Schedule

Soprano Harriet Burns (United Kingdom, 1989) and pianist Ian Tindale (United Kingdom, 1990) perform Franz Schubert’s Verklärung, D. 59; Clara Schumann’s Er ist gekommen in Sturm und Regen, Op. 12, No. 2; ‘L’heure exquise’ from Reynaldo Hahn’s Chansons grises, and ‘Le printemps’ from Hahn’s Douze rondels; ‘Herzeleid’ from Robert Schumann’s Sechs Gesänge, Op. 107; ‘Le corbeau et le renard’ from André Caplet’s Trois fables; Alphons Diepenbrock’s Die Liebende schreibt, RC 20; ‘Seranilla de la zarzuela’ from Judith Weir’s A Spanish liederbooklet; Muriel Herbert’s Renouncement; and ‘Waldmädchen’ from Hugo Wolf’s Eichendorff-Lieder, during the final round of the International Vocal Competition 2019 – Lied Duo. This performance was recorded at Theater aan de Parade in ‘s-Hertogenbosch, the Netherlands.

This documentary by Christoph Keller follows various participants and teachers participating in the International Summer Piano Academy.

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, Josef Edoardo Mossali (Italy, 2001) performs Franz Liszt’s Après une Lecture de Dante: Fantasia quasi Sonata; Maurice Ravel’s Toccata from Le tombeau de Couperin; and Etude No. 3 “La Campanella” from Liszt’s Six Grandes études de Paganini. This performance was recorded at Teatro EDI Barrio’s in Milan, in February 2020.

Swiss conductor Philippe Jordan and the Orchestre de l’Opéra national de Paris recorded all of Ludwig van Beethoven’s symphonies in 2014-2015. In this program, maestro Jordan presents Beethoven’s final symphony: Symphony No. 9 in D minor, Op. 125. He conducts the Orchestre and Choeurs de l’Opéra national de Paris and four vocal soloists Ricarda Merbeth (soprano), Daniela Sindram (mezzosoprano), Robert Dean Smith (tenor), and Günther Groissböck (bass). Beethoven composed his last Symphony when his hearing had all but gone, between 1822 and 1824. Symphony No. 9 is the longest and most ambitious of Beethoven’s symphonies. Most striking is the piece’s finale movement, which includes a choir and four vocal soloists singing a setting of Friedrich Schiller’s poem ‘An die Freude’ (Ode to Joy). This performance was recorded at Opéra Bastille in Paris, France, in 2015.

Pianist Vadim Repin and Violist Murad Hüseynov perform Gara Garayev's Violin Sonata and 24 Preludes for Piano. Recorded at La Grange au Lac. Written and directed by Juliette Swierczewski and recorded at La Grange au Lac. Although Garayev is a 20th century composer, his music nonetheless carries allusions to romantic music. Murad, the main actor, will represent one of those characters carried by solitude that can be found in the romantic paintings of Friedrich. The overall atmosphere of the musical program is rather melancholic, tending either towards a certain musical lightness, or, on the contrary, towards drama. The production is a cinematographic accompaniment of the music and its performers.

Every summer, the Greek island of Patmos hosts the Patmos Musical Festival, a unique musical event comprising both a Chamber and a Sacred Music Festival. This documentary captures the 2024 edition, featuring performances by distinguished soloists and ensembles from around the world. The lineup includes the festival’s artistic director and pianist Roberto Prosseda, Steven Isserlis, Irène Duval, Michael Guttman and the Brussels Chamber Orchestra, and Peter Phillips and The Tallis Scholars. In interviews, several artists share their experiences of this intimate festival and the unique atmosphere of the island. The documentary was produced by the Patmos Music Festival Association and directed by Alberto Girotto.

The soloists from the Lucerne Festival Orchestra present Ludwig van Beethoven’s Septet in E-flat major, Op. 20, which is scored for clarinet, horn, bassoon, violin, viola, cello and double bass. This 1799 piece achieved great popularity during Beethoven’s lifetime. It was arranged for many various instrumental ensembles, including versions for two guitars, and piano four-hands, but also a trio for clarinet (or violin), cello, and piano, arranged by Beethoven himself. This performance was recorded at the Lucerne Culture and Congress Center (KKL), Switzerland, in 2020.

We live in a world where millions of people will walk past a concert hall and only a fraction will step inside. Interestingly, a great number will gather at Wrestlemania. Aleksey Igudesman and Hyung-ki Joo have finally found common ground between these two, seemingly opposite, spectator sports. Clementi had to contend with Mozart’s ingenuity, Beethoven blew Steinbelt out of Vienna, and Handel sparred Scarlatti in a joust of fingers. In the right corner we have Korean/Japanese/Chinese piano prodigy Whay-Tsu Fast and in the left, Russian/American/Jewish/German/Spanish-speaking violin virtuoso Sergey Amadeus Showoff. In the feud as ancient as time itself, to determine the superior instrument, who will emerge triumphant? Who will prevail as champion in this Clash of the Soloists? Igudesman and Joo blaze through concertos with extraordinary dexterity and finesse that will keep audiences on the edge of their seats. An unforgettable, laugh-until-soda-comes-out-of-your-nose performance that will leave listeners of all ages thirsting for more. “Clash of the Soloists” was commissioned by the Zürich Tonhalle Orchester to commemorate their 150th anniversary, with a world premiere performance featuring conductor, referee, and Maestro of Ceremonies, Joshua Weilerstein.

Arvo Pärt based his ‘Kanon Pokajanen’ (from ‘Canon of Repentance to Our Lord Jesus Christ’, 1995-97) on the canon of repentance as handed down in the earliest Slavic-Christian manuscripts, dating back to the sixth century after Christ. The canon symbolizes the change, the transformation from day to night, the Old and New Testament, prophecy and the fulfillment, the here and now and the hereafter. This deals with the human and the divine, weakness and strength, suffering and redemption, mortality and immortality. In this broadcast, ‘Kanon Pokajanen’ is performed by the chamber choir Aquarius. This Flemish chamber choir is a trailblazer where new music and new concert formats are concerned. ‘Kanon Pokajanen’ is a great example of this: the singers are positioned in a circle in the center of a church. This dark church is only lit by candles and the music stand lights. After the choir has entered in procession, they sing for close to two hours. Performed by the Aquarius Choir led by Michael de Smet in 2008.

Fabio Luisi conducts the Danish National Symphony Orchestra in this powerful performance taken from the 150th Anniversary celebrations of Denmark’s national composer, Carl Nielsen. Alongside Nielsen’s inscrutably ironic Symphony No. 6, this performance features world-renowned French pianist Lise de la Salle as soloist in Rachmaninov’s Piano Concerto No. 4. This lesser-known concerto saw three separate iterations throughout the composer’s life and is characterized by bold chromaticism and a distinctly Jazz-like quality. Luisi and de la Salle have prior experience with this piece, having previously performed and recorded it together. This performance was recorded at the DR Koncerthuset in Copenhagen, Denmark, in 2017.

Regarded as one of the finest interpreters of Romantic repertoire, Francesco Attesti (*1975) gave his first recital at age 11 and by the time he was 23, had earned the highest honours in piano from Florence’s Conservatorio Luigi Cherubini. In this recording of his 2016 Deeply Mozart concert tour, Attesti performs Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s piano concertos KV 449 and KV 488 with the Italian OIDA Orchestra and conductor Paolo Belloli.

American conductor Leonard Slatkin leads the Orchestre National de Lyon in a concert recorded at the Auditorium de Lyon in 2014. The concert opens with William Bolcom´s Circus Ouverture, which was specially composed for Slatkin's 70th birthday. The concert continues with a performance of Beethoven's Triple Concerto in C, Op. 56 performed by three female soloists: Olga Kern (piano), Baibe Skride (violin) and Sol Gabetta (cello). The work is the only concerto which Beethoven ever completed for more than one solo instrument. The concert closes with Ravel's beloved orchestration of Mussorgsky's Pictures at an Exhibition.

Italian conductor Gianandrea Noseda leads the combined forces of the Music Academy KestonMAX fellows and London Symphony Orchestra (LSO) in Ludwig van Beethoven’s Triple Concerto in C major, Op. 56, and Hector Berlioz’s Symphonie Fantastique, Op. 14. Beethoven's Concerto for Violin, Cello, and Piano in C major, commonly known as the Triple Concerto, was composed from 1803 to 1804. The choice of the three solo instruments effectively makes this a concerto for piano trio, and it is the only concerto Beethoven ever completed for more than one solo instrument. Berlioz's Symphonie Fantastique (‘Episode in the Life of an Artist … in Five Sections’) is a programmatic symphony written in 1830, telling the story of a gifted artist who, in the depths of hopelessness and despair because of his unrequited love for a woman, has poisoned himself with opium. This concert was recorded at LSO St. Luke’s in London, UK, on November 20, 2022.

Dina Ivanova (1994, Russia) performs Wagner/Liszt - Isoldens Liebestod: Schlußszene aus Tristan und Isolde, S447 and Grandes Études de Paganini, S141 during semi-final I (transcription) of the 11th International Franz Liszt Piano Competition, held in TivoliVredenburg, Utrecht, in 2017. The competition actively presents, develops, and promotes piano talents from around the world. In doing so, it has become one of the prominent gateways to the international professional classical music scene for young musicians. The International Franz Liszt Piano Competition was founded in 1986 in the Netherlands and has since built a reputation as one of the world’s most prestigious piano competitions.

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.

Italian pianist Roberto Prosseda performs Frédéric Chopin's technically challenging Ballade No. 4 in F minor, Op. 52. Completed in 1842, this piece is celebrated as a masterpiece within the Romantic piano repertoire, renowned for its intricate structure and profound emotional depth. This performance was recorded at the stunning baroque palace Villa Contarini in Piazzola sul Brenta, Italy, in 2006.

Pianist Anthony Ratinov (USA, 1997) 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.