Schedule

Iván Fischer leads his Budapest Festival Orchestra (BFO) in a concert program dedicated to the music of Ludwig van Beethoven. The program opens with the composer’s Symphony No. 1 in C major, Op. 21. Afterward, Fischer conducts Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 4 in G major, Op. 58, in which Richard Goode features as the soloist. The acclaimed American pianist (1943) is known for his interpretations of the Beethoven repertoire. Goode recorded all five Beethoven piano concertos with the BFO and Fischer, earning him exceptional critical acclaim and a Grammy Award nomination. As an encore, Goode performs the Sarabande from J. S. Bach’s Partita in B-flat major, BWV 825. The program closes with Beethoven’s famous Symphony No. 5 in C minor, Op. 67. This performance was recorded at the Béla Bartók National Concert Hall in Budapest, Hungary, on January 29, 2017.

Musicians of the Danish National Symphony Orchestra, the DR Big Band, and the Danish National Vocal Ensemble join forces under the baton of Klaus Tönshoff in this dazzling concert featuring great songs from black and white cinema. Norwegian mezzosoprano Tuva Semmingsen sings ‘Diamonds Are A Girl’s Best Friend’, from Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, ‘My Favorite Things’ from The Sound of Music, ‘Over the Rainbow’ from The Wizard of Oz, ‘Moon River’ from Breakfast at Tiffany's, and many other unforgettable hits. This concert performance was recorded at the DR Koncerthuset in Copenhagen, Denmark, in June 2020.

“The Unanswered Ives” is the first documentary about American modernist composer Charles Ives (1874-1954). Ives was among the first generation of American composers that achieved international acclaim. Born in 1874, in Danbury, Connecticut, Ives took music lessons at a young age, becoming a church organist at the age of 14. Following his graduation from the music department at Yale University, the young composer decided to pursue a career outside of the arts. He started working in insurance, co-founding an innovative and highly successful insurance company. It was in his spare time that Ives composed his ambitious music, in which he experimented with advanced features including polytonality, twelve-tone technique, and quarter tones. The documentary film “The Unanswered Ives” (2018) sheds light on Ives’s life and work in all its facets, exploring his aural world by showing music performances in churches, concert halls, open-air venues, and a circus tent. Using interviews with relatives, insurance brokers, musicologists, and musicians, documentary filmmaker Anne-Kathrin Peitz explores the question “who was Charles Ives?"

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).

Franz Liszt (1811 - 1886) composed 13 symphonic poems, largely inspired by literary texts. The composer himself wrote piano duet arrangements for these pieces, showcasing his incredible ability of imitating a full orchestra on the piano. Liszt, one of the 19th century’s most important piano virtuosos, strongly influenced the further development of piano music. The Romantic period was the era of the virtuoso pianists: the piano was the instrument of choice for countless musicians and listeners alike. No house of standing could do without a piano: it was a status symbol. Piano music was played in concert halls, palaces, salons, churches and public houses alike. Liszt’s symphonic poem no. 4, ‘Orpheus’, breathes a meditative atmosphere. No. 3, ‘Les Préludes’, is best known in its symphonic version – the piano version presented here is rarely heard. The work dates back to the period 1848 – 1854 and was initially meant to serve as introduction to a choral cycle to be based on the texts of the poet Joseph Autran, ‘Les quatre éléments’: earth, air, water and fire. In this broadcast, the Italian piano duo of Marco Sollini and Salvatore Barbatano performs these Liszt piano works. These recordings were made at the beautiful 12th century church of San Marco in the small but picturesque village of Ponzano di Fermo, as part of the 2015 edition of the annual, itinerant festival ‘Armonie della sera’ in the Italian province of Le Marche.

Franz Welser-Möst conducts the Cleveland Orchestra and Chorus in a concert performing Richard Strauss' Metamorphosen (A Study for 23 Solo Strings) and Mozart's Requiem, K. 626. Soloists are Siobhan Stagg (soprano), Avery Amereau (contralto), Ben Bliss (tenor) and Anthony Robin Schneider (bass). Recorded at Severance Hall, Cleveland in March 2023.

House of Dreams is an imaginative concert designed by Alison Mackay. The concert is a magical journey to the meeting places of baroque art and music - five European homes where exquisite works by Bach, Handel, Vivaldi, Purcell and Marais were played against a backdrop of paintings by Vermeer, Canaletto, and Watteau. Stage direction by Marshall Pynkoski and narrated by Blair Williams. The Tafelmusik Baroque Orchestra, also known simply as Tafelmusik, is a Toronto-based Canadian baroque orchestra, specialised in early music. The orchestra was founded in 1979 and has 19 full-time members who specialize in historical performance and technique, with additional musicians joining the ensemble when required. The ensemble is directed by violinist Jeanne Lamon.

Maestro Bernard Haitink leads the Berliner Philharmoniker in a performance of Igor Stravinsky's Le sacre du printemps (‘The Rite of Spring’). Stravinksy composed the ballet’s score in 1913 for Sergei Diaghilev's itinerant ballet company Ballets Russes. The work’s sensational première at the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées in Paris caused a riot in the audience in response to the avant-garde nature of the music and choreography. The score, written for one of Stravinsky’s largest orchestras, features harsh dissonances and complex rhythms. Despite its scandalous premiere, the work gained great critical acclaim. Le sacre du printemps is now considered one of the great masterpieces in classical music history, which influenced many 20th-century composers. This performance was recorded at the Royal Albert Hall in London, UK, as part of Europakonzert 1993.

The exceptional Russian pianists Nikolay Lugansky and Vadim Rudenko join forces in a performance of Maurice Ravel’s La Valse, in an arrangement for two pianos. This performance was recorded at the Tchaikovsky Concert Hall in Moscow, Russia, on November 25, 2021.

Sir Simon Rattle leads the London Symphony Orchestra (LSO) and Chorus in a performance of Ludwig van Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 in D minor, Op. 125. The soloists are Iwona Sobotka (soprano), Anna Stephany (mezzo-soprano), Robert Murray (tenor), and Florian Boesch (baritone). Engineered with unmatched symphonic finesse, Beethoven set aside ruminations on fate and heroism to compose his utterly musical and wholly satisfying Ninth Symphony. It is a monumental work, renowned for its innovative use of a chorus and vocal soloists in the final movement, singing a setting of Friedrich Schiller's poem "Ode to Joy". Premiered in 1824, it remains one of the most performed and recognizable pieces of classical music. This performance was recorded at Barbican Hall in London, on February 16, 2020.

Pianist Elias Ackerley (United Kingdom/South Korea, 2001) joins the CMIM ensemble, consisting of three principal strings players of the Montreal Symphony Orchestra, in a performance of the first movement, Allegro molto moderato, of Gabriel Fauré’s Piano Quartet No. 1 in C minor, Op. 15. This performance took place during the chamber music round of the two-part semi-final of the Piano Edition of the Concours musical international de Montréal 2024 (CMIM). It was recorded at the Bourgie Hall of the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts.

One of the world’s most popular pieces of classical music, Maurice Ravel’s Boléro (1928), was no longer copyrighted as of May 1, 2016. Up to then it had made Ravel and his heirs millions. Ravel died in 1937 and left all he owned to his brother Edouard. Edouard’s death in 1960 unleashed a complex legal battle over the rights, involving among others Edouard’s nurse and her husband. This 2017 documentary gives a fascinating account of what happened to one this iconic piece of music right under the nose of the public. Filmmaker Fabien Caux-Lahalle underpins this investigative story with clips of the Boléro in various guises.

Franz Welser-Möst leads the Cleveland Orchestra in a concert performing Richard Strauss' Ein Heldenleben, Op. 40. Violin soloist is David Radzynski. Recorded at Severance Hall in Cleveland in February 2023. Strauss, at the age of 34, sparked outrage when he cast himself as the central figure of his tone poem. Generally agreed to be autobiographical, the work contains more than thirty quotations from Strauss's earlier works.

Conductor Jan Latham-Koenig leads the Flanders Symphony Orchestra in a performance of Edvard Grieg’s Piano Concerto in A minor, Op. 16. French pianist Pascal Amoyel features as the soloist. Grieg composed the work in 1868, drawing inspiration from Norwegian folk music. It is the composer’s only concerto. The work premiered on April 3, 1869 in Copenhagen, Denmark, with Edmund Neupert as the soloist, and was received enthusiastically. The Norwegian premiere followed a few months later. This performance was recorded at Concertgebouw Brugge, Belgium, on April 21, 2016.

Italian conductor Gianandrea Noseda leads the combined forces of the Music Academy KestonMAX fellows and London Symphony Orchestra (LSO) in Ludwig van Beethoven’s Triple Concerto in C major, Op. 56, and Hector Berlioz’s Symphonie Fantastique, Op. 14. Beethoven's Concerto for Violin, Cello, and Piano in C major, commonly known as the Triple Concerto, was composed from 1803 to 1804. The choice of the three solo instruments effectively makes this a concerto for piano trio, and it is the only concerto Beethoven ever completed for more than one solo instrument. Berlioz's Symphonie Fantastique (‘Episode in the Life of an Artist … in Five Sections’) is a programmatic symphony written in 1830, telling the story of a gifted artist who, in the depths of hopelessness and despair because of his unrequited love for a woman, has poisoned himself with opium. This concert was recorded at LSO St. Luke’s in London, UK, on November 20, 2022.

On the occasion of her 80th birthday, Argentinian pianist Martha Argerich explored repertoire for piano and violin in this wonderful concert, recorded at Château de Chantilly, France. The ‘Grande Dame’ of the piano is joined by various renowned artists, including pianists Evgeny Kissin, Theodosia Ntokou, and Cristina Marton-Argerich, and violinist Maxim Vengerov. On the program are Dmitri Shostakovich’s Concertino for two pianos, Op. 94; Frédéric Chopin’s Impromptu No. 3, Op. 51, Polonaise No. 6, Op. 53 “Heroic”, and Waltz No. 6, Op. 64 No. 1; Camille Saint-Saëns’s Polonaise for two pianos, Op. 77; César Franck’s Sonata for violin and piano in A major; and Fritz Kreisler’s Liebesleid and Schön Rosmarin. This performance was recorded on June 12, 2021.

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.

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 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.