Schedule

You are watchting the opera Don Quichot by Jules Massenet by the choir and orchestra of La Monnaie, Brussels. The conductor is Marc Minskowski

Mikhail Pletnev (piano), Karita Mattila (soprano), Violeta Urmana (alto), Thomas Moser (tenor), Eike Wilm Schulte (bass), Swedish Radio Choir, Eric Ericson Chamber Choir, Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra, conductor: Claudio Abbado. Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827): Piano Concerto No. 2 in B flat major, Op. 19 - Symphony No. 9 in D minor, Op. 125. The European Concert has been a tradition of the Berliner Philharmoniker since 1991. The musicians commemorate the anniversary of the orchestra's founding on May 1st, 1882, playing in different European cities. In 2000, the orchestra played at home in the Berlin Philharmonic Hall.

Stefano Demicheli conducts the Ensemble Talenti Vulcanici and soloists Nicola Cianncio (bass) and Catherine Jones (cello) in a varied baroque music program, recorded at Chiesa di Santa Caterina da Seina in Naples, Italy. On the program are Alessandro Scarlatti's Quante i boschi han piane (from his serenade Erminia); Nicola Fago's Contro colpi di fortuna (from the opera Il faraone sommerso); Nicola Porpora's Idre, arpie, draghi e leoni (from his serenade La Iole); Angelo Ragazzi's Sonata a quattro, no. 1 in G major; Alessandro Scarlatti's cantata Nel mar che bagna al bel Sebeto; Giovanni Bononcini's Quanto abbraccia il mar (from Euleo festeggiante); Georg Frideric Handel's Precipitoso il mar che freme (from his cantata Aci, Galatea e Polifemo); Nicola Porpora's Concerto for Cello and Strings in G major; Nicola Fago's Miei fidi armatevi (from his cantata Il faraone sommerso); and Giovanni Bononcini's Per molti lustri (from Euleo festeggiante).

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 1992 from El Escorial in Madrid was conducted by Daniel Barenboim and features the world-renowned tenor Plácido Domingo. The program consists of Giuseppe Verdi's Overture La Forza del Destino and Verdi's Lo l'ho perduta! from Don Carlos. Followed by excerpts from Hector Berlioz' La damnation de Faust and Franz Schubert's unfinished Symphony No. 7., the concert also features music by Richard Wagner: Winterstürme wichen dem Wonnemond from Die Walküre, Prelude to Act I from Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg, and orchestral excerpts from Götterdämmerung.

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.

Vladimir Ashkenazy performs as a soloist and conductor in Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 12, K 414. He is accompanied by the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra at the Hampton Court Palace, London.

The Collegium Vocale Gent has built its reputation as one of the world's most prestigious choirs. Founded by conductor Philippe Herreweghe, their lively, musical approach strives for an authentic sound. This concert was recorded on December 23, 2015, at the Church of Saint-Roch in Paris. Owing to J. S. Bach's function as the Thomaskantor, the leading cantorate of Protestant Germany at the time, he composed many cantatas for the Lutheran liturgy. These Christmas cantatas are an invitation to reflect on the nature of Christmas. The orchestration evokes feelings of splendor while the counterpoint also carries on a festive mood. The wind instruments act as glorious messengers of joy and the soloists proclaim that the glory brings light. This unique program, consisting of the four cantatas BWV 40, 62 , 63 and 91, offers an elegant and very delicate interpretation of these works. Under the baton of Philippe Herreweghe, the Collegium Vocale delivers an interpretation free of exaggeration or vanity yet full of humility. A glorious concert in the spirit of Christmas.

On Saturday, August 27, 2016, OVG and Sinfonia Rotterdam presented a new Veerhavenconcert under the direction of Conrad van Alphen. As part of this annual event presented in the port of Rotterdam, the musicians perform on a floating stage, and audiences watch the show on the dock and on boats. This fantastic concert features soloists Maria Warenberg (mezzo-soprano) and Melle de Vries (cello), who perform works by Mendelssohn, Mozart, Haydn, Rossini, Beethoven, and Fauré.

Pianist Angie Zhang (USA, 1996) performs Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s Rondo in A minor, K. 511, Ludwig van Beethoven’s 32 Variations in C minor, WoO 80, and Franz Liszt’s Rhapsodie espagnole, S. 254, 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.

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.

The 2019 documentary ‘Approaching the Maelström’ follows the process leading up to a recording of American composer Philip Glass’s composition ‘A Descent into the Maelström’. The work is based on American writer Edgar Allan Poe’s 1841 short story of two fishermen caught in torrents raging between the mountainous islands of Lofoten, Norway. Glass’s work, originally a choral piece for the Australian Dance Theatre, was only ever performed at the Adelaide Festival of Arts in 1986. Over thirty years later, in 2019, Beacon Isle Films recorded a symphonic arrangement of Glass’s work, performed by the Arctic Philharmonic Orchestra and Choir conducted by Tim Weiss with soprano Berit Norbakken Solset as the soloist. Their recording was made against the backdrop of Lofoten’s spectacular landscape: the very surroundings that inspired Poe’s story. Moreover, this inspiring documentary features a rare interview with Glass.

This concert is the result of the collaboration between the “Giuseppe Nicolini,” Conservatory of Piacenza, and the “Giuseppe Verdi,” Conservatory of Milan, as part of the project "MIlanoPIACEnza ... suonare insieme”. On the program are works by the Dutch conductor and composer Johan de Meij. His Symphony No. 1 for woodwind and brass orchestra is titled “Lord of the Rings” and is based on the famous trilogy by writer J. R. R Tolkien. The work exists of five movements, inspired by characters and passages from the story: Gandalf, Lothlórien, Gollum, Journey in the Dark and Hobbits. The symphony premiered in Brussels in 1988. In 2001, a symphonic version was recorded by the London Symphony Orchestra. This concert is recorded at the Sala dei Teatini of the Teatri di Piacenza in 2018. Directed by Pietro Tagliaferri.

At the age of eleven, Italian pianist Andrea Bacchetti (*1977) debuted with Italian chamber orchestra I Solisti Veneti under the baton of Claudio Scimone. He performed on international festivals and in prestigious concert halls worldwide. Besides, he appeared with several renowned orchestras such as Lucerne Festival Strings, Camerata Salzburg, and Prague Chamber Orchestra. In this recital, Bacchetti performs works of J. S. Bach. On the program is a selection of Preludes and Fugues from Bach’s The Well-Tempered Clavier, Book II: No. 9 in E major, No. 14 in F-sharp minor, No. 15 in G major, No. 20 in A minor, No. 2 in C minor, No. 1 in C major, No. 4 in C-sharp minor, No. 6 in D minor, No. 7 in E-flat major, No. 8 in D-sharp minor, and No. 13 in F-sharp major. Bacchetti closes the recital with Bach’s Aria variata alla maniera italiana in A minor, BWV 989. This performance was recorded at Teatro Sociale di Camogli, Italy, on December 9, 2022.

Soprano Isabel Weller (Germany, 1994) and pianist Yuriko Watanabe (Japan, 1994) perform Claude Debussy’s Nuit d’étoiles, L. 2, and Mandoline, L. 43; Joseph Haydn’s Piercing eyes, Hob. XXVIa, No. 35; ‘Die Mainacht’ from Johannes Brahms’s Vier Gesänge, Op. 43; ‘Pietà’ from Paul Hindemith’s Das Marienleben, Op. 27; Bart Visman’s Vermeer’s Gold; and ‘Lied vom Winde’ from Hugo Wolf’s Mörike-Lieder, during the semi-finals of the International Vocal Competition 2021 – Lied Duo. This performance was recorded at Het Noordbrabants Museum in ’s-Hertogenbosch, the Netherlands.

I puritani is one of Bellini’s most creative and influential masterpieces, a bel canto opera stamped with vocal and orchestral writing of intoxicating beauty and dramatic intensity. Set in England in the Civil War period after Oliver Cromwell’s triumph, it involves romantic and political intrigues that drew from Bellini music of melodic raptness and melancholic depth. It also inspired him to compose some of his most breathtakingly virtuosic passages, notably Elvira’s Mad Scene, that call for the utmost in theatrical power. This production includes all the music performed at the work’s Paris premiere in 1835, and was performed at the Staatsoper Stuttgart, by the Staatsopernchor Stuttgart and the Staatsorchester Stuttgart, under the baton of Manlio Benzi, in 2018.