010. The concert program includes the first movement of Piano Sonata No. 23, op. 57, called Beethoven's Appassionata, the precipato of Prokofiev's Sonata No. 7, and the mention of Iberia (Book 1), the masterpiece of Isaac Albéniz. Lang Lang closes the evening with a powerful version of the ''Heroic'' Polonaise, op. 53 from Chopin.

Italian composer Claudio Monteverdi (1567-1643) composed nine books of madrigals in half a century, which helped transform the genre from the polyphonic, a cappella madrigals of the late Renaissance to the ‘concertato’ madrigals of the early Baroque, shifting the style’s focus to the ability of music to express emotions contained in a text. In 2011, British tenor Paul Agnew and renowned Baroque ensemble Les Arts Florissants started recording eight books of Monteverdi’s madrigals. In this program, Agnew leads Les Arts Florissants in the madrigals of Book III. Published in 1592, the book contains twenty madrigals for five voices. This performance was recorded at the Cité de la musique in Paris, France, in 2012.

This concert entitled 'Liszt Mosaics' is dedicated to the rich traditonal of Hungarian Folk Music. The concert opens with a selection of Bartók's 44 Duos for 2 Violins (No. 17, 18, 36 and 44) performed by Shlomo Mintz and Radics Ferenc. Furthermore, Pál Eszter is accompanied by the Hungarian State Folk Ensemble and Cameristi della Scala in vocal performances of Hungarian Folk Music from the Kalotaszeg region. The ensembles conclude the concert by performing Romanian Folk Dances by Bartók, led by musical director István Pál Szalonna. Solo violinist is Agnese Ferraro.

A true celebration is to welcome the New Year with one of the best orchestras in the world. The Gala from Berlin 2003 presents the outstanding Berliner Philharmoniker, conducted by Sir Simon Rattle with works by Maurice Ravel ("Pavane pour une infante défunte"; "La Valse"; Daphnis et Chloé, Suite Nr. 2) and songs by George Gershwin: "By Strauss", "How Long Has This Been Going On", "Nice Work If You Can Get It", "Embaceable You", "'S Wonderful" and "A Foggy Day". Vocal soloist of this evening is the fabulous Jazz diva Dianne Reeves. Grammy Award-winner Dianne Reeves was born into a musically gifted family in Detroit. With her rich, expressive natural voice, her rhythmic virtuosity and improvisational ease, she was clearly born of jazz. Reeves is accompanied by Peter Martin (piano), Rueben Rogers (bass) and Greg Hutchinson (drums).

Conrad van Alphen conducts Sinfonia Rotterdam in a performance of Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky’s Overture-Fantasy “Romeo and Juliet”. Van Alphen founded Sinfonia Rotterdam in 2000. Under his passionate leadership, this orchestra has developed into one of the Netherland’s best-known orchestras. Tchaikovsky based his composition on Shakespeare’s famous play “Romeo and Juliet”. After finishing a first version of Romeo and Juliet in 1870, Tchaikovsky rewrote sections of the composition twice, completing the third and final version ten years later. The Overture-Fantasy opens with a slow introduction, primarily led by the clarinets and bassoons. The composition is dominated by its famous love theme, representing the love between Romeo and Juliet. This beautiful theme is introduced in the first half of the piece, played by the English horn and violas, and recurs in different sections of the composition. At the end, the love theme is heard in minor mode, which emphasized the tragic element of the story of the two lovers.

Choreographed by Charles Jude, the ballet Giselle by Jean Coralli and Jules Perrot, with music by Adolphe Adam, tells the story of a lovely peasant girl by the same name. Giselle was first presented at Théâtre de l'Académie Royale de Musique in Salle Le Peletier in Paris on June 28, 1841. The story is set in the Rhineland of the Middle Ages during the grape harvest. Giselle falls in love with Albrecht, the Duke of Silesia. Hilarion, a gamekeeper, is also in love with Giselle and warns the girl against trusting a stranger, but she refuses to listen. Albrecht and Giselle dance a love duet, with Giselle picking the petals from a daisy to divine her lover's sincerity. When Giselle discovers Albrecht is going to marry Bathilde, she dies of a broken heart. Performed at the Opéra national de Bordeaux in 2011, this ballet features dancers Oxana Kucheruk (Giselle) and Igor Yebra (Albrecht).

Every year since 1991, the Berliner Philharmoniker has given concerts in a different European city on each May 1st. These concerts have become known as ‘Europakonzert’. Every guest city has its own special cultural importance. These concerts have served two purposes: to commemorate the anniversary of the orchestra’s founding on May 1st, 1882, and to celebrate the common heritage of the Old World. In 1991, soon after the opening of the Eastern European countries, the first Europakonzert took place in the Czech Republic in Prague. This decision was a deliberate step and an expression of willingness to support and to bring forward the democratization and the political social changes, especially in the cultural area. In 1996 the Europakonzert took place once again in Prague (at the National Theatre). To continue this tradition the Europakonzert 2013 was celebrated at the Prague Castle at the historical Spanish Hall. Conductor: Sir Simon Rattle. Soloist: Magdalena Kozená. Works: Ralph Vaughan Williams, Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis, Antonín Dvořák, Ten Biblical Songs, Opus 99. Ludwig van Beethoven, Symphony No. 6 in F Major, Op. 68.

In summer 2007 the New York Philharmonic received an invitation that was unprecedented in the orchestra's history. North Korea, the world's most isolated and secluded country and technically at war with the United States, invited the orchestra to play in the capital of Pyongyang. Just a few months later, two hundred orchestra members and more than one hundred journalists disembarked from a chartered plane at Pyongyang's deserted airport. They were about to experience a historic moment, the first-ever performance by an American orchestra in the Democratic People's Republic of Korea. The film 'Americans in Pyongyang' accompanies the orchestra members on their historic trip to Pyongyang in February 2008.

Riccardo Frizza conducts the Orchestra Gli Originali and the Coro Donizetti Opera in a performance of Geatano Donizetti’s comic opera L’elisir d’amore (‘The Elixer of Love’, 1832). L’elisir d’amore is perhaps the most famous work in Donizetti’s extensive repertoire. It tells the story of the poor peasant Nemorino who is in love with the beautiful landowner Adina. After hearing about the legend of Tristan and Isolde, the desperate Nemorino wonders if a love potion would help him to gain Adina’s love. He seeks help of the travelling quack Dr. Dulcamara, from whom he purchases a bottle of magic elixir. Directed by Frederic Wake-Walker, this 2021 production is unique as it features the complete, original score as reconstructed by Alberto Zedda based on Donizetti’s autographs. In addition, the orchestra plays on historical instruments to recreate the sound of Donizetti’s orchestra. Among the soloists are Caterina Sala (Adina), Javier Camarena (Nemorino), Florian Sempey (Belcore), Roberto Frontali (Dulcamara), Anaïs Mejías (Giannetta), and Manuel Ferreira (Master of ceremonies). This performance was part of the Donizetti Opera Festival, recorded at Teatro Donizetti in Bergamo, Italy, in 2021.

Russian pianist Dina Ivanova performs Franz Liszt’s Totentanz, S. 525, during the Solo finals of the 11th International Franz Liszt Piano Competition, held at TivoliVredenburg in Utrecht, the Netherlands. Totentanz (Dance of Death) is one of Liszt’s many works that reflect the Romantic composer’s fascination with death. The piece is a series of variations on the macabre Gregorian Dies irae theme.

Italian organist Enrico Viccardi plays Tomaso Albinoni’s (1684-1748) Concert in F in an arrangement for organ by J. G. Walther and the fugue, and the rondo from Dixhuit Pièces pour Orgue ou Piano-Forte by Dutch composer Christian Friedrich Ruppe (1753-1826).

The film Jaroussky sings Bach & Telemann is a portrait of a very special vocalist, and of two exceptional composers. When Philippe Jaroussky - whose angelic voice seems almost timeless, not belonging to any one epoque or decade - sings works by Telemann and Bach, it becomes abundantly clear that the sheer emotional force and the purifying power of their music have not diminished over the centuries. The works performed in this film are Telemann's Jesus liegt in letzten Zügen and Sinfonia from Brockes-Passion; Der am Ölberg zagende Jesus, and Bach's Sinfonia from Ich hatte viel Bekümmernis and Ich habe genug.