Schedule

Iphigénie en Tauride (1779) is a four-act tragic opera by German-born composer Christoph Willibald Gluck. Written for the French stage, the work’s premiere in 1779 at the Parisian Royal Academy of Music was a great success. Iphigénie en Tauride is one of the composer’s ‘reform operas’, meaning that the music was to follow the drama and its expression. Nicolas-François Guillard’s libretto is based on Claude Guimond de La Touche’s play of the same name, but ultimately it derives from Euripides’s famous ancient Greek drama. Set shortly after the Trojan War, Iphigénie, who was to be sacrificed by her father Agamemnon, is saved and carried off by the goddess Diana to Tauris, where Iphigénie becomes Diana’s high priestess. Diego Fasolis conducts the Orchestre National des Pays de la Loire and the Chœur d’Angers Nantes Opéra in this production. Among the soloists are Marie-Adeline Henry (Iphigénie), Charles Rice (Oreste), Sébastien Droy (Pylade), Jean-Luc Ballestra (Thoas), and Élodie Hache (Diane). This performance was recorded at the Grand Théâtre d’Angers, France, in 2020.

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.

In 2013, the Finnish conductor Hannu Lintu was appointed principal conductor of the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra. Lintu studied piano and cello at the Sibelius Academy and the Turku conservatorium in Sweden’s southeast. He started conducting at the Sibelius Academy. His many concerts with the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra in 2012 made him the obvious replacement for Sakari Oramo, who, after many years as conductor and concert master, terminated his contract in 2012. The orchestra specializes in the performance of Finnish music, but also performs the great masterpieces of Gustav Mahler and Béla Bartók. The Finnish composer Jean Sibelius is the orchestra’s favourite, as well as the conductor. In cooperation with Finland’s national public broadcasting company Yle, all seven Sibelius symphonies are recorded and broadcast. After a brief spoken introduction about the piece, the orchestra performs the complete symphony. While composing his Symphony No. 5, Sibelius was also sketching his Symphony No. 6, using a number of ideas he could not fit in his No. 5 for No. 6. The music is based on modal lines, which are often used in church music. His Symphony No. 6 has few melodic lines and a slightly gloomier atmosphere. For that reason, Sibelius added the description ‘When shadows lengthen’ to the title.

Violinists Francesca Dego and Domenico Nordio and pianist Andrea Bacchetti perform Serenade in A major, Op. 92 by Norwegian composer Christian Sinding (1856-1941). Together with Edvard Grieg, Sinding was Norway’s best-known composer at the turn of the century. Composing in the late Romantic style, Sinding’s oeuvre includes a large number of piano pieces, chamber music, and songs. The composer wrote two serenades for two violins and piano: Op. 56 and Op. 92. His Serenade Op. 92 dates from 1909 and consists, like his other Serenade, of five movements. This performance was recorded at Teatro Comunale Città di Vicenza, Italy, on December 2, 2013.

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.

Baritone Arvid Fagerfjäll (Sweden, 1991) and pianist Hikaru Kanki (Japan, 1993) perform Franz Schubert’s An mein Herz, D. 860; ‘Die Aufgeregten’ from Arnold Schönberg’s Sechs Lieder, Op. 3; ‘A poison tree’ from Benjamin Britten’s The red cockatoo and other songs; Bart Visman’s Vermeer’s Gold; ‘La mer est plus belle’ from Claude Debussy’s Trois mélodies de Paul Verlaine, L. 81; Gabriel Fauré’s Prison, Op. 83, No. 1; and ‘Die Geister am Mummelsee’ from Hugo Wolf’s Mörike-Lieder, 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.

From the Barockschloss in Rammenau the Gewandhaus-Quartett plays Mozart’s String Quartet No. 19 in C-major, KV. 465. This work is nicknamed "Dissonance" due to its unusual slow introduction with dissonant notes before the harmony resolving in the key of C-major, starting the bright Allegro section. It is perhaps the most famous of Mozart’s quartets and the last of a set of six quartets composed between 1782 and 1785 which the composer dedicated to colleague and friend Joseph Haydn. The Gewandhaus-Quartett is the longest established string quartet in the world. Founded in 1808, it can be seen as a remarkable part of the western history of music, having continued its concert activity uninterrupted from generation to generation with great success for almost 200 years. In this performance, it consists of Frank Michael Erben (1st violin), Conrad Suske (2nd violin), Volker Metz (viola), Jürnjakob Timm (cello) and Steffen Adelmann (doublebass).

Argentinian conductor and harpsichordist Leonardo García Alarcón leads his ensemble Cappella Mediterranea in a program of Italian Baroque music. The ensemble performs some of the finest Baroque pieces composed by Francesco Cavalli, a prominent composer in 17th-century Venice, and two of his famous students, Barbara Strozzi and Antonia Bembo. Argentinian soprano Mariana Flores presents the vocal works. On the program are ‘Mira questi due lumi’ from Cavalli’s Le nozze di Teti e di Peleo, ‘Dimmi, Amor, che farò’ from L'Oristeo, ‘Sinfonia della notte’ from L’Egisto, and ‘E vuol dunque Ciprigna’ from Ercole Amante; ‘M’ingannasti in verità’ from Bembo’s Produzioni armoniche consacrate a Luigi XIV; Strozzi’s Sino alla morte, Che si può fare, Lagrime mie, L’amante segreto, and è Pazzo il moi core; Biagio Marini’s La Romanesca; Tarquinio Merula’s Aria Sopra La Cieccona; and Dario Castello’s Sonata Seconda. This performance was recorded at the magnificent Église Notre-Dame of Sablé-sur-Sarthe, France, on August 26, 2020.

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)

Pianist Michelle Candotti (Italy, 1996) performs Barbara Assiginaak’s Mzizaakok Miiniwaa Mzizaakoonsak (Horseflies and Deerflies); Franz Liszt’s Après une lecture du Dante, fantasia quasi sonata (Années de pèlerinage, deuxième année, S. 161: No. 7); ‘Pavane’ from George Enescu’s Suite No. 2 in D major, Op. 10; Étude No. 111 in G minor from Hélène de Montgeroult’s Études; and Sergei Prokofiev’s Sonata No. 7 in B-flat major, Op. 83, during the solo recital of the two-part semi-final 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.

Can we get into Beethoven’s creative mind, especially in the last phase of his life, when he was coping with severe hearing loss? Tom Beghin’s new recording of Beethoven’s Piano Sonatas Opus 109, 110, and 111 is an artistic exploration of how Beethoven’s musicking was shaped by the work environment he created with the help of colleagues and friends. Not only does pianist Tom Beghin perform Beethoven’s trilogy of pianistic masterpieces on a magnificent new replica of Beethoven’s Broadwood piano, he uses a reconstruction of the Gehörmaschine that was mounted on the composer’s piano so he could continue to create music as his hearing declined. ‘You do hear better when you bring your head under this machine, don’t you?’ André Stein asked Beethoven. Two centuries later, we too can bring our heads under the machine and wonder: Do we hear Beethoven differently? Beghin draws us inside the hearing machine, where we feel as well as hear the essence of Beethoven’s rambunctious and irresistibly poetic musical vibrations. Inside the Hearing Machine invites us into the multisensory playground of a deaf composer for whom the machine was more than a hearing aid and who interacted with his instrument through much more than sound.

"It would be hard to find anything greater, more significant or more moving anywhere in musical life today: total harmony of mind and heart, poetry and outcry, fear and consolation, knowing and feeling," declared the Berne paper Der Bund after this stunning performance of Mahler's Resurrection Symphony in August 2003 by the newly founded Lucerne Festival Orchestra. Claudio Abbado had formed this ensemble from famous instrumentalists, celebrated chamber-musicians and experienced soloists from the world's best orchestras, and the event was sold out months in advance. In this performance, the magnificent soloists Eteri Gvazava (soprano) and Anna Larsson (mezzo-soprano) are accompanied by Orfeón Donostiarra choir.