Schedule

“The Unanswered Ives” is the first documentary about American modernist composer Charles Ives (1874-1954). Ives was among the first generation of American composers that achieved international acclaim. Born in 1874, in Danbury, Connecticut, Ives took music lessons at a young age, becoming a church organist at the age of 14. Following his graduation from the music department at Yale University, the young composer decided to pursue a career outside of the arts. He started working in insurance, co-founding an innovative and highly successful insurance company. It was in his spare time that Ives composed his ambitious music, in which he experimented with advanced features including polytonality, twelve-tone technique, and quarter tones. The documentary film “The Unanswered Ives” (2018) sheds light on Ives’s life and work in all its facets, exploring his aural world by showing music performances in churches, concert halls, open-air venues, and a circus tent. Using interviews with relatives, insurance brokers, musicologists, and musicians, documentary filmmaker Anne-Kathrin Peitz explores the question “who was Charles Ives?"

Conductor Eduard Topchjan leads the Armenian National Philharmonic Orchestra in a performance of Hector Berlioz’s Symphonie fantastique, Op. 14. Berlioz wrote the piece of program music in 1830 while still a conservatory student. Inspired on the composer’s unrequited love for Irish actress Harriet Smithson, the five-movement piece portrays the dreams of a young artist who has taken an overdose of opium in the aftermath of a failed love affair. Berlioz used one melody in each movement of the work representing the artist’s beloved, an ‘idée fixe’ (a fixed idea or obsession). The work is scored for a large orchestra and features an astonishing array of instrumental colors, including church bells, an off-stage oboe, and strings playing col legno (using the wood of their bow). This performance was recorded at the Aram Khachaturian Concert Hall in Yerevan, Armenia, in 2021.

Few Italian theatres can boast of being an absolute point of reference for national and world culture. The Teatro Regio in Turin is both a symbol of excellence in the national operatic tradition and a prestigious stage hosting operas, ballets, concerts, and musicals of great substance. This short documentary offers a behind-the-scenes tour of the Teatro Regio Torino and bears witness to the enviable reputation that has prevailed since its opening in 1740.

Dutch violinist Simone Lamsma brings lyricism and fire to Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky’s virtuosic Violin Concerto, joining conductor Gianandrea Noseda and the London Symphony Orchestra. Tchaikovsky wrote the piece in 1878 on the shores of Lake Geneva, collaborating closely with his former student and lover, violinist Iosif Kotek. The composer initially intended to dedicate the piece to the young Kotek, but eventually dedicated it to another violinist, Leopold Auer, as he was afraid of the gossip the dedication would cause. This performance was recorded at the Barbican Hall in London, UK, on April 10, 2022.

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.

Maestro Mariss Jansons conducts the Berlin Philharmonic in a performance of Hector Berlioz' Symphonie fantastique, Op. 14. This performance is part of the Europakonzert 2001, recorded at Hagia Irene in Istanbul, Turkey.

Franz Welser-Möst conducts the Cleveland Orchestra and Chorus in a concert performing Richard Strauss' Metamorphosen (A Study for 23 Solo Strings) and Mozart's Requiem, K. 626. Soloists are Siobhan Stagg (soprano), Avery Amereau (contralto), Ben Bliss (tenor) and Anthony Robin Schneider (bass). Recorded at Severance Hall, Cleveland in March 2023.

The Gustav Mahler Jugendorchester was founded in 1986 at the initiative of Claudio Abbado and has since become the world’s best youth orchestra. Named after the great composer, the programme is marked by the special relationship between the maestro and the young orchestra, as well as their special relationship to Gustav Mahler. Claudio Abbado is undeniably the supreme Mahler conductor of our time and his long-time association with this repertoire culminates in this stirring performance of Mahler’s last Symphony, written shortly before the composer’s untimely death. Recorded at Accademia di Santa Cecilia in Rome 2004, the film vividly shows the joy, talent, and professionalism of the young musicians drawn from all over Europe and their devotion to Claudio Abbado. A wonderful homage to orchestra, conductor, composer and to a triumphant master work - Gustav Mahler’s magnificent 9th symphony.

Italian pianist Roberto Prosseda (1975) performs Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's Piano Sonata No. 5, KV. 283. 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.

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, Jordan conducts Symphony No. 1 in C major, Op. 21. This symphony shows Beethoven’s loyalty to the model of Joseph Haydn’s and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s late symphonies, yet reveals his attempt to distinguish himself from his predecessors. For instance, the work opens with a slow introduction that refuses to reveal the piece’s key. Equally remarkable are the unusual prominence of the woodwinds, and the scherzo-like tempo of the third movement bearing the indication ‘minuet’. This performance was recorded at Opéra Bastille in Paris, France, in 2014.

Baritone Matthias Goerne teams up with violinist Vilde Frang, cellist Nicolas Altstaedt, flutist Stathis Karapanos, and harpsichordist Michaela Hasselt in this program dedicated to the music of J. S. Bach. They perform baritone arias from Bach’s most beautiful cantatas, as well as solo pieces and duets. On the program are Sonata No. 3 in C major for violin solo, BWV 1005; arias ‘Hier, in meines Vaters Stätte’, BWV 32 and ‘Die Welt mit allen Königreichen’, BWV 59; Suite No. 5 in C minor for cello solo, BWV 1011; ‘Wenn Trost und Hülf ermangeln muß’, BWV 117; ‘Ja, ja, ich halte Jesum fest’, BWV 157; Invention No. 7 in E minor, BWV 778; Invention in A major, BWV 783; and ‘Welt ade, ich bin dein müde’, BWV 158. This performance was recorded at St. Mary’s Church in Wittenberg, Germany.

Italian pianist Roberto Prosseda performs Frédéric Chopin's technically challenging Ballade No. 4 in F minor, Op. 52. Completed in 1842, this piece is celebrated as a masterpiece within the Romantic piano repertoire, renowned for its intricate structure and profound emotional depth. This performance was recorded at the stunning baroque palace Villa Contarini in Piazzola sul Brenta, Italy, in 2006.

One of the world’s most popular pieces of classical music, Maurice Ravel’s Boléro (1928), was no longer copyrighted as of May 1, 2016. Up to then it had made Ravel and his heirs millions. Ravel died in 1937 and left all he owned to his brother Edouard. Edouard’s death in 1960 unleashed a complex legal battle over the rights, involving among others Edouard’s nurse and her husband. This 2017 documentary gives a fascinating account of what happened to one this iconic piece of music right under the nose of the public. Filmmaker Fabien Caux-Lahalle underpins this investigative story with clips of the Boléro in various guises.

Jean Paul’s novel ‘Titan’, in which an artistically gifted young man, driven by his failure to find his way in society, eventually commits suicide in despair, inspired Gustav Mahler to compose his Symphony No. 1. The work did not come easily to Mahler: he composed it between 1887 and 1888 when he, in his twenties, was working as a conductor at the Oper Leipzig. The first version of the work was considered as a symphonic poem in two parts, as its titles told a specific musical story. This original version premiered in Budapest in 1898, but it did not go down well. Mahler decided to revise his work: he left out the expressionist titles and cut the second part (Blumine). This results in a wonderful symphony, full of musical references. The opening part quotes one of Mahler's earlier compositions (Ging heut' morgens übers Feld from Lieder eines Fahrenden Gesellen), the second movement is an Austrian ländler (a folk dance), and the third part refers to a very well-known melody: ‘Brother John'. All in all, this Symphony No. 1 marks an incredible achievement for a composer this young.

The Danish National Symphony Orchestra and Concert Choir take you on a musical journey through the greatest Oscar-winning films, from timeless classics like Casablanca to monumental masterpieces like The Godfather and iconic blockbusters like Forrest Gump —epic movies with music that deserves its very own place in film history. These are famous soundtracks that, for nearly a century, have made us shiver, melt, and cry in the darkness of the cinema. Christian Schumann conducts The Danish National Symphony Orchestra and Concert Choir and soloists are Silas Bjerregaard and eee gee with host Caspar Phillipson as special guest.

The Danish National Symphony Orchestra takes us on a spectacular symphonic space journey in an out-of-this-world concert program of film music. Under the direction of Dutch conductor Antony Hermus, the orchestra guides us through the musical universe, performing a selection of music from iconic sci-fi movies, such as Avatar, Gravity, Interstellar, and Star Wars, written by major composers such as John Williams, Hans Zimmer, and James Horner. Featured soloists in this concert are Tuva Semmingsen, Christine Nonbo Andersen, Steffen Bruun, and David Bateson. This performance was recorded at the DR Koncerthuset in Copenhagen, Denmark, in August 2021.