Schedule

For over six decades, Pierre Boulez had a greater influence on the development of contemporary music than anyone else. Already in his younger days, he gained a reputation as a doughty champion of the avant-garde. With his compositions, interpretations and ideas, he indelibly shaped the international music scene – not only as a composer and conductor, but also as a music philosopher and teacher. This documentary by Gunter Atteln and Angelika Stiehler pays tribute to him on the occasion of his 85th birthday on March 26, 2010. For the previous five summers, Pierre Boulez and highly gifted young musicians from all over the world had converged for intensive rehearsal weeks. Over this period, they learned from the maestro and one another, discussing and playing selected compositions. Subsequently, they presented the fruits of their labour in a number of outstanding concerts. To convey the fascination for contemporary music, this documentary captures the perspectives of Pierre Boulez and the young conductors, composers, and musicians involved. Their infectious enthusiasm gives viewers an emotional access to the world of new music.

Maestro Herbert Blomstedt makes his debut with the Lucerne Festival Orchestra at 2020’s Lucerne Festival conducting Ludwig van Beethoven’s celebrated Symphony No. 3 in E-flat major, Op. 55, “Eroica”. The sprightly Swedish conductor celebrated his 93rd birthday just one month before this performance. This remarkable performance was recorded at the Lucerne Culture and Congress Center (KKL), Switzerland, in August 2020.

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, Su Yeon Kim (South Korea, 1994) performs Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s Adagio in B minor, K. 540; ‘Les Jeux d’eau à la Villa d’Este’ from Franz Liszt’s Années de pèlerinage III; and César Franck’s Prelude, Chorale and Fugue in B minor. This performance was recorded at Auditorium Giorgio Gaber in Milan, in January 2020.

Iván Fischer conducts the Budapest Festival Orchestra in a concert recorded at the Béla Bartók National Concert Hall in Budapest, Hungary in 2015. The concert opens with Sergei Prokofiev's Overture on Hebrew Themes, Op. 34. After this, Thomas Zehetmair stars as solo violinist in Prokofiev Violin Concerto No. 2, Op. 63. The second part of the concert is features music by Igor Stravinsky. On the program is music composed for the ballet 'Jeu de cartes' (1937) and the Firebird Suite, No. 2 (1919). 'Jeu de cartes' is one of Stravinsky's neo-classical works and consists of three parts ('deals'). The Firebird Suite, No. 2 is based on the music from the ballet of the same name, which was written for Sergei Diaghilev's Ballets Russes and premiered in Paris in 1910.

Maestro Zubin Mehta leads the Orchestra and Chorus of the Maggio Musicale Fiorentino in a performance of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s comic opera Così fan tutte (1790). Following the successful operas Le nozze di Figaro (1786) and Don Giovanni (1787), Così fan tutte was the third and last collaboration between Mozart and the Venetian librettist and poet Lorenzo Da Ponte. The opera tells the story of two young officers, Ferrando and Guglielmo, who are convinced of the fidelity of their fiancées, the sisters Fiordiligi and Dorabella. However, their older friend Don Alfonso contends that women cannot be trusted. He proposes a plan to test his theory: the young men must pretend to be called away to the front but then return disguised as Albanian soldiers to try to seduce their lonely fiancées. The young men reluctantly agree to Alfonso’s test. Will the sisters succumb to the advances of the disguised suitors? Among the soloists are Valentina Naforniţa (Fiordiligi), Vasilisa Berzhanskaya (Dorabella), Mattia Olivieri (Guglielmo), Matthew Swensen (Ferrando), Benedetta Torre (Despina), and Thomas Hampson (Don Alfonso). This performance was recorded at Teatro del Maggio Musicale Fiorentino in Florence, Italy, on March 28, 2021.

J. S. Bach’s six Brandenburg Concerto’s belong to his best-known works. The composer wrote these concertos between 1711 and 1720 and dedicated them in 1721 to Christian Ludwig, Margrave of Brandenburg. In celebration of the pieces’ 300th anniversary, Czech harpsichordist and conductor Václav Luks and the renowned Baroque ensemble Collegium 1704 recorded all six Brandenburg Concertos on historical instruments in 2021. The concertos are based on the Italian concerto grosso form, in which a group of solo instruments is set against a large ensemble. Bach’s Brandenburg Concertos feature remarkable combinations of solo instruments and virtuoso solos. This performance was recorded at the Hall of Mirrors in the Köthen Castle, Germany.

In May 2019, the new principal conductor of the Gewandhaus, Andris Nelsons, presented Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No. 5 with his orchestra in combination with Shostakovich’s Violin Concerto No. 1 with outstanding violinist Baiba Skride as the soloist. In this composition, the violin does not allow itself a break, continually tells its dark story and gets into a vicious circle of ostinato Passacaglia bass lines again and again falls into beguilingly beautiful singing. Tchaikovsky initially thought his 'Symphony of Fate' was a failure and believed himself to be at the end of his creative powers. It was probably the composer's nature, plagued by self-doubt, that made it almost impossible for him to develop a self-confident attitude to his own creative power. Between this two works, Skride performs Stravinsky's Elegy for Solo Violin.

Mezzo-soprano Esther Valentin (Germany, 1993) and pianist Anastasia Grishutina (Russia, 1988) perform Henri Duparc’s L’invitation au voyage; Aleksandr Borodin’s ‘Dlya beregov otchizni dal’noy’ (For the shores of thy far native land); ‘Fleur jetée’ from Gabriel Fauré’s Quatre melodies, Op. 39; Franz Schubert’s Die Liebe hat gelogen, Op. 23 No. 1 (D. 751); ‘Begegnung’ and ‘Der Feuerreiter’ from Hugo Wolf’s Mörike-Lieder; Brechtje van Dijk’s ‘Endangered’; and, ‘The crucifixion’ from Samuel Barber’s Hermit songs, Op. 29, during the final round of the International Vocal Competition 2019 – Lied Duo. This performance was recorded at Theater aan de Parade in ‘s-Hertogenbosch, the Netherlands.

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, pianist Martha Argerich, violinists Tedi Papavrami and Yossif Ivanov, violist Lyda Chen-Argerich, and cellist Jing Zhao perform Robert Schumann’s Piano Quintet in E-flat major, Op. 44.

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.

Arvo Pärt based his ‘Kanon Pokajanen’ (from ‘Canon of Repentance to Our Lord Jesus Christ’, 1995-97) on the canon of repentance as handed down in the earliest Slavic-Christian manuscripts, dating back to the sixth century after Christ. The canon symbolizes the change, the transformation from day to night, the Old and New Testament, prophecy and the fulfillment, the here and now and the hereafter. This deals with the human and the divine, weakness and strength, suffering and redemption, mortality and immortality. In this broadcast, ‘Kanon Pokajanen’ is performed by the chamber choir Aquarius. This Flemish chamber choir is a trailblazer where new music and new concert formats are concerned. ‘Kanon Pokajanen’ is a great example of this: the singers are positioned in a circle in the center of a church. This dark church is only lit by candles and the music stand lights. After the choir has entered in procession, they sing for close to two hours. Performed by the Aquarius Choir led by Michael de Smet in 2008.

Léon Spierer conducts the Orquesta Sinfonica de Minería during the Concerto de San Silvestre. Soloist is soprano Jéssika Arévalo. The second and last part of this anniversary concert, shown in this program, opens with the Adagio from Joseph Haydn's "Farewell" Symphony No. 45 (Hob I:45) and concludes with Antonin Dvořák's Symphony No. 8, Op. 88. The symphony was completed in 1889 and saw its premiere the following year. In contrast to Dvořák's other works from this period, the music is cheerful and optimistic.

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.