Schedule

Azerbaijan-born artist Seljan Nasibli moved to England at an early age, where she was encouraged to take up music. Although Nasibli chose to sing jazz, her Oxford teachers heard an operatic tendency in her voice and advised to train classically. Nasibli completed her studies at The Royal College of Music, where she graduated with a master's degree in Vocal Performance. In this episode of Stingray Originals, Nasibli performs three of Giacomo Puccini's most beautiful arias: 'Signore, ascolta!' and 'Tu, che di gel sei cinta' from the opera Turandot, and 'Quando m'en vo' (Musetta's Waltz) from the opera La bohème.

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.

Before Porpora, Scarlatti and Pergolesi ruled the Neapolitan music scene there was Gaetano Greco, one of the finest music teachers and composers of his day. Andrea Buccarella, a young harpsichordist from Rome (also performing in the Festival with his Abchordis Ensemble), pairs Greco’s most beautiful toccatas and famous Ballo di Mantua with works by his pupil Durante, who with his ‘quattro stagioni’ explores every nook and cranny of the keyboard.

Conductor Herbert Blomstedt and the Gewandhausorchester take us on a musical journey to the Czech Republic in this 2020 concert from Leipzig’s Gewandhaus. The program opens with Bohemian composer Jan Václav Hugo Voríšek’s Symphony in D major, Op. 23 (1821). Although the composition – Voríšek’s only symphony – was never performed during the composer’s lifetime, it has become one of his most-performed works today. Also on the program is Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s Symphony No. 38 in D major, K. 504. This work, which premiered while Mozart was visiting Prague in 1787, is often referred to as the ‘Prague Symphony’.

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.

Chinese pianist Zhu Xiao-Mei performs J. S. Bach's Goldberg Variations (BWV 988) at the Leipzig Bach Festival. This June 2014 concert was recorded at St. Thomas Church, where Bach spent most time of his career as 'Thomaskantor', the musical director of the Thomanerchor church choir. The Goldberg Variations consist of one aria and a set of 30 variations. The work was first published in 1741 and was named after harpsichordist Johann Gottlieb Goldberg. In contrast to melodic variations on a theme, the Goldberg Variations do not follow the melody, but rather use the aria's bass line and chord progression. Every third variation in the series of 30 is a canon that follows an ascending pattern. The Goldberg Variations are among Bach's most celebrated works, which gained an even larger audience thanks to Glenn Gould's legendary recordings of the work in 1955 and 1981.

Renowned French string quartet Quatuor Ébène marked the 250th birth anniversary of Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827) with a remarkable project: recording all of the great composer’s sixteen string quartets. For five years, violinists Pierre Colombet and Gabriel Le Magadure, violist Marie Chilemme, and cellist Raphaël Merlin immersed themselves in Beethoven’s 650 pages of sheet music. Their efforts culminated in the performance of the composer’s complete repertoire for string quartet, which covers three decades of Beethoven's musical creativity, during six impressive concerts at Philharmonie de Paris in the autumn of 2020. Quatuor Ébène explored every facet of Beethoven's string quartet repertoire: from the youthful Opus 18 string quartets to the Razumovsky, Harp, and Serioso quartets (Opus 59, 74, and 95) from his middle period, and finally, the depth of his late quartets (Opus 127 to 135). This program features Quatuor Ébène performing Beethoven’s String Quartet No. 5 in A major, Op. 18, No. 5; String Quartet No. 4 in C minor, Op. 18, No. 4; and String Quartet No. 12 in E-flat major, Op. 127. This concert was recorded at Philharmonie de Paris on December 17, 2020.

The soloists from the Lucerne Festival Orchestra present Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s Divertimento No. 11 in D major, K. 251, known as the ‘Nannerl-Septet’. Mozart composed it in 1776, probably on the occasion of his sister Maria Anna’s name day, whose nickname was ‘Nannerl’. The septet is scored for oboe, two horns, two violins, viola and double bass. This performance was recorded at Lucerne Culture and Congress Center (KKL), Switzerland, in 2020.

Mariss Jansons conducts the chorus and instrumental ensemble of the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra in a performance of Janáček’s Glagolitic Mass (1926) at the Lucerne Easter Festival of 2012. The work is divided into eight sections that give the greatest prominence to the chorus while also containing impressive solos, especially for soprano and tenor. Completely unexpected is the startlingly wild and furious organ solo (Iveta Apklana at the organ) that follows the Ordinary of the Mass and precedes the final movement. Janáček, who achieved worldwide celebrity late in life, wanted to emphasize the common bonds between the Slavic nations by writing the text in Old Church Slavonic, which used an alphabet devised by Saints Cyril and Methodius called ‘Glagolitic’. The choice of this ancient language also reflects the Moravian composer’s sympathies with the Slavic nations that were under the yoke of the Austro-Hungarian Empire.

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.

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)

Star pianist Daniel Barenboim performs the first and second books of Isaac Albéniz’s piano suite Iberia. Composed between 1905 and 1908, Iberia is in four books of three pieces each. This masterpiece paints twelve musical portraits of Spanish regions, traditions, and atmospheres. This performance was recorded at the Teatro Colón in Buenos Aires, Argentina, on August 19, 2000.

The Bolshoi Theatre Ballet performs Dmitri Shostakovich's "Golden Age", a ballet in two acts, choreographed by Yuri Grigorovich. The Russian choreograph, and co-librettist of this work was the soloist of the Maryinsky Theatre for 18 years and later for a short time headed its ballet. His first productions at the Kirov were «The Stone Flower» and «The Legend of Love». They marked the birth of a new choreographer, soon to be known all over the world and of a new trend that for many years determined the development of ballet in Russia. The plot to Golden Age takes place in the 1920’s, in a seaside town in the south of Soviet Russia. This was the period of the New Economic Policy (NEP) which allowed private enterprise and trade and, as a result, shady operators and petty criminals flourished. The Golden Age restaurant is their favorite haunt – here, a young dancer, Rita, who appears under the name of Mademoiselle Margot, and her partner, Jacques, originally named Yashka, leader of a local gang of bandits, entertain a mixed public of «fast livers». Helping Yashka with his ‘jobs’ are his bandit cronies and his friend, Lyuska. During the town festival and general rejoicing Boris, a young fisherman, member of the satirical agitprop theater for working youths, meets Rita. They begin to fall in love, setting of a chain of events full of intrigues and lovers on the run. Recorded 2016 at the Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow.

Manfred Honeck conducts Yo-Yo Ma and the Berlin Philharmonic in a performance of Schumann's Cello Concerto in A minor, Op. 129 from the Festspielhaus in Baden-Baden 2016.