Schedule

In 2012, Norwegian opera director Stefan Herheim brought Giacomo Puccini's opera La bohème to the stage of the Norwegian National Opera in Oslo. About his choice for this updated version, Herheim explained: “In bringing La bohème into a present-day setting with this new production we hope to revive the immediate power of suggestion and importance that this work at one time revelled in.” The opera about the Bohemian lifestyle of the poor seamstress Mimì and her artist friends is a fast-moving story, and offers some of the greatest arias Puccini ever wrote. Norwegian conductor Eivind Gullberg Jensen leads the Orchestra and Chorus of the National Opera Oslo. Among the soloists are Marita Sølberg (Mimì), Diego Torre (Rodolfo), Vasily Ladyuk (Marcello), and Jennifer Rowley (Musetta).

Pierre Boulez conducts the orchestra and choirs of the Berlin State Opera and the orchestra of the Staatskapelle Berlin in a performance of Gustav Mahler’s Symphony No. 2. This concert is part of a series of events celebrating the French conductor and composer's 80th birthday. With his uncompromising approach to the score, Boulez's Mahler readings have long fascinated critics and audiences alike. Vocalists Diana Damrau and Petra Lang join forces to bring Boulez’s vision of this gargantuan piece to life. This concert was recorded at the Staatskapelle Berlin in 2005.

Azerbaijan-born artist Seljan Nasibli moved to England at an early age, where she was encouraged to take up music. Although Nasibli chose to sing jazz, her Oxford teachers heard an operatic tendency in her voice and advised to train classically. Nasibli completed her studies at The Royal College of Music, where she graduated with a master's degree in Vocal Performance. In this episode of Stingray Originals, Nasibli performs three of Giacomo Puccini's most beautiful arias: 'Signore, ascolta!' and 'Tu, che di gel sei cinta' from the opera Turandot, and 'Quando m'en vo' (Musetta's Waltz) from the opera La bohème.

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 Serenade No. 10 for winds in B-flat major, K. 361, also known as the ‘Gran Partita’. The composition is written for twelve winds and double bass and consists of seven parts. The piece’s duration is longer than the composer’s other chamber music works. Remarkably, Mozart chose to use a larger instrumentation. To the eight instruments of the common wind octet, Mozart added two basset horns, two additional horns, and a double bass. This performance was recorded at Philharmonie de Paris, France, in 2015.

Baritone Hugo Laporte (Canada) performs ‘Mein Sehnen, mein Wähne’ from Erich Wolfgang Korngold’s opera Die tote Stadt; ‘Ô sainte médaille… Avant de quitter ces lieux’ from Charles Gounod’s opera Faust; and ‘Son io, mio Carlo… Per me giunto… O Carlo, ascolta… Io morrò’ from Giuseppe Verdi’s opera Don Carlo, during the semi-finals of the Aria division of the Concours musical international de Montréal 2022 (CMIM). He is accompanied by the Montreal Symphony Orchestra under the baton of Jacques Lacombe. This performance was recorded at the Montreal Symphony House.

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, Su Yeon Kim (South Korea, 1994) performs various works by Frédéric Chopin: Nocturne in C minor, Op. 48, No. 1; Mazurka, Op. 2, No. 2 and 4; Scherzo No. 3 in C-sharp minor, Op. 39; and Waltz in A-flat major, Op. 34 No. 1. The recital comes to a close with Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s Gigue in G major, KV 574. This performance was recorded at Teatro EDI Barrio’s in Milan, in January 2020.

From the Barockschloss in Rammenau the Gewandhaus-Quartett plays Mozart’s String Quartet No. 19 in C-major, KV. 465. This work is nicknamed "Dissonance" due to its unusual slow introduction with dissonant notes before the harmony resolving in the key of C-major, starting the bright Allegro section. It is perhaps the most famous of Mozart’s quartets and the last of a set of six quartets composed between 1782 and 1785 which the composer dedicated to colleague and friend Joseph Haydn. The Gewandhaus-Quartett is the longest established string quartet in the world. Founded in 1808, it can be seen as a remarkable part of the western history of music, having continued its concert activity uninterrupted from generation to generation with great success for almost 200 years. In this performance, it consists of Frank Michael Erben (1st violin), Conrad Suske (2nd violin), Volker Metz (viola), Jürnjakob Timm (cello) and Steffen Adelmann (doublebass).

Andris Nelsons, together with his then-wife, the great soprano Kristine Opolais and the Gewandhausorchester Leipzig present a program dedicated to Antonin Dvořák, singing the melodies that the composer hid in all layers of his music with tender, warm, soft colors. Nelsons’ tempos remain calm and relaxed, allowing the omnipresent beauty of Dvořák’s music to unfold and flood the Gewandhaus. The program opens with Othello, a Concert Overture for Orchestra, Op. 93. Opolais performs “Song to the Moon” from Rusalka, “Songs my Mother Taught Me” from Gypsy Songs, Op. 55/4. This is followed by the Polonaise and 'O, marno, marno to je' from Rusalka and 'Dobrá! Já mu je dám!... Jak je mi?' from Smetana's opera Dalibor. The concert closes with a performance of Dvořák's Symphony no. 9 in E Minor, Op. 95 (“From the New World”). Recorded at the Gewandhaus, Leipzig in May 2017.

Every year at the end of August the renowned Early Music Festival takes place in the Dutch city of Utrecht. It is the largest festival focused on early music in the world, attracting an audience of more than 70,000 visitors. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the 2020 edition of the festival offered an alternative program that included both live concerts on location and daily livestreams of concerts and archival recordings. As part of this festival, Canadian fortepianist Anders Muskens performs a recital consisting of various sonatas by the German Baroque composer Franz Ignaz Beck, such as L’Éveillée and La Sophie. This performance was recorded at the Gertrudiskapel in Utrecht, August 25, 2020.

Soprano Harriet Burns (United Kingdom, 1989) performs Robert Schumann’s Singet nicht in Trauertönen, Op. 98; Franz Schubert’s Atys, D. 585; ‘L’absent’ from Gabriel Fauré’s Trois chansons, Op. 5; ‘Seranilla de la Zarzuela’ from Judith Weir’s A Spanish Liederbooklet; ‘Tournoiement’ (Songe d’opium) from Camille Saint-Saëns’s song cycle Mélodies persanes, Op. 26; James K. Wright’s Quilled Sonnet; Charles Gounod’s Au rossignol, CG. 332; and ‘Och Moder, ich well en Ding han’ from Johannes Brahms’s 49 Deutches Volkslieder, WoO. 33, during the semi-finals of the Art Song division of the Concours musical international de Montréal 2022 (CMIM). This performance was recorded at the Bourgie Hall of the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts.

Television plays a crucial role in popularizing classical music. Not only has it preserved precious moments of music making, but it also helps shape the future of music. The Vienna-based IMZ International Music + Media Centre, a global association for all those involved in any aspect of classical and contemporary music, world music, jazz, and dance, celebrated its 50th anniversary in 2015. To commemorate this, renowned film maker Reiner E. Moritz produced the documentary 'Music in the air' to shed light on the history of classical music on television. The film dives into television's archives to demonstrate what the medium has done for the dissemination of music. It features rare footage of Arturo Toscanini conducting the NBC Symphony Orchestra in one of the first televised concerts, and captivating fragments from Leonard Bernstein’s Young People Concerts. Moreover, the film contains excerpts of great performances from the past, including those by Glenn Gould, Herbert von Karajan, Igor Stravinsky, and Pierre Boulez.

Franz Liszt (1811 - 1886) composed 13 symphonic poems, largely inspired by literary texts. The composer himself wrote piano duet arrangements for these pieces, showcasing his incredible ability of imitating a full orchestra on the piano. Liszt, one of the 19th century’s most important piano virtuosos, strongly influenced the further development of piano music. The Romantic period was the era of the virtuoso pianists: the piano was the instrument of choice for countless musicians and listeners alike. No house of standing could do without a piano: it was a status symbol. Piano music was played in concert halls, palaces, salons, churches and public houses alike. Liszt’s symphonic poem no. 4, ‘Orpheus’, breathes a meditative atmosphere. No. 3, ‘Les Préludes’, is best known in its symphonic version – the piano version presented here is rarely heard. The work dates back to the period 1848 – 1854 and was initially meant to serve as introduction to a choral cycle to be based on the texts of the poet Joseph Autran, ‘Les quatre éléments’: earth, air, water and fire. In this broadcast, the Italian piano duo of Marco Sollini and Salvatore Barbatano performs these Liszt piano works. These recordings were made at the beautiful 12th century church of San Marco in the small but picturesque village of Ponzano di Fermo, as part of the 2015 edition of the annual, itinerant festival ‘Armonie della sera’ in the Italian province of Le Marche.

From August 28 to September 6, 2015, the Early Music Festival Utrecht focused on England, my England. On the basis of the festival theme, presenter Lex Bohlmeijer takes the viewer in a two-part documentary on an intriguing journey through England of the Middle Ages, Renaissance and Baroque, and relates this to the city of Utrecht. Episode 1 offers a peek into the inner city churches of Utrecht, visiting the source of inspiration if this year's festival: the English estate Boughton House, where the Duke of Buccleuch shows us around.

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.

Conductor Herbert Blomstedt and the Gewandhausorchester take us on a musical journey to the Czech Republic in this 2020 concert from Leipzig’s Gewandhaus. The program includes Symphony in D major, Op. 23, by Bohemian composer Jan Václav Hugo Voríšek. Although the composition – Voríšek’s only symphony – was never performed during the composer’s lifetime, it has become one of his most-performed works today.

Renowned French string quartet Quatuor Ébène marked the 250th birth anniversary of Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827) with a remarkable project: recording all of the great composer’s sixteen string quartets. For five years, violinists Pierre Colombet and Gabriel Le Magadure, violist Marie Chilemme, and cellist Raphaël Merlin immersed themselves in Beethoven’s 650 pages of sheet music. Their efforts culminated in the performance of the composer’s complete repertoire for string quartet, which covers three decades of Beethoven's musical creativity, during six impressive concerts at Philharmonie de Paris in the autumn of 2020. Quatuor Ébène explored every facet of Beethoven's string quartet repertoire: from the youthful Opus 18 string quartets to the Razumovsky, Harp, and Serioso quartets (Opus 59, 74, and 95) from his middle period, and finally, the depth of his late quartets (Opus 127 to 135). This program features Quatuor Ébène performing Beethoven’s String Quartet No. 6 in B-flat major, Op. 18 No. 6; and String Quartet No. 15 in A minor, Op. 132. This concert performance was recorded at Philharmonie de Paris on November 24, 2020.

Italian pianist Roberto Prosseda (1975) performs Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's Piano Sonata No. 5, KV. 283. Prosseda is particularly noted for his performances of newly discovered works by Mendelssohn and has recorded a nine-CD series for Decca of the piano works of Mendelssohn. Since 2012, Prosseda also gives lecture-concerts with the robot pianist TeoTronico, as educational or family concerts, to demonstrate differences between a literal production of music and human interpretation.

A hundred years of Neapolitan music for violin consort and basso continuo: this is the tasty menu Enrico Gatti and his Ensemble Aurora have prepared for your listening pleasure. The flourishing musical life of Naples around 1700 was the breeding ground for many styles and genres. Ensemble Aurora explores the terrain between the church sonatas of Marchitelli, toccatas by Supriani, and the late chamber concertos by Fiorenza and Leo.

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.

Franz Welser-Möst conducts the Cleveland Orchestra in a performance of Bruckner's Symphony No. 7. The work occupies a singularly important place in the composer's output. It was with this piece that Bruckner finally achieved widespread recognition and it has remained one of his most popular works. The symphony adheres to the classical four-movement format. The heart of the work is a long and deeply felt Adagio, composed as a memorial to Wagner. The first movement begins with a soaring theme announced by cellos. The Scherzo relieves the somber atmosphere of the preceding Adagio and the Finale concludes the symphony on a note of unrestrained joy. Recorded in Severance Hall, Cleveland in 2008.

This year the Berlin Philharmonic and their musical director Sir Simon Rattle welcome the New Year together with multi-awarded Russian pianist Evgeny Kissin. Kissin's musicality, the depth and poetic quality of his interpretations, and his extraordinary virtuosity have placed him at the forefront of today's pianists. This concert he will feature as star soloist in a performance of Grieg’s Piano Concerto in A minor, Op. 16. Furthermore, the Berlin Phillharmonic performs Dvořák’s Slavonic Dance No. 1, Op. 46, Grieg’s Symphonic Dance No. 2, Op. 64, an orchestrated version of Alborada del gracioso by Ravel, R. Strauss’ Salome’s Dance Salome, excerpts from Stravinsky’s The Firebird and Brahms’ Hungarian Dance No. 1.

Cellist Nicolas Altstaedt performs J. S. Bach's Suite No. 5 in C minor for cello solo, BWV 1011. This performance was recorded at St. Mary’s Church in Wittenberg, Germany.

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.

Under the direction of Conrad van Alphen, the Sinfonia Rotterdam Orchestra performs Haydn's Symphony No. 45 at the Nieuwe Kerk (New Church) in The Hague. This piece is nicknamed "Farewell" because of a funny anecdote. Haydn and his musicians stayed every year from May to October at the magnificent Esterháazy Palace, at the request of Prince Nicholas. In early November 1772, the prince announced his intention to remain at the palace for two more months. The musicians then told Kapellmeister Haydn their disagreement with this forced extension of their stay. The solution proposed by Haydn was to compose a piece delivering a clear message: at the end of the last movement of the Symphony, the musicians were called to blow the candles on their lectern and leave the room one after the other. Prince Nicholas understood the message; the next day a car was waiting for the musicians to take them home.

This stunning, new interpretation of Cinderella, is a theatrical ice dancing performance not to be missed.This story of Cinderella focuses on a humble chorus dancer who is thrust into the spotlight, captivates the heart of the most eligible bachelor in town, and despite rival attempts by her stepsisters to steal his heart, shows viewers that true love always triumphs. Recorded in 2008 in Australia by award winning artistic director Tony Mercer, this twist on the classic tale, features the international Imperial Ice Stars, including Albena Denkova and Maxim Staviski, former world champion ice dancers. Original score composed by Tim Duncan and Edward Barnwell.

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, Jordan conducts Beethoven’s Symphony No. 2 in D major, Op. 36. Completed in 1802, the work saw its first performance at the Theater an der Wien on April 5, 1803. That same concert also included the premieres of the composer’s Piano Concerto No. 3 and his only oratorio, Christ on the Mount of Olives, as well as a reprise performance of his Symphony No. 1. Instead of the traditional minuet, Beethoven wrote a lively scherzo as the third movement of his Symphony No 2. The overall mood of the work is optimistic. Jordan’s performance was recorded at Palais Garnier in Paris, France, in 2014.

At St. Bartholomew Church in Dornheim, Germany, where composer Johann Sebastian Bach married his first wife Maria Barbara, renowned Dutch cellist Anner Bijlsma performs the composer's Cello Suite No. 5 in C minor, BWV 1011. It is likely Bach wrote his collection of six Suites for unaccompanied cello during the years 1717-1723. His cello suites are an essential part of the cello repertoire, highlighting the instrument's manifold polyphonic possibilities. As customary in a Baroque suite, each movement is based on a dance type. Bach's Suite No. 5 opens with a prelude, and is followed by six dance movements, divided over five sections: an allemande, a courante, a sarabande, two gavottes, and a final gigue.