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14A02:37:002003HD

Das Rheingold is the prologue to Richard Wagner's Ring Cycle. This rendition (2003) features the Staatsoper Stuttgart under the baton of conductor Lothar Zagrosek. Tonight’s soloists are Wolfgang Probst, Motti Kastón, Bernhard Schneider, Robert Künzli, Esa Ruuttunen, Eberhard Francesco Lorenz and Roland Bracht. With beautiful orchestration and an unerring sense of the dramatic, the first opera explains how the Rhinedaughters lost the Ring and how it fell into the hands of Alberich the Nibelung; Wotan, king of the gods; and Fafner the giant. Each time it changes hands, the Ring confers upon the bearer a curse and this pattern is set to continue until it is restored to its rightful owners, the daughters of the Rhine.

02:37
Europakonzert 2007 - Berlin
G01:43:002007HD
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.

G00:41:001994HD

The Berliner Philharmoniker, Daniel Barenboim and Claudio Abbado star at the Europakonzert 1994 in Meiningen, Germany, performing Ludwig van Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 5 and Johannes Brahms’ Symphony No. 2. Popularly known as the Emperor Concerto and composed in Vienna between 1809 and 1811, Piano Concerto No. 5 is Beethoven’s last completed piano concerto and often performed by star pianists such as Daniel Barenboim. A few decades later in 1877, Brahms completed his Second Symphony, which is often compared to Beethoven’s Sixth Symphony given its cheerful and pastoral character.

G00:21:002020HD

Cellist Nicolas Altstaedt performs J. S. Bach's Suite No. 5 in C minor for cello solo, BWV 1011. This performance was recorded at St. Mary’s Church in Wittenberg, Germany.

G00:23:001993HD

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.

G00:12:002016HD

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.

G00:55:001992HD

Maestro Sergiu Celibidache conducted the Berliner Philharmoniker from 1945 to 1954, and once in 1992. Wolfgang Becker's documentary The Triumphant Return documents Celibidache's long-awaited return to the Berlin Philharmonic after a 38-year-absence. Discover extensive footage from the rehearsals of Anton Bruckner's Symphony No. 7 (the only video recording in existence of Celibiadache), interviews with former orchestra members, and Celibidache's final concert with the Berliner Philharmoniker.

G01:29:002016HD

The Messiah (HWV 56) by Georg Frederich Handel, also known as “A New Sacred Oratorio”, tells the life and suffering of Christ: a story of passion, fire, and sacrifice. This is one of Handel's best-known works, which took only three weeks to compose this oratorio and its famous "Hallelujah". The work has immense popularity since its premiere in Dublin in 1742, and is often presented at Easter. This performance of the Dutch ensemble Ribattuta Musica under the direction of conductor Dick Duijst was filmed in the grand church of the city of Ermelo, the Netherlands, in 2016. The soloists are Elvire Beekhuizen (soprano), Rosina Fabius (viola), Oscar Verhaar (counter-tenor) Satriya Krisna (tenor), and Hans Voschezang (bass). Ribattuta Musica is a professional ensemble that delivers authentic performances based on current musical practices at the time of the composers.

G00:37:002014HD

Franz Welser-Möst conducts The Cleveland Orchestra in this performance of Brahms' Symphony No. 3. A late-romantic treasure, this work demonstrates the evolution of the composer's modest symphonic output, balancing the brightness of his Second Symphony with the monumentality of his Fourth Symphony. Strangely enough, even though the Third reaches several glorious outpourings of massed winds and strings, the work ends in pianissimo, leaving the listener taken aback, reflective rather than jubilant. This performance was recorded at the Vienna Musikverein, Austria, in 2014.

G00:31:002024HD

Pianist Michelle Candotti (Italy, 1996) performs Frédéric Chopin’s Barcarolle in F-sharp major, Op. 60; Franz Liszt’s Paraphrase de concert sur Ernani II, S. 432; and Béla Bartók’s Piano Sonata, Sz. 80, 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.

G00:26:002021HD

Acclaimed classical music talent scout Antonio Mormone (1930-2017) lives on as the name-giver of the Premio Internazionale Antonio Mormone (PIAM), awarded to the winner of the Italian music competition of the same name. The first edition of this competition, which was held in various venues in Milan from 2019 to 2021, was dedicated to the piano. As part of this competition, Leonardo Colafelice (Italy, 1995) performs Felix Mendelssohn’s Variations sérieuses, Op. 54, and Frédéric Chopin’s “Heroic” Polonaise in A-flat major, Op. 53. This performance was recorded at Nuovo Teatro Ariberto in Milan, in May, 2021.

G00:57:002019HD

Conrad van Alphen conducts Sinfonia Rotterdam and the Nationaal Vrouwen Jeugdkoor in a performance of Gustav Holst’s The Planets, Op. 32, recorded at De Doelen, Rotterdam, in 2019. Van Alphen founded Sinfonia Rotterdam in 2000. Under his passionate leadership, this orchestra has developed into one of the Netherland’s best-known orchestras. Holst worked on his orchestral suite The Planets, as an expression of his interest in astrology, from 1914 to 1916. The Planets consists of seven movements, each one named after the planet known at that time (excluding Earth), and its corresponding astrological character: “Mars: the Bringer of War”, “Venus: the Bringer of Peace”, “Mercury: the Winged Messenger”, “Jupiter: the Bringer of Jollity”, “Saturn: the Bringer of Old Age”, “Uranus: the Magician”, and “Neptune: the Mystic”. The middle section of Jupiter features a glorious melody that has become widely known. Holst adapted this melody when he set the poem “I Vow to thee to thy Country” to music. The last movement of The Planets includes a women’s choir, lending the music its mysterious, celestial atmosphere.

G01:07:002022HD

The Rina Sala Gallo International Piano Competition takes place every two years in the Italian city of Monza. Founded in 1947 by Monza-born pianist Rina Sala Gallo and Brescia-born pianist Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli, the competition is one of Monza’s most prestigious cultural events today. This broadcast featuring the three finalists’ best performances from the competition’s 26th edition, were recorded at the Villa Reale di Monza in October 2022. First, Young Sun Choi (South Korea, 1991) performs Ludwig van Beethoven’s Piano Sonata No. 30 in E major, Op. 106. After, Seunghyuk Na (South Korea, 1997) plays ‘Oiseaux tristes’ and ‘Alborada del gracioso’ from Maurice Ravel’s five-movement suite Miroirs. Next, Ivan Bašić (Serbia, 1996) performs Franz Liszt’s Mephisto Waltz No. 1. Lastly, Choi returns for a performance of Claude Debussy’s Images (Book I).

G00:54:001996HD

Indian conductor Zubin Mehta (1936) became Music Director of the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra (IPO) in 1977 and was appointed Music Director for Life in 1981. On July 18, 1996, Mehta led the IPO in its first-ever performance of Richard Strauss’s tone poem Till Eulenspiegels lustige Streiche, Op. 28. Renowned as one of the world’s foremost interpreters of the great symphonic repertoire—especially the Romantic works of Anton Bruckner, Gustav Mahler, and Richard Strauss—Mehta had conducted this popular masterpiece many times before. However, this was the first occasion he rehearsed it from the very beginning with the orchestra. This episode of ‘In Rehearsal’ offers an intimate look at the dialogue between Mehta and the musicians as they explore Strauss’s tone poem together.

G00:24:002001HD

Joseph Haydn (1732-1809): Symphony No. 94 in G major "Surprise". Berliner Philharmoniker; conductor: Mariss Jansons. The European Concert has been a tradition of the Berliner Philharmoniker since 1991. The musicians commemorate the anniversary of the orchestra's founding on May 1st, 1882, playing in different European cities. This concert was recorded in the church "Hagia Eirene" in Istanbul, Turkey.

G00:40:002021HD

Tenor Zhuohan Sun (China, 1993) and pianist Sara Pavlovic (Serbia, 1996) perform ‘Wanderlied’ from Robert Schumann’s Kerner-Lieder, Op. 35; ‘Der Abend kommt gezogen’ from Alphons Diepenbrock’s Drie ballades, Op. 1; Gabriel Fauré’s Prison, Op. 83, No. 1; ‘Ganymed’ from Hugo Wolf’s Goethe-Lieder; Franz Schubert’s Nacht und Träume, D. 827; Zaiyi Lu’s The bridge in my homeland; ‘Mit Myrten und Rosen’ from Schumann’s Liederkreis, Op. 24; ‘C’ from Francis Poulenc’s Deux poèmes de Louis Aragon, FP 122; and ‘Scheiden und Meiden’ from Gustav Mahler’s Lieder und Gesänge aus der Jugendzeit, during the final round of the International Vocal Competition 2021 – Lied Duo. This performance was recorded at De Verkadefabriek in ’s-Hertogenbosch, the Netherlands.

G01:34:002012HD

Every year, the Berliner Philharmoniker commemorate their founding in 1883 with the Europa Konzert at a venue of cultural importance in a different European city. This year, the Berliner Philharmoniker under the baton of internationally acclaimed conductor Gustavo Dudamel welcomes one of the world's leading young cellists, Gautier Capuçon. On the program are Johannes Brahms' Variations on a Theme by Haydn in B flat Major, Op. 56a; Joseph Haydn: Concerto for Violoncello and Orchestra in C Major Hob. VIIb: 1 and Beethoven's Symphony No. 5 in C minor, Op. 67. Filmed at the Spanische Hofreitschule, (Spanish Riding School), in Vienna, Austria.

G00:24:002016HD

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.

G01:58:002017HD

By popular demand, Canada's Ballet Jörgen reprises the tragic tale of the Russian Grand Duchess Anastasia, 10 years after the ballet's premiere and 100 years after Anastasia's story. Created by acclaimed choreographer Bengt Jörgen, the ballet is set to an original score for orchestra by Russian composer Ivan Barbotin. He previously wrote the scores for two of Canada's Ballet Jörgen's most popular ballets: The Velveteen Rabbit and The Emperor’s New Clothes. Anastasia is both the tragic story of an innocent young girl and a modern myth: the exact events of that fateful summer of 1918 are shrouded in the mists of time. The ballet explores this lovable yet controversial main character's emotions, aspirations, and affections, as she is faced with a world in turmoil that undergoes an inevitable transformation. Anastasia is a sumptuous ballet performance, where costume and set design as well as the exquisite stage lighting reveal Canada's Ballet Jörgen's dedication to creative quality.

G00:24:002017HD

Marin Alsop conducts the Britten-Pears Orchestra in a performance of Maurice Ravel’s ‘Ma mère l'Oye’ (Mother Goose). This performance took place at Snape Maltings Concert Hall, Snape Bridge in the UK in 2017. This five-part orchestral suite was originally as a piano duet in 1910, but the composer orchestrated the work the year after. Ravel originally composed the work as a piano duet for the two children of Polish sculptor Gobeski and dedicated the work for four hands to the children.

G01:11:002006HD

This gala concert at Prague's beautiful Estates Theatre is one of the highlights of Mozart Year 2006. Conducted by Manfred Honeck, the Czech Philharmonic performs W. A. Mozart's finest compositions connected to the city of Prague in general or to the Estates Theatre in particular. Among them is Mozart's Clarinet Concerto, which premiered in Prague in 1791. This 2006 recording features clarinettist Sharon Kam. Mozart's Prague Symphony is invariably on the program. The Overture to Don Giovanni is also associated with the Estates Theatre, which is where Mozart conducted it in 1787.

G00:51:002012HD

The documentary 'Heavenly Voices – The Legacy of Farinelli' (2012) tells us the story of the castrato in music – male singers who were castrated at a young age in order to preserve their high vocal range, a cruel practice that was in place mainly in the 17th and 18th centuries. For two centuries, castrati's performances held European audiences spellbound, with successful castrati such as Farinelli ranking among the most influential and highest-earning musicians of those days. Today, roles originally written for castrati are often performed by countertenors. In this documentary, countertenors Max Emanuel Cenčić, Philippe Jaroussky, Andreas Scholl, Franco Fagioli, and Jochen Kowalski discuss Baroque-era operatic entertainment. 'Heavenly Voices' is a film by Gino Pennacchi (writer) and Alessandro Scillitani (director).

G00:23:002017HD

Dina Ivanova (1994, Russia) performs La notte (S377a) and Hungarian Rhapsody No. 12, (S379a) during semi-final II (chamber music) of the 11th International Franz Liszt Piano Competition, held in TivoliVredenburg, Utrecht, in 2017. The competition actively presents, develops, and promotes piano talents from around the world. In doing so, it has become one of the prominent gateways to the international professional classical music scene for young musicians. The International Franz Liszt Piano Competition was founded in 1986 in the Netherlands and has since built a reputation as one of the world’s most prestigious piano competitions.

G00:07:002021HD

Mexican conductor Carlos Miguel Prieto leads the Orquesta Sinfónica de Minería in a performance of Samuel Barber’s Adagio for Strings. Completed in 1936, Barber arranged the piece for string orchestra from the second movement of his String Quartet, Op. 11. Adagio for Strings is one of the most recognizable pieces of classical music. The work’s emotional weight has led to its frequent use in film, often to evoke scenes of sorrow or tragedy. This performance was recorded at Auditorio Nacional in Mexico City, in 2021.

G01:15:002021HD

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.

G00:43:002014HD

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 present Johannes Brahms’s Symphony No. 1 in C minor, Op. 68. Brahms realized he was expected to compose a symphony that would match the musical standards established by Ludwig van Beethoven. After working on it for at least fourteen years, he completed his Symphony No. 1 in 1876. Brahms’s symphony was hailed as ‘Beethoven’s Tenth’: a worthy successor to Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9. Brahms’s work contains several references to Beethoven. For instance, the main theme of the fourth movement – first appearing in the strings – resembles the ‘Ode to Joy’ in the finale of Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9. This performance was recorded at Philharmonie de Paris, France, in 2014.

G00:27:002022HD

Luca Vignali (oboe), Angelo De Angelis (clarinet), Carmine Pinto (horn), Eliseo Smordoni (bassoon), and Linda Di Carlo (piano) perform Ludwig van Beethoven’s Quintet for piano and winds in E-flat major, Op. 16. The piece, completed in 1796, is assumed to have been modelled on Mozart’s Quintet for piano and winds, K. 452. Both quintets are scored for the same unusual instrument combination, are in the same key, and feature the same three-movement structure. A marked difference is that Beethoven, as a piano virtuoso, wrote the piano parts to highlight the strengths of his playing. Besides, the composer regularly places this instrument in the center of attention. Beethoven published the work in 1801 in two versions: as a quintet for piano and winds, and as a quartet for piano and strings (also designated Op. 16). This performance was recorded at Perugia’s Auditorium Santa Cecilia, Italy, on June 23, 2022.

G00:32:00HD

Italian conductor Andrea Vitello leads Ensemble BIOS in a performance of ‘Someone Out There is Praying for Peace (Let Us Not Be the Reason), III’, by contemporary Canadian composer Rita Ueda. This piece is written for strings and shō, a Japanese free-reed mouth organ, played here by Naomi Sato. Ensemble BIOS specializes in 20th and 21st century music. This performance was recorded at Chiesa di San Cristo in Brescia, Italy.