Schedule

Roberto Abbado conducts the Filarmonica Arturo Toscanini, the Coro del Teatro Regio di Parma, and four vocal soloists in an outstanding performance of Giuseppe Verdi’s Messa da Requiem, recorded at the Parco Ducale di Parma, Italy as part of Festival Verdi 2020. The soloists are soprano Eleonora Buratto, mezzosoprano Anita Rachvelishvili, tenor Giorgio Berrugi, and bass Roberto Tagliavini. When his fellow composer Gioachino Rossini died in 1868, Verdi proposed to compose a ‘Messa per Rossini’ in his honor, to be written by himself and several other Italian composers. Verdi wrote the concluding movement, ‘Libera me’. When the premiere was cancelled, the project lay dormant. When Italian poet Alessandro Manzoni passed away a few years later, Verdi revisited his plan to compose a requiem – this time in honor of the poet he so greatly admired. As an opera composer, Verdi knew better than anyone how to infuse the work with drama, as is evident in the revised version of his ‘Libera me’. The famous, powerful ‘Dies Irae’ especially stands out, depicting the horrors of the Last Judgement.

At the age of seven, Argentine pianist Martha Argerich made her debut with Ludwig van Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 1 in C major, Op. 15, a piece that would accompany her throughout her career. The celebrated pianist performs this signature piece at the Lucerne Festival with the Lucerne Festival Orchestra under the baton of Swedish conductor Herbert Blomstedt, who makes his festival debut with the orchestra. Beethoven’s Symphony No. 2 in D major, Op. 36, is also on the program. This performance was recorded at the Lucerne Culture and Congress Center (KKL), Switzerland, in August 2020.

The Youth Wunderhorn songs are a set of 12 orchestral lieder by Mahler, based on folk poems from the collection by Arnim and Brentano, blending romanticism with folk elements and exploring human experience with authenticity and profound emotional depth. The songs draw from German folk traditions, incorporating themes of nature, love, and soldier life, often with a dramatic or poignant quality.

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. 8 in F major, Op. 93. Beethoven wrote the work in 1812 upon completion of his Symphony No. 7. The composer conducted the February 27, 1814 première at a concert in Vienna that also included a reprise performance of his Symphony No. 7 and his 15-minute orchestral piece Wellington’s Victory, Op. 91. The shortest of Beethoven’s nine symphonies, Symphony No. 8 lacks a truly slow movement. Instead it has a second movement, Allegretto scherzando, that features a steady ‘ticking’ rhythm maintained by the woodwinds throughout the movement. This is thought to be an imitation of the Andante movement of Joseph Haydn’s ‘Clock’ Symphony. Jordan’s performance was recorded at Opéra Bastille in Paris, France, in 2015.

Celebrated German violinist Isabelle Faust performs two of J. S. Bach’s incredible works for solo violin: Partita No. 2 in D minor (BWV 1004), and Sonata No. 3 in C major (BWV 1005). Both works are part of the composer’s well-known Sonatas and Partitas for Solo Violin (BWV 1001-1006). Partita No. 2 is made up of four dance movements, concluded by its famous Chaconne, a monumental piece within the violin repertoire. In this Chaconne, Bach develops a series of continuous variations from a theme, exploring a complex range of harmonic possibilities. Sonata No. 3 includes an extensive fugue in which Bach employs many contrapuntal techniques. In this wonderful performance, Faust shows her mastery of Bach’s technically challenging pieces. This performance was recorded at St. Thomas Church in Leipzig, Germany, in 2020.

American conductor Michael Tilson Thomas leads the London Symphony Orchestra (LSO) in an energetic performance of Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky's folk-infused Symphony No. 2 in C minor, Op. 17. Written in 1872, the work is nicknamed 'Little Russian' as the composer used several folk tunes from Ukraine, then known as ‘Little Russia’. This performance was recorded at LSO St Luke's, London, on May 31, 2021.

J. S. Bach’s six Brandenburg Concerto’s belong to his best-known works. The composer wrote these concertos between 1711 and 1720 and dedicated them in 1721 to Christian Ludwig, Margrave of Brandenburg. In celebration of the pieces’ 300th anniversary, Czech harpsichordist and conductor Václav Luks and the renowned Baroque ensemble Collegium 1704 recorded all six Brandenburg Concertos on historical instruments in 2021. The concertos are based on the Italian concerto grosso form, in which a group of solo instruments is set against a large ensemble. Bach’s Brandenburg Concertos feature remarkable combinations of solo instruments and virtuoso solos. In this performance at the Hall of Mirrors in the Köthen Castle, Germany, Luks and his Collegium 1704 present Bach’s Brandenburg Concerto No. 1 in F major, BWV 1046. This concerto was written for strings, woodwinds, and brass, and features solos from each instrument group.

One of the first Christmas carols ever written is Perotin the Great’s Salvatoris Hodie. This brilliant 12th century composition, one of the first works ever written for four voices, opens First Snow: the atmospheric Christmas concert by the Brussels Philharmonic. Straying from ‘ars antiqua’, the program also features a performance of two contemporary melodies penned by conductor Bo Holten based on texts by the Icelandic poet Gunnar Gunnarsson (1889-1975). As an added bonus, a hand-picked selection of various Polish and French Christmas songs rounds off this enjoyable yuletide program.

As part of a new collaboration with the famous composer of "music with repetitive structures" Philip Glass, French pianists Katia and Marielle Labèque perform the European premiere of Glass's Concerto for two pianos with the Orchester de Paris conducted by Jaap van Zweden, current music director of the New York Philharmonic.

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

Italian conductor Andrea Vitello leads his Ensemble BIOS in a performance of ‘Someone Out There is Praying for Peace (Let Us Not Be the Reason), I’, by contemporary Canadian composer Rita Ueda. This piece is written for strings and tar, a traditional plucked string instrument of Persian music, played here by Saeed Mirzazadeh. Ensemble BIOS specializes in 20th and 21st century music. This performance was recorded at Chiesa di San Cristo in Brescia, Italy.

The Finnish composer and conductor Esa-Pekka Salonen (1958) was Music Director of the Los Angeles Philharmonic from 1992 until 2009. Under his dynamic leadership, it was recognized as one of the world's most outstanding orchestras. The exciting musical partnership Salonen established with his musicians was widely acclaimed in the international press. The conductor's lucidity, efficiency, and lack of pretension, promoted a relaxed collaboration between himself and the orchestra, which is particularly evident in the rehearsal process. This ‘In Rehearsal’ episode features Salonen rehearsing Claude Debussy's Impressionistic orchestral piece La Mer with the Los Angeles Philharmonic at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion of the Music Center of Los Angeles County. It gives a fascinating insight into Salonen’s rapport with his musicians and also into Debussy’s masterpiece.

J. S. Bach’s six Brandenburg Concerto’s belong to his best-known works. The composer wrote these concertos between 1711 and 1720 and dedicated them in 1721 to Christian Ludwig, Margrave of Brandenburg. In celebration of the pieces’ 300th anniversary, Czech harpsichordist and conductor Václav Luks and the renowned Baroque ensemble Collegium 1704 recorded all six Brandenburg Concertos on historical instruments in 2021. The concertos are based on the Italian concerto grosso form, in which a group of solo instruments is set against a large ensemble. Bach’s Brandenburg Concertos feature remarkable combinations of solo instruments and virtuoso solos. This performance was recorded at the Hall of Mirrors in the Köthen Castle, Germany.

Luca Vignali (oboe), Angelo De Angelis (clarinet), Carmine Pinto (horn), Eliseo Smordoni (bassoon), and Linda Di Carlo (piano) perform Ludwig van Beethoven’s Quintet for piano and winds in E-flat major, Op. 16. The piece, completed in 1796, is assumed to have been modelled on Mozart’s Quintet for piano and winds, K. 452. Both quintets are scored for the same unusual instrument combination, are in the same key, and feature the same three-movement structure. A marked difference is that Beethoven, as a piano virtuoso, wrote the piano parts to highlight the strengths of his playing. Besides, the composer regularly places this instrument in the center of attention. Beethoven published the work in 1801 in two versions: as a quintet for piano and winds, and as a quartet for piano and strings (also designated Op. 16). This performance was recorded at Perugia’s Auditorium Santa Cecilia, Italy, on June 23, 2022.

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.

On 22 April 2016, Yehudi Menuhin would have celebrated his 100th birthday. One of his most famous students - and one of his best friends - is violinist Daniel Hope. For him, Yehudi Menuhin was the reason he become a violinist. At first, his mother became the secretary of Menuhin when Daniel Hoe and his parents moved to London. Hope grew up in Menuhin's house and learned not only to love music, but also to make the violin a part of his life. Playing the violin every day is like walking every day, or drinking and eating. He played with Menuhin some of Bartok's Duos which was, according to Hope, an introduction to Bartok’s extraordinary music. A piece of Bartok had to be part of this program as well as Ravel's Kaddish, the encore Daniel Hope choose when Menuhin conducted his last concert in Düsseldorf. But this concert starts with Elgar's Violin Concerto. Hope plays with the Konzerthausorchester Berlin under the baton of Iván Fischer.

Claude Debussy’s symphonic sketches for orchestra known collectively as ‘La Mer’ evoke a richly varied vision of the sea. The first part (‘De l’aube á midi sur la mer’) calls up a morning and afternoon at sea, the second (‘Jeux de vagues’) echoes the play of the waves, and the third and final part (‘Dialogue du vent et de la mer’) conjures the communing voices of wind and waves. Debussy knew his sea, the Mediterranean, intimately both from childhood visits to Cannes and from his Italian travels later in life.

The Malandain Ballet Biarritz performs the ballet Cinderella ('Cendrillon') Op. 87, composed by Sergei Prokofiev to a scenario by Nikolai Volkov and in a choreography by Thierry Malandain. The Orchestre Symphonie d' Euskadi is led by Caballé-Domenech. Cinderella is one of Prokofief's most popular and melodious compositions. It was composed during World War II, but Prokofiev broke off the writing to compose his opera War and Peace. The premiere of Cinderella was conducted by Yuri Fayer on November 21, 1945, at the Bolshoi Theatre. The work is notable for its jubilant music, lush scenery, and for the comic double-roles. Recorded at l'Opéra Royal du Chateau de Versailles in October 2013 and directed by Sonia Paramo.

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.

Polish conductor Marta Gardolińska conducts the London Symphony Orchestra (LSO) in a concert program consisting of Lili Boulanger’s D’un Martin de Printemps, Marc-André Dalbavie’s Concerto for Flute, and Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No. 4 in F minor, Op. 36. The luminous optimism of the young Boulanger is poles apart from the raw passion and white-hot melodies of Tchaikovsky’s semi-autobiographical symphony. LSO principal flute Gareth Davies brings out all the dazzle and daring of Dalbavie's 21st-century classic. The program closes with Prayer for Ukraine by composer Valentin Silvestrov. This concert was recorded at LSO St Luke’s in London, UK, on May 18, 2022.