00:00
Verdi - Messa da Requiem
Roberto Abbado conducts the Filarmonica Arturo Toscanini, the Coro del Teatro Regio di Parma, and four vocal soloists in an outstanding performance of Giuseppe Verdi’s Messa da Requiem, recorded at the Parco Ducale di Parma, Italy as part of Festival Verdi 2020. The soloists are soprano Eleonora Buratto, mezzosoprano Anita Rachvelishvili, tenor Giorgio Berrugi, and bass Roberto Tagliavini. When his fellow composer Gioachino Rossini died in 1868, Verdi proposed to compose a ‘Messa per Rossini’ in his honor, to be written by himself and several other Italian composers. Verdi wrote the concluding movement, ‘Libera me’. When the premiere was cancelled, the project lay dormant. When Italian poet Alessandro Manzoni passed away a few years later, Verdi revisited his plan to compose a requiem – this time in honor of the poet he so greatly admired. As an opera composer, Verdi knew better than anyone how to infuse the work with drama, as is evident in the revised version of his ‘Libera me’. The famous, powerful ‘Dies Irae’ especially stands out, depicting the horrors of the Last Judgement.
01:32
Summer Night Music - Spirits of Music
Spirits of Music is an unusual musical journey through the centuries, with stops on all continents. Inspired by their creators' various faiths, the works on the program have a strong religious theme and are moving examples of the emotional power and effect of music. Internationally renowned soloists and ensembles such as Bobby McFerrin, Nigel Kennedy, Sibylla Rubens, and the Gewandhaus Orchestra Leipzig perform popular works from the European musical tradition, encompassing J. S. Bach, W. A. Mozart, and Giuseppe Verdi. Many magnificent examples of religious music come from artists such as Kroke, the Kuumba Singers, Mari Boine, The Bulgarian Voices Angelite, Vocal Sampling, and Ensemble Al-Kindi. With the inclusion of world music, the program achieves a highly suspenseful juxtaposition of European and other music.
04:08
Brahms - The 3 Violin Sonatas, Op. 78, 100 & 108
In this splendid 2013 concert from the Church of Verbier, Switzerland, Greek violinist Leonidas Kavakos and Chinese pianist Yuja Wang join forces to interpret three sonatas by Johannes Brahms. Leonidas Kavakos rose to fame in 1985, when he became the youngest musician to ever win the first price of the prestigious Sibelius Competition. With Yuja Wang, an accomplished artist at young age herself, he forms a masterful duo of chamber music interpretation. The programme features Brahm's Sonata for Piano and Violin, No. 1 in G major, Op. 78, also known as the "Regensonate," Sonata for Piano and Violin, No. 2 in A major, Op. 100, the "Thuner Sonata," a portrait of the Swiss lake of Thun's peaceful scenery. It comes to a fiery and passionate finale with Brahm's Sonata for Piano and Violin, No. 3 in D minor, Op 108.
05:30
Bach - Sonata No. 1 BWV 1014
This Sonata for Violin and Harpsichord No. 1 BWV 1014 is the first of the set of sonatas Johann Sebastian Bach composed before 1725, probably during his time as chapel master in Köthen. Presumably, he wrote these sonatas for Prince Leopold and later adapted them for further use in Leipzig. Maybe this is why these pieces are well playable for amateurs, while every sonata still has the finesse that can offer a challenge to professional musicians. The different pieces are meant to be a set, just like the Brandenburg concertos.
06:00
Sergiu Celibidache - The Triumphant Return
Maestro Sergiu Celibidache conducted the Berliner Philharmoniker from 1945 to 1954, and once in 1992. Wolfgang Becker's documentary The Triumphant Return documents Celibidache's long-awaited return to the Berlin Philharmonic after a 38-year-absence. Discover extensive footage from the rehearsals of Anton Bruckner's Symphony No. 7 (the only video recording in existence of Celibiadache), interviews with former orchestra members, and Celibidache's final concert with the Berliner Philharmoniker.
06:55
Beethoven - String Quartet No. 7 & 13, and Op. 133
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. 7 in F major, Op. 59, No. 1, known as “Razumovsky”; String Quartet No. 13 in B-flat major, Op. 130; and the monumental Great Fugue, Op. 133. This concert performance was recorded at Philharmonie de Paris on October 12, 2020.
08:32
Mozart - Symphony No. 36 'Linz'
Franz Welser-Möst leads the Cleveland Orchestra in a concert performing a charming work by Mozart, with a sentimental connection to the conductor: Symphony No. 36 'Linz is named after the hometown of Welser-Möst. Mozart wrote the piece when stopping over on a trip from Vienna to Salzburg. Recorded at Severance Hall in Cleveland in January 2022.
09:13
CMIM Piano 2024 – Eerste Ronde: Seungmin Shin
Pianist Seungmin Shin (South Korea, 2004) performs Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s Sonata in B-flat major, K. 281; Frédéric Chopin’s Ballade No. 4 in F minor, Op. 52; and Sonata tragica from Nikolai Medtner’s piano cycle Forgotten Melodies, Op. 39 No. 5, 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.
09:51
Busoni - Kultaselle, 10 Variations
Italian cellist Silvia Chiesa and Italian pianist Maurizio Baglini perform a wonderful recital of works by Ferruccio Busoni, Franz Liszt, Frédéric Chopin, and Sergei Rachmaninoff. On the program are Busoni’s Kultaselle – 10 variations on a Finnish folksong; Liszt’s Two Elegies for cello and piano; Chopin’s Introduction and Polonaise brillante in C major, Op. 3; and Rachmaninoff’s Sonata in G minor for cello and piano, Op. 19. As an encore, the duo plays Leonard Bernstein’s iconic composition ‘Tonight’ from the musical West Side Story. This performance was recorded at Sala Verdi of the Conservatorio Giuseppe Verdi in Milan, Italy, on November 4, 2024.
10:01
How to get out of the Cage - A year with John Cage
The compelling documentary How to Get Out of the Cage (2012) by award-winning filmmaker Frank Scheffer presents an intimate portrait of John Cage (1912-1992), one of 20th century's most important composers. From 1982 to 1992, Scheffer worked with Cage on numerous occasions, which resulted in unique archives of historical audio-visual material, including interviews, musical performances, and images of locations related to the composer’s life and work. In all Scheffer’s works related to Cage, he used the old Chinese method of chance operations based on the Yi Jing – as often used by Cage himself in his compositions. Instead of using chance operations, Scheffer edited the film in the usual way that is based on choice.
10:59
Gara Garayev : Autumn Sonatas
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.
