Schedule

Italian conductor Beatrice Venezi leads the Orchestre national de Metz Grand Est and the Choeur de l'Opéra-Théâtre de Metz Métropole in a performance of Giacomo Puccini’s tragic opera Madama Butterfly (1904). The story revolves around Cio-Cio-San, the young Japanese geisha ‘Butterfly’ who marries the visiting American officer Pinkerton. Faithfully awaiting his return, she cannot accept that Pinkerton has abandoned her. Stage director Giovanna Spinelli’s 2021 production sets the story 35 years after the events of Puccini's original opera. It opens in a hospital room where an ailing Pinkerton, consumed by remorse, lies on his deathbed. Watched over by his American wife, Kate, and their son, Dolore, Pinkerton reveals the long-held secret of his son's birth mother. As he recounts the past, the room comes alive with its ghosts, presenting the story across two timelines at once. By shifting the narrative perspective, Spinelli delivers a gripping and moving new interpretation of this classic work. Among the soloists are Francesca Tiburzi, Thomas Bettinger, Vikena Kamenica, Jean-Luc Ballestra, Daegweon Choi, and Aurore Weiss. This performance was recorded at Opéra-Théâtre de Metz Métropole, France, in 2021.

Gidon Kremer’s return to J. S. Bach’s partitas is a major event. Kremer’s first recording of these works was released almost a quarter of a century ago. In this recording from 2006, Kremer once again takes on the greatest challenge for any violinist: Bach’s magnificent “Sonatas and Partitas for Solo Violin” (BWV 1001-1006), which Kremer himself calls the “Himalayas” of violin music. With these pieces, Bach firmly established the technical capability of the violin as a solo instrument. The partitas served as archetypes for solo violin pieces by later generations of composers. This rendition of the collection displays Kremer’s very personal sense of spontaneity and a readiness to take risks. Yet it is also marked by the structural awareness of an exceptional musician who, in a unique way, does justice both to the polyphonic wealth of the compositions and to their juxtaposition of dance elements and reflective profoundness.

Maestro Myung-Whun Chung leads the Orchestra and Chorus of the Maggio Musicale Fiorentino, along with two vocal soloists, in this impressive performance of Gustav Mahler’s Symphony No. 2 in C minor, ‘Resurrection’. Soprano Christiane Karg and alto Claudia Huckle are the soloists. Written between 1888 and 1894, this five-movement symphony is scored for a large orchestra, chorus, and soprano and alto soloists. Mahler explores themes of life, death, and resurrection throughout the symphony. Its first movement resembles a funeral march, while the second, a graceful Ländler, creates a stark contrast with the somber character of the first. The third movement is a Scherzo based on Mahler’s musical setting of ‘Des Antonius von Padua Fischpredigt’ from the collection Des Knaben Wunderhorn. The composer also used another Wunderhorn poem, ‘Urlicht’ (Primal Light), for the fourth movement, incorporating both text and music, sung by the alto. The chorus makes its entrance in the second part of the fifth and final movement with the ‘Resurrection’ chorale. This performance was recorded at Teatro del Maggio Musicale Fiorentino in Florence, Italy, in 2021.

Under the direction of Conrad van Alphen, the Sinfonia Rotterdam Orchestra performs Haydn's Symphony No. 45 at the Nieuwe Kerk (New Church) in The Hague. This piece is nicknamed "Farewell" because of a funny anecdote. Haydn and his musicians stayed every year from May to October at the magnificent Esterháazy Palace, at the request of Prince Nicholas. In early November 1772, the prince announced his intention to remain at the palace for two more months. The musicians then told Kapellmeister Haydn their disagreement with this forced extension of their stay. The solution proposed by Haydn was to compose a piece delivering a clear message: at the end of the last movement of the Symphony, the musicians were called to blow the candles on their lectern and leave the room one after the other. Prince Nicholas understood the message; the next day a car was waiting for the musicians to take them home.

Pianist Jaeden Izik-Dzurko (Canada, 1999) joins the CMIM ensemble, consisting of three principal strings players of the Montreal Symphony Orchestra, in a performance of the first movement, Sostenuto assai – Allegro ma non troppo, of Robert Schumann’s Piano Quartet in E-flat major, Op. 47. 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.

Iván Fischer leads his Budapest Festival Orchestra (BFO) in a concert program dedicated to the music of Ludwig van Beethoven. The program opens with the composer’s Symphony No. 1 in C major, Op. 21. Afterward, Fischer conducts Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 4 in G major, Op. 58, in which Richard Goode features as the soloist. The acclaimed American pianist (1943) is known for his interpretations of the Beethoven repertoire. Goode recorded all five Beethoven piano concertos with the BFO and Fischer, earning him exceptional critical acclaim and a Grammy Award nomination. As an encore, Goode performs the Sarabande from J. S. Bach’s Partita in B-flat major, BWV 825. The program closes with Beethoven’s famous Symphony No. 5 in C minor, Op. 67. This performance was recorded at the Béla Bartók National Concert Hall in Budapest, Hungary, on January 29, 2017.

From the Rammenau Castle, the Gewandhaus-Quartett performs String Quartet No. 14 in G major, K. 387 by Mozart. Composed in Vienna in 1782, this play dubbed Spring is the first of the Haydn Quartets, a suite of six string quartets composed by Mozart during his early years in Vienna in honor of Joseph Haydn, considered by many as the father of string quartets. Founded in 1808, the Gewandhaus-Quartett is the oldest quartet in the world, continuously performing for more than 200 years. It is currently composed of Frank Michael Erben (first violin), Conrad Suske (second violin), Volker Metz (viola), Jürnjakob Timm (cello), and Steffen Adelmann (double bass).

Baritone Samuel Hasselhorn and pianist Daniel Heide perform Franz Schubert’s song cycle Winterreise (‘Winter’s journey’). The 30-year-old Schubert wrote this masterpiece in 1827, just a year before his death. Like Schubert’s earlier song cycle Die schöne Müllerin (1823), Winterreise is a setting of the poetry of Wilhelm Müller (1794-1827). In twenty-four songs, we follow a rejected young man on a lonely journey through a frozen landscape. Wandering as a lost soul, tormented by his memories, the man searches for peace. This performance was recorded at Schloss Wörlitz, part of the Dessau-Wörlitz Garden Realm, near Dessau, the birthplace and final resting place of Wilhelm Müller.

Rodolfo Barráez conducts the Orchestra and Choir of the Academia de Musica del Palacia de Mineria in a performance of Carl Orff's cantata Carmina Burana. Soloists are Anabel de la Mora (soprano), Andrés Carrillo (tenor) and Daniel Cerón (baritone). Carmina Burana, composed in 1935 and 1936, is based on 24 poems from a medieval manuscript of the same name. The full title is "Songs from Beuern: Secular songs for singers and choruses to be sung together with instruments and magical images". It was first performed at the Oper Frankfurt on June 8, 1937.

String quartet Cuarteto Mendelssohn de BP, in its 2018 configuration of violinists Olga Artyugina and Eva Rabchevska, violist Bella Chic and cellist Hayk Sukiasyan, performs Edvard Grieg’s String Quartet in G minor, Op. 27. Completed in 1878, it is the composer’s second attempt in the genre. His first string quartet, written in the early 1860s, was lost, and the third one was left incomplete at the composer’s death. Grieg based the main theme of the quartet on the song ‘Spillemænd’ (Minstrels, from Six songs, Op. 25), appearing in all four movements. This performance was recorded at Auditorio Sony of the Reina Sofía School of Music in Madrid, Spain, on May 17, 2018.

Enjoy a genuine musical marathon as a prelude to the Utrecht Early Music Festival 2018. During three concerts, the Huelgas Ensemble sing an entire alphabet of Burgundian composers, one for every letter. It concerns composers who were employed by the Burgundian court, with a special exception for Josquin, prince of polyphony. The singers perform arm-in-arm with Paul Van Nevel, visiting mass movements, motets and chansons by known and masters-to-be-discovered like Champion, Divitis, Binchois, de Orto, van Weerbeke, and many others. With “anonymous” to “incognito” they bring a double ode to the many nameless polyphonists who nonetheless made breathtaking contributions to the polyphonic repertoire of the 15th century.

For over six decades, Pierre Boulez had a greater influence on the development of contemporary music than anyone else. Already in his younger days, he gained a reputation as a doughty champion of the avant-garde. With his compositions, interpretations and ideas, he indelibly shaped the international music scene – not only as a composer and conductor, but also as a music philosopher and teacher. This documentary by Gunter Atteln and Angelika Stiehler pays tribute to him on the occasion of his 85th birthday on March 26, 2010. For the previous five summers, Pierre Boulez and highly gifted young musicians from all over the world had converged for intensive rehearsal weeks. Over this period, they learned from the maestro and one another, discussing and playing selected compositions. Subsequently, they presented the fruits of their labour in a number of outstanding concerts. To convey the fascination for contemporary music, this documentary captures the perspectives of Pierre Boulez and the young conductors, composers, and musicians involved. Their infectious enthusiasm gives viewers an emotional access to the world of new music.

Les Dissonances is a collective of artists founded by violinist David Grimal in 2004. The conductorless ensemble consists of musicians from the most prestigious European orchestras, international soloists, and young talents. In this performance, Les Dissonances play Ludwig van Beethoven’s Violin Concerto in D major, Op. 61. Leading violinist Grimal is the soloist. Beethoven’s Violin Concerto was composed in 1806 and is the composer’s only work in this genre. Its premiere was not very successful, and the work saw few performances in the decades that followed. However, a remarkable performance by 12-year old violinist Joseph Joachim in 1844 gave the Violin Concerto a new lease of life. Ever since, it is one of the most performed works in the genre. As an encore, Grimal performs the Allegro from J. S. Bach’s Violin Sonata No. 2 in A minor, BWV 1003. This performance was recorded at Philharmonie de Paris, France, in 2015.

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.

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.

To strengthen faith and stimulate piety: this was the role of music according to Pope Benedictus XIV, who in the 18th century carried out radical church reforms. Festival resident Giulio Prandi closely examines the religious repertoire of this period from a double perspective: that of traditional counterpoint, as in Domenico Scarlatti’s ‘Madrid’ Mass, and that of the modern, theatrical style of Perez and Jommelli.

This 2016 concert at Chambord Castle in France under the direction of Hervé Niquet features 70 musicians that gave a spectacular performance of Handel‘s Water Music and Music for the Royal Fireworks. In between Le Concert Spirituel also plays Concerto Grosso’s No. 4 and No. 5 also by Georg Friedrich Handel. After that you can enjoy the celebrated movement of Marc- Antoine Charpentier’s Te Deum, now universally known as the signature tune of Eurovision. The music brings to mind the splendor at the court of King Louis XIV, who sojourned in Chambord on several occasions.

Considered by Bruckner as the artistic climax of his career, the Symphony No. 8 followed in the wake of the triumphs celebrated by his 7th Symphony and Te Deum. Yet the conductor put aside the original version of the work – which Franz Welser-Möst conducts here – when his friend the conductor Hermann Levi rejected it. The original version was first performed in 1954 and first published in 1972. Recorded live at Cleveland's Severance Hall with The Cleveland Orchestra under its Music Director Franz Welser-Möst, this performance marks the fourth instalment in the orchestra's Bruckner cycle Austrian conductor Franz Welser-Möst has been Music Director of The Cleveland Orchestra since 2002. In addition to his duties in Cleveland, Welser-Möst has been General Music Director of the Vienna State Opera.

Sir Simon Rattle conducts the London Symphony Orchestra (LSO) in a concert program consisting of Antonín Dvořák’s Scherzo Capriccioso in D-flat major, Op. 66, and selections from Act II of Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky’s famous ballet The Nutcracker (1892). Dvořák’s Scherzo Capriccioso (1883) reflects a period of personal crisis for the composer. The work betrays ever-changing moods and a constant sense of inner restlessness. In the music of The Nutcracker, Tchaikovsky combined memorable melodies with colorful orchestration, which has enchanted listeners for decades. This performance was recorded at LSO St Luke’s in London, UK, on March 18, 2021.