Schedule

Based on a story by William Shakespeare, the Italian composer Giuseppe Verdi wrote the opera Otello. Stage director David Alden created his version of this tragedy for the Teatro Real, in Madrid. Renato Palumbo conducts the orchestra and chorus of the Teatro Real. The performance also features Gregory Kunde, Ermonela Jaho, and George Petean. Othello, the Venetian governor of Cyprus, returns to the island after a victorious campaign. Iago, his ensign, feels snubbed by Cassio's promotion to captain and seeks revenge on Othello. After arranging for Cassio to be dismissed, Iago makes Othello believe that his wife Desdemona is having an affair with Cassio. Othello decides to kill her. At night, he wakes her with a kiss and asks her to admit that she betrayed him. Although she tries in vain to convince him of her innocence, Othello strangles her. Emilia then exposes Iago's plot. Racked with guilt, Othello plunges a dagger into his heart.

The Berliner Philharmoniker, Daniel Barenboim and Claudio Abbado star at the Europakonzert 1994 in Meiningen, Germany, performing Ludwig van Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 5 and Johannes Brahms’ Symphony No. 2. Popularly known as the Emperor Concerto and composed in Vienna between 1809 and 1811, Piano Concerto No. 5 is Beethoven’s last completed piano concerto and often performed by star pianists such as Daniel Barenboim. A few decades later in 1877, Brahms completed his Second Symphony, which is often compared to Beethoven’s Sixth Symphony given its cheerful and pastoral character.

Rodolfo Barráez conducts the Orchestra and Choir of the Academia de Musica del Palacia de Mineria in a performance of Carl Orff's cantata Carmina Burana. Soloists are Anabel de la Mora (soprano), Andrés Carrillo (tenor) and Daniel Cerón (baritone). Carmina Burana, composed in 1935 and 1936, is based on 24 poems from a medieval manuscript of the same name. The full title is "Songs from Beuern: Secular songs for singers and choruses to be sung together with instruments and magical images". It was first performed at the Oper Frankfurt on June 8, 1937.

Canadian conductor Yannick Nézet-Séguin leads the Berliner Philharmoniker in a wonderful performance of the symphonic poem Vltava (The Moldau) from Bedřich Smetana’s Má Vlast (My Country). This performance was part of the Waldbühne Concert 2016 in Berlin.

Roberto Prosseda (1975) performs Mozart's Piano Sonata No. 5 (KV. 283) and four Impromptus Op. 90 by Franz Schubert. The performance ends with Chopin's technically demanding Ballade No. 4, Op. 52. Prosseda is particularly noted for his performances of newly discovered works by Mendelssohn and has recorded a nine-CD series for Decca of the piano works of Mendelssohn. Since 2012, Prosseda also gives lecture-concerts with the robot pianist TeoTronico, as educational or family concerts, to demonstrate differences between a literal production of music and human interpretation.

Under the baton of Jiri Belohlávek, soloist Ivan Klánský is accompanied by the Prague Chamber Orchestra during his performance of Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 20, K 466 at the Waldstein palace in Prague.

In 1722, when Johann Sebastian Bach lived in Köthen, Germany, he published a book of preludes and fugues in all 24 major and minor keys. This collection became known as The Well-Tempered Clavier, Book One, BWV 846–869. About two decades later, Bach compiled a second book in Leipzig, which became known as The Well-Tempered Clavier, Book Two, BWV 870-893. Bach intended these pieces for the clavier, which includes the harpsichord, clavichord, and organ. Despite this unclarity, these pieces are regarded as some of the most important works in the history of Western classical music. In this broadcast, Andrei Gavrilov plays Preludes and Fugues Nos. 1 to 12 (BWV 846-857) from Book One of Bach’s Well-Tempered Clavier, recorded at the New Art Gallery in Walsall, England, in 2010.

Iván Fischer leads his Budapest Festival Orchestra in an exciting concert program consisting of works by J. S. Bach, Béla Bartók, and Johannes Brahms. The program opens with Bach’s Brandenburg Concerto No. 3 in G major, BWV 1048. This is followed by one of Bartók’s best-known pieces: Music for strings, percussion and celesta. Remarkable is the work’s instrumentation: Bartók divided the strings into two groups that are placed on opposite sides of the stage, to create antiphonal effects. The program ends with Brahms’s Symphony No. 3 in F major, Op. 90. This performance was recorded at the Béla Bartók National Concert Hall in Budapest, Hungary, on December 4, 2017.

Pianist Gabriele Strata (Italy, 1999) performs Béla Bartók’s Szabadban (Out of Doors), and Muzio Clementi’s Sonata in B minor, Op. 40 No. 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.

Energetic, intellectual, eloquent and confident: in the Missa Gaudeamus we encounter a grown-up Josquin Desprez, who shows off with bravura all the compositional techniques and stylistic elements of his day. Cantus firmus and canon techniques go hand in hand with melodic ingenuity, rhythmic complexity and sophisticated climax-building. In the hands of the multiple prize-winning Stile Antico, this work, alternated with Josquin’s motets including Ave Maria and Salve Regina, shines like new.

Misha Mengelberg, the forgetting has begun. He is waiting for a taxi he didn’t call to go to a performance that won’t take place. Dutch composer/pianist and grand duke of jazz Misha Mengelberg (1935) has been submerged in the shadow of dementia, ending his life as a musician. At the London jazz club Vortex in 2013 he impressively says his goodbyes to the international stage. It’s also his last major performance with his band, the Instant Composers Pool Orchestra. The musicians find it hard to let him go, but Misha’s decline is constant, and he slowly fades away from their midst. A film about exceptional loyalty, dilemmas, respect and dedication. And about music, the music of Misha Mengelberg.

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 Ludwig van Beethoven’s Violin Concerto in D major, Op. 61. Leading violinist Grimal is the soloist. Beethoven’s Violin Concerto was composed in 1806 and is the composer’s only work in this genre. Its premiere was not very successful, and the work saw few performances in the decades that followed. However, a remarkable performance by 12-year old violinist Joseph Joachim in 1844 gave the Violin Concerto a new lease of life. Ever since, it is one of the most performed works in the genre. As an encore, Grimal performs the Allegro from J. S. Bach’s Violin Sonata No. 2 in A minor, BWV 1003. This performance was recorded at Philharmonie de Paris, France, in 2015.

The Italian pianist Roberto Prosseda (*1975) is particularly noted for his performances of newly discovered works by Felix Mendelssohn. Moreover, Prosseda is particularly praised for his interpretations of W. A. Mozart, Franz Schubert, Robert Schumann and Frédéric Chopin. He won major prizes in several piano competitions and has frequently performed with some of the world’s most important orchestras, including the London Philharmonic Orchestra, the New Japan Philharmonic, and the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra. In this recital, Prosseda performs Alexander Scriabin’s Nocturne Op. 9, No. 2, Alan Berg’s Piano Sonata, Op. 1, and Ludwig van Beethoven’s Piano Sonata No. 32, Op. 111. This performance was recorded at Teatro alle Vigne in Lodi, Italy, in 2015.

Soprano Heidi Baumgartner (Austria, 1998) and pianist Asuka Tagami (Japan, 1991) perform Franz Schubert’s Suleika I, Op. 14 No. 1, D. 720; ‘Er ist’s’ from Hugo Wolf’s Mörike-Lieder; Bart Visman’s Vermeer’s Gold; ‘Sua katselen’ (Looking at you) from Kaija Saariaho’s Leino-Laulut (Leino songs); and ‘Pantomime’ and ‘Apparition’ from Claude Debussy’s Quatre chansons de jeunesse, during the semi-finals of the International Vocal Competition 2021 – Lied Duo. This performance was recorded at Het Noordbrabants Museum in ’s-Hertogenbosch, the Netherlands.