Schedule

On March 23, 1783, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart gave a successful concert at Vienna’s Burgtheater that he dedicated to two sopranos: Aloysia and Josepha Weber, the sisters of his wife Constanze. The concert’s program would be considered odd by today’s standards. The composer’s Symphony No. 35 was broken up and interspersed with other compositions, such as concertos, arias, and works for solo piano. Nearly two and a half centuries later, French soprano Sabine Devieilhe, conductor Raphaël Pichon and his Ensemble Pygmalion bring a wonderful concert inspired by that remarkable event. The program includes: ‘Allegro con spirito’ of Symphony No. 35, also known as the Haffner Symphony; ‘Vorrei spiegarvi, oh Dio’, KV 418; ‘Schon lacht der holde Frühling’, KV 580; Trio of ‘Die Schlittenfahrt’ No. 3, KV 605; Deutscher Tanz No. 6, KV 571; ‘Der Hölle Rache kocht in meinem Herzen’ from Mozart’s opera Die Zauberflöte; ‘Finale: Presto’ of Symphony No. 35; ‘Nehmt meinen Dank’, KV 383; and ‘Dans un bois solitaire et sombre’, KV 308. This performance was recorded at Théâtre Impérial de Compiègne, in Compiègne, France.

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.

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. 2 in G major, Op. 18, No. 2; String Quartet No. 16 in F major, Op. 135; and String Quartet No. 14 in C-sharp minor, Op. 131. This concert was recorded at Philharmonie de Paris on December 16, 2020.

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.

Pianist Arisa Onoda (Japan, 1996) performs Ferruccio Busoni’s transcription of J. S. Bach’s ‘Chaconne’ from Partita No. 2 for violin, BWV 1004; Frédéric Chopin’s Barcarolle in F-sharp, Op. 60; and ‘Noctuelles’ and ‘Alborada del gracioso’ from Maurice Ravel’s Miroirs, 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.

The Easter Festival is an internationally renowned event among classical music lovers, traditionally opened in Moscow on Easter Sunday. Each year the Mariinsky Theatre Orchestra and its musical director Valery Gergiev travel across Russia - for the past 10 years now! In 2012, the Mariinsky Theatre Symphony Orchestra under the baton of Valery Gergiev performed the complete cycle of Sergei Prokofiev’s symphonies and piano concerti - a composer with whom Maestro Gergiev and the orchestra seemed particularly in tune. Complete program: 'Symphony No.1, Op. 25', 'Piano Concerto No.1', 'Symphony No.5, Op. 100'.

The French musician and composer Pierre Boulez (1925-2016) is considered one of the most influential figures in twentieth-century music. In the documentary 'Pierre Boulez – A life of music' (2017), Reiner E. Moritz creates a personal portrait of the young and impatient artist who once impetuously suggested to blow up the opera houses in order to do away with stuffy traditions, yet later moved on to conduct the "Ring of the Century" in the very heart of traditional opera, Bayreuth, and became a prized guest conductor with the world´s greatest orchestras. The documentary includes fragments from the composer's rich oeuvre, and features rare photographs from the Boulez-Chevalier archive. The documentary is at its most personal when the maestro's family and friends reflect on his life. Boulez's younger brother Roger shares invaluable information about Pierre's early years, and the renowned pianist Daniel Barenboim opens up about his friend’s music and compositions.

The Rina Sala Gallo International Piano Competition takes place every two years in the Italian city of Monza. Founded in 1947 by Monza-born pianist Rina Sala Gallo and Brescia-born pianist Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli, the competition is one of Monza’s most prestigious cultural events today. This broadcast featuring the three finalists’ best performances from the competition’s 26th edition, were recorded at the Villa Reale di Monza in October 2022. First, Young Sun Choi (South Korea, 1991) performs Ludwig van Beethoven’s Piano Sonata No. 30 in E major, Op. 106. After, Seunghyuk Na (South Korea, 1997) plays ‘Oiseaux tristes’ and ‘Alborada del gracioso’ from Maurice Ravel’s five-movement suite Miroirs. Next, Ivan Bašić (Serbia, 1996) performs Franz Liszt’s Mephisto Waltz No. 1. Lastly, Choi returns for a performance of Claude Debussy’s Images (Book I).

Italian cellist Silvia Chiesa and Italian pianist Maurizio Baglini perform Frédéric Chopin’s Introduction and Polonaise brillante in C major, Op. 3. This performance was recorded at Sala Verdi of the Conservatorio Giuseppe Verdi in Milan, Italy, on November 4, 2024.

Conductor Jan Latham-Koenig leads the Flanders Symphony Orchestra in a performance of Edvard Grieg’s Piano Concerto in A minor, Op. 16. French pianist Pascal Amoyel features as the soloist. Grieg composed the work in 1868, drawing inspiration from Norwegian folk music. It is the composer’s only concerto. The work premiered on April 3, 1869 in Copenhagen, Denmark, with Edmund Neupert as the soloist, and was received enthusiastically. The Norwegian premiere followed a few months later. This performance was recorded at Concertgebouw Brugge, Belgium, on April 21, 2016.

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 great clarinettist Paolo Beltramini plays a program of solo pieces for clarinet on Stingray Brava. In this broadcast, Beltramini performs C.P.E. Bach’s Solfeggietto, Béla Kovàc’s Hommage à Paganini, and Igor Stravinsky’s Three Pieces for Clarinet Solo. Paolo Beltramini is the only Italian clarinettist to have won first prize at the prestigious Prague Spring International Clarinet Competition (1996). As a duo with pianist Roberto Arosio, he won the International Chamber Music Competitions in Paris (1996) and Trapani (1997). These awards helped establish Beltramini’s reputation as one of the most interesting wind-instrument virtuosos on the international concert circuit. He was principal clarinettist with Amsterdam’s Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, Milan’s Filarmonica della Scala, Mahler Chamber Orchestra and Swiss Orchestra della Svizzera italiana.

This visually stunning production of Nutcracker is a graceful and timeless adventure on a grand scale. From the lovely Waltz of the Flowers to the crystalline beauty of the stunning Snowflake Waltz, each scene is more breathtaking than the last, bringing to life all the well-known and beloved characters with fresh sparkle and compelling originality. It is Christmas Eve and we are brought to a party at which Drosselmeyer gives young Clara a nutcracker doll - beginning a night that includes a magically growing Christmas tree, a midnight battle of toy soldiers at which the Nutcracker defeats the villainous Mouse King and his army of mice, and a headlong pas de deux in which Clara and Hans-Peter meet and celebrate their triumph before being enveloped in a magical snowstorm. Act II whisks the young pair off to the Kingdom of the Sweets, where they are entertained by the Sugar Plum Fairy with her handsome Prince and her glittering court in a series of dazzling dances. Under the direction of Andreas Morell, Valery Gergiev conducts the Mariinsky Orchestra and Choir. Soloists are Mikhail Makarov, lldar Abdrazakov, Anna Markarova, Sergei Skorokhodov, Timur Abdikeyev, Vladislav Sulimasky. This production was recorded at the Mariinsky Theatre in 2012.

With Rolando Villazón directing and playing the title role, the world rushed for tickets to the Baden-Baden 2012 Pentecost-holiday opera. Following his directorial debut in 2011 (Werther, Lyon) the Mexican tenor went a step further, staging Gaetano Donizetti’s L’elisir d’amore and directing himself in the role of Nemorino. The film tells the story of this “story within a story” and reveals the creative process of staging the comic opera in two acts at the Festspielhaus Baden-Baden in April and May 2012. We follow Rolando Villazón in rehearsals with singers and actors, and in his exchanges with young conductor Pablo Heras-Casado on the way to a highly personal performance.

One of today’s most distinguished conductors, Franz Welser-Möst conducts The Cleveland Orchestra in a performance featuring works from the oeuvre of Johannes Brahms. The concert begins with the Academic Festival Overture, written in honor of the University of Breslau, which awarded the composer an honorary doctorate in philosophy. This is followed by Brahms only Violin Concerto (in D major), described by violinist Joseph Joachim, whom it was originally written for, as one of the four great German violin concerti. This performance features violin soloist Julia Fischer. It was recorded at Severance Hall in Cleveland, USA, in 2014.

Considered to be one of the most unique ensembles to feature on the Czech scene in the last 25 years, the style of the Clarinet Factory hovers between contemporary and classical music, jazz and world music. As winners of the Classic Prague Awards in 2017 for 'Best Crossover Project', the quartet combines their classic music training and clarinet art with jazz, minimalism and improvisation to create their very own music without borders, capable of communicating directly with all audiences. The Clarinet Factory also experiment with electronics, both ambient and dance-oriented, and the four musicians remain ever fascinated with the possibilities of their instrument, considering their work as a music laboratory. Regularly collaborating with symphonic ensembles, vocalists, performance artists, the quartet have written music for film, theatre, ballet and contemporary dance. In this performance from 2019's Classical:NEXT!, the ensemble interprets their own works: "Bird Song", "Husa divoká", "B-A-C-H", "Hikari", "Luda's Dance" and "L'Amour". The Clarinet Factory is made up of Vojtěch Nýdl (clarinet and vocals), Luděk Boura (clarinet), Jindřich Pavliš (clarinet), and Petr Valášek (bass clarinet).

At the beginning of the 19th century, Europe was set alight by a shocking new dance craze: the waltz. The story of the waltz is inseparable from the story of the Strauss family. This docudrama, entertainingly presented by Lesley Garrett, tells their story. Composers Strauss Sr. and Strauss Jr., who both held the public title of "The Waltz King", were uneasy rivals in their private life. Strauss Sr., born in 1804, was a hugely popular composer, who transformed the waltz from a simple dance into a Viennese cultural phenomenon. Yet his reputation was entirely eclipsed by his eldest son, who took the waltz to a whole new musical level, writing The Blue Danube and several other pieces. However, in his own mind, Strauss Jr. never quite escaped the shadow of his father. Lesley Garrett explores the origins of the waltz - the music, the dance steps, the ballrooms, and the costumes, while narrating the bitter conflict between a father and a son. This rich and compelling story is lavishly illustrated with the music and dancing of the time, recreated at Vienna's sumptuous Hofburg Palace.

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.

Traditionally, many ensembles festively announce the Christmas season with a performance of Johannes Sebastian Bach’s Christmas Oratorio, BWV 248. It consists of six cantatas originally intended for performance on one of the major feast days of the Christmas period. The work saw its first performance in 1734, at St. Thomas Church in Leipzig, Germany, where Bach occupied the position of cantor. In that very same church the thirty-fourth ‘Thomaskantor’, Gotthold Schwarz, leads the St. Thomas Boys Choir Leipzig and the Gewandhausorchester Leipzig in a performance of Bach’s choral masterpiece. Among the soloists are Dorothee Mields (soprano), Elvira Bill (alto), Patrick Grahl (tenor, Evangelist), Markus Schäfer (tenor, arias), and Klaus Häger (bass). This performance was recorded in 2018.

Italian pianist Alessandro Marangoni and Italian organist Paolo Oreni perform Marcel Dupré’s Variations on Two Themes for piano and organ, Op. 35. Designed by the organist himself, Oreni plays his ‘Wanderer’ organ in this performance, which is currently the largest existing transportable pipe organ. With its 1200 pipes and 42 stops, it has all the essential timbres needed for the organ repertoire. This performance was recorded at FabbricaPoggi in Pavia, Italy, on April 5, 2024.