Schedule

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.

After recording all 32 Ludwig van Beethoven piano sonatas to celebrate the composer's 250th birth anniversary, celebrated Italian pianist Riccardo Schwartz decided to record solo piano works by Robert Schumann. In this performance, Schwartz presents Schumann’s Kreisleriana, Op. 16. Schumann claimed that he penned this 1838 composition in just four days. He dedicated it to Frédéric Chopin, his contemporary. The work’s title refers to the musician Johannes Kreisler, a fictional character from the writings of German Romantic author E. T. A. Hoffmann. Schumann regarded the composition as one of his finest. Kreisleriana is a dramatic, eight-movement piece. Its contrasting sections invoke the imaginary musician’s violent mood swings as well as the conflict between Schumann’s own two fictional characters, Florestan and Eusebius, which represent the duality of the composer’s own personality. Acclaimed pianist Riccardo Schwartz (1986) has performed as a soloist with many world-renowned conductors, including Gustav Kuhn and Yuri Temirkanov. His acclaimed performances include recitals and concertos for piano and orchestra in many prestigious concert halls.

Soprano Heidi Baumgartner (Austria, 1998) and pianist Asuka Tagami (Japan, 1991) perform Franz Schubert’s Suleika I, Op. 14 No. 1, D. 720; ‘Er ist’s’ from Hugo Wolf’s Mörike-Lieder; Bart Visman’s Vermeer’s Gold; ‘Sua katselen’ (Looking at you) from Kaija Saariaho’s Leino-Laulut (Leino songs); and ‘Pantomime’ and ‘Apparition’ from Claude Debussy’s Quatre chansons de jeunesse, during the semi-finals of the International Vocal Competition 2021 – Lied Duo. This performance was recorded at Het Noordbrabants Museum in ’s-Hertogenbosch, the Netherlands.

Hamlet is a grand opera in five acts by the French composer Ambroise Thomas (1811-1896), with a libretto by Michel Carré and Jules Barbier. It is based on a French adaptation by Alexandre Dumas and Paul Meurice of Shakespeare's Hamlet. Thomas’ operas Mignon (1866) and Hamlet (1868) were largely neglected during the 20th century but experienced somewhat of a revival over the last decades. In this performance, staged by Serge van Veggel, The New European Ensemble is led by conductor Hernán Schvartzman. Main soloists are Quirijn de Lang (Hamlet), Lucie Chartin (Ophélie), Martijn Sanders (Claudius), Martina Prins (Gertrude), Jan-Willem Schaafsma (Laertes), and Patrick Pranger (Horatio). This performance was recorded at the Royal Theatre in The Hague, in April 2018.

Chamber music ensemble The Philharmonics pays tribute to the music of Vienna in this March 9, 2011 concert from Vienna's Café Sperl. The ensemble, which consists of musicians from the Vienna Philharmonic and the Berlin Philharmonic, performs arrangements of five popular waltzes by Johann Straus II. Among them are Kaiser-Walzer, Op. 437, and Schatz-Walzer, Op. 418, from the operetta The Gypsy Baron. In May 1921, the likes of Arnold Schönberg, Alban Berg, and Anton Webern wrote these chamber music arrangements to raise funds for their Society for Private Musical Performances. Although both the concert and the auction of the scores were very successful, the Society eventually went under. In addition to these pieces by Strauss, The Philharmonics perform works by Fritz Kreisler, Leopold Godowsky, as well as The Philharmonics's first violinist, Tibor Kováč. The program comes to an end with Godowsky’s tribute to the city: Alt Wien.

The Ensemble Bios performs "Il Viaggio di Dante" by Japanese-Canadian composer Rita Ueda. This performance was recorded in 2021 in the Teatro Niccolini in Florence, Italy. Ueda is one of the many faces of contemporary Canadian classical music. Ueda was born in Japan, but emigrated to Canada in 1971, with her family. There she studied composition and sound design. One of her teachers was Morton Subotnick, who wrote the first electronic piece ever commissioned by a record label (Nonesuch). With her piece "Snowflakes Return to the Sky", Ueda won second prize in the Gustav Mahler Composition Competition 2010/11.

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.

Soprano Anabel de la Mora is accompanied by the Orquesta Sinfonica de Minería conducted by Raúl Delgado in a concert program dedicated to Mexican composers. This program, which includes the first part of the concert, features the following works: Miguel Bernal Jiménez's "Angelus", Alfonso Esparza's "Dime que sí", María Grever's "Munequita Lina", Ricardo Castro's "Intermezzo de Atzimba", Jorge del Moral's "Besos robados", and Consuelo Velázquez's "Bésame mucho". This concert was recorded at the Academia de Música del Palacio de Minería in Mexico City in 2019.

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.

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.

At the behest of Argentinian pianist Martha Argerich, several classical music stars took part in this concert in aid of the Erasmus Fund for medical research in intensive care, recorded at the Royal Conservatory of Brussels, Belgium, on October 21, 2023. The concert pays tribute to the renowned cellist Aleksandr Khramouchin (1979) who suddenly passed away on May 13, 2023. As part of this concert, pianists Martha Argerich and Khramouchin’s widow Eliane Reyes perform Maurice Ravel’s Ma mère l'Oye. This five-part suite was written for piano four hands.