00:00
Pierre Boulez conducts Modern Classics
Pierre Boulez (1925-2016) was undoubtedly one of the most important figures in modern music. In this performance by the Gustav Mahler Youth Orchestra, Boulez displays his masterful understanding of 20th century music as he traces the revolutionary harmonic development of musical modernism in three key "modern classics": Richard Wagner's Tristan und Isolde, “Prelude” (1859), Arnold Schönberg's Pelleas und Melisande (1903), and Alban Berg's Violin Concerto (1935). The Gustav Mahler Youth Orchestra was founded through conductor Claudio Abbado's initiative in 1986. It consists of musicians under the age of 26 from all over Europe. The soloist in Berg's Violin Concerto is Akiko Suwanai, the youngest first-prize recipient (1990) in the history of Moscow's International Tchaikovsky Competition.
02:02
Waldbühne 2004 - Tchaikovsky night
The Berliner Philharmoniker and Lang Lang under the baton of Sir Simon Rattle
03:41
Shostakovich - 24 Preludes and Fugues, Op. 87
English-French pianist David Levy performs Dmitri Shostakovich’s 24 Preludes and Fugues, Op. 87. The work is a set of twenty-four pieces for piano, one in each of the major and minor keys of the chromatic scale. Each piece is in two parts: a prelude followed by a fugue. The composer was doubtlessly inspired by J. S. Bach’s famous The Well-Tempered Clavier (BWV 846-893), a collection of forty-eight preludes and fugues published in two books. A panel member at Leipzig’s Bach competition, Shostakovich was deeply inspired by Russian pianist Tatiana Nikolayeva’s performance of Bach’s 48 Preludes and Fugues. Shostakovich wrote these pieces between the autumn of 1950 and February 1951, dedicating them to Nikolayeva, who agreed to perform the Leningrad premiere in December 1952. David Levy’s performance was recorded at the Budapest Music Center, Hungary, in September 2023.
05:38
Mozart - Violin Concerto No. 4
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. 4 in D major, K. 218. 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. Among his five concertos, Violin Concerto No. 4 is one of the best-known. This performance was recorded at Cité de la Musique, France, in 2014.
06:00
Mozart - Symphony No. 36, K. 425
Jeffrey Tate conducts the English Chamber Orchestra in a performance of W. A. Mozart’s “Linzer” Symphony No. 36 (K. 425). The broadcast is directed by János Darvas. Mozart composed the work in 1783, during his short stay in the Austrian town of Linz, on the way home from Vienna to Salzburg. The symphony was written in an impressive span of only four days to accommodate a local concert. The premier took place on November 4 and premiered in Vienna the year after. The introduction of trumpets and drums in the second movement is an unusual feature of the piece. The closing Presto is provided with some contrapuntal passages to contrast the homophonic texture.
06:33
Bizet - L'Arlésienne Suite
Mikhail Pletnev leads the Russian National Orchestra (RNO) in a performance of Maurice Ravel's Piano Concerto No. 1 with Lucas Debargue as the soloist. The concert opens with a selection of music by Georges Bizet based on Alphonse Daudet's play 'L'Arlésienne'. The music is compiled by Mikhail Pletnev. The first movement of Ravel's Piano Concerto No. 1 contains five distinctive themes, of which three are reminiscent of jazz. Debargue's performance of Ravel's concerto is followed by Gabriel Fauré's Barcarolle No. 4. The performance was recorded at Tchaikovsky Concert Hall in Moscow as part of the Ninth RNO Grand Festival.
07:01
Le Grand Orgue in Concert
Current holder of “Great Organ of the Notre Dame,” Olivier Latry began his musical career when he enrolled in Gaston Litaize’s organ class at the Academy of Saint-Maur at the age of 16. In 1985, at 23 years of age, Latry was awarded the post of one of four “titulaires des grands orgues” of Notre Dame, Paris. Besides enriching the musical world as an organist, improvisor and composer, Olivier Latry also works as a Professor of Organ at the Conservatoire de Paris. This performance of his, showcasing pieces of Bach, Vierne and Daquin, was recorded in 2015, at Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris.
08:11
Bruch - Violin Concerto No. 1, Op. 26
Sir Simon Rattle conducts the Berliner Philharmonic during the 2008 edition of the Europakonzert, held in the renowned hall of the Tchaikovsky Conservatory in Moscow. The first edition of the Europakonzert was in 1991, and since then, the founding of the Berlin Philharmonic on May 1st in 1882 is annually celebrated with a concert in a European city of cultural significance. The orchestra opens with an outstanding performance of Stravinsky’s Symphony in Three Movements. Furthermore, Vadim Repin, one of today’s most fascinating artists, features as soloist in Bruch’s Concerto for Violin No. 1, Op, 26. The orchestra concludes with a performance of Beethoven’s Symphony No. 7, of which the second movement, Allegretto, gained instant popularity after its premiere in 1813 and remains a crowd favorite.
08:38
Documentary 2017
This short documentary follows the participants of the 11th 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.
09:21
Mozart - Violin Concerto No. 3
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.
10:00
Mahler - Symphony No. 2
Mahler's "Resurrection" Symphony, written between 1888 and 1894, is a colossal five-movement work exploring themes of death and resurrection. It was one of Mahler's most popular and acclaimed works during his lifetime, famously culminating in a powerful choral finale. The symphony features immense orchestral forces, including offstage brass and a large choir, which combine to create overwhelming sonic experiences that depict profound spiritual and emotional narratives. The grand scale and dramatic structure represent the triumph of life over death.
11:32
Monteverdi - Madrigals, Book III
Italian composer Claudio Monteverdi (1567-1643) composed nine books of madrigals in half a century, which helped transform the genre from the polyphonic, a cappella madrigals of the late Renaissance to the ‘concertato’ madrigals of the early Baroque, shifting the style’s focus to the ability of music to express emotions contained in a text. In 2011, British tenor Paul Agnew and renowned Baroque ensemble Les Arts Florissants started recording eight books of Monteverdi’s madrigals. In this program, Agnew leads Les Arts Florissants in the madrigals of Book III. Published in 1592, the book contains twenty madrigals for five voices. This performance was recorded at the Cité de la musique in Paris, France, in 2012.
12:41
The Boy with the Wig: Kids on Mozart
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.
13:10
Solos for Clarinet, Part I
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.
13:36
Mozart - String Quartet No. 19 in C major, K. 465
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’ string quartet – consisting of David Grimal (violin), Hans Peter Hofmann (violin), David Gaillard (viola), and Xavier Phillips (cello) – performs Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s String Quartet No. 19 in C major, K. 465, ‘Dissonance’ (Op. 10 No. 6). The String Quartet is the last in the set of six quartets that were dedicated to Joseph Haydn. Written between 1782 and 1785, these are also known as the Haydn Quartets (Op. 10). String Quartet No. 19 is remarkable for its slow, dissonant introduction, giving the piece its nickname. This ominous passage suddenly gives way to the bright Allegro in C major. This performance was recorded at Opéra Comique in Paris, France, in 2015.
14:05
Karl Jenkins - The Armed Man: A Mass for Peace
For this truly unique, historic occasion, Welsh composer Sir Karl Jenkins conducts The World Orchestra for Peace and around 2,000 singers from nearly 30 countries to Sing for Peace at the Berlin's Mercedes Benz Arena on November 2, 2018. Soloists are vocalists Leah-Marian Jones, Yumeji Matsufuji, Pauline Rathmann, Amir Aziz, violinist Krzysztof Wisniewski and cellist Valentino Worlitzsch. The Armed Man: A Mass for Peace is the most performed work by any living composer. This performance is the largest ever staged, and was uniquely performed in synchronization with a specially commissioned war-archive film that reinforces the narrative of the work – the build up to war, war itself, and the consequences of war. Projected on to five giant screens, the film delivers a poignant backdrop to the moving musical narration providing the audience with a powerful and emotional multimedia experience.
15:15
Bruckner - Symphony No. 7
In a 2019 performance from the Muziekgebouw in Eindhoven, Hartmut Haenchen conducts the philharmonie zuidnederland for this performance of Anton Bruckner’s Symphony No. 7. The German-born conductor, who became a Dutch citizen through naturalisation, was chief conductor at the Dutch National Opera, the Netherlands Philharmonic Orchestra, and the Netherlands Chamber Orchestra before he was finally knighted for his services to the Dutch music landscape. The majestic opening theme of the first movement of Anton Bruckner’s Symphony No. 7 foreshadows a momentous work, lasting over 20 minutes. The doubt and turmoil felt throughout the Adagio, the second movement, are supposedly Bruckner's response to the news of the death of his idol, Richard Wagner. Bruckner's use of Wagner tubas and double bass tubas creates an even more solemn and grandiose air within the Adagio. Trumpet signals refer to crowing cockerels as they interrupt the grim and clamorous Scherzo. In the Finale, Bruckner employs a persistent rhythmic pulse that starts softly yet builds up towards the explosive final bars.
16:19
Cleveland Orchestra - Centennial Celebration
For the Anniversary Gala, Cleveland Orchestra Music Director Franz Welser-Möst led a program featuring pianist Lang Lang as soloist. The program offered works touching on more than a century of Viennese musical traditions with Lang Lang performing Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 24. The pianist made his Cleveland Orchestra debut in 2000 at Blossom Music Center and most recently performed with the Orchestra in 2014 at Severance Hall. The remainder of the concert features the Wiener Blut Waltzes, Opus 354 by Johann Strauss, Jr., the Fantasie from R. Strauss' Die Frau ohne Schatten and Ravel's La Valse, which dramatically evokes the changing artistic worlds between the 19th and 20th centuries. Recorded at Severance Hall, Cleveland on September 29th, 2018.
17:39
Schubert - Four Impromptus, Op. 90: - I.
Roberto Prosseda (1975) performs Mozart's Piano Sonata No. 5 (KV. 283) and four Impromptus Op. 90 by Franz Schubert. The performance ends with Chopin's technically demanding Ballade No. 4, Op. 52. 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.
