Schedule

Riccardo Frizza leads the Orchestra and Chorus of the Maggio Musicale Fiorentino in a performance of Giuseppe Verdi’s tragic opera Rigoletto (1851). In 1850, Teatro La Fenice commissioned Verdi to compose a new opera. Verdi proposed Victor Hugo’s controversial play Le Roi s'amuse to his librettist Francesco Maria Piave. This play, which premiered in 1832 but was banned after only one performance, portrayed the monarchy in its worst vices. However, Verdi was determined to adapt the play to opera and reached a compromise with the censor. The opera revolves around Rigoletto, a hunchbacked jester at the court of the licentious Duke of Mantua. Rigoletto’s life is turned upside down when his latest wisecrack starts a vendetta that is far from amusing, leaving him cursed. In this 2021 production, Italian director Davide Livermore follows the story as we know it, but places it in a contemporary setting. Among the soloists are Javier Camarena (Duke of Mantua), Luca Salsi (Rigoletto), Enkeleda Kamani (Gilda), Alessio Cacciamani (Sparafucile), Caterina Piva (Maddalena), and Valentina Corò (Giovanna). This performance was recorded at Teatro del Maggio Musicale Fiorentino in Florence, Italy, in 2021.

A crossover experience inspired by the music of Mozart: the surprising and original Spirits of Mozart. In this crossover concert, outstanding personalities from the fields of pop, jazz and classical music interpret Mozart`s compositions in their personal musical languages for a broad public of the 21st century. These performances show that the impact of Mozart`s music reaches far beyond the boundaries of classical music. Performers like Dee Dee Bridgewater, the young violinist Benjamin Schmid with jazz band and orchestra, Jethro Tull’s singer-flautist Ian Anderson and many others present Mozart arrangements in a rousing, electrifying mélange of classical, jazz and pop culture.

Violinist Daniel Rowland, violist Rachel Roberts, cellist Julian Arp, and pianist Diana Ketler perform Richard Strauss’s Piano Quartet in C minor, Op. 13, as part of the Stiftfestival 2016 in the Dutch village of Weerselo. In his early years, Strauss tried to compose different types of chamber music works, including a piano quartet. The young composer started writing the Piano Quartet in C minor in the spring of 1884 and completed it one year later. The work is in four movements and shows considerable influence from Johannes Brahms. It premiered on December 8, 1885 in Weimar and was performed by members of the Halír Quartet with Strauss himself playing the piano part. The following year the work won the first prize given by the Berliner Tonkünstlerverein for a piano quartet. This performance was recorded at the Stiftkerk in Weerselo, the Netherlands.

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. 1 in G major, BWV 1007. 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. 1 opens with a prelude, and is followed by six dance movements, divided over five sections: an allemande, a courante, a sarabande, two minuets, and a final gigue.

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. During the competition’s final round, Piotr Pawlak (Poland, 1998) performs Ludwig van Beethoven’s Sonata No. 28 in A major, Op. 101, and Johannes Brahms’s Sonata No. 3 in F minor, Op. 5. This performance was recorded at Sala Verdi of the Conservatory of Milan, in July 2021.

Claudio Abbado conducts the Berlin Philharmonic in a performance of Mozart’s “Haffner” Symphony No. 35, K. 385, recorded during the very first Europakonzert in the Smetana Hall in Prague, 1991. Mozart originally composed the symphony as a serenade for the family of Sigmund Haffner, a childhood friend from Salzburg in 1782. The composer made some revisions in the following year, adding multiple instruments and conducted the premiere of the four-movement piece on March 23, 1783, in Vienna. The “Haffner” Symphony, as it is known now, is a transitional work in Mozart’s career. The work was meant to be party music for Salzburg and was transformed into a symphony for Vienna.

For this truly unique, historic occasion, Welsh composer Sir Karl Jenkins conducts The World Orchestra for Peace and around 2,000 singers from nearly 30 countries to Sing for Peace at the Berlin's Mercedes Benz Arena on November 2, 2018. Soloists are vocalists Leah-Marian Jones, Yumeji Matsufuji, Pauline Rathmann, Amir Aziz, violinist Krzysztof Wisniewski and cellist Valentino Worlitzsch. The Armed Man: A Mass for Peace is the most performed work by any living composer. This performance is the largest ever staged, and was uniquely performed in synchronization with a specially commissioned war-archive film that reinforces the narrative of the work – the build up to war, war itself, and the consequences of war. Projected on to five giant screens, the film delivers a poignant backdrop to the moving musical narration providing the audience with a powerful and emotional multimedia experience.

Pierre Boulez (1925-2016) was undoubtedly one of the most important figures in modern music. In this performance by the Gustav Mahler Youth Orchestra, Boulez displays his masterful understanding of 20th century music as he traces the revolutionary harmonic development of musical modernism in three key "modern classics": Richard Wagner's Tristan und Isolde, “Prelude” (1859), Arnold Schönberg's Pelleas und Melisande (1903), and Alban Berg's Violin Concerto (1935). The Gustav Mahler Youth Orchestra was founded through conductor Claudio Abbado's initiative in 1986. It consists of musicians under the age of 26 from all over Europe. The soloist in Berg's Violin Concerto is Akiko Suwanai, the youngest first-prize recipient (1990) in the history of Moscow's International Tchaikovsky Competition.

Pianist Michelle Candotti (Italy, 1996) performs Barbara Assiginaak’s Mzizaakok Miiniwaa Mzizaakoonsak (Horseflies and Deerflies); Franz Liszt’s Après une lecture du Dante, fantasia quasi sonata (Années de pèlerinage, deuxième année, S. 161: No. 7); ‘Pavane’ from George Enescu’s Suite No. 2 in D major, Op. 10; Étude No. 111 in G minor from Hélène de Montgeroult’s Études; and Sergei Prokofiev’s Sonata No. 7 in B-flat major, Op. 83, during the solo recital of the two-part semi-final 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.

Beethoven’s last three sonatas – Opus 109, 110 and 111 – explore the intimate meanders of the human soul, from despair to transfiguration. At the time of their composition, Beethoven was already locked in himself by his deafness. This deeply affected his relationship to others and to the world. This "psychological framework" is explored by director Mariano Nante, setting pianist Alexandre Tharaud in a film inspired by the universe of Tarkovski. Filmed in abandoned castles, and lit by director of photography Yorgos Arvanitis, this work evokes solitude and introspection and offers an inner journey through images and music.

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.

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.

Soprano Sophia Burgos (USA, 1991) and pianist Daniel Gerzenberg (Germany, 1991) perform ‘Ich esse nun mein Brod nicht trocken mehr’, ‘Wer rief dich den?’, ‘Schweig’ einmal still, du garst’ger Schwätzer dort!’, and ‘Wenn du, mein Liebster, steigst zum Himmel auf’ from Hugo Wolf’s Italienisches Liederbuch; ‘El paño moruno’ and ‘Nana’ from Manuel de Falla’s Siete canciones populares españolas; ‘D’Anne jouant de l’espinette’ from Maurice Ravel’s Deux epigrammes de Clément Marot, M. 10; Igor Stravinsky’s The owl and the pussy-cat; ‘Agnes’ from Gerrit Isaac van Eijken’s Fünf Gedichte, Op. 11; ‘Die tote Braut’ from Joseph Marx’s Italienisches Liederbuch; ‘Herzeleid’ from Robert Schumann’s Sechs Gesänge, Op. 107; ‘Mon cadavre est doux comme un gant’ from Francis Poulenc’s Fiançailles pour rire, FP 101; and ‘Pause of the clock’ from George Crumb’s The yellow moon of Andalusia (Spanish songbook III), during the final round of the International Vocal Competition 2021 – Lied Duo. This performance was recorded at De Verkadefabriek in ’s-Hertogenbosch, the Netherlands.

The Burgundian rulers attached great importance to a high-quality court chapel, but music could also be heard daily in their private apartments. Minstrels entertained the courtiers and thereby influenced the musical agenda of Europe’s political epicentre. With examples of the ‘high’ and ‘low’ oeuvre of Dufay and Binchois – the golden pair of Burgundian composers – Les haulz et les bas live up to their name.

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.