Schedule

Pianist Muzi Li (China, 1998) performs Sergei Rachmaninoff’s Moments musicaux, Op. 16; and Triana from Isaac Albéniz’s Iberia (book 2), 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.

Italian pianist Andrea Molteni (1998) performs Alban Berg’s Piano Sonata in B minor, Op. 1. Molteni began studying the piano at the age of six. He graduated with honors and honorable mention at the Conservatorio di musica Giuseppe Verdi di Como, and was awarded a master’s degree Magna cum Laude in Advanced Performance Studies by the Conservatorio della Svizzera Italiana in Lugano. He has appeared at the Wiener Saal of the Mozarteum University in Salzburg, Scriabin Museum in Moscow, National Opera Center in New York, and several other international venues. This performance was recorded at the Verbrugghen Hall of the Sydney Conservatorium of Music, Australia, in 2023.

On November 14, 1987, a promising conductor made his Berlin Philharmonic debut with Gustav Mahler’s Symphony No. 6: Simon Rattle. In retrospect Rattle says, “I felt that I was finding my voice on that day.” Mahler’s multifaceted work is now again on the program when Sir Simon appears for the last time as chief conductor of the Berliner Philharmoniker in the Philharmonie in 2018. The wheel comes full circle. Mahler's Symphony No. 6 is often referred to by the nickname Tragische ("Tragic"). Mahler composed work during a happy time in his life, as he had married his wife Alma in 1902 and became father of his second daughter. This contrasts with the tragic and even nihilistic last movement of the symphony.

Péter Csaba leads the Spanish Orquesta Sinfónica Freixenet del Encuentro in this inaugural concert of the Encuentro de Música y Academia de Santander. The program opens with Ravel’s Piano Concerto for the left hand in D major, featuring Uzbekistani-born American pianist Stanislav Ioudenitch as the soloist. Composed between 1929 and 1930, the work was commissioned by Paul Wittgenstein, an Austrian concert pianist who continued his career after losing his right arm during the First World War. The program closes with Ravel’s famous Boléro. One of the world’s most popular classical pieces, the Boléro is characterized by a prominent, unchanging rhythm played on the snare drum, which continues throughout the piece. This performance was recorded at Sala Argenta of the Palacio de Festivales de Cantabria in Santander, Spain, on July 7, 2023.

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.

Young Euro Classic is the world’s most important platform for international young orchestra musicians in the European classical music tradition, and for its development. For 17 days every summer, orchestras from all over the world perform at Berlin’s Konzerthaus, on Gendarmenmarkt. This performance features some highlights of the Young Euro Classic edition of 2016. On the program are well-known classical pieces, like the third movement of Vivaldi’s “Summer” from Four Seasons, Mussorgky’s “Night on Bald Mountain,” and “Habanera” from Bizet’s Carmen. Tenor Alan Pingarrón sings “Gratia plena,” by Mario Talavera, and “Dime Que Si,” by Alfonso Oteo. On the program are also famous orchestral works like the Adagietto from Mahler’s Symphony No. 5, and the third movement of Rachmaninoff’s Symphony No. 3.

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.

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.

Mahler's "Resurrection" Symphony, written between 1888 and 1894, is a colossal five-movement work exploring themes of death and resurrection. It was one of Mahler's most popular and acclaimed works during his lifetime, famously culminating in a powerful choral finale. The symphony features immense orchestral forces, including offstage brass and a large choir, which combine to create overwhelming sonic experiences that depict profound spiritual and emotional narratives. The grand scale and dramatic structure represent the triumph of life over death.

The program is introduced with a short documentation about Schönberg's Pelleas et Melisande, based on a text by Claudio Abbado. Every musical theme relates to a special colour appearing on screen. What has been so remarkable about Abbado’s Mahler performances is that their impact has never been achieved at the expense of the multiple sensitivities, subtleties and extreme sophistication. Together with the world's leading youth orchestra – the Gustav Mahler Jugendorchester (GMJO) – Abbado performs Mahler’s Symphony No. 4 and Schönberg’s Pelleas und Melisande, Op. 5. The Gustav Mahler Jugendorchester was founded in Vienna in 1986, by Abbado’s initiative. The orchestra's high level of artistic quality and its international success have moved important conductors and soloists to work with the ensemble.

Maestro Jaap van Zweden conducts the Orchestre de Paris in a performance of Dmitri Shostakovich's Symphony No. 5 in D minor, Op. 47. This performance was recorded at Philharmonie de Paris, France, on March 9, 2016.

Bruckner's Fifth Symphony has been called the "Medieval" because of its multi-layered, Baroque, contrapuntal tonal textures and the "Catholic" because of its solemn majesty. These designations are uniquely fitting to the work, Bruckner himself called it his "Fantastic," especially when it is performed at the Monastery of St. Florian, as on this recording. It is not without reason that Bruckner also called the Fifth his "contrapuntal masterpiece." Indeed, the incredible prominence of the finale arises from an almost fanatical contrapuntal interplay that bundles together the structures of the entire symphony into one homogeneous form and leads them together into a grandiose double fugue that is unique even for Bruckner. Franz Welser-Möst, Music Director of both The Cleveland Orchestra and the Zurich Opera, brought his U.S. ensemble to St. Florian in September 2006 for performances at the Linz Brucknerfest. Bruckner wrote the Fifth in 1875/76, but the work was not premiered until 1894, after it had undergone many revisions by the composer.

At the behest of Argentinian pianist Martha Argerich, several classical music stars took part in this concert in aid of the Erasmus Fund for medical research in intensive care, recorded at the Royal Conservatory of Brussels, Belgium, on October 21, 2023. The concert pays tribute to the renowned cellist Aleksandr Khramouchin (1979) who suddenly passed away on May 13, 2023. As part of this concert, violinist Alissa Margulis, cellist Mischa Maisky, and pianist Lily Maisky perform Sergei Rachmaninoff’s Trio élégiaque No. 1 in G minor.

Europakonzert 2004 was held in Athens, Greece. This concert featured the Berliner Philharmoniker performing live at the ancient Herodes Atticus Theatre along with an interesting combination of conductor and soloist - Sir Simon Rattle wielding the baton as pianist Daniel Barenboim plays Johannes Brahms’ Piano Concerto No. 1. The Athens concert marked a double première: it was the first Europakonzert under the direction of the new chief conductor, as well as the first time Rattle and Barenboim appeared together. The Odeon of Herodes Atticus, an amphitheatre built in 161 AD in memory of Herodes Atticus’ wife, is situated on the slope of the Acropolis. With a seating capacity of at least 5,000 spectators, it was reputed to be the finest theatre in all of Greece.

Pianist Gabriele Strata (Italy, 1999) joins the CMIM ensemble, consisting of three principal strings players of the Montreal Symphony Orchestra, in a performance of the first movement, Sostenuto assai – Allegro ma non troppo, of Robert Schumann’s Piano Quartet in E-flat major, Op. 47. 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.