Schedule

Frédéric Chaslin (1963) leads the Orchestra and Chorus of the Opéra Royal de Wallonie-Liège in a performance of Léo Delibes’s tragic opera Lakmé (1883). Written to a libretto by Edmond Gondinet and Philippe Gille, the opera is set in nineteenth-century British India and tells the story of Lakmé, who falls in love with Gérald, a British officer. However, Lakmé’s father, the Brahmin priest Nilakantha, vows revenge after he discovers that Gérald has trespassed on their sacred ground. Like many of his contemporaries, Delibes was fond of exoticism, evoking foreign lands and cultures in the tradition of Georges Bizet’s Les Pêcheurs de perles (1863) and Camille Saint-Saëns’s Samson et Dalila (1877). Delibes’s opera features the celebrated “Flower Duet,” sung by Lakmé and her servant Mallika as they gather flowers by the river, and also the wonderful coloratura aria “Bell Song” (Air des Clochettes). Among the soloists are Jodie Devos, Philippe Talbot, Lionel Lhote, Pierre Doyen, and Marion Lebègue. This production was recorded at the Opéra Royal de Wallonie in Liège, Belgium, in 2022.

Maestro Abbado made a big donation when he appeared with the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra at the Suntory Hall in Tokyo in 1994. Claudio Abbado's Japanese tour is considered one of the highlights of his career and this concert is especially memorable. The original version of Mussorgsky's A Night on Bald Mountain and a sequel from Stravinsky's The Firebird, which contains 7 of the 19 pieces of the full-length ballet, are on the program. This concert ends with one of Tchaikovsky's most popular pieces, Symphony No. 5.

Five-strong vocal ensemble amarcord is joined by an extra alto and two soprano voices for this unusual concert at Leipzig’s St. Thomas Church. As amarcordplus, the ensemble presents a program focused on the city of Leipzig, which includes sacred madrigals by Johann Hermann Schein, motets from Heinrich Schütz’s collection Geistliche Chor-Music, as well as two motets by the most famous Thomaskantor: Johann Sebastian Bach. Moreover, various sacred works by lesser-known contemporaries Philipp Heinrich Erlebach and mononymous composer Liebhold are performed, in addition to compositions by other members of the Bach family, including Johann Michael Bach and Johann Christoph Bach. This performance was recorded on May 1, 2020.

Johann Sebastian Bach’s Sonata for Violin and Harpsichord No. 3 BWV 1016 belongs to a group of sonatas composed before 1975, probably during the composer’s tenure as Kapellmeister at Köthen. He presumably wrote these sonata’s for Prince Leopold, later adapting them for his own purposes in Leipzig. This would explain why the sonatas, which are sophisticated enough to challenge the most experienced of musicians, are at the same time perfectly playable for amateurs. The several pieces were meant to be a set just like the Brandenburg concertos. This third sonata follows a typical ‘Italian’ pattern: slow – fast – slow – fast.

The Berliner Philharmoniker is an orchestra based in Berlin, Germany and is ranked as one of the best orchestras in the world. In 1990, orchestra members played beautiful chamber music, such as Ludwig van Beethoven's Octet in E-flat major and Antonin Dvořák's Serenade in D minor. Even though both compositions were written for wind instruments, Beethoven reworked and expanded his String Quartet No. 1 for this composition. The performance was recorded at the famous Jaspis-Hall in the New Chambers, besides Sanssouci, the Summer Palace of Friedrich the Great.

Chamber music ensemble The Philharmonics pays tribute to the music of Vienna in this March 9, 2011 concert from Vienna's Café Sperl. The ensemble, which consists of musicians from the Vienna Philharmonic and the Berlin Philharmonic, performs arrangements of five popular waltzes by Johann Straus II. Among them are Kaiser-Walzer, Op. 437, and Schatz-Walzer, Op. 418, from the operetta The Gypsy Baron. In May 1921, the likes of Arnold Schönberg, Alban Berg, and Anton Webern wrote these chamber music arrangements to raise funds for their Society for Private Musical Performances. Although both the concert and the auction of the scores were very successful, the Society eventually went under. In addition to these pieces by Strauss, The Philharmonics perform works by Fritz Kreisler, Leopold Godowsky, as well as The Philharmonics's first violinist, Tibor Kováč. The program comes to an end with Godowsky’s tribute to the city: Alt Wien.

Conductor Herbert Blomstedt and the Gewandhausorchester take us on a musical journey to the Czech Republic in this 2020 concert from Leipzig’s Gewandhaus. The program opens with Bohemian composer Jan Václav Hugo Voríšek’s Symphony in D major, Op. 23 (1821). Although the composition – Voríšek’s only symphony – was never performed during the composer’s lifetime, it has become one of his most-performed works today. Also on the program is Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s Symphony No. 38 in D major, K. 504. This work, which premiered while Mozart was visiting Prague in 1787, is often referred to as the ‘Prague Symphony’.