As part of his mini tour of Italy in March 2023, Canadian pianist Jan Lisiecki presents an innovative programme from Naples’s intimate Teatro Sannazaro. This is a Chopin recital with a difference, in which Lisiecki interweaves the Etudes Op. 10 with a selection of Nocturnes, contrasting the virtuosic demands of the former with the lyricism of the latter to show the many different facets of the Polish composer.
Yuja Wang & Víkingur Ólafsson: Live in Berlin
Two classical superstars and two of the most remarkable pianists of their generation join forces: Yuja Wang and Víkingur Ólafsson come together at the Philharmonie in Berlin for what promises to be an unmissable meeting of musical minds. As part of an extended tour that sees them performing together for the first time, they present a programme built around two classics of the four-hand repertoire – Schubert’s haunting Fantasie in F Minor and the two-piano version of Rachmaninoff’s powerful Symphonic Dances – alongside John Adams’s 1996 masterpiece Hallelujah Junction and further works by Adams, John Cage, Conlon Nancarrow and Arvo Pärt.
Verdi: Requiem from Santa Cecilia
Set in the astonishing context of the “Basilica di San Paolo fuori le Mura”, one of the papal basilicas of Rome, this program combines Verdi’s Requiem, the excellent baton of British conductor Daniel Harding and one of the leading Italian orchestras and choir, the Accademia di Santa Cecilia. Harding’s interpretation of Verdi’s famous funeral mass recreates “an immaterial, disembodied, spiritual sound, suitable for this extreme meditation on the end of life and on the mystery that lies after life” (Il giornale della musica). The excellent soloists Masabane Cecilia Rangwanasha, Yulia Matochkina, Charles Catronovo, Roberto Tagliavini contribute to an outstanding performance and an optimal fusion with the choir’s sound. “The last bars, with the crescendo never heard so full of controlled tension and the following pianissimo “dum veneris judicare saeculum per ignem”, left the audience deeply touched and speechless: Only after a silence of emotional recollection, which seemed to never end, did the intense applause break out” (il giornale della musica).
Premieres Revisited – Sibelius in Helsinki
Another episode of the “Premieres Revisited” series follows the steps of Jean Sibelius in the Finnish capital. The Symphony n. 5, one of the composer’s must beloved works, was commissioned by the Finnish government and premiered on December 8, 1915, on the occasion of the composer’s 50th birthday. It was much revised thereafter, and the final version was presented in 1919. Under its Chief Conductor Jukka-Pekka Saraste, the Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra performs again the Fifth together with the symphonic poem The Oceanides, both compositions that evoke elements of the Nordic world, such as the flying swans of the symphony’s finale.
Premieres Revisited – Mendelssohn’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream in Potsdam
This episode marks the start of a captivating series: compositions at their world premiere venues. Mendelssohn composed his famous Sommernachtstraum (Midsummer Night’s Dream) as a teenager, but was not able to incorporate it into the accompaniment to Shakespeare’s fantastic comedy until 16 years later. The incidental music was commissioned by King Friedrich Wilhelm IV of Prussia and is performed in this special performance at the Theater des Neuen Palais in Potsdam, exactly where the premiere took place in October 1843. Alongside the Kammerakademie Potsdam and its chief conductor Antonello Manacorda, soloists Jeanine De Bique and Christiane Karg, who also appear in Berlioz’s exquisite Les nuits d’été, a work created just two years before Mendelssohn’s Midsummer Night’s Dream.
Víkingur Ólafsson – My Favourite Melodies
Acclaimed pianist Víkingur Ólafsson shares his deep connection with music, from Icelandic songs to the works of Bach, Mozart, Rameau, and Philip Glass. He explores how these pieces shaped him and how his feelings differ when performing works like the Goldberg Variations or Bartok’s Folk Song. Ólafsson invites us into his world where musical knowledge, Nordic roots, and creativity merge in his interpretations.
Bryn Terfel – Celtic Beethoven
In this concert from the Festival Saint Denis, bass-baritone Bryn Terfel joins forces with gaïta-player and flautist Carlos Núñez and the Orchestre National de Bretagne under Grant Llewellyn for a special exploration of Beethoven’s arrangements of Scottish, Irish and Welsh folk songs. The composer made his arrangements of the folk songs for voice and piano trio, dressing them up for 19th-century salon, but here – in new arrangements by Benoît Menut and Pierre Chépélov – they come full circle to be reconnected with their Celtic origins.
Vikingur Olafsson – Goldberg Variations from Harpa
Icelandic pianist Víkingur Ólafsson has made a profound impact with his remarkable combination of highest level musicianship and visionary programmes. His recordings for Deutsche Grammophon have captured the public and critical imagination. In October 2023, Ólafsson releases his anticipated new album on Deutsche Grammophon of J.S. Bach’s Goldberg Variations. Ólafsson has dedicated his entire 2023-24 season to a Goldberg Variations world tour, performing the work across six continents throughout the year. He brings Bach’s masterpiece to major concert halls of the world and in this recording from the Harpa Concert Hall in Reykjavik, Iceland, he is performing Goldberg Variations “at home”.
Daniel Hope – Dance!
Fleet of foot and with the whirling lightness of the waltz, the evening depicts the world of dance in all its variations, from the elegant courtly minuet to the fiery Argentine tango. Universal musician Hope will only be tripping the light fantastic metaphorically as his bow jumps across the violin strings. But who knows what surprises he may have in store? Daniel Hope has long been fascinated by the power of dance to move and inspire. Taking listeners on a journey through seven centuries of music history, DANCE celebrates the rhythms that have set bodies in motion and lifted hearts since time began. With everything from the anonymous 14th-century Lamento di Tristano to Wojciech Kilar’s 1986 work Orawa, via classics by Purcell, Handel, Mozart, Saint-Saëns.
Nelsons conducts Mendelssohn & Schumann
Andris Nelsons and the Gewandhausorchester bring a programme rich in Leipzig’s unrivalled musical heritage to the Seoul Arts Center. Felix Mendelssohn, one of Nelsons’s celebrated predecessors as Gewandhauskapellmeister, is represented by his concert overture “Die schöne Melusine” and his atmospheric Symphony No. 3 “Scottish”, inspired by his travels in Britain in 1829 and premiered at the Gewandhaus in 1842. Three years later, Robert Schumann completed his piano concerto, one of the most popular concertos in the repertoire, and that work completes the programme here, performed by Seong-Jin Cho, one of the most celebrated pianists of his generation. PROGRAM Schumann: