Schedule

Iván Fischer conducts the Budapest Festival Orchestra in a concert recorded at the Béla Bartók National Concert Hall in Budapest, Hungary in 2015. The concert opens with Sergei Prokofiev's Overture on Hebrew Themes, Op. 34. After this, Thomas Zehetmair stars as solo violinist in Prokofiev Violin Concerto No. 2, Op. 63. The second part of the concert is features music by Igor Stravinsky. On the program is music composed for the ballet 'Jeu de cartes' (1937) and the Firebird Suite, No. 2 (1919). 'Jeu de cartes' is one of Stravinsky's neo-classical works and consists of three parts ('deals'). The Firebird Suite, No. 2 is based on the music from the ballet of the same name, which was written for Sergei Diaghilev's Ballets Russes and premiered in Paris in 1910.

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.

Zoltán Kocsis (1952-2016) performs Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 23, KV 488. The Virtuosi de Praha are conducted by Jirí Belohlávek in a concert that took place in Prague in 1999. Mozart completed the concerto on March 2, 1786, around the time his Le nozze di Figaro premiered. The final rondo puts Mozart’s musical humour on full display. Themes are tossed back and forth between the soloist and orchestra as they chase each other through unexpected key changes.

German conductor Peter Schreier conducts the Scottish Chamber Orchestra, the Luzerner Festwochenchor, and three vocal soloists in a performance of Joseph Haydn’s The Creation (‘Die Schöpfung’), Hob. XXI:2. The vocal soloists are soprano Edith Mathis, tenor Christoph Prégardien, and bass René Pape. Completed in 1798, Haydn’s magnificent oratorio depicts the creation of the world as described in the Bible’s Book of Genesis. Its libretto draws from Genesis, the Psalms, and John Milton’s epic poem Paradise Lost, and was prepared by the composer’s patron Gottfried van Swieten. The work is structured in three parts. The first four days of creation make up part one, dealing with the creation of the earth, its flora, and the celestial objects. The fifth and sixth day of creation form part two, dealing with the creation of animals and humankind. The third part focuses on Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. This performance was recorded at the church of Jesuits in Lucerne, Switzerland, in 1992.

The legendary pianist Vladimir Horowitz (1903-1989) won his first praise on his interpretation of Rachmaninoff's Third Piano Concerto from the composer himself. When Rachmaninoff heard the young Kiev-born pianist play his work shortly after Horowitz's arrival in New York in 1928, he exclaimed: "He swallowed it whole." Fifty years later, on September 24, 1978, Horowitz electrified his audience once again with this monumental work. Accompanied by the New York Philharmonic under Zubin Mehta, he gave a special performance of this work as part of the celebrations honoring his U.S. debut 50 years earlier. His unforgettable account was recorded live on video and broadcast simultaneously throughout the United States. It was the last time Horowitz played the Third in his lifetime. The work itself, reverently called "Rach 3" by pianists brave enough to tackle its monstrous technical challenges, achieved international celebrity of a different kind in recent years.

Pianist Derek Wang (USA, 1998) performs Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s Fantasia No. 4 in C minor, K. 475; Béla Bartók’s Three Burlesques, Op. 8c; and Franz Liszt’s Réminiscences de Don Juan, S. 418, 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.

Anton Bruckner's Symphony No. 9 can be seen as a farewell to life. Even as Bruckner began working on it in 1887, his health had begun to fail. He expressed the hope that "God will grant me enough time to complete it," and worked on it assiduously over the next years. But by late 1894 he had completed only the first three movements. When he died on 11 October 1896, he left six different versions of the finale, all of them incomplete. Despite its incompleteness, the work is monumental and evokes the grandeur of a majestic cathedral. The details of this architectural colossus are worked out with astonishing transparency by Franz Welser-Möst and the Cleveland Orchestra. The orchestra’s powerfully contoured and sharply profiled interpretation was recorded live in late October 2007 at the magnificent "Golden Hall" of Vienna's fabled Musikverein where the work was given its premiere.

Hannu Lintu conducts the Gulbenkian Orchestra in a Finnish flavoured concert program, since the concert features Cantus Articus, Op. 61 by Einojuhani Rautavaara, and Jean Sibelius’ Symphony No. 2. Furtermore, Daniil Trifonov (1991) is star soloist in Schumann’s Piano Concerto, Op. 54, which was premiered in 1841 by Clara Wieck, wife of the composer. Trifonov rose to fame after winning prizes at both the Tchaikovsky International Chopin competition in Moscow as well as the Chopin International Piano Competition in Warsaw. Trifonov has been called "arguably today's leading classical virtuoso,” and “without question the most astounding pianist of our age." This concert is recorded at the Grand Auditorium of the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation of Lisbon, in 2018.

The Boy with the Wig - Kids on Mozart explores children’s fascination with the composer. The 30-minute film by Claus Wischmann features boys and girls aged between eight and eleven recounting his life through humour and serious interpretations of Mozart’s biography. Discover Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart through the eyes of children.

Ukrainian-born pianist Inna Faliks performs Frederic Chopin's Polonaise-Fantaisie Op. 61. Recorded at the Nicols Concert Hall, Evanston, IL, USA. Faliks has established herself as one of the most communicative, and poetic artists of her generation. The Polonaise-Fantaise was dedicated to Mme A. Veyret, composed and published in 1846

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 Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s Violin Concerto No. 3 in G major, K. 216. Leading violinist Grimal features as the soloist. With the exception of the first violin concerto, Mozart composed his other four violin concertos in 1775 at a time when he was concertmaster at the Salzburg court. Violin Concerto No. 3 opens with a theme the composer borrowed from the aria ‘Aer tranquillo’ of his then recent opera Il re pastore. In the beautiful Adagio, the strings are muted and the oboes make way for the flutes, which only sound in the second movement. The finale movement has a dance-like character. This performance was recorded at Cité de la Musique, France, in 2014.

Sir Simon Rattle and the London Symphony Orchestra mark 150 years since the death of Hector Berlioz with his tempestuous oratorio, La damnation de Faust. La damnation de Faust is a work born of the composer’s obsession with Goethe’s legendary tale. Once a righteous scholar, Faust allows himself to be corrupted by the devil, and drags the innocent around him into desperation and death. It’s a fable that defies definition – both a tragedy and dark comedy, with a central character both wise and despicable, and a play and epic poem in one.

The program is introduced with a short documentation about Schönberg's Pelleas et Melisande, based on a text by Claudio Abbado. Every musical theme relates to a special colour appearing on screen. What has been so remarkable about Abbado’s Mahler performances is that their impact has never been achieved at the expense of the multiple sensitivities, subtleties and extreme sophistication. Together with the world's leading youth orchestra – the Gustav Mahler Jugendorchester (GMJO) – Abbado performs Mahler’s Symphony No. 4 and Schönberg’s Pelleas und Melisande, Op. 5. The Gustav Mahler Jugendorchester was founded in Vienna in 1986, by Abbado’s initiative. The orchestra's high level of artistic quality and its international success have moved important conductors and soloists to work with the ensemble.

Compagnia Simona Bucci presents an extraordinary concert in scenic form: 'Preludi e Fughe - Geografia antropica'. Dmitri Shostakovich’s 24 Preludes and Fugues, Op. 87 inspired choreographer Simona Bucci to take on this project. Seven dancers of Compagnia Simona Bucci dance to Shostakovich’s Preludes and Fugues Nos. 1, 5, 7, 12, 13, 14, 16 and 24, played by Italian pianist Roberto Prosseda. The performance was recorded at the Teatro Il Maggiore in Verbania, Italy, in the context of the Stresa Festival in August 2019.

The 2007 Europa-Konzert takes place in Berlin, on the occasion of the 125th anniversary of the Berliner Philharmoniker. Under the theme "The Year 1882", the acclaimed orchestra is lead by conductor Sir Simon Rattle as it interprets Brahms’ “Concerto for violin, cello and orchestra”, his Fourth Symphony and Wagners’ “Prelude to Act I” from Parsifal - the piece that marked the orchestra's first recorded work of September 1913 under the baton of Alfred Hertz. The soloists are Lisa Batiashvili (violin) and Truls Mørk (cello), established as sought-after young virtuosos and appearing regularly with leading orchestras and in recitals throughout the world. The “Kraftwerk und Kabelwerk Oberspree (power and cable factory)”, the remarkable venue of this concert, is one of the most impressive historical industrial building from the late 19th century in Berlin. As its impressive presence is infused with Brahms and Wagner, there is an air of total commitment, only enhanced further by the unusual surroundings. The collaboration of Lisa Batiashvili and Truls Mørk ensures a moving performance of Brahms’s last orchestral work, his Double Concerto. Following this, Rattle and the orchestra continue to demonstrate their outstanding musicianship, delivering Wagner's amazingly fresh and dynamic Fourth Symphony.

This episode presents the Brandenburg Concertos by Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750). Musical excerpts played by the Freiburger Barockorchester conducted by Gottfried von der Goltz. Bach's six Brandenburg Concertos rank among the undisputed favorites of all baroque fans. They have become a firm fixture in music education and an integral part of our international musical heritage. So what's their secret? The internationally acclaimed pianist and Bach expert Robert Levin provides an answer.

2024 marks the 100th anniversary of Gabriel Fauré's death. He is considered one of the most important and influential composers, having been the teacher of Maurice Ravel, Georges Enescu, Nadia Boulanger and many others. The Orchestre National du Capitole de Toulouse and The Philharmonic Chorus of Tokyo, with Florian Sempey as soloist, perform Gabriel Fauré's Requiem in the Basilique de Saint-Sernin in Toulouse, the largest surviving Romanesque church in France and one of the most important buildings in Romanesque architecture. This extraordinary concert is conducted by Kazuki Yamada, who is currently one of the most exciting young maestros. In spring 2023, he was appointed Principal Conductor and Artistic Advisor of the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, and is also Artistic and Musical Director of the Orchestre Philharmonique de Monte-Carlo.

Tchaikovsky's The Nutcracker is one of the best known and most beloved pieces from the composer. The music has inspired many choreographers to the tell the colourful Christmas fairy-tale of E. T. A. Hoffmann and Alexandre Dumas senior in the language of dance. Ben Stevenson is to this day considered one of the most important influencers of the American ballet art. For almost thirty years, he has been the art director of the Houston Ballet, and under his leadership the company has grown into an internationally acknowledged ballet theatre. Since the year 2003 he’s held the position of Artistic Director of the Texas Ballet. His stage productions have earned several awards and praise from the critics, and have been staged at Opéra de Paris, Canadian National Ballet, La Scala, Bavarian State Opera, London City Ballet etc. This performance of the Nutcracker is recorded at the Teatro La Fenice (Venice) in 2012. With the Estonian National Ballet and star dancers Vladislav Lantratov and Galina Laush.

After recording all 32 Ludwig van Beethoven piano sonatas to celebrate the composer's 250th birth anniversary, celebrated Italian pianist Riccardo Schwartz decided to record solo piano works by Robert Schumann. In this performance, Schwartz presents Schumann’s Fantasiestücke, Op. 12. Written in 1837, the work is a set of eight piano pieces with contrasting moods. The work’s title is derived from one of the composer’s favourite authors’ collection of novellas: E. T. A. Hoffmann’s Fantasiestücke in Callots Manier. Like Schumann’s Davidsbündlertänze, his Fantasiestücke are designed as a musical dialogue between Florestan and Eusebius, representing the duality of his own personality. The former represents the composer’s passionate side, and the latter depicts the dreamer in Schumann. Acclaimed pianist Riccardo Schwartz (1986) has performed as a soloist with many world-renowned conductors, including Gustav Kuhn and Yuri Temirkanov. His acclaimed performances include recitals and concertos for piano and orchestra in many prestigious concert halls.