Johann Sebastian Bach: St Matthew Passion (RCO)

Registration of the theatre program by the Dutch comedian Brigitte Kaandorp.

Registration of the theatre program by the Dutch comedian Brigitte Kaandorp.

Accompanied by the Amsterdam Concertgebouw Orchestra, conducted by Paavo Järvi, French pianist Jean-Yves Thibaudet performs the rare ‘Concerto in D flat major, Op. 38’ by Aram Khachaturian (1903–1978), who was one of the Soviet Union’s ‘official’ composers, alongside Prokofiev. Also on the programme: “Vesper” by the Estonian composer Ester Mägi, who passed away in 2021.

A beautiful, sensitive, reverent performance. Fischer allows Bach to speak with no unnecessary flourishes. Padmore as the Evangelist is superb, and the other soloists and choirs are near perfect. And of course the Concertgebouw orchestral musicians are absolutely first class.

TV adaptation of Brigitte Kaandorp's theatre tour 'CD Opname', in wich the Dutch comedian Brigitte Kaandorp sings a selection from her songs, accompanied by 9 musicians.

As part of ‘Europiano’, ARTE’s day dedicated to piano concertos, Schumann’s Piano Concerto in A minor – one of the most important works of German Romanticism – comes to life under the fingers of the great Martha Argerich. Her performance stands out not only for its virtuosity, but also for its expressive intensity, enriched by an almost chamber-music-like rapport between the piano and the orchestra.

Like many of John Adams’ operas, Doctor Atomic is based on recent world historical events—here, the effusive Robert Oppenheimer, “father of the atomic bomb,” anxiously awaits the bomb’s first test in Los Alamos, New Mexico. Adams adapted the work into a symphony, comprising its three main acts. In the second half of the program, Adams conducts his 2015 violin concerto, Scheherazade.2, which restages the tale of the One Thousand and One Nights heroine as a strong woman navigating a patriarchial society, incarnated by the solo violin part. The work was composed specifically for Canadian-American virtuoso Leila Josefowicz and co-commissioned by the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, who perform it to perfection. The evening then closes out with Tromba Lontana, an orchestral fanfare written to mark the 150th anniversary of Texas’s independence from Mexico in 1836.