20231107 Online Stream Musical Events
1. Mikhail Pletnev performs Rachmaninov's complete Piano Concertos — Conducted by Kent Nagano
Platform：medici.tv
Date of Broadcast：November 9, 2023
Don't miss this superhuman feat by one of today's most accomplished pianists! 2023 marks the 150th anniversary of the birth of twentieth-century master Sergei Rachmaninov, whose work is known for its breathtaking drama, abundant passion, and extraordinary technical difficulty. In the piano repertoire, there may be no more challenging undertaking than tackling Rachmaninov's complete set of piano concertos—nor an artist more up to the task than the great Mikhail Pletnev.
Here at the Rosey Concert Hall in Rolle, Switzerland, alongside the Rachmaninov International Orchestra (which Pletnev founded in 2022 to foster international cooperation among musicians from all over Europe, including Russia and Ukraine), he performs the four Piano Concertos—all, not only the perennially beloved Nos. 2 and 3, overflowing with lush harmonies and sweeping melodies—plus the de facto fifth, the dazzling Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini. Rounding out this star-studded event at the podium is legendary maestro Kent Nagano, who leads Pletnev and his ensemble with his usual deft hand and the unshakeable confidence required to unify these monumental works.
2. Nayden Todorov conducts Beethoven and Dvořák — With Elias David Moncado
Platform：medici.tv
Date of Broadcast：November 11, 2023
Don’t miss prizewinning violinist Elias David Moncado’s sensational premiere at the Wiener Konzerthaus with the Sofia Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by maestro Nayden Todorov!
A dazzling instrumental program awaits: first up is Beethoven’s Violin Concerto in D Major, composed in 1806 during a particularly prolific period for the German master. The concerto was commissioned by and dedicated to Franz Clement, a leading violinist of the day, but the first performance was unsuccessful due to a lack of rehearsal. It is rumored that Beethoven finished the solo part so late (two days before the premiere!) that Clement had to sight-read part of his performance. For three decades, the work remained in obscurity, until revived in 1844 by 12-year-old violinist Joseph Joachim with the orchestra of the London Philharmonic Society conducted by Felix Mendelssohn. It now stands as one of the most popular and regularly performed violin concertos. The Sofia Philharmonic Orchestra then take on Dvořák’s Symphony No. 9 in E Minor, Op. 95, "From the New World": a masterpiece that similarly shattered conventional notions of instrumental music. Written while the composer was living in New York City, the symphony blends Bohemian, German, French, and Old World musical styles to reflect upon his American setting. A reporter for the New York Herald hailed the work as "a noble composition…of heroic proportions," and the Sofia Philharmonic Orchestra’s beautiful rendition definitely does it justice!
3. Barbara Hannigan conducts Haydn, Vivier, Ligeti, and Strauss — With Aphrodite Patoulidou
Platform： medici.tv
Date of Broadcast： November 12, 2023
The brilliant Barbara Hannigan makes her eagerly awaited conducting debut at the legendary Severance Music Center, home of The Cleveland Orchestra, "America's finest" (New York Times)! A bold and uncompromising artist whose choices as both soprano and conductor reflect her adventurous spirit, Hannigan juxtaposes works of contrasting eras and styles that cohere beautifully under her baton.
The program begins with Haydn's Symphony No. 44 in E minor, known as the Trauersinfonie ("Mourning Symphony"), an energetic and haunting reflection of the Sturm und Drang ("storm and stress") artistic currents of the late 18th century. Next is the best known work by French composer Claude Vivier, Lonely Child, a 1980 work of "astonishing fragility and beauty" for soprano and orchestra featuring the "utterly mesmerizing" Aphrodite Patoulidou (The Guardian). Hannigan and The Cleveland Orchestra then pay tribute to the great György Ligeti, born 100 years ago, with his eerie and captivating Lontano ("Far Away"), a prime example of the densely overlapping lines and tone clusters of what he called micropolyphony. The evening concludes, fittingly, with the supremely moving Death and Transfiguration, a meditation on the great beyond composed in 1889 by a 25-year-old Richard Strauss, to whose "Transfiguration" motif Strauss would return over six decades later in the Four Last Songs.
4. Kirill Petrenko conducts Mozart, Berg and Brahms
Platform：Berlin Phil Digital Concert Hall
Date of Broadcast：November 4, 2023
Link：https://www.digitalconcerthall.com/zh/concert/55031
Kirill Petrenko traverses the German-Austrian musical tradition with works that repeatedly look into abysses. Mozart’s Symphony No. 29 fascinates with a combination of light-heartedness and subliminal despair; in Berg’s Three Pieces for Orchestra, echoes of waltzes and marches are nightmarishly distorted. Brahms’s Fourth Symphony is one of the most magnificent works of the late Romantic repertoire and is pervaded with touching melancholy.