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G00:36:001993HD

Maestro Bernard Haitink leads the Berliner Philharmoniker in a performance of Igor Stravinsky's Le sacre du printemps (‘The Rite of Spring’). Stravinksy composed the ballet’s score in 1913 for Sergei Diaghilev's itinerant ballet company Ballets Russes. The work’s sensational première at the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées in Paris caused a riot in the audience in response to the avant-garde nature of the music and choreography. The score, written for one of Stravinsky’s largest orchestras, features harsh dissonances and complex rhythms. Despite its scandalous premiere, the work gained great critical acclaim. Le sacre du printemps is now considered one of the great masterpieces in classical music history, which influenced many 20th-century composers. This performance was recorded at the Royal Albert Hall in London, UK, as part of Europakonzert 1993.

G01:30:001993HD

Every year, the Europakonzert is hosted by the Berliner Philharmoniker in a notorious concert hall or on a special location. This years concert is performed at the magnificent Royal Albert Hall in London. The Dutch conductor Bernard Haitink starts with Tchaikovsky's Fantasy Overture from "Roméo et Juliette". The second piece by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart is his famous Violin Concerto No. 3 in G major K. 216 played by the German violinist Frank Peter Zimmermann. During his career he played with a lot of famous orchestras and conductors such as the Boston Symphony Orchestra and Mariss Jansons. He has a great passion for chamber music and plays a lot of recitals with the Italian pianist Enrico Pace. The concert closes with Stravinsky's The Rite of Spring which he wrote in 1913 for Sergei Diaghilev's Ballets Russes. The première caused a lot of sensation and near-riot in the audience because of the avant-garde nature, music and choreography of the piece. The Rite of Spring is now considered as one of the masterpieces of classical music history and has influenced many 20th-century music composers. The encore is Tchaikovsky's Flower Waltz from the Nutcracker.

02:06
England, my England - II
G00:20:002015HD
From August 28 to September 6, 2015, the Early Music Festival Utrecht was all about 'England, my England'. In line with this theme, presenter Lex Bohlmeijer takes the viewer on an intriguing journey through the England of the Middle Ages, Renaissance and Baroque, and relates this to the city of Utrecht. In episode 2 of this two-part documentary, René de Kam (Heritage Municipality of Utrecht) delves deeper into the Anglican past of the city of Utrecht. The viewer is introduced to festival artists Benjamin Bagby, Skip Sempé, and The Newcastle Kingsmen, who dance their traditional folk "Rapper Sword Dance" during the festival's pub sessions.

14A02:32:002003HD

Das Rheingold is the prologue to Richard Wagner's Ring Cycle. This rendition (2003) features the Staatsoper Stuttgart under the baton of conductor Lothar Zagrosek. Tonight’s soloists are Wolfgang Probst, Motti Kastón, Bernhard Schneider, Robert Künzli, Esa Ruuttunen, Eberhard Francesco Lorenz and Roland Bracht. With beautiful orchestration and an unerring sense of the dramatic, the first opera explains how the Rhinedaughters lost the Ring and how it fell into the hands of Alberich the Nibelung; Wotan, king of the gods; and Fafner the giant. Each time it changes hands, the Ring confers upon the bearer a curse and this pattern is set to continue until it is restored to its rightful owners, the daughters of the Rhine.

G01:00:002020HD

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 various works by Frédéric Chopin: Nocturne in C minor, Op. 48, No. 1; Mazurka, Op. 2, No. 2 and 4; Scherzo No. 3 in C-sharp minor, Op. 39; and Waltz in A-flat major, Op. 34 No. 1. The recital comes to a close with Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s Gigue in G major, KV 574. This performance was recorded at Teatro EDI Barrio’s in Milan, in January 2020.

G00:24:002000HD

At St. Bartholomew Church in Dornheim, Germany, where composer Johann Sebastian Bach married his first wife Maria Barbara, renowned Dutch cellist Anner Bijlsma performs the composer's Cello Suite No. 5 in C minor, BWV 1011. It is likely Bach wrote his collection of six Suites for unaccompanied cello during the years 1717-1723. His cello suites are an essential part of the cello repertoire, highlighting the instrument's manifold polyphonic possibilities. As customary in a Baroque suite, each movement is based on a dance type. Bach's Suite No. 5 opens with a prelude, and is followed by six dance movements, divided over five sections: an allemande, a courante, a sarabande, two gavottes, and a final gigue.

G01:30:002014HD

House of Dreams is an imaginative concert designed by Alison Mackay. The concert is a magical journey to the meeting places of baroque art and music - five European homes where exquisite works by Bach, Handel, Vivaldi, Purcell and Marais were played against a backdrop of paintings by Vermeer, Canaletto, and Watteau. Stage direction by Marshall Pynkoski and narrated by Blair Williams. The Tafelmusik Baroque Orchestra, also known simply as Tafelmusik, is a Toronto-based Canadian baroque orchestra, specialised in early music. The orchestra was founded in 1979 and has 19 full-time members who specialize in historical performance and technique, with additional musicians joining the ensemble when required. The ensemble is directed by violinist Jeanne Lamon.

G01:22:002016HD

The film Jaroussky sings Bach & Telemann is a portrait of a very special vocalist, and of two exceptional composers. When Philippe Jaroussky - whose angelic voice seems almost timeless, not belonging to any one epoque or decade - sings works by Telemann and Bach, it becomes abundantly clear that the sheer emotional force and the purifying power of their music have not diminished over the centuries. The works performed in this film are Telemann's Jesus liegt in letzten Zügen and Sinfonia from Brockes-Passion; Der am Ölberg zagende Jesus, and Bach's Sinfonia from Ich hatte viel Bekümmernis and Ich habe genug.

G00:45:002001HD

Watch the series ‘Discovering Masterpieces’, your audio-visual concert guide to the great masterpieces of classical music. The series brings you 20 half-hour documentaries on 20 classical masterpieces: acclaimed experts, famous soloists and outstanding conductors take you on a journey back to the time and place of composition. In today’s documentary, Ludwig van Beethoven’s ‘Symphony No. 5’ is discussed. The piece has the character of an appeal from the very start, when the four-note “fate” motif casts a spell on listeners. The German musicologist Armin Koch analyses the work, while the German Beethoven expert Wulf Konold illustrates the ingenious variations of the “fate” motif on piano, and also explains other features of this magnificent work.

G00:26:002020HD

This documentary by Mark Perna shows the training and professional growth actions for opera singers, the promotion and enhancement of the cultural offer of the city and province of Modena and the maintenance and development of the Modenese musical tradition in the field of opera.

G01:49:002018HD

Hannu Lintu conducts the Gulbenkian Orchestra in a Finnish flavoured concert program, since the concert features Cantus Articus, Op. 61 by Einojuhani Rautavaara, and Jean Sibelius’ Symphony No. 2. Furtermore, Daniil Trifonov (1991) is star soloist in Schumann’s Piano Concerto, Op. 54, which was premiered in 1841 by Clara Wieck, wife of the composer. Trifonov rose to fame after winning prizes at both the Tchaikovsky International Chopin competition in Moscow as well as the Chopin International Piano Competition in Warsaw. Trifonov has been called "arguably today's leading classical virtuoso,” and “without question the most astounding pianist of our age." This concert is recorded at the Grand Auditorium of the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation of Lisbon, in 2018.

G00:35:002021HD

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.

G00:21:002014HD

Dazzling, virtuosic, and spectacular: no other adjectives are better suited to describe the piano music of Franz Liszt. Enjoy a sparkling performance of Liszt’s Piano Concerto No. 1 in E flat major by the incredible piano virtuoso Russian Daniil Trifonov, with Kent Nagano conducting the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra. As an encore, Trifonov performs Reflets dans l'eau from Debussy's Images. The orchestra closes this concert with a rendition of Mahler's Symphony No. 7. Recorded at the Charles Bronfman Auditorium, Tel Aviv, in 2014.

G00:33:002016HD

Conductor Jan Latham-Koenig leads the Flanders Symphony Orchestra in a performance of Edvard Grieg’s Piano Concerto in A minor, Op. 16. French pianist Pascal Amoyel features as the soloist. Grieg composed the work in 1868, drawing inspiration from Norwegian folk music. It is the composer’s only concerto. The work premiered on April 3, 1869 in Copenhagen, Denmark, with Edmund Neupert as the soloist, and was received enthusiastically. The Norwegian premiere followed a few months later. This performance was recorded at Concertgebouw Brugge, Belgium, on April 21, 2016.

G00:11:002021HD

On the occasion of her 80th birthday, Argentinian pianist Martha Argerich explored repertoire for piano and violin in this wonderful concert, recorded at Château de Chantilly, France. The ‘Grande Dame’ of the piano is joined by various renowned artists, including pianists Evgeny Kissin, Theodosia Ntokou, and Cristina Marton-Argerich, and violinist Maxim Vengerov. On the program are Dmitri Shostakovich’s Concertino for two pianos, Op. 94; Frédéric Chopin’s Impromptu No. 3, Op. 51, Polonaise No. 6, Op. 53 “Heroic”, and Waltz No. 6, Op. 64 No. 1; Camille Saint-Saëns’s Polonaise for two pianos, Op. 77; César Franck’s Sonata for violin and piano in A major; and Fritz Kreisler’s Liebesleid and Schön Rosmarin. This performance was recorded on June 12, 2021.

G01:44:002007HD

Millions of television viewers in Germany, France, Portugal, Greece and Finland experienced live the moving open-air concert within the highly symbolic surrounding of the Alhambra in Granada. Music as a language of peace – this vision unifies the young musicians of the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra who come from Israel, Palestine, Syria, Jordan, Egypt and Europe. They perform side by side in the orchestra formed in 1999 by Daniel Barenboim and Edward Said. The orchestra has taken on the complex challenge of performing music to promote peace. Soloists are Kyril Zlotnikov and Nabil Shehata. On the program are Beethoven's Leonore Overture No. 3, Bottesini's Fantasia on a theme by Rossini, Brahms' Symphony Nr. 1 and Vorspiel and Liebestod from Wagner's Tristan und Isolde.

G00:35:002013HD

American conductor Leonard Slatkin leads the Orchestre National de Lyon in a concert recorded at the Auditorium de Lyon in 2014. The concert opens with William Bolcom´s Circus Ouverture, which was specially composed for Slatkin's 70th birthday. The concert continues with a performance of Beethoven's Triple Concerto in C, Op. 56 performed by three female soloists: Olga Kern (piano), Baibe Skride (violin) and Sol Gabetta (cello). The work is the only concerto which Beethoven ever completed for more than one solo instrument. The concert closes with Ravel's beloved orchestration of Mussorgsky's Pictures at an Exhibition.

PG00:59:002019HD

Compagnia Simona Bucci presents an extraordinary concert in scenic form: 'Preludi e Fughe - Geografia antropica'. Dmitri Shostakovich’s 24 Preludes and Fugues, Op. 87 inspired choreographer Simona Bucci to take on this project. Seven dancers of Compagnia Simona Bucci dance to Shostakovich’s Preludes and Fugues Nos. 1, 5, 7, 12, 13, 14, 16 and 24, played by Italian pianist Roberto Prosseda. The performance was recorded at the Teatro Il Maggiore in Verbania, Italy, in the context of the Stresa Festival in August 2019.

G00:16:002024HD

Pianist Derek Wang (USA, 1998) joins the CMIM ensemble, consisting of three principal strings players of the Montreal Symphony Orchestra, in a performance of the first movement, Allegro, of Johannes Brahms’s Piano Quartet No 1. in G minor, Op. 25. This performance took place during the chamber music round of the two-part semi-final of the Piano Edition of the Concours musical international de Montréal 2024 (CMIM). It was recorded at the Bourgie Hall of the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts.

G02:15:002017HD

Sir Simon Rattle and the London Symphony Orchestra mark 150 years since the death of Hector Berlioz with his tempestuous oratorio, La damnation de Faust. La damnation de Faust is a work born of the composer’s obsession with Goethe’s legendary tale. Once a righteous scholar, Faust allows himself to be corrupted by the devil, and drags the innocent around him into desperation and death. It’s a fable that defies definition – both a tragedy and dark comedy, with a central character both wise and despicable, and a play and epic poem in one.

G00:53:002001HD

The Zurich Opera House is one of the most renowned in Europe. Fifteen premieres are staged here every year - a significant achievement, when one considers just how much work goes into each individual production. In this exciting documentary, we go behind-the-scenes at the Zurich Opera House and follow the intensive progress of the new production of Gioachino Rossini's Il Barbiere di Siviglia with Vesselina Kasarova in the role of Rosina. The film also shows preparations for other productions, such as a workshop for Richard Wagner's Siegfried directed by Robert Wilson, and a rehearsal for Igor Stravinsky's Le Sacre du Printemps with choreography by Heinz Spoerli. This film opens the curtain to understanding an opera house’s many exciting facets.

G00:16:002000HD

The Berliner Philharmoniker is one of the world’s finest orchestras, its fame stretching all the way to Japan. Unsurprisingly, this 2000 concert, recorded at Tokyo’s magnificent Suntory Hall, was a resounding success. Mariss Jansons conducts a beautiful program that includes Antonin Dvorák’s Symphony No. 8, Carl Maria von Weber’s Overture to Oberon, and Dmitri Shostakovich’s Violin Concerto featuring star violinist Hilary Hahn (*1979)

G01:14:002015HD

Swiss conductor Philippe Jordan and the Orchestre de l’Opéra national de Paris recorded all of Ludwig van Beethoven’s symphonies in 2014-2015. In this program, maestro Jordan presents Beethoven’s final symphony: Symphony No. 9 in D minor, Op. 125. He conducts the Orchestre and Choeurs de l’Opéra national de Paris and four vocal soloists Ricarda Merbeth (soprano), Daniela Sindram (mezzosoprano), Robert Dean Smith (tenor), and Günther Groissböck (bass). Beethoven composed his last Symphony when his hearing had all but gone, between 1822 and 1824. Symphony No. 9 is the longest and most ambitious of Beethoven’s symphonies. Most striking is the piece’s finale movement, which includes a choir and four vocal soloists singing a setting of Friedrich Schiller’s poem ‘An die Freude’ (Ode to Joy). This performance was recorded at Opéra Bastille in Paris, France, in 2015.

G00:55:002019HD

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, Piotr Pawlak (Poland, 1998) performs César Franck’s Prelude, Chorale and Fugue in B minor; Maurice Ravel’s Pavane pour une infant défunte; and Sergei Prokofiev’s Sonata No. 4 in C minor, Op. 29. As an encore, Pawlak plays J. S. Bach’s Prelude and Fugue in C major, BWV 846; the final fugue from Leopold Godowsky’s Passacaglia in B minor; and Frédéric Chopin’s Etude in C-sharp minor, Op. 10 No. 4. This performance was recorded at Auditorium Giorgio Gaber in Milan, in November 2019.

G00:47:002008HD

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.