Schedule

Although the great Italian composer Giuseppe Verdi applied unsuccessfully to study at the Milan Conservatory, this renowned college of music was eventually named after him. Today, the ‘Conservatorio Giuseppe Verdi’ counts numerous successful musicians among its alumni: from Giacomo Puccini, Alfredo Catalani, Claudio Abbado, Riccardo Chailly, Luigi Einaudi and Daniele Gatti, to Gianandrea Noseda. The acclaimed conductor Noseda (*1964) is one of the most important conductors of his generation. Recently, he taught a conducting masterclass at his alma mater for promising students from all over the world. For three days, Noseda joined forces with a hand-picked group of students to work on a varied concert programme. This documentary shows you these young, talented musicians rehearse compositions by Mozart, Tchaikovsky, and Stravinsky under the enthusiastic guidance of Maestro Gianandrea Noseda himself.

In recent years, a new generation of Chinese pianists has emerged on the international scene. But there are many more young Chinese artists, who the Académie France-Chine aims to enable to deepen their art by introducing them to and giving them a platform within French and European culture. Four of these artists are Chen Xue-Hong, Zhang Cheng, Chen Yunjie and Chen Sa, who made their joint debut in Paris in this unique concert at the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées that showcased their extraordinary talent. On the program are Chopin's Piano Sonata No. 2, Schumann's Piano Sonata No. 1, Scriabin's Piano Sonata No. 8 and Paysage (No. 3) and Mazeppa (No. 4) from Liszt's Études d'Exécution Transcendante. The concert closes with Messiaen's Regard de l’Esprit de la joie (No. 10) from Vingt regards sur l’Enfant-Jésus.

In this six-part documentary on the life and work by Heitor Villa-Lobos, director Liloye Boubli takes viewers on a journey through the life and work of the Brazilian legend of classical music. The composer, conductor, cellist, and classical guitarist was born 1887 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Growing up amongst the immense social changes Brazil went through at the time - social revolution and modernization, abolishing slavery in 1888 - Villa-Lobos went on to become one of the best-known South American composers of all time. In this sixth and final episode of the mini-series, Brazilian musicians and experts discuss Villa-Lobos' everlasting legacy and how his compositions continue to inspire Brazilian composers and artists to this day.

Since 1972 the 12 Cellists of the Berliner Philharmoniker have been a prominent institution in international musical life. Listeners around the world are invariably fascinated by the wide range of the unique and intoxicating timbres that these twelve cellos can produce, whether they are playing classical music, jazz, tango or avant-garde. Their mixture of seriousness and humour, of depth and lightness, appeals to audiences of all ages. Recorded in the Philharmonie Berlin on occasion of the 40th anniversary of the ensemble; soloists: Annette Dasch (soprano), Till Brönner (trumpet).

Conrad van Alphen leads Sinfonia Rotterdam in a performance of Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No. 1 in G minor, Op. 13, ‘Winter Daydreams’, recorded at De Doelen in Rotterdam, the Netherlands in September 2022. Having completed a number of shorter orchestral works, Tchaikovsky embarked on a more ambitious project in March 1866: to write his first symphony. In the summer of that year, the young composer showed his still-unfinished score to his former teachers Anton Rubinstein and Nikolai Zaremba, whose harsh criticism thoroughly disillusioned him. With significant changes, the entire symphony was first performed in 1868, but Tchaikovsky further revised the work in 1874. Not only did the composer subtitle his symphony ‘Winter Daydreams’, he used descriptive titles for the first two of the four movements as well: ‘Dreams of a Winter Journey’ and ‘Land of Desolation, Land of Mists’.

Quarteto Radamés Gnattali performs Heitor Villa-Lobos's String Quartet No. 9 at the Theatro Municipal in Rio de Janiero, Brasil. The ensemble was founded in 2006 and consists of Carla Rincón and Francisco Roa (violins), Fernando Thebaldi (viola), and Hugo Pilger (cello). The quartet, which specializes in Brazilian music, focuses on educational activities. Their recording of all of Villa-Lobos string quartets is a major achievement and was very well received by international music critics. Except for his Bachianas brasileiras, the performance of many of the Brazilian's compositions is limited to Latin America. Highly regarded as a composer, conductor and educator in his native country, Villa-Lobos has operas, symphonies, concertos, piano repertoire, choral music, and seventeen string quartets to his credit.

Minsoo Hong (1993, South Korea) performs Liszt’s Sposalizio from Années de Pèlerinage: Deuxième Année (S161/1) and Bellini/Liszt’s Réminiscences de Norma (S394) during the Solo Finals of the11th 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.

Roberto Giordano performs Chopin's Ballade No. 1, Op. 23. The sketches of the work date back to 1831 during Chopin's eight-month stay in Vienna. The first ballade was completed in 1835 after the composer moved to Paris. The main section of the ballade is built from two main themes which return in different keys after which a thundering chord introduces the Presto con fuoco, which eventually ends the piece in a fiery double octave scale run down the keyboard. The work gained popularity after appearing on the soundtrack to the 2002 Roman Polanski film The Pianist, where it is played by Janusz Olejniczak.

Chinese pianist Chen Xue-Hong plays Frédéric Chopin’s Piano Sonata No. 2 in B-flat minor, Op. 35, in this performance recorded at the beautiful Théâtre des Champs-Élysées in Paris, France. Chopin first wrote the sonata’s famous third movement, the Funeral March. He composed the remaining movements two years later, completing the sonata in 1839. The Funeral March is often performed as a standalone piece and has been used in funeral services all over the world – including Chopin’s own.

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.

Every year in late August, the renowned Early Music Festival takes place in the Dutch city of Utrecht. It is the world's largest festival focused on early music, attracting an audience of over 70 thousand visitors. Due to the corona pandemic, the 2020 edition of the festival took place in an alternative form, offering an alternative program that included live concerts as well as daily livestreams of concerts and archive recordings. As part of this festival edition, forte pianist Artem Belogurov and cellist Octavie Dostaler-Lalonde present a program devoted to works by Ludwig van Beethoven. The duo met in Amsterdam in 2015, performing many recitals at several European and North American festivals and in concert halls. On the program are Beethoven's Variations for cello and forte piano on ‘Bei Männern, welche Liebe fühlen’ from W. A. Mozart's Die Zauberflöte, WoO 46, Rondo in C major for fortepiano, Op. 51 no. 1, Rondo in G major for fortepiano, Op. 51 no. 2, and Sonata in F major for cello and fortepiano, Op. 5 no. 1. This concert was recorded at St. Gertrude's Chapel in Utrecht on August 27, 2020.

Andris Nelsons’s starts off his official opening concert as principal conductor of the Gewandhausorchester with the world premiere of Steffen Schleiermacher's 'Relief for Orchestra'. Baiba Skride features as soloist in Alban Berg's Violin Concerto. In the slow finale the solo violin’s line is gradually joined by the rest of the first violin, providing a lovely moment between soloist and orchestra. Skride's encore is Imitatione delle Campane by von Westhoff, a Bach contemporary. The concert closes with a rendition of Mendelssohn Symphony No. 3, Op. 56, known as the 'Scottish' which actually premiered in the Leipzig Gewandhaus in 1842. Recorded on February 22/23, 2018 in the Gewandhaus, Leipzig.

In this concert recorded in November 2016 at the magnificent Baroque basilica of Saint Florian, Austria – once the home of Anton Bruckner – the Wiener Singverein, the Cleveland Orchestra and its principal conductor Franz Welser-Möst pare down all traces of bombast wherever emotions could easily run out of control. Brahms' Ein Deutsches Requiem, Op. 45, reaches out to comfort the living through religious texts not traditionally associated with the Requiem Mass. The result is a work of great intensity that speaks to people of all faiths, believers and non-believers alike. The program’s two soloists – Hanna-Elisabeth Müller and Simon Keenlyside – are already at home on the world’s stages. While the former has carved a career for herself not only as an opera singer but also as a concert artist, the London-born Keenlyside has been building his impressive career around the prestigious guest appearances he has made during the past ten years.

The Berliner Philharmoniker and Lang Lang under the baton of Sir Simon Rattle

Quarteto Radamés Gnattali performs Heitor Villa-Lobos's String Quartet No. 16 at the Palácio das Laranjeiras in Rio de Janiero, Brasil. The ensemble was founded in 2006 and consists of Carla Rincón and Francisco Roa (violins), Fernando Thebaldi (viola), and Hugo Pilger (cello). The quartet, which specializes in Brazilian music, focuses on educational activities. Their recording of all of Villa-Lobos string quartets is a major achievement and was very well received by international music critics. Except for his Bachianas brasileiras, the performance of many of the Brazilian's compositions is limited to Latin America. Highly regarded as a composer, conductor and educator in his native country, Villa-Lobos has operas, symphonies, concertos, piano repertoire, choral music, and seventeen string quartets to his credit.

From August 28 to September 6, 2015, the Early Music Festival Utrecht was all about 'England, my England'. In line with this theme, presenter Lex Bohlmeijer takes the viewer on an intriguing journey through the England of the Middle Ages, Renaissance and Baroque, and relates this to the city of Utrecht. In episode 2 of this two-part documentary, René de Kam (Heritage Municipality of Utrecht) delves deeper into the Anglican past of the city of Utrecht. The viewer is introduced to festival artists Benjamin Bagby, Skip Sempé, and The Newcastle Kingsmen, who dance their traditional folk "Rapper Sword Dance" during the festival's pub sessions.

Antoni Wit conducts the Warsaw Philharmonic Orchestra in performances of Chopin's Piano Concertos No. 1, Op. 11 and No. 2, Op. 21. Soloists are Nikolai Demidenko and Evgeny Kissin. After performing the first concerto, Demidenko encores with Chopin's Mazurka Op. 17/4. Kissin closes the concert with Chopin's Etude Op. 10/12 and the Waltz in E minor, Op. post. This concert was part of the celebration of Chopin's 200th anniversary in 2010. Chopin composed the second concerto one year before the Concerto No. 1 and completed both works at the age of 20, before leaving his home country Poland and moving to Paris.

Suite Flamenca consists of seven pieces of traditional flamenco dance presented with Gades' unique insight on the aesthetics of flamenco dance. Consisting of solos, duets and group dances, all sides of flamenco dancing are featured. Gades' interpretation, initially described as avant-garde, is now considered as classic. With flawless solo performances by Stella Arauzo and Miguel Lara, and artists from the Compania Antonio Gades, this is a performance to enjoy. Suite Flamenca is filmed at the Teatro Real, Madrid, to mark the 75th anniversary of Gades' birth.

Nicola Segatta (cello) performs his own composition 'Suite Necromantica' (2020) on a cello which he built himself. Segatta (1982) is an Italian contemporary composer and cellist. Originally, this piece was commissioned by cellist Giovanni Sollima and Musica Insieme Bologna for a 5-string cello.