Live & Upcoming Programmes

Soloists of the Lucerne Festival Orchestra, Lucas Macías Navarro, Stefan Dohr & Jonathan Wegloop

The soloists from the Lucerne Festival Orchestra present two septets in this engaging 2020 concert, recorded at Lucerne Culture and Congress Center (KKL), Switzerland. It opens with Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's Divertimento No. 11 in D major, K. 251, known as the ‘Nannerl-Septet'. Mozart composed it in 1776, probably on the occasion of his sister Maria Anna's name day, whose nickname was ‘Nannerl'. The septet is scored for oboe, two horns, two violins, viola and double bass. The program continues with Ludwig van Beethoven's Septet in E-flat major, Op. 20, which is scored for clarinet, horn, bassoon, violin, viola, cello and double bass. This 1799 piece achieved great popularity during Beethoven's lifetime. It was arranged for many various instrumental ensembles, including versions for two guitars, and piano four-hands, but also a trio for clarinet (or violin), cello, and piano, arranged by Beethoven himself.

2025-12-12 05:00:00 +0000 UTC → 2025-12-12 06:28:42 +0000 UTC (1h28m)

Daniel Barenboim

On August 19, 2000, the Teatro Colón was filled to the brim with spectators longing to hear Daniel Barenboim play the piano. Barenboim, who is currently best known as a conductor, started his career half a century ago as a child prodigy, playing his first piano recital at age 7. This concert celebrates the maestro's on-stage career. Only after the maestro had performed for a full three hours, including no less than 13 encores, the audience was willing to let him leave the stage: a special evening if ever there was one! The concert included Ludwig van Beethoven's Sonata No. 23 ‘Apassionata', Frederic Chopin's Waltz in e minor, and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's Sonata in C major.

2025-12-11 23:15:00 +0000 UTC → 2025-12-12 01:45:00 +0000 UTC (2h30m)

Lucas Debargue

Cinematic classical clips and energizing concert pieces featuring up-and-coming artists.

2025-12-11 22:59:54 +0000 UTC → 2025-12-11 23:15:00 +0000 UTC (15m)

Gotthold Schwarz, Thomanerchor Leipzig, Gewandhausorchester Leipzig & Dorothee Mields

Traditionally, many ensembles festively announce the Christmas season with a performance of Johannes Sebastian Bach's Christmas Oratorio, BWV 248. It consists of six cantatas originally intended for performance on one of the major feast days of the Christmas period. The work saw its first performance in 1734, at St. Thomas Church in Leipzig, Germany, where Bach occupied the position of cantor. In that very same church the thirty-fourth ‘Thomaskantor', Gotthold Schwarz, leads the St. Thomas Boys Choir Leipzig and the Gewandhausorchester Leipzig in a performance of Bach's choral masterpiece. Among the soloists are Dorothee Mields (soprano), Elvira Bill (alto), Patrick Grahl (tenor, Evangelist), Markus Schäfer (tenor, arias), and Klaus Häger (bass). This performance was recorded in 2018.

2025-12-11 20:00:00 +0000 UTC → 2025-12-11 22:59:54 +0000 UTC (2h59m)

Iván Fischer

Cinematic classical clips and energizing concert pieces featuring up-and-coming artists.

2025-12-11 19:46:04 +0000 UTC → 2025-12-11 20:00:00 +0000 UTC (13m)

Les Dissonances & David Grimal

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.

2025-12-11 19:15:00 +0000 UTC → 2025-12-11 19:46:04 +0000 UTC (31m)

Bertrand de Billy

Since its founding over 500 years ago the Wiener Sängerknaben, also known as the Vienna Boys' Choir, has been a fixed attraction in musical life. A number of important musicians have been connected with the famous choir. Joseph Haydn and Franz Schubert, for example, have been members themselves. Not to forget about W. A. Mozart, who composed several musical works for the choir. On January 27, 2006 – the day of the composer's 250th anniversary – the Wiener Sängerknaben celebrated Mozart with this concert from the Stephansdom in Vienna. The Radio Symphonieorchester Wien plays under the baton of Bertrand de Billy soloist is the French soprano Sandrine Piau.

2025-12-11 17:45:00 +0000 UTC → 2025-12-11 19:15:00 +0000 UTC (1h30m)

Luca Vignali, Angelo De Angelis, Carmine Pinto & Eliseo Smordoni

Luca Vignali (oboe), Angelo De Angelis (clarinet), Carmine Pinto (horn), Eliseo Smordoni (bassoon), and Linda Di Carlo (piano) perform Ludwig van Beethoven's Quintet for piano and winds in E-flat major, Op. 16. The piece, completed in 1796, is assumed to have been modelled on Mozart's Quintet for piano and winds, K. 452. Both quintets are scored for the same unusual instrument combination, are in the same key, and feature the same three-movement structure. A marked difference is that Beethoven, as a piano virtuoso, wrote the piano parts to highlight the strengths of his playing. Besides, the composer regularly places this instrument in the center of attention. Beethoven published the work in 1801 in two versions: as a quintet for piano and winds, and as a quartet for piano and strings (also designated Op. 16). This performance was recorded at Perugia's Auditorium Santa Cecilia, Italy, on June 23, 2022.

2025-12-11 17:00:00 +0000 UTC → 2025-12-11 17:45:00 +0000 UTC (45m)

Mariss Jansons, Berliner Philharmoniker & Emmanuel Pahud

Joseph Haydn (1732-1809): Symphony No. 94 in G major "Surprise" - Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791): Flute Concerto in D major, K. 314 - Hector Berlioz (1803-1869): Symphonie fantastique Op. 14. Emmanuel Pahud (flute), Berliner Philharmoniker conductor: Mariss Jansons. The European Concert has been a tradition of the Berliner Philharmoniker since 1991. The musicians commemorate the anniversary of the orchestra's founding on May 1st, 1882, playing in different European cities. This concert was recorded in the church "Hagia Eirene" in Istanbul, Turkey.

2025-12-11 11:00:00 +0000 UTC → 2025-12-11 13:00:00 +0000 UTC (2h)

Vadim Yarkov

This stunning performance of theatrical ice dancing brings viewers into the enchanting world of Tchaikovsky's magnificent holiday classic, The Nutcracker On Ice, performed by the internationally renowned Imperial Ice Stars, and including former champion figure skaters, Vadim Yarkov and Olga Sharutenko. This very special performance and soundtrack was performed by the Manchester Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Tim A. Duncan, and filmed live in Cape Town, South Africa in 2011.

2025-12-11 09:00:00 +0000 UTC → 2025-12-11 11:00:00 +0000 UTC (2h)

Isabelle Faust

Cinematic classical clips and energizing concert pieces featuring up-and-coming artists.

2025-12-11 08:48:13 +0000 UTC → 2025-12-11 09:00:00 +0000 UTC (11m)

Roberto Abbado, Filarmonica Arturo Toscanini, Coro del Teatro Regio di Parma & Eleonora Buratto

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.

2025-12-11 07:00:00 +0000 UTC → 2025-12-11 08:48:13 +0000 UTC (1h48m)

Quatuor Ebène

Renowned French string quartet Quatuor Ébène marked the 250th birth anniversary of Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827) with a remarkable project: recording all of the great composer's sixteen string quartets. For five years, violinists Pierre Colombet and Gabriel Le Magadure, violist Marie Chilemme, and cellist Raphaël Merlin immersed themselves in Beethoven's 650 pages of sheet music. Their efforts culminated in the performance of the composer's complete repertoire for string quartet, which covers three decades of Beethoven's musical creativity, during six impressive concerts at Philharmonie de Paris in the autumn of 2020. Quatuor Ébène explored every facet of Beethoven's string quartet repertoire: from the youthful Opus 18 string quartets to the Razumovsky, Harp, and Serioso quartets (Opus 59, 74, and 95) from his middle period, and finally, the depth of his late quartets (Opus 127 to 135). This program features Quatuor Ébène performing Beethoven's String Quartet No. 2 in G major, Op. 18, No. 2 String Quartet No. 16 in F major, Op. 135 and String Quartet No. 14 in C-sharp minor, Op. 131. This concert was recorded at Philharmonie de Paris on December 16, 2020.

2025-12-11 05:00:00 +0000 UTC → 2025-12-11 07:00:00 +0000 UTC (2h)

Apollo Ensemble & David Rabinovich

The Apollo Ensemble performs Händel's Brockes-Passion (HWV 48) in the Oudhoornse Kerk in Alphen aan de Rijn, The Netherlands. The Brockes-Passion is a German oratorio libretto by Barthold Heinrich Brockes first published in 1712 and revised multiple times in the years after. Brockes was an influential German poet who re-worked the traditional form of the Passion oratorio, adding reflective and descriptive poetry into the texture of the Passion. The most famous setting of the text is by Händel. It is not known exactly why or when the composer set the text of the Brockes-Passion, which was already used by other composers, but it is known the work was performed in Hamburg in 1719. Händel's Brockes-Passion is said to be a worthy contribution to the genre, with passages of great beauty, such as the duet for Mary and her son. Bach was influenced by the work in his famous St John Passion.

2025-12-10 21:00:00 +0000 UTC → 2025-12-11 00:00:00 +0000 UTC (3h)

Vasilii Andreev

The award-winning Imperial Ice Stars are 26 Olympic, World, European and National Championship skaters, who jointly hold over 250 competition medals, performing theatrical ice dancing on a frozen theatre stage. The Imperial Ice Stars have received five-star praise from critics and standing ovations from audiences at some of the world's most prestigious venues - London's Royal Albert Hall and Sadler's Wells, Singapore's Esplanade Theatre, Montreal's Place des Arts and Cape Town's Artscape. This stunning performance, filmed at the Melbourne Theatre Company in Australia, offers a new look on the secular tale of Sleeping beauty, with the original music of Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky (1840-1893).

2025-12-10 19:00:00 +0000 UTC → 2025-12-10 21:00:00 +0000 UTC (2h)

Quatuor Ebène

Renowned French string quartet Quatuor Ébène marked the 250th birth anniversary of Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827) with a remarkable project: recording all of the great composer's sixteen string quartets. For five years, violinists Pierre Colombet and Gabriel Le Magadure, violist Marie Chilemme, and cellist Raphaël Merlin immersed themselves in Beethoven's 650 pages of sheet music. Their efforts culminated in the performance of the composer's complete repertoire for string quartet, which covers three decades of Beethoven's musical creativity, during six impressive concerts at Philharmonie de Paris in the autumn of 2020. Quatuor Ébène explored every facet of Beethoven's string quartet repertoire: from the youthful Opus 18 string quartets to the Razumovsky, Harp, and Serioso quartets (Opus 59, 74, and 95) from his middle period, and finally, the depth of his late quartets (Opus 127 to 135). This program features Quatuor Ébène performing Beethoven's String Quartet No. 1 in F major, Op. 18, No. 1 String Quartet No. 10 in E-flat major, Op. 74, "Harp" and String Quartet No. 9 in C major, Op. 59, No. 3, "Razumovsky". This concert performance was recorded at Philharmonie de Paris on October 13, 2020.

2025-12-10 17:00:00 +0000 UTC → 2025-12-10 19:00:00 +0000 UTC (2h)

Les Arts Florissants & Paul Agnew

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.

2025-12-10 11:15:00 +0000 UTC → 2025-12-10 12:45:00 +0000 UTC (1h30m)

Renaud Capuçon, Gerard Causse, Iddo Bar-Shai & Jean-Jacques Kantorow

French violinist Renaud Capuçon appears at the festival Les Coups de Cœur de Chantilly, presenting a chamber music program consisting of classical and 20th century repertoire. He performs with the soloists of the International Menuhin Music Academy led by French conductor Jean-Jacques Kantorow. First on the program is Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's Sinfonia Concertante in E-flat major, K. 364, in which Capuçon and violist Gérard Caussé appear as the soloists. Capuçon is then joined by pianist Iddo Bar-Shaï for a performance of Mozart's Sonata for violin and piano in E minor, K. 304. The program closes with Dmitri Shostakovich's Chamber Symphony in C minor, Op. 110a, which is a transcription of Shostakovich's String Quartet No. 8 by Russian conductor Rudolf Barshai, the composer's close friend. This performance was recorded at Château de Chantilly, on May 15, 2021.

2025-12-10 09:45:00 +0000 UTC → 2025-12-10 11:15:00 +0000 UTC (1h30m)

Philippe Jordan & Orchestre de l'Opéra national de Paris

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. 6 in F major, Op. 68, also known as the Pastoral Symphony. Beethoven wrote the work upon completion of his Symphony No. 5. Both symphonies premiered at the same legendary, all-Beethoven concert on December 22, 1808. Symphony No. 6 consists of five movements, of which the last three are played without a break. Each movement carries a title that suggests a scene from life in the countryside. The joyful atmosphere of the first three movements is interrupted by the violent fourth movement ‘Thunder, Storm', as expressed by the piccolos, brass, and timpani. As the storm recedes at the end of the movement, the tranquility returns in the final movement. This performance was recorded at Opéra Bastille in Paris, France, in 2015.

2025-12-10 08:45:00 +0000 UTC → 2025-12-10 09:45:00 +0000 UTC (1h)

Bertrand de Billy

Cinematic classical clips and energizing concert pieces featuring up-and-coming artists.

2025-12-10 08:34:36 +0000 UTC → 2025-12-10 08:45:00 +0000 UTC (10m)