Schedule

Iphigénie en Tauride (1779) is a four-act tragic opera by German-born composer Christoph Willibald Gluck. Written for the French stage, the work’s premiere in 1779 at the Parisian Royal Academy of Music was a great success. Iphigénie en Tauride is one of the composer’s ‘reform operas’, meaning that the music was to follow the drama and its expression. Nicolas-François Guillard’s libretto is based on Claude Guimond de La Touche’s play of the same name, but ultimately it derives from Euripides’s famous ancient Greek drama. Set shortly after the Trojan War, Iphigénie, who was to be sacrificed by her father Agamemnon, is saved and carried off by the goddess Diana to Tauris, where Iphigénie becomes Diana’s high priestess. Diego Fasolis conducts the Orchestre National des Pays de la Loire and the Chœur d’Angers Nantes Opéra in this production. Among the soloists are Marie-Adeline Henry (Iphigénie), Charles Rice (Oreste), Sébastien Droy (Pylade), Jean-Luc Ballestra (Thoas), and Élodie Hache (Diane). This performance was recorded at the Grand Théâtre d’Angers, France, in 2020.

This performance was recorded during Mozart Week on January 27, 2006 in Salzburg, Austria, at the Großes Festspielhaus (Large Festival House) in celebration of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's 250th birthday. Under conductor Riccardo Muti, it features Thomas Hampson (baritone), Mitsuko Uchida (piano), Gidon Kremer (violin), Yuri Bashmet (viola), Wiener Singverein, and Wiener Philharmoniker. Pieces include Piano Concerto No. 25 in C major, Sinfonia concertante in E-flat major, K. 364, arias and scenes from Così fan tutte, Le nozze di Figaro, The Magic Flute and Symphony No. 35 in D major, K. 385 ("Haffner").

This chamber music concert is part of ‘Preludio’ concert series of the Reina Sofía School of Music in Madrid. The program opens with Joseph Haydn’s Concerto in D major for cello and orchestra, H VIIb: 2 (cello and piano reduction), performed by cellist Alejandro Gómez Pareja and pianist Miguel Ángel Ortega Chavaldas. Next, violinist Cecilia Novella Genovés and pianist Alina Artemyeva present Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky’s Souvenir d'un lieu cher, Op. 42, followed by Eugène-Auguste Ysaÿe’s Sonata for solo violin in D minor, Op. 27, No. 3, played by Genovés. Next on the program is Henry Vieuxtemps’s Capriccio, Op. 55, ‘Hommage à Paganini’, presented by violist Mario Carpintero Martín. Bassist Ramsés Martínez Millán and pianist Marharyta Kozlovska close the program with a performance of Johannes Sperger’s Sonata for double bass and viola in D major (in an arrangement for double bass and piano). This performance was recorded at Auditorio Sony of the Reina Sofía School of Music in Madrid, Spain, on April 30, 2024.

The trio composed of Alessandro Carbonare (clarinet), Elisa Eleonora Papandrea (violin) and Monaldo Braconi (piano) performs regularly in Italy’s concert halls and abroad. Playing Portraits showcases the trio’s appearances in various places, including USA, Russia and Europe, as they perform works by composers such as George Gershwin, Igor Stravinsky, Francis Poulenc, Anton Guilio Priolo, and Reiner Kuttenberger. This program was recorded by Pietro Tagliaferri at the Salle Belle Epoque in the National Gallery of Modern Art in Rome.

Spanish conductor Garcia Navarro leads the Radio Sinfonieorchester Stuttgart in a performance of Manuel de Falla’s El sombrero de tres picos (‘The three-cornered hat’). Originally a ballet score, De Falla composed the piece in 1916 and 1917. The ballet was commissioned by Russian impresario Sergei Diaghilev for his Ballets Russes, and saw its premiere at the London Alhambra Theatre in 1919. As De Falla was interested in traditional Spanish folk music, he included elements of this music in his score. The mezzo-soprano’s parts are examples of cante jondo, a vocal style in flamenco. In this performance, recorded in 1988, mezzo-soprano Paloma Pérez Iñigo handles those vocal parts with conviction.

In Geneva, the Swiss city where she has spent most of her life, Argentinian pianist Martha Argerich invites her lifelong music partner, the cellist Mischa Maisky, to play chamber music. Between the pieces, Martha opens up to her daughter Annie Dutoit in an intimate interview that addresses both their relationship and the music. On the program are Ludwig van Beethoven’s 7 variations after "The Magic Flute"; Robert Schumann’s Fantasiestücke, Op. 73; Frédéric Chopin’s Introduction and Polonaise brillante in C major, Op. 3; ‘Lerchengesang’ (No. 2) from Johannes Brahms’s 4 Gesänge, Op. 70; and ‘Largo’ from Chopin’s Cello Sonata in G minor, Op. 65. This broadcast was recorded on November 12 and 13, 2020, in Geneva, Switzerland.

Italian pianist Andrea Bacchetti appears both as conductor and soloist in this concert recorded at Teatro Chiabrera in the Italian city of Savona. He is accompanied by I Musici di Parma. On the program are J. S. Bach’s Prelude and Fugue in E major, BWV 878 (The Well-Tempered Clavier, Book II, No. 9), Joseph Haydn's Piano Concerto No. 11 in D major (Hob. XVIII: 11), Bach's Prelude and Fugue in A minor, BWV 889 (The Well-Tempered Clavier, Book II, No. 20), Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's Piano Concerto No. 24 in C minor, K. 491, and Bach's Prelude and Fugue in C minor, BWV 871 (The Well-Tempered Clavier, Book II, No. 2). This performance was recorded on January 17, 2025.

Pianist Deawon Kim (South Korea, 1994) performs Ludwig van Beethoven’s Sonata No. 31 in A-flat major, Op. 110, and ‘Ondine’ and ‘Scarbo’ from Maurice Ravel’s Gaspard de la nuit, 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.

In this splendid concert, exceptional Russian pianists Nikolay Lugansky and Vadim Rudenko join forces in a program for two pianos comprising works of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Maurice Ravel, Anton Arensky, Sergei Rachmaninoff, and Nikolai Kapustin. Both pianists, laureates of the prestigious International Tchaikovsky Competition in 1994, have received international recognition. They perform regularly in a duo. On the program: Mozart’s Sonata for two pianos in D major, K. 448/375 A; Ravel’s La Valse (arr. for two pianos); Arensky’s Suite No. 1 for two pianos, Op. 15; and Rachmaninoff’s Suite No. 1 (Fantasy) for two pianos, Op. 5. As an encore, the duo performs ‘Romance’ from Rachmaninoff’s Suite No. 2 for two pianos, Op. 17, followed by ‘Overture’ from Nikolai Kapustin’s Sinfonietta, Op. 49. This performance was recorded at the Tchaikovsky Concert Hall in Moscow, Russia, on November 25, 2021.

Sir Simon Rattle leads the London Symphony Orchestra in Gustav Mahler’s poignant song cycle ‘Das Lied von der Erde’ (The Song of the Earth). Joining him are two of today's leading vocalists: mezzo-soprano Magdalena Kožená and tenor Andrew Staples. Written in the final years of his life, Mahler’s masterpiece contemplates the beauty of life and the sorrow of parting through some of his most personal and beautiful symphonic writing. Written in the final years of his life and following the tragic death of his daughter, Mahler wrestles with the transience of life, contrasting moments of vivacity and happiness with introspection and melancholy. This performance was recorded at the Barbican Hall in London, UK, on May 9, 2021.

Pianist Vadim Repin and Violist Murad Hüseynov perform Gara Garayev's Violin Sonata and 24 Preludes for Piano. Recorded at La Grange au Lac. Written and directed by Juliette Swierczewski and recorded at La Grange au Lac. Although Garayev is a 20th century composer, his music nonetheless carries allusions to romantic music. Murad, the main actor, will represent one of those characters carried by solitude that can be found in the romantic paintings of Friedrich. The overall atmosphere of the musical program is rather melancholic, tending either towards a certain musical lightness, or, on the contrary, towards drama. The production is a cinematographic accompaniment of the music and its performers.

Although the great Italian composer Giuseppe Verdi applied unsuccessfully to study at the Milan Conservatory, this renowned college of music was eventually named after him. Today, the ‘Conservatorio Giuseppe Verdi’ counts numerous successful musicians among its alumni: from Giacomo Puccini, Alfredo Catalani, Claudio Abbado, Riccardo Chailly, Luigi Einaudi and Daniele Gatti, to Gianandrea Noseda. The acclaimed conductor Noseda (*1964) is one of the most important conductors of his generation. Recently, he taught a conducting masterclass at his alma mater for promising students from all over the world. For three days, Noseda joined forces with a hand-picked group of students to work on a varied concert programme. This documentary shows you these young, talented musicians rehearse compositions by Mozart, Tchaikovsky, and Stravinsky under the enthusiastic guidance of Maestro Gianandrea Noseda himself.

Italian composer Claudio Monteverdi (1567-1643) composed nine books of madrigals in half a century, which helped transform the genre from the polyphonic, a cappella madrigals of the late Renaissance to the ‘concertato’ madrigals of the early Baroque, shifting the style’s focus to the ability of music to express emotions contained in a text. In 2011, British tenor Paul Agnew and renowned Baroque ensemble Les Arts Florissants started recording eight books of Monteverdi’s madrigals. In this program, Agnew leads Les Arts Florissants in the madrigals of Book III. Published in 1592, the book contains twenty madrigals for five voices. This performance was recorded at the Cité de la musique in Paris, France, in 2012.