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.

This Christmas concert, recorded at the Berlin Schauspielhaus on the Gendarmeriemarkt, was one of the first joint musical productions of reunited Germany. Beautiful visuals of landscapes and other locations in snow and ice turn the concert into a romantic winter storybook. On the program are works by J. S. Bach, G. F. Handel and Prätorius. The Tölz Boys' Choir is led by Gerhard Schmidt-Garden, the Zagorsk Monastery Choir by Matfej Mormyl and the Staatskapelle Dresden by Ferdinand Leitner. Soloists are Maria Graf, Doris Soffel, Siegfried Jerusalem, Jochen Kowalski and Hermann Prey. Recorded in 1990 and directed by Bob Rooyens.

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.

Conrad van Alphen conducts Sinfonia Rotterdam in a performance of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s Symphony No. 35 in D Major, K. 385, recorded at the Nieuwe Kerk, The Hague, in 2020. Van Alphen founded Sinfonia Rotterdam in 2000. Under his passionate leadership, this orchestra has developed into one of the Netherland’s best-known orchestras. Mozart’s Symphony No. 35 is also known as the “Haffner Symphony”. In 1782, the Haffner family from Salzburg commissioned Mozart to write a new piece on the occasion of the ennoblement of Sigmund Haffner. Mozart agreed, and initially composed a serenade before recasting it as a symphony a few months later: the “Haffner Symphony”. One of his revisions was the addition of more instruments in the first and last movement, resulting in a fuller sound. The symphony consists of four movements: Allegro con spirito, Andante, Menuetto, and Presto.

Italian cellist Silvia Chiesa and Italian pianist Maurizio Baglini perform a wonderful recital of works by Ferruccio Busoni, Franz Liszt, Frédéric Chopin, and Sergei Rachmaninoff. On the program are Busoni’s Kultaselle – 10 variations on a Finnish folksong; Liszt’s Two Elegies for cello and piano; Chopin’s Introduction and Polonaise brillante in C major, Op. 3; and Rachmaninoff’s Sonata in G minor for cello and piano, Op. 19. As an encore, the duo plays Leonard Bernstein’s iconic composition ‘Tonight’ from the musical West Side Story. This performance was recorded at Sala Verdi of the Conservatorio Giuseppe Verdi in Milan, Italy, on November 4, 2024.

Pianist Michelle Candotti (Italy, 1996) 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.

This splendid Christmas concert was recorded live from the Freiburg Cathedral in 1999. It features soprano Barbara Bonney, recognized worldwide for the clarity of her voice and the precision of her diction, and the baritone Matthias Goerne, one of the most promising singers of his generation. Accompanied by the Baroque Orchestra of Freiburg and the German Brass, they perform pieces from Bach's Christmas Oratorio (BWV 248), Mozart's Mass in C minor (KV 427), and Handel's Messiah.

Sigiswald Kuijken conducts baroque ensemble La Petite Bande and the Ex Tempore choir at the St. Nicolas Church in Leipzig in this recording from Bachfest 2004, a leading music festival for the performance of the Bach family's music. This concert opens with J. S. Bach’s Ascension Oratorio “Lobet Gott in seinen Reichen” (BWV 11). Written in 1735, this short work ended up being the composer’s final contribution to the genre. Due to its brevity, the oratorio was accidentally classified as a cantata in the Bach Gesamtausgabe of 1852. Next is “Die Auferstehung und Himmelfahrt Jesu” (Wq 240), an oratorio by Bach’s most famous son, Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach. Soloists are Sophie Karthäuser (soprano), Patrizia Hardt (alto), Christoph Einhorn (tenor), Christoph Genz (tenor), Jan van der Crabben (baritone), and Stephan Genz (bass).

Chinese pianist Lang Lang performs some of the greatest works in the piano repertoire at Berghain in Berlin in 2010. The concert program includes the first movement of Piano Sonata No. 23, op. 57, called Beethoven's Appassionata, the precipato of Prokofiev's Sonata No. 7, and the mention of Iberia (Book 1), the masterpiece of Isaac Albéniz. Lang Lang closes the evening with a powerful version of the ''Heroic'' Polonaise, op. 53 from Chopin.

Pianist Rachel Breen (USA, 1996) performs the March from Sergei Prokofiev’s March and Scherzo from The Love for Three Oranges, Op. 33; Prelude and Waltz in C no. 4 from György Kurtág’s Játékok (Games), volume 1; Prelude No. 23 in F major from Alexander Scriabin’s 24 Preludes, Op. 11; Intermezzo (no. 1) from Prokofiev’s Three Pieces from Cinderella, Op. 95; Bagatelle No. 3 in E-flat major from Ludwig van Beethoven’s Bagatelles, Op. 126; Frédéric Chopin’s Impromptu No. 1 in A-flat major, Op. 29; Wasserklavier (No. 3) from Luciano Berio’s Six Encores; Chopin’s Impromptu No. 2 in F-sharp major, Op. 36; Skazki No. 5 in F-sharp minor from Nikolai Medtner’s 6 Skazki (Fairy Tales), Op. 51; Etude No. 4 in B minor from Sergei Rachmaninoff’s Études-tableaux, Op. 39; and Prelude No. 4 in E minor from Leonid Desyatnikov’s The Songs of Bukovina (24 Preludes), 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.

Conrad van Alphen conducts Sinfonia Rotterdam, the Octopus Symphonic Choir, and four vocal soloists in a performance of Ludwig van Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 in D Minor, Op. 125 at De Doelen, Rotterdam, in 2019. Van Alphen founded Sinfonia Rotterdam in 2000. Under his passionate leadership, this orchestra has developed into one of the Netherland's best-known orchestras. Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 is widely considered Beethoven’s greatest composition. He completed this symphony in 1824, when he was almost completely deaf. This symphony is unique, since Beethoven included a choir and vocal soloists in the last movement, in which he set parts of Friedrich Schiller's poem “Ode an die Freude” (“Ode to Joy”) to music. The symphony consists of four movements: Allegro ma non troppo, un poco maestoso, Molto vivace, Adagio molto e cantabile, and Finale. The four vocal soloists are Gulnara Shafigullina (soprano), Claire Barnett-Jones (mezzosoprano), Matthew Newlin (tenor), and Frederik Bergman (baritone).

In 1722, when Johann Sebastian Bach lived in Köthen, Germany, he published a book of preludes and fugues in all 24 major and minor keys. This collection became known as The Well-Tempered Clavier, Book One, BWV 846–869. About two decades later, Bach compiled a second book in Leipzig, which became known as The Well-Tempered Clavier, Book Two, BWV 870-893. Bach intended these pieces for the clavier, which includes the harpsichord, clavichord, and organ. Despite this unclarity, these pieces are regarded as some of the most important works in the history of Western classical music. In this broadcast, Nikolai Demidenko plays Preludes and Fugues Nos. 1 to 12 (BWV 870-881) from Book Two of Bach’s Well-Tempered Clavier, recorded at the Palazzo Labia in Venice, Italy, in 2010.

Every year, the greatest conductors and finest orchestras travel to the Swiss city of Lucerne to perform symphonies. This documentary tells the story of this legendary festival, where Arturo Toscanini conducted the inaugural concert in 1938 and which was revived by Claudio Abbado in 2003. Several luminaries discuss the history of the Lucerne Festival. Claudio Abbado shares his view on the festival, and cellist Natalia Gutman and clarinetist Sabine Meyer, who have been part of the Lucerne Festival Orchestra for years, offer their vision.

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, Ying Li (China, 1997) performs Claude Debussy’s Images, book I; Frédéric Chopin’s Nocturne in C-sharp minor, Op. 27 No. 1; and Franz Liszt’s Paraphrase from Verdi’s ‘Rigoletto’. This performance was recorded at Teatro EDI Barrio’s in Milan, in February 2020.

Europakonzert has been a tradition of the Berlin Philharmonic since 1991. Every year, the musicians commemorate the anniversary of the orchestra's founding (May 1st, 1882). and celebrate their heritage from the Old World. The Europakonzert of 1997 took place at the Royal Opera of Versailles. Featuring Daniel Barenboim, both as conductor and as soloist, he performs in one of W.A. Mozart’s less frequently performed Viennese concertos: Piano Concerto No. 13 in C major, K. 415.