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G02:26:002015HD

Antonello Manacorda leads the Orchestra and Choir of Teatro La Fenice in a performance of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s beloved opera Die Zauberflöte (‘The Magic Flute’). Mozart probably started to compose his masterpiece in May 1791, less than six months before his death. The work’s libretto is written by Emanuel Schikaneder. In its fairy tale-like narrative, Prince Tamino is commissioned by the Queen of the Night to rescue her daughter Pamina, who has been captured by priest Sarastro. Accompanied by bird-catcher Papageno, Tamino begins his quest. After finding Pamina in Sarastro’s territory, Tamino is first subjected to a number of trials in order to prove he is worth marrying Pamina. Die Zauberflöte features wonderful arias, including the famous 'Der Hölle Rache kocht in meinem Herzen' ("Hell's vengeance boils in my heart"), a virtuoso aria for coloratura soprano sung by the Queen of the Night. Among the soloists are Goran Jurić, Antonio Poli, Ekaterina Sadovnikova, Alex Esposito, Olga Pudova, and Caterina di Tonno. This performance was recorded at Teatro La Fenice in Venice, Italy, in 2015.

G01:49:002006HD

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").

G00:56:002015HD

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.

G00:15:002024HD

Italian pianist Alessandro Marangoni and Italian organist Paolo Oreni perform Marcel Dupré’s Variations on Two Themes for piano and organ, Op. 35. Designed by the organist himself, Oreni plays his ‘Wanderer’ organ in this performance, which is currently the largest existing transportable pipe organ. With its 1200 pipes and 42 stops, it has all the essential timbres needed for the organ repertoire. This performance was recorded at FabbricaPoggi in Pavia, Italy, on April 5, 2024.

G00:32:002021HD

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. In this performance, Schwartz presents Schumann’s Kreisleriana, Op. 16. Schumann claimed that he penned this 1838 composition in just four days. He dedicated it to Frédéric Chopin, his contemporary. The work’s title refers to the musician Johannes Kreisler, a fictional character from the writings of German Romantic author E. T. A. Hoffmann. Schumann regarded the composition as one of his finest. Kreisleriana is a dramatic, eight-movement piece. Its contrasting sections invoke the imaginary musician’s violent mood swings as well as the conflict between Schumann’s own two fictional characters, Florestan and Eusebius, which represent the duality of the composer’s own personality. 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.

G00:25:001990HD

Not only was Mozart unlucky in love in Mannheim, but he also failed to achieve his ambition of becoming a court composer. The young lady Antonia Lützow, for whom he wrote his Piano Concerto No. 8, was not a very accomplished performer, but in all its simplicity, this concerto is seldom short of sublime. In this episode, soloist Christian Zacharias performs Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 8, K 246, accompanied by the Radio-Sinfonieorchester Stuttgart and conducted by Gianluigi Gelmetti. The concert took place in Schwetzingen palace, where the Mannheim Elector’s court spent their summers.

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.

G01:02:002021HD

Stefano Conticello leads the Orchestra of Teatro Comunale di Bologna in a Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart program. The concert opens with the Overture from Mozart’s popular opera “The Magic Flute”. This is followed by Piano Concerto No. 25 in C major, K. 503, with Maurizio Baglini as the featured soloist. Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 25 is just one of the twelve great piano concertos he composed during 1784 and 1786. The concert ends with Symphony No. 35 in D major, K. 385, also known as the “Haffner Symphony”. On the occasion of the ennoblement of Sigmund Haffner in 1782, the prominent Salzburg Haffner family of businessmen and philanthropists commissioned Mozart to compose a new piece. Mozart agreed, and initially wrote a serenade before recasting it as a symphony a few months later: the “Haffner Symphony”. This performance was recorded at the Teatro Comunale in Bologna, Italy.

G00:59:002024HD

Pianist Derek Wang (USA, 1998) performs Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s Fantasia No. 4 in C minor, K. 475; Béla Bartók’s Three Burlesques, Op. 8c; and Franz Liszt’s Réminiscences de Don Juan, S. 418, 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.

G00:08:00HD

Italian pianist Costantino Catena performs Franz Liszt’s transcription of ‘Isoldens Liebestod’ from Richard Wagner’s opera ‘Tristan und Isolde’. This performance was recorded at the Church of the Jesuit College in Trapani, Italy.

G00:57:002014HD

One of today’s most distinguished conductors, Franz Welser-Möst conducts The Cleveland Orchestra in a performance featuring works from the oeuvre of Johannes Brahms. The concert begins with the Academic Festival Overture, written in honor of the University of Breslau, which awarded the composer an honorary doctorate in philosophy. This is followed by Brahms only Violin Concerto (in D major), described by violinist Joseph Joachim, whom it was originally written for, as one of the four great German violin concerti. This performance features violin soloist Julia Fischer. It was recorded at Severance Hall in Cleveland, USA, in 2014.

G01:34:002020HD

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. 2 in G major, Op. 18, No. 2; String Quartet No. 16 in F major, Op. 135; and String Quartet No. 14 in C-sharp minor, Op. 131. This concert was recorded at Philharmonie de Paris on December 16, 2020.

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.

12:58
Nino Rota - I due timidi
14A01:04:002017HD
The 2017 Reate Festival in Rieti, Italy staged two short operas composed by Nino Rota. Known chiefly for his cinema soundtracks and his lifelong relationship with iconic directors such as Federico Fellini, Francis Ford Coppola and Luchino Visconti (to name but a few), Rota was a musical enfant prodige who composed sacred music as well as operas from a very young age. Endowed with a streak of freedom, creativity and imagination that allowed him to forge his own unique style, he succeeded in merging the great Italian operatic tradition of Rossini, Puccini and Verdi with a contemporary musical language, setting himself apart from his contemporaries in the process. I due timidi was broadcast by Milan’s RAI in 1950 and first staged in London in 1952. Based on a text by the Italian screen writer Suso Cecchi D’Amico, it’s a comedy of errors. Although it lacks the usual happy ending, the pace of the musical action and the skills of the young actor-singers make the performance most enjoyable. “The pace of the narration changes continuously: frenzied rhythms suddenly shift to broad vocal declamations à la Puccini, with interludes reminiscent of jazz and the buffo style. Despite the richness and heterogeneity of the musical material, the singers always manage to stay vocally balanced, showing great acting abilities, as well… Conductor Gabriele Bonolis and his orchestra received midperformance applause for an energetic, fresh and brilliant performance.” This version was performed by the Reate Festival Orchestra.

G00:59:002018HD

The sensational Sollazzo Ensemble gives us two concerts of unique Burgundian repertoire. The Leuven Song Book, only recently discovered and now in the safe hands of the Alamire Foundation, is a revelation; not only does it contain long-forgotten repertoire, but also an exquisite collection of late Burgundian polyphony. Nowhere is the sombre melancholy described by Huizinga more perfectly illustrated than in this chansonnier.

G01:20:002017HD

German conductor Christian Zacharias leads the Orchestre national de Lille in a concert program dedicated to Robert Schumann. The concert opens with the ‘Genoveva’ Overture, Op. 81. Although Schumann’s only opera Genoveva is not often performed, its overture established itself as an autonomous work in concert halls. After, the composer’s Violin Concerto in D minor, WoO 23, is performed, featuring Dutch violinist Isabelle van Keulen as the soloist. Written in 1853, it is Schumann’s only violin concerto. The concert ends with a performance of Schumann’s Symphony No. 1 in B-flat major, Op. 38, also known as the ‘Spring Symphony’. This optimistic work is written in 1841 and is the most performed of Schumann’s four symphonies. This concert was recorded at Auditorium du Nouveau Siècle in Lille, France, on June 16, 2017.

G01:14:002012HD

When it comes to shaping a musical event for the ears and the eyes, the monumental majesty of Anton Bruckner’s (1824-1896) symphonies and the exhilarating vibrancy of St. Florian’s monastery are a perfect match – especially when they are captured on film so thrillingly by such an eminent director as Brian Large in 2012. Bruckner became acquainted with the monastery’s organ in his childhood and served as the organist there from 1845 to 1855. Welser-Möst, the principal conductor of the Cleveland Orchestra and General Music Director of the Vienna State Opera, is an acknowledged Bruckner specialist who has developed a passion for the composer’s Fourth Symphony – called the “Romantic” by its creator – in its infrequently played first edition (1888/89). More slender, dynamic and finely shaded than the more commonly performed version, this score is also more daring, with its sharper contrasts and boldly exposed dissonances. Recorded at the St. Florian Monastery in Austria, in 2012.

G01:30:002010HD

For over two decades, the Berlin Philharmonic has celebrated its creation on May 1 with the annual Europakonzert, which in 2010 was held in Oxford. Led by Daniel Barenboim, the orchestra performed a program including Johannes Brahms’ Symphony No. 1. The young American cellist Alisa Weilerstein, who has attracted widespread attention for her passionate yet precise musicianship, joined the orchestra for a breathtaking performance of Edward Elgar’s Cello Concerto.

G00:15:002017HD

Julijana Sarac performs the first/third movement of Ludwig van Beethoven’s Piano Sonata No. 21 (“Waldstein”). The work was completed in 1804 and is considered one of Beethoven's greatest and most technically challenging piano sonatas.

G00:14:002017HD

Andris Nelsons, together with his then-wife, the great soprano Kristine Opolais and the Gewandhausorchester Leipzig present a program dedicated to Antonin Dvořák, singing the melodies that the composer hid in all layers of his music with tender, warm, soft colors. Nelsons’ tempos remain calm and relaxed, allowing the omnipresent beauty of Dvořák’s music to unfold and flood the Gewandhaus. The program opens with Othello, a Concert Overture for Orchestra, Op. 93. Opolais performs “Song to the Moon” from Rusalka, “Songs my Mother Taught Me” from Gypsy Songs, Op. 55/4. This is followed by the Polonaise and 'O, marno, marno to je' from Rusalka and 'Dobrá! Já mu je dám!... Jak je mi?' from Smetana's opera Dalibor. The concert closes with a performance of Dvořák's Symphony no. 9 in E Minor, Op. 95 (“From the New World”). Recorded at the Gewandhaus, Leipzig in May 2017.

G00:22:002019HD

A life-long pioneer and defender of classical music, a maestro and pianist by training, Rui Massena has performed in 14 countries with 30 orchestras, has conducted for José Carreras, Ute Lemper and Wim Mertens and was the main guest conductor of the Rome Symphony Orchestra for three seasons. He has also received several distinctions, both as maestro and as a TV personality. With his first album, Solo, in 2015, recorded entirely on solo piano, his remarkable talent as a melodist was revealed to the world. In 2016, he released 'Ensemble', partly recorded with the Czech National Symphony Orchestra. The record shot to #1 in the Portuguese charts. The new album III was recorded in two stages: in Berlin all the piano parts were recorded with the Grammy-winning producer and engineer Tobias Lehman; in Oporto they were recorded with his stage band. The record was mastered in New York by Grammy-winning engineer Joe Laporta and released in Portugal by Universal on the Deutsche Grammophon label in November 2018. A tour is already planned for 2019 coinciding with the international release of III. In this concert from 2019's Classical:NEXT!, Rui Massena performs alongside Rui Moreira (viola d’arc), Bernardo Fesch (bass), and Sandro Mota (percussions).

G01:04:002017HD

Fabio Luisi conducts the Danish National Symphony Orchestra in this powerful performance taken from the 150th Anniversary celebrations of Denmark’s national composer, Carl Nielsen. Alongside Nielsen’s inscrutably ironic Symphony No. 6, this performance features world-renowned French pianist Lise de la Salle as soloist in Rachmaninov’s Piano Concerto No. 4. This lesser-known concerto saw three separate iterations throughout the composer’s life and is characterized by bold chromaticism and a distinctly Jazz-like quality. Luisi and de la Salle have prior experience with this piece, having previously performed and recorded it together. This performance was recorded at the DR Koncerthuset in Copenhagen, Denmark, in 2017.

G01:30:002019HD

‘A Descent into the Maelström’ (1841) is American writer Edgar Allan Poe’s short story of two fishermen caught in torrents raging between the mountainous islands of Lofoten, inside the Arctic Circle of northern Norway. After a treacherous whirlpool drags their boat down, only one of them survives. American composer Philipp Glass based his choral work for the Australian Dance Theatre on this story. The piece was performed at the Adelaide Festival of Arts in 1986. Beacon Isle Films recorded an arrangement of Glass’s work for symphony orchestra, performed by the Arctic Philharmonic Orchestra and Choir conducted by Tim Weiss. Soprano Berit Norbakken Solset is the soloist. The Artic Philharmonic Orchestra is the world's youngest and northernmost professional orchestral institution, presenting circa 150 performances and concerts each year. This 2019 recording was made against the backdrop of Lofoten’s spectacular landscape: the very surroundings that inspired Poe’s story.

G00:16:002016HD

The documentary Summertime at the Domaine Forget introduces internationally renowned treasure: Domaine Forget festival in Saint-Irénée, Québec. Domaine Forget is one of Canada's leading music academies and hosts this annual festival to promote music and dance. Every summer, 500 music students from around the world gather for an intensive course program featuring: masterclasses, individual lessons, chamber music sessions, lectures, and special workshops.

G00:22:002022HD

Intercultural chamber music ensemble AU Ensemble performs Canadian contemporary composer Rita Ueda’s ‘…and even if the sky fades into the dark…’ (2022). This piece for string quartet and Chinese traditional instrument of choice is here performed by Geling Jiang on the liuqin, a string instrument from the lute family. This performance was recorded at the Deep Cove Shaw Theatre in North Vancouver, Canada, on March 23, 2022.

G00:23:002023HD

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. In this performance, Schwartz performs Faschingsschwank aus Wien, Op. 26 (Carnival Scenes from Vienna). Schumann composed most of the work during his stay in Vienna in 1839, where he wrote the first four movements, presenting pictures of lively carnival revelry. He completed the fifth, last movement on his return to Leipzig. This piano cycle is among the composer’s most popular. 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.

G00:23:002019HD

Soprano Harriet Burns (United Kingdom, 1989) and pianist Ian Tindale (United Kingdom, 1990) perform Franz Schubert’s Verklärung, D. 59; Clara Schumann’s Er ist gekommen in Sturm und Regen, Op. 12, No. 2; ‘L’heure exquise’ from Reynaldo Hahn’s Chansons grises, and ‘Le printemps’ from Hahn’s Douze rondels; ‘Herzeleid’ from Robert Schumann’s Sechs Gesänge, Op. 107; ‘Le corbeau et le renard’ from André Caplet’s Trois fables; Alphons Diepenbrock’s Die Liebende schreibt, RC 20; ‘Seranilla de la zarzuela’ from Judith Weir’s A Spanish liederbooklet; Muriel Herbert’s Renouncement; and ‘Waldmädchen’ from Hugo Wolf’s Eichendorff-Lieder, during the final round of the International Vocal Competition 2019 – Lied Duo. This performance was recorded at Theater aan de Parade in ‘s-Hertogenbosch, the Netherlands.