Schedule

The Maggio Musicale Fiorentino (Florence Musical May) is Italy’s oldest opera and arts festival. It was founded in 1933 with the aim of presenting contemporary and forgotten operas. Over the years, the scope widened, and orchestral concerts have long been an integral part of the festival. As part of the festival’s 2021 edition, Sir John Eliot Gardiner leads the Orchestra del Maggio Musicale Fiorentino in a wonderful concert program that includes Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No. 2 in C minor, Op. 17, ‘Little Russian’, and Edward Elgar’s Variations on an Original Theme, Op. 36, better known as the Enigma Variations. Written in 1872, Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No. 2 bears the nickname ‘Little Russian’, as the composer used folk tunes in his work from Ukraine, then known as ‘Little Russia’. Completed in 1899, Elgar’s Enigma Variations is an orchestral work comprising a theme and fourteen variations, each variation being a musical sketch of one of the composer’s friends. This performance was recorded at Teatro del Maggio Musicale Fiorentino in Florence, Italy, in 2021.

This documentary by Christoph Keller follows various participants and teachers participating in the International Summer Piano Academy.

In the summer of 2019, the Utrecht Early Music Festival explored the musical legacy of Naples: a cultural metropolis of contradiction and solidarity. In the documentary 'Napoli – Music’s Forgotten Capital', festival co-curator Thomas Höft unearths riveting tales from this multi-faceted city.

The extraordinarily talented pianist Elena Bashkirova has been president of the Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy Foundation in Leipzig since October 2020, succeeding legendary conductor Kurt Masur. In this concert at the Mendelssohn House in Leipzig, Bashkirova is joined by soprano Juliane Banse, flutist Emmanuel Pahud, cellist Claudio Bohórquez, clarinettist Karl-Heinz Steffens, and pianist Ohad Ben-Ari in a chamber music program dedicated to the music of Mendelssohn and his sister Fanny Hensel. The program opens with Mendelssohn’s Piano Trio in D minor, Op. 49. This is followed by a selection of songs: Mendelssohn’s Schilflied ‘Auf dem Teich, dem regungslosen’, Op. 71 No. 4, and Reiselied ‘Der Herbstwind rüttelt die Bäume’, Op. 34 No. 6; Hensel’s Vorwurf, Op. 10 No. 2; Verlust, Op. 9 No. 10; and Sehnsucht, Op. 9 No. 7; Mendelssohn’s ‘Allnächtlich im Traume seh ich dich’, Op. 86 No. 4; ‘Die Liebende schreibt’, Op. 86 No. 3; and Nachtlied ‘Vergangen ist der lichte Tag’, Op. 71 No. 6. The program continues with Mendelssohn’s Seven Songs without Words, for piano four-hands (Op. 62 Nos. 1-6, and Op. 67 No. 1), and comes to a close with Mendelssohn’s Three pieces for clarinet, violoncello and piano (arr. Ernst Naumann), comprising Prelude, Op. 35 No. 4, Songs without Words, Op. 53 No. 2, and Duet, Op. 38 No. 6. This performance was recorded in November 2020.

The Gustav Mahler Jugendorchester was founded in 1986 at the initiative of Claudio Abbado and has since become the world’s best youth orchestra. Named after the great composer, the programme is marked by the special relationship between the maestro and the young orchestra, as well as their special relationship to Gustav Mahler. Claudio Abbado is undeniably the supreme Mahler conductor of our time and his long-time association with this repertoire culminates in this stirring performance of Mahler’s last Symphony, written shortly before the composer’s untimely death. Recorded at Accademia di Santa Cecilia in Rome 2004, the film vividly shows the joy, talent, and professionalism of the young musicians drawn from all over Europe and their devotion to Claudio Abbado. A wonderful homage to orchestra, conductor, composer and to a triumphant master work - Gustav Mahler’s magnificent 9th symphony.

After recording all 32 Ludwig van Beethoven piano sonatas to celebrate the composer's 250th birth anniversary, celebrated Italian pianist Riccardo Schwartz decided to record solo piano works by Robert Schumann. Schumann composed his Fantasie in C, Op. 17 in 1836, revising it prior to publication in 1839. Bearing a dedication to Franz Liszt, it is one of Schumann's greatest works for solo piano, and a central work of the early Romantic period. Written in a loose sonata form, the first movement is rhapsodic and passionate, the middle movement is a grandiose rondo, and the finale is slow and meditative. Acclaimed pianist Riccardo Schwartz (1986) has performed as a soloist with many world-renowned conductors, including Gustav Kuhn and Yuri Temirkanov. His acclaimed performances include recitals and concertos for piano and orchestra in many prestigious concert halls.

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.

For this truly unique, historic occasion, Welsh composer Sir Karl Jenkins conducts The World Orchestra for Peace and around 2,000 singers from nearly 30 countries to Sing for Peace at the Berlin's Mercedes Benz Arena on November 2, 2018. Soloists are vocalists Leah-Marian Jones, Yumeji Matsufuji, Pauline Rathmann, Amir Aziz, violinist Krzysztof Wisniewski and cellist Valentino Worlitzsch. The Armed Man: A Mass for Peace is the most performed work by any living composer. This performance is the largest ever staged, and was uniquely performed in synchronization with a specially commissioned war-archive film that reinforces the narrative of the work – the build up to war, war itself, and the consequences of war. Projected on to five giant screens, the film delivers a poignant backdrop to the moving musical narration providing the audience with a powerful and emotional multimedia experience.

Italian conductor Andrea Vitello leads his Ensemble BIOS in a performance of ‘Someone Out There is Praying for Peace (Let Us Not Be the Reason), I’, by contemporary Canadian composer Rita Ueda. This piece is written for strings and tar, a traditional plucked string instrument of Persian music, played here by Saeed Mirzazadeh. Ensemble BIOS specializes in 20th and 21st century music. This performance was recorded at Chiesa di San Cristo in Brescia, Italy.

In 2013, the Finnish conductor Hannu Lintu was appointed principal conductor of the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra. Lintu studied piano and cello at the Sibelius Academy and the Turku conservatorium in Sweden’s southeast. He started conducting at the Sibelius Academy. His many concerts with the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra in 2012 made him the obvious replacement for Sakari Oramo, who, after many years as conductor and concert master, terminated his contract in 2012. The orchestra specializes in the performance of Finnish music, but also performs the great masterpieces of Gustav Mahler and Béla Bartók. The Finnish composer Jean Sibelius is the orchestra’s favourite, as well as the conductor. In cooperation with Finland’s national public broadcasting company Yle, all seven Sibelius symphonies are recorded and broadcast. After a brief spoken introduction about the piece, the orchestra performs the complete symphony. After Sibelius was diagnosed with throat cancer in 1908, he changed his lifestyle as well as his approach to composition. Fearing death, he quit using alcohol and tobacco. Simultaneously, the harmonies in his works grew darker and more sombre. Devils and death are among the images conjured up by the gloomy sounds of this Symphony.

We live in a "renaissance of the piano”, as the New York Times has recently put it. With virtuosic flair and an eagerness to expand the repertoire, a new generation of pianists has revitalized the instrument’s appeal. In addition to the usual classics, they perform formerly scorned works or discover neglected composers. Legato is a series dedicated to presenting some of this new movement's most fascinating pianists – their individual approaches, their fresh ideas and their music. Each episode portrays an artist and shows an aspect of the world of the piano. The sum of these portraits provides viewers with an overall picture of the art of the pianist. Montréal native Marc-André Hamelin is internationally renowned for his musical virtuosity and refined pianism. The Times described one of his performances as “ultimate perfection”. He plays works by Haydn (Piano sonata in E major), Chopin (Piano sonata No. 3), Debussy (‘Préludes’, book two), Hamelin (Etude No. 7), as well as two short pieces by Gershwin (‘Do, Do, Do’ and ‘Liza’).

Conductor Jan Latham-Koenig leads the Flanders Symphony Orchestra in this concert recorded at Concertgebouw Brugge, Belgium, on April 21, 2016. The program opens with Felix Mendelssohn’s concert overture Die Hebriden, Op. 26 (The Hebrides). During a trip to Scotland, the composer was deeply impressed by the natural splendor of Staffa, an island of the Inner Hebrides, which inspired him to compose his concert overture. Next on the program is Edvard Grieg’s Piano Concerto in A minor, Op. 16, featuring Pascal Amoyel as the pianist. It is the composer’s only concerto. Grieg composed the work in 1868, drawing inspiration from Norwegian folk music. The program ends with Ludwig van Beethoven’s Symphony No. 7 in A major, Op. 92. The work is very popular, especially because of its touching second movement. At the Allegretto’s 1813 premiere, the audience demanded an immediate encore.

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.

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 play Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s Violin Concerto No. 5 in A major, K. 219, also known as the ‘Turkish Concerto’. Leading violinist Grimal features as the soloist. With the exception of the first violin concerto, Mozart composed his other four violin concertos in 1775 at a time when he was concertmaster at the Salzburg court. It is the third and final movement that gives Concerto No. 5 its nickname, the ‘Turkish Concerto’. This movement features a striking middle section of ‘Turkish music’, which the composer achieves not only by changing the meter, and the mode to minor, but also by letting the cellos and basses play col legno - creating a percussive sound with the wood of their bow. This performance was recorded at Cité de la Musique, France, in 2014.

Mahler's Symphony No. 4, composed between 1899 and 1901, depicts a child's vision of heaven, a theme central to the work's innocent and lyrical character. The symphony is notable for its relatively smaller orchestral forces compared to his other symphonies and its focus on melody and a sense of wonder. The final movement features a soprano solo singing about the joys of heaven, providing a serene and optimistic conclusion.

Sir Simon Rattle conducts the Berliner Philharmonic during the 2008 edition of the Europakonzert, held in the renowned hall of the Tchaikovsky Conservatory in Moscow. The first edition of the Europakonzert was in 1991, and since then, the founding of the Berlin Philharmonic on May 1st in 1882 is annually celebrated with a concert in a European city of cultural significance. The orchestra opens with an outstanding performance of Stravinsky’s Symphony in Three Movements. Furthermore, Vadim Repin, one of today’s most fascinating artists, features as soloist in Bruch’s Concerto for Violin No. 1, Op, 26. The orchestra concludes with a performance of Beethoven’s Symphony No. 7, of which the second movement, Allegretto, gained instant popularity after its premiere in 1813 and remains a crowd favorite.

Italian cellist Silvia Chiesa and Italian pianist Maurizio Baglini perform Sergei Rachmaninoff’s Sonata in G minor for cello and piano, Op. 19. This performance was recorded at Sala Verdi of the Conservatorio Giuseppe Verdi in Milan, Italy, on November 4, 2024.

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, Ying Li (China, 1997) performs Claude Debussy’s Images, book I; Frédéric Chopin’s Nocturne in C-sharp minor, Op. 27 No. 1; and Franz Liszt’s Paraphrase from Verdi’s ‘Rigoletto’. This performance was recorded at Teatro EDI Barrio’s in Milan, in February 2020.