00:00
Verdi - Messa da Requiem
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.
01:32
Waldbühne 1996 - Italian Night
Designed by the German architect Werner March, Berlin's Waldbühne is an amphitheater that seats over 22,000 people. It was built between 1934 and 1936 for the Summer Olympics of 1936. Since WWII, the Waldbühne has been used for a variety of events, including boxing matches, film screenings, and classical and rock concerts. Annually, the Berlin Philharmonic performs a stunning open concert. In this broadcast of the 1996 edition, Claudio Abbado conducts the orchestra and invites bass-baritone Bryn Terfel, tenor Sergei Larin, and soprano Angela Gheorghiu to sing Verdi arias. This program also features Giuseppe Verdi's Overture Nabucco, duet Et lui (from Don Carlos), Fire chorus Fuoco di gioia, Jago's Credo, Gia nella notte (from Otello), Triumphal March, and chorus Gloria all' Egitto from Aida. You can also discover Vincenzo Bellini's Eccomi from I Capuleti e i Montecchi.
03:20
Heavenly Voices - The legacy of Farinelli
The documentary 'Heavenly Voices – The Legacy of Farinelli' (2012) tells us the story of the castrato in music – male singers who were castrated at a young age in order to preserve their high vocal range, a cruel practice that was in place mainly in the 17th and 18th centuries. For two centuries, castrati's performances held European audiences spellbound, with successful castrati such as Farinelli ranking among the most influential and highest-earning musicians of those days. Today, roles originally written for castrati are often performed by countertenors. In this documentary, countertenors Max Emanuel Cenčić, Philippe Jaroussky, Andreas Scholl, Franco Fagioli, and Jochen Kowalski discuss Baroque-era operatic entertainment. 'Heavenly Voices' is a film by Gino Pennacchi (writer) and Alessandro Scillitani (director).
04:12
Brahms - Symphony No. 1 in C minor, Op. 68
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 present Johannes Brahms’s Symphony No. 1 in C minor, Op. 68. Brahms realized he was expected to compose a symphony that would match the musical standards established by Ludwig van Beethoven. After working on it for at least fourteen years, he completed his Symphony No. 1 in 1876. Brahms’s symphony was hailed as ‘Beethoven’s Tenth’: a worthy successor to Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9. Brahms’s work contains several references to Beethoven. For instance, the main theme of the fourth movement – first appearing in the strings – resembles the ‘Ode to Joy’ in the finale of Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9. This performance was recorded at Philharmonie de Paris, France, in 2014.
04:56
IVC 2021 - Semi-finals: Debussy, Haydn a. o.
Soprano Isabel Weller (Germany, 1994) and pianist Yuriko Watanabe (Japan, 1994) perform Claude Debussy’s Nuit d’étoiles, L. 2, and Mandoline, L. 43; Joseph Haydn’s Piercing eyes, Hob. XXVIa, No. 35; ‘Die Mainacht’ from Johannes Brahms’s Vier Gesänge, Op. 43; ‘Pietà’ from Paul Hindemith’s Das Marienleben, Op. 27; Bart Visman’s Vermeer’s Gold; and ‘Lied vom Winde’ from Hugo Wolf’s Mörike-Lieder, 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.
05:19
PIAM - Semi-final I: Chopin and Mozart
Acclaimed classical music talent scout Antonio Mormone (1930-2017) lives on as the name-giver of the Premio Internazionale Antonio Mormone (PIAM), awarded to the winner of the Italian music competition of the same name. The first edition of this competition, which was held in various venues in Milan from 2019 to 2021, was dedicated to the piano. As part of this competition, Su Yeon Kim (South Korea, 1994) performs various works by Frédéric Chopin: Nocturne in C minor, Op. 48, No. 1; Mazurka, Op. 2, No. 2 and 4; Scherzo No. 3 in C-sharp minor, Op. 39; and Waltz in A-flat major, Op. 34 No. 1. The recital comes to a close with Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s Gigue in G major, KV 574. This performance was recorded at Teatro EDI Barrio’s in Milan, in January 2020.
06:00
Mahler - Rückert-Lieder
Welsh soprano Margaret Price performs Gustav Mahler’s Rückert-Lieder. She is accompanied by the Orchester der Ludwigsburger Schloßfestspiele under the baton of Wolfgang Gönnenwein. Mahler’s Rückert-Lieder are a collection of five songs based on poetry of Friedrich Rückert (1788-1866). Mahler completed both a piano and an orchestral version of the first four songs during the summer of 1901, but he never got around to orchestrating the fifth song, “Liebst du um Schönheit” (‘Lovest thou but beauty’). Mahler wrote this overt love song for his bride Alma Schindler. This performance was recorded at the 1988 Ludwigsburger Schloßfestspiele.
