MA's Free Guide to (Mostly) Free Streams, July 12-19

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** Highly recommended

Monday, July 12

7:30 pm ET: Met Opera Streams presents Puccini’s Manon Lescaut. Starring Karita Mattila, Marcello Giordani, and Dwayne Croft, conducted by James Levine. From February 16, 2008. View here and for 24 hours.

** 7:30 pm ET: Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center presents Mozart, Martinu, Spohr & Handel. Recorded this spring at the Frederick R. Koch Foundation Townhouse, this newly curated full-length HD concert features violinist Kristin Lee and violist Matthew Lipman performing Mozart’s Duo in G for Violin and Viola, K. 423, Martinu’s Duo No. 1 for Violin and Viola, Three Madrigals, Spohr’s Duo in E minor for Violin and Viola, Op. 13, and Handel/Halverson’s Passacaglia in G minor for Violin and Viola. View here for one year.

7:30 pm ET: Bowdoin International Music Festival presents Mozart & Dvorák. From the Studzinski Recital Hall in Brunswick, Maine, Elinor Freer and Tao Lin perform Mozart’s Sonata for Two Pianos in D, K. 448 followed by a performance of Dvorák’s Piano Trio No. 2 in G Minor, Op. 26 by Ayano Ninomiya violin, Amir Eldan cello, and Tao Lin piano. View here. LIVE

Tuesday, July 13

3:30 pm ET: Ravenna Festival presents Romance del Diabolo. A tribute to Astor Piazzolla (1921-1992) for the 100th anniversary of his birth. Saxophonist Marco Albonetti is the soloist with Orchestra Filarmonica Italiana in performances of Cuatro Estaciones Porteñas, Romance del Diablo, Oblivion, Años de Soledad, and Libertango. View here.

** 7:30 pm ET: Nightly Met Opera Streams presents Puccini’s La Bohème. Starring Renata Scotto, Maralin Niska, Luciano Pavarotti, Ingvar Wixell, and Paul Plishka, conducted by James Levine. Production by Fabrizio Melano. From March 15, 1977. View here and for 24 hours.

9 pm ET: Kimball Recital Hall presents Paul Barnes plays Victoria Bond. Pianist Paul Barnes gives the regional premiere of Victoria Bond's Illuminations on Byzantine Chant. Live-streamed from Kimball Recital Hall in Lincoln, NE, the work represents over 20 years of creative collaboration between the composer and pianist. Barnes says: "Chanting in Orthodox churches for the last quarter of a century, I wanted to select byzantine hymns that reflected the wide emotional range and spiritual message of Orthodox Christianity.” View here and on demand. LIVE

Wednesday, July 14

** 7:30 pm ET: Nightly Met Opera Streams presents Puccini’s Tosca. Starring Shirley Verrett, Luciano Pavarotti, and Cornell MacNeil, conducted by James Conlon. From December 19, 1978. View here and for 24 hours.

7:30 pm ET: Bowdoin International Music Festival presents Foley & Brahms. From the Studzinski Recital Hall in Brunswick, Maine, bassist and composer Xavier Foley performs his Etude No. 12 Reconstruction. He’s then joined by violinist Renée Jolles to play Spirit of the Ice Bear. The program concludes with cellist Davis Ying and pianists Elinor Freer playing Brahms’s Violin Sonata No. 1 in E minor, Op. 38. View here. LIVE

Thursday, July 15

11 am ET: American Classical Orchestra presents Beethoven Sonatas. The last of seven recitals performed on fortepiano. Dongsok Shin performs one of Beethoven’s Late Piano Sonatas. Recorded in May 2021 at the Metropolitan Museum of Art on an 1827 John Broadwood fortepiano. View here and on demand.

1:30 pm ET: IDAGIO presents Thursdays with Thomas. Join Thomas Hampson in conversation with colleagues, friends, and other major personalities of the classical music world. In this episode Thomas chats with violinist Jennifer Koh. View here. LIVE

1:30 pm ET: IDAGIO Global Concert Hall presents Matariki with the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra. As winter begins in the South, NZSO acknowledges Puanga, heralding the rising of the Matariki star cluster into the dawn with Nga Hihi o Matariki, the world premiere of a new work of symphonic proportions by NZ pakeha composer Gareth Farr and Maori collaborators, Mere Boynton and Ariana Tikao. Gemma New conducts. Filmed at Michael Fowler Centre, Wellington, New Zealand. Tickets from $8. View here until December 31.

** 3 pm ET: Festival d’Aix-en-Provence presents Verdi’s Falstaff. Daniele Rustioni conducts the London Symphony Orchestra in Barrie Kosky’s new staging with a cast that includes Christopher Purves in the title role, Stéphane Degout as Ford, Juan Francisco Gatell as Fenton, Carmen Giannattasio as Mrs Alice Ford, Daniela Barcellona as Mrs Quickly, Giulia Semenzato as Nannetta, and Antoinette Dennefeld as Mrs Meg Page. Recorded July 6, 2021. View here until November 1.

3 pm ET: Festival d’Aix-en-Provence presents The Arab Apocalypse. Ilan Volkov conducts Ensemble Modern. Created in 1975 and based on events at the time, the collection The Arab Apocalypse by the painter and poet Etel Adnan offers a gripping depiction of the civil war in Lebanon. This work—a virulent denunciation of crimes that sprung from intolerance—touched and inspired the Israeli-Palestinian composer Samir Odeh-Tamimi, who lives in Berlin, and the Franco-Lebanese stage director Pierre Audi. Recorded July 4, 2021. View here until November 1.

** 4 pm ET: Prototype presents OPERA | THEATRE | X: Angel’s Bone. To celebrate its 10th anniversary, Prototype looks back at nine of the cutting-edge works it has championed over the years. Each stream will be followed by a conversation with the creators. This week, Du Yun’s Pulitzer Prize-winning Angel’s Bone from 2016, a work of opera-theatre that melds chamber music, theatre, punk rock, opera, cabaret, and electronics and follows the plight of two angels exploring the dark effects and motivations behind modern-day slavery and the trafficking industry. Following the stream join Composer Du Yun and Director Michael McQuilken for a virtual conversation. View here.

** 7 pm ET: Orpheus Chamber Orchestra presents Seven Last Words. Orpheus presents the world premiere of a new arrangement of Haydn’s The Seven Last Words of Christ (Die sieben letzten Worte unseres Erlösers am Kreuze) by Rick Robinson. The orchestra is joined by theologian Keri L. Day for a modern interpretation on the seven meditations. Tickets from $5. View here.

7 pm ET: Our Concerts Live presents The All-Request Hour with Stephanie Blythe. Join Stephanie Blythe and her beloved blue ukulele as they sing the songs of summer in a program chosen by you. In this all-request concert, the singer will program your favorite songs, talk about the tunes, and tell your stories. Tickets $20. View here. LIVE

7 pm ET: Cleveland International Piano Competition presents First Round Session 5. Contestants perform their First Round solo recitals of 20 minutes from around the world. View here.

7:30 pm ET: Nightly Met Opera Streams presents Puccini’s Madama Butterfly. Starring Hui He, Elizabeth DeShong, Bruce Sledge, and Paulo Szot, conducted by Pier Giorgio Morandi. Production by Anthony Minghella. From November 9, 2019. View here and for 24 hours.

8 pm ET: Tippet Rise presents Escher String Quartet. A performance by the Escher String Quartet of Schubert’s String Quartet No. 15 in G, D. 887. The quartet is a former BBC New Generation Artist and has performed at the BBC Proms at London’s Cadogan Hall and is a regular guest at Wigmore Hall, also in London. In its hometown of New York, the ensemble serves as Season Artists of The Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center. Filmed at the Olivier Music Barn on August 9, 2019. View here.

9:30 pm ET: Colorado Music Festival presents Olga Kern & Prokofiev’s Classical Symphony. The Colorado Music Festival Orchestra is conducted by Ludovic Morlot with pianist Olga Kern in performances of Dvorák’s Legends, Op. 59 (Movements 6, 7 and 9), Prokofiev’s Symphony No. 1, Op. 25, Classical, Haydn’s Piano Concerto in D, Hob. XVIII:11, and Shostakovich’s Piano Concerto No. 1 in C Minor, Op. 35. Tickets $15. View here for 30 days.

10 pm ET: Pacific Symphony presents Beethoven Symphony No. 1. Beethoven's First Symphony is indebted to his teacher Haydn, the father of the classical symphony. At the same time, it foreshadows Beethoven's future development of the genre, including the more independent use of wind instruments and the transformation of the third movement, traditionally a stately menuet, into what would become the lively scherzo. Carl St.Clair conducts. View here until August 13.

10:30 pm ET: Chamber Music Northwest presents Opening Night with ECCO. After a year without live concerts, Chamber Music Northwest’s Summer Festival returns with the conductorless East Coast Chamber Orchestra (ECCO). Program: Bach’s Cantata 180: “Schmücke dich, o liebe Seele”, BWV 180, Mendelssohn’s Concerto for Piano, Violin, and Strings in D minor, MWV O4, and Tchaikovsky’s Serenade for Strings in C, Op. 48. View here until August 31.

Friday, July 16

** 12 pm ET: Carnegie Hall Selects presents Dvorák’s New World Symphony. On December 16, 1893, Dvorák’s Symphony No. 9, From the New World, received its world premiere at Carnegie Hall. Written during the composer’s brief tenure in New York City, the symphony is American in its influences, but universal in its musical marvels. The Czech Philharmonic is the foremost interpreter of works by its native son, as conducted in this 2013 performance by Jirí Belohlávek in Dvorák Hall of Prague’s Rudolfinum. View here until July 23.

** 12 pm ET: Verbier Festival presents Gergiev conducts Shchedrin, Tchaikovsky & Prokofiev. The Verbier Festival is back with this Russian program to open the 2021 edition. Valery Gergiev leads the Festival Orchestra with pianist Denis Matsuev in two back-to-back concerts. The programs include Shchedrin’s Concerto for Orchestra No. 1, Naughty Limericks, Tchaikovsky’s Piano Concerto No. 1 in B-flat Minor, Op. 23, Tchaikovsky’s Piano Concerto No. 2 in G, Op. 44, and Prokofiev’s Symphony No. 5 in B-flat, Op. 100. View here. LIVE

12 pm ET: The Dallas Opera & Opera Parallèle present Everest. Everest is based on the 1996 Mount Everest disaster when eight climbers perished. Composer Joby Talbot and librettist Gene Scheer created the opera based on interviews with survivors of their ill-fated attempt to descend the summit in the midst of a relentless blizzard. The cast for this film production includes Sasha Cooke (Jan Arnold), Nathan Granner (Rob Hall), Kevin Burdette (Beck Weathers), and Hadleigh Adams (Doug Hansen). The ‘graphic novel’ treatment of Everest was created specifically for a virtual audience by Opera Parallèle’s Creative Director Brian Staufenbiel, in collaboration with Illustrator Mark Simmons and Director of Photography David Murakami. Tickets $19.99. View here for six months.

12 pm ET: Opera Philadelphia presents Organ Stops. Opera Philadelphia’s Chorus Master Elizabeth Braden teamed up with Partners for Sacred Places and the Opera Philadelphia Chorus on a program celebrating the city’s many historic pipe organs. Organ Stops brings traditional and new music to three churches: Manayunk’s St. John the Baptist Church, Wharton-Wesley United Methodist Church in Cobbs Creek, and St. Luke’s Episcopal Church in Germantown. The program pairs traditional opera choruses from Verdi’s Macbeth and Wagner’s Tannhäuser with newer works composed specifically for chorus and organ by contemporary composers Hannah Kendall, Melissa Dunphy, Marcus DeLoach, and David Hurd. View here until July 16, 2022.

** 2 pm ET: DG Stage presents Kit Armstrong performs Byrd & Bull. Kit Armstrong presents a recital at the Meistersaal Berlin, Germany, showcasing works by two great English composers, William Byrd and John Bull. Whilst Byrd and Bull were contemporaries, their styles varied. Presenting their works in parallel displays this contrast and serves as an in-depth look into the core of English early music. Tickets EUR 4.90. View here until July 11.

** 7 pm ET: Music@Menlo presents Concert Program I. The season’s first program celebrates the ritual of gathering with friends to share in the joy of music, bookended by Patrick Castillo’s Gather, written to commemorate the opening of the Spieker Center, and Schubert’s Trout Quintet, penned in a matter of days to be enjoyed at a chamber music soiree. Artists include Matthew Lipman, David Finckel, Kristin Lee, Arnaud Sussmann, Scott Pingel, Ji Na Kim, and Wu Han. Tickets $25. View here.

7 pm ET: Bryant Park Picnic Performances presents Spanish Harlem Orchestra. The three-time Grammy-winning Salsa and Latin Jazz band, sets the gold standard for excellence in authentic, New York style, hard core salsa. Their energy on stage and their rich sound and musical precision leave audiences mesmerized until the last note is played. With an unwavering respect for the music’s storied history, the ensemble’s 13 world-class musicians and vocalists come together to create an unparalleled musical experience. View here. LIVE

7 pm ET: Cleveland International Piano Competition presents First Round Session 6. Contestants perform their First Round solo recitals of 20 minutes from around the world. View here.

** 7:30 pm ET: Nightly Met Opera Streams presents Puccini’s La Fanciulla del West. Starring Barbara Daniels, Plácido Domingo, and Sherrill Milnes, conducted by Leonard Slatkin. Production by Giancarlo Del Monaco. From April 8, 1992. View here and for 24 hours.

7:30 pm ET: Bowdoin International Music Festival presents Kodály & Mozart. From the Studzinski Recital Hall in Brunswick, Maine, Kodály’s Duo for Violin and Cello, Op. 7 is performed by Ayano Ninomiya and David Ying, followed by Mozart’s Piano Quartet No. 2 in E flat, K. 493 performed by Ayano Ninomiya violin, Che-Yen Chen viola, Amir Eldan cello, and Pei-Shan Lee piano. View here. LIVE

8 pm ET: Our Concerts Live presents Citizens of Everywhere II. From the West Cork Chamber Music Festival, Mairéad Hickey, Ella Van Poucke, and José Gallardo perform Mozart’s Piano Trio in E flat K.852. Arensky was a major figure in Russian music, pianist, conductor, and teacher whose students included Rachmaninov and Scriabin. He had a great gift for striking melodies, a skill that is immediately apparent in the huge opening movement of his Piano Trio in D minor. Tickets $12. View here until July 18.

8 pm ET: Old First Concerts presents Sarah Cahill. The pianist performs rarely heard works by Baroque composer Anna Bon, Leokadiya Kashperova (best known as Stravinsky’s piano teacher), Ajerbaijani composer Frangiz Ali-Zadeh, American composer and civil rights activist Zenobia Powell Perry, and Hungarian composer-pianist Agi Jambor, who survived a harrowing escape from Nazi-occupied Europe and dedicated her Piano Sonata to the victims of Auschwitz. Also on the program are selections from Madeleine Dring’s Colour Suite and Hannah Kendall’s On the Chequer’d Field Array’d, a musical depiction of a chess game. Tickets $20. View here.

** 8 pm ET: Bravo! Vail Music Festival presents The Philadelphia Orchestra. The Philadelphia Orchestra is led by Yannick Nézet-Séguin with pianist Yefim Bronfman in Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 3. Also on the program is the first symphony by a Black woman that was performed by a major American orchestra, Florence Price’s Symphony No. 1. Tickets $15. View here. LIVE

8:30 pm ET: Collingwood Festival presents Scheherazade. Lebanese-Canadian soprano Joyce El-Khoury takes on the role of Scheherazade supported by pianist and arranger Serouj Kradjian and an ensemble in an exotic fusion of traditional masterworks featuring Ravel’s Scheherazade alongside 20th-century Lebanese songs and other jewels of the East. Tickets $20. View here.

Saturday, July 17

5 am ET: Verbier Festival presents Marc Bouchkov performs Bach, Ysaÿe & Ernst. Violinist Marc Bouchkov takes the stage at the Verbier Church for a solo recital beginning with Bach's Solo Partita No. 2, comprising a suite of dances capped by a monumental Ciaccona. He continues with a Bach-inspired work by Ysaÿe, the Sonata No. 5, dedicated to one of the composer's prized students, Mathieu Crickboom. The recital closes with a set of variations on the popular Irish tune "The Last Rose of Summer," an extremely demanding work by Heinrich Wilhelm Ernst. View here. LIVE

12 pm ET: Verbier Festival presents Takács-Nagy conducts Mozart & Beethoven. Gábor Takács-Nagy leads the Verbier Festival Chamber Orchestra from the Salle des Combins. Violinist Josef Špacek and pianist Mao Fujita are the soloists in Mozart's Violin Concerto No. 3 and Piano Concerto No. 20 (one of the only piano concertos Mozart composed in a minor key), as well as Beethoven's Eighth Symphony. View here. LIVE

** 1 pm ET: San Francisco Opera presents Berlioz’s Les Troyens. SFO’s 2015 staging of this co-production with the Royal Opera, Teatro alla Scala, and the Vienna State Opera contains the heaviest set ever used in the Company’s history. Leading the cast in Sir David McVicar’s production are American tenor Bryan Hymel as the Trojan hero Aeneas, American mezzo-soprano Susan Graham as Dido, the Queen of Carthage, and Italian soprano Anna Caterina Antonacci as the Trojan prophetess Cassandra. Amongst the artists making role debuts are baritone Brian Mulligan as Coroebus, mezzo-soprano Sasha Cooke as Anna, bass-baritone Christian Van Horn as Narbal, and tenor René Barbera as Iopas. Sir Donald Runnicles conducts the 95-piece Opera Orchestra. View here until midnight the following day.

** 2 pm ET: VOCES8 Live from London presents Angel of the Apocalypse. Four of the UK’s finest chamber musicians, Julian Bliss, Katya Apekisheva, Jack Liebeck, and Sheku Kanneh-Mason perform Messiaen’s Quartet for the End of Time. Written whilst Messiaen was incarcerated in a prisoner of war camp and dedicated to the Angel of the Apocalypse, the unusual combination of instruments represents the forces available to him for its premiere by his fellow musician prisoners in 1941. Vaughan Williams turns to poet George Meredith for The Lark Ascending. This fresh arrangement pairs VOCES8’s voices with Jack Liebeck’s violin. Tickets $15. View here until August 31.

2 pm ET: Cleveland International Piano Competition presents Second Round Session 1. Contestants perform their Second Round solo recitals of 30 minutes from around the world. View here.

3:30 pm ET: Ravenna Festival presents Homage to Ennio Morricone. Tosca and the Roma Sinfonietta pay homage to Ennio Morricone with a concert on the first anniversary of his death. The program is inspired by the album Focus, which Morricone composed for the Portuguese singer Dulce Pontes, featuring songs and new arrangements from his most famous soundtracks. Paolo Silvestri conducts with soloists including saxophonist Javier Girotto. View here.

7 pm ET: Music@Menlo presents Concert Program II. The season’s second program celebrates the ritual of gathering with friends to share in the joy of music. The program comprises Mozart’s Piano Quartet in G minor, K. 478, Schubert’s Fantasy in F minor for Piano, Four Hands, Op. posth. 103, D. 940, and Arno Babajanian’s Piano Trio in F-sharp minor. Artists include Kristin Lee, Tien-Hsin Cindy Wu, Matthew Lipman, Gilbert Kalish, Hyeyeon Park, Wynona (Yinuo) Wang, Dmitri Atapine, and David Finckel. Tickets $25. View here.

7 pm ET: Valley of the Moon Music Festival presents Mendelssohn Quartet & German Songs. Mendelssohn’s String Quartet in A Minor was written when the composer was only 17. It was modeled on Beethoven’s own A minor quartet as well as on “Frage”, a romantic song by Mendelssohn himself. To round out the program, contralto Emily Marvosh presents a selection of songs on themes of longing and loss with Eric Zivian on fortepiano. Tickets $5. Register and view here.

7 pm ET: Aston Magna Music Festival presents Songs & Sonatas of Henry Purcell. Music by English composer Henry Purcell performed by a world-class team including soprano Kristen Watson and baritone David McFerrin with Daniel Stepner and Julie Leven on baroque violins, Laura Jeppesen on viola da gamba, Catherine Liddell on theorbo, and Peter Sykes on harpsichord. View here and on demand.

7:30 pm ET: Nightly Met Opera Streams presents Puccini’s La Rondine. Starring Angela Gheorghiu, Lisette Oropesa, Roberto Alagna, Marius Brenciu, and Samuel Ramey, conducted by Marco Armiliato. Production by Nicolas Joël. From January 10, 2009. View here and for 24 hours.

8 pm ET: Our Concerts Live presents Last Works. From the West Cork Chamber Music Festival, Esposito Quartet perform Mozart’s String Quartet in F K.590, Vrebalov’s Pannonia Boundless, and Mendelssohn’s String Quartet in F minor Op. 80. Tickets $12. View here until July 19.

10:30 pm ET: Chamber Music Northwest presents Jupiter String Quartet & ECCO. A collaboration between the Jupiter String Quartet and East Coast Chamber Orchestra (ECCO), highlighting the quartet in a performance of Jessie Montgomery’s Banner for quartet and orchestra. In addition to the Montgomery, ECCO will perform Barber’s “Adagio” from the String Quartet in B Minor, Op. 11, Elgar’s Serenade for Strings in E Minor, Op. 20, Hanna Benn’s Where Springs Not Fail, and Bartók’s Divertimento for String Orchestra, Sz.113. View here until August 31.

Sunday, July 18

2 pm ET: Verbier Festival presents Joaquín Achúcarro performs Brahms. Spanish pianist Joaquín Achúcarro performs a recital broadcast from the Église de Verbier. The program is dedicated to the work of Brahms, beginning with the Piano Sonata No. 3 in F Minor, written by the 20-year-old composer. Four of the Intermezzos composed between 1892 and 1893 are followed by the Rhapsody No. 2 in G Minor. View here. LIVE

2 pm ET: Cleveland International Piano Competition presents Second Round Session 2. Contestants perform their Second Round solo recitals of 30 minutes from around the world. View here.

3:30 pm ET: Ravenna Festival presents Buster Keaton’s The General. In a frantic search for his beloved, a young man stages two back-to-back chases in the midst of the American Civil War. A screening with live orchestra of this epic comedy of the silent screen for which Buster Keaton arranged exact replicas of period locomotives, as well as 4,000 military uniforms. Timothy Brock conducts Orchestra Arcangelo Corelli who perform his 2005 score inspired by the songs of the American civil war, by their lyrics, rhythm and bite, drawn directly from 1860s sheet music. View here.

7 pm ET: Music@Menlo presents Concert Program III. The season’s third program comprises Janácek’s Violin Sonata, Ligeti’s Sonata for Solo Cello, and Brahms’s String Sextet No. 1 in B-flat, Op. 18. Artists include Matthew Lipman, Tien-Hsin Cindy Wu, Yeri Roh, James Thompson, Angela Wee, Dmitri Atapine, Audrey Chen. Sterling Elliott, and Hyeyeon Park. Tickets $25. View here.

7 pm ET: Valley of the Moon Music Festival presents Clara Schumann, Mozart & German Songs. In Mozart’s time, musicians were accustomed to arranging orchestral music for smaller groups to play in their own homes. In this concert, pianist Suren Barry follows in that tradition, transcribing and performing one of the great Mozart Piano Concertos in a version for keyboard and string quartet, recorded in the VMMF Directors’ Berkeley living room. Rachel Barton Pine and Eric Zivian collaborate from a distance in Clara Schumann’s Romances. Emily Marvosh performs German songs to complete the program. Tickets $5. Register and view here.

7:30 pm ET: Met Opera Streams presents Puccini’s Turandot. Starring Nina Stemme, Anita Hartig, Marco Berti, and Alexander Tsymbalyuk, conducted by Paolo Carignani. Production by Franco Zeffirelli. From January 30, 2016. View here and for 24 hours.

8 pm ET: Our Concerts Live presents Cello Series 5. From the West Cork Chamber Music Festival, cellist Vashti Hunter and pianist Fejérvári perform Saint-Saëns’s Cello Sonata No. 2 Op. 123, Janácek’s Pohádka, and Fauré’s Cello Sonata No. 2 in G minor, Op. 117. Tickets $12. View here until July 20.

Monday, July 19

5 am ET: Verbier Festival presents Mao Fujita performs Mozart I. The pianist performs the first of five recitals covering Mozart’s complete cycle of piano sonatas. View here. LIVE

7:30 pm ET: Nightly Met Opera Streams presents Mozart’s Le Nozze di Figaro. Starring Renée Fleming, Cecilia Bartoli, Susanne Mentzer, Dwayne Croft, and Bryn Terfel, conducted by James Levine. Production by Jonathan Miller. From November 11, 1998. View here and for 24 hours.

7:30 pm ET: Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center presents Calidore String Quartet. Recorded this spring at the Frederick R. Koch Foundation Townhouse, this newly curated full-length HD concert features the Calidore String Quartet performing Beethoven’s String Quartet in C minor, Op. 18, No. 4 and String Quartet in E minor, Op. 59, No. 2, Razumovsky. View here for one year.

7:30 pm ET: Bowdoin International Music Festival presents Jupiter & Ying String Quartets. From the Studzinski Recital Hall in Brunswick, Maine, the Jupiter String Quartet joins forces with two members of the Ying Quartet. They will perform Zemlinsky’s String Quintet in D Minor with violist Phillip Ying and Schubert’s String Quintet in C, Op. 163, D. 956 with cellist David Ying. View here. LIVE

7:30 pm ET: Pittsburg Symphony presents Pinchas Zukerman: Bow & Baton. The violinist, violist, and conductor both leads and performs with the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra in a program of concerti by Bach and Telemann on the violin and the viola. Zukerman steps up to the podium to lead the orchestra in Bruckner “Adagio” from the Quintet in F for String Orchestra and Elgar’s Serenade in E minor for String Orchestra, Op. 20. Cynthia Koledo DeAlmeida, Principal Oboe, is featured in Britten’s Six Metamorphoses after Ovid, Op. 49. Tickets $15. View here until August 1.

Artists and Organizations Offering Free Content

Academy of Ancient Music
The most listened-to period instrument ensemble, directed by Richard Egarr, has made streams available on its YouTube channel. Guest artists include Louise Alder, soprano, Nicola Benedetti, violin, Mary Bevan, soprano, David Blackadder, trumpet, Iestyn Davies, countertenor, Tim Mead, countertenor, Christopher Purvis, bass, and Tenebrae, directed by Nigel Short. Explore here.

Alternative Classical
Humans of Classical Music is a video series in which musicians, actors, comedians, and podcasters from around the world recommend their favorite piece of classical music in one minute. A new video will go live every Thursday during 2021, starting on February 4, accompanied with a link on Spotify. Each video is free of musical jargon and is suitable for anyone interested in exploring the world of classical music. The list includes countertenor Anthony Roth Costanzo, three-time Edinburgh Comedy Award nominee Kieran Hodgson, and composers Anna Clyne, Gabriel Prokofiev, and Missy Mazzoli. Explore here.

American Opera Project
First Glimpse is a video album created during the first year of AOP’s 2019-21 fellowship program, Composers & the Voice. The composers are Alaina Ferris, Matt Frey, Michael Lanci, Mary Prescott, Jessica Rudman and Tony Solitro, with librettists Amanda Hollander and Jonathan Douglass Turner. Videos will be free for one week following their release, after which they will be available to rent or purchase, individually or as a full set through AOP's Website. Explore here.

Bergen Philharmonic
Bergen’s outstanding orchestra enjoys national status in Norway with a history dating back to 1765. Its free streaming service was established as part of 250-year anniversary in 2015 and offers a fine selection of works from its concert series in Grieghallen, Bergen. Conductors include Edward Gardner, James Gaffigan, Thierry Fischer, David Zinman, Neeme Järvi, Jukka Pekka Saraste, Nathalie Stutzmann, and Christian Zacharias with soloists including Leif Ove Andsnes, Lise Davidsen, Truls Mørk, Mari Eriksmoen, and Freddy Kempf. Well worth exploring here.

Cliburn Kids
Cliburn Kids is a growing collection of entertaining 7- to 10-minute videos designed to introduce children to the fun of classical music. How does music paint pictures, tell stories, express feelings? Programs are geared towards elementary-aged children, and activities are provided for each episode that are perfect for in-classroom or at-home studies. Explore here.

Concertgebouworkest
The Concertgebouworkest has made its ‘Lockdown Archives’ since June 2020 available free of charge for the month of July 2021. Since the spring of 2020, the orchestra has streamed over 80 compositions in more than 40 productions, including 34 orchestral programs. The orchestral players performed socially distanced and usually in an otherwise empty hall, but with an impressive line-up of leading conductors. All the streams together generated some 700,000 views worldwide. Explore here.

Detroit Symphony Orchestra
The Detroit Symphony Orchestra has made its webcast archive available for free. The collection features 200+ works going back three years, and highlights include Leonard Slatkin conducting John Luther Adams’s climate change-inspired Become Ocean from 2019, several world premieres, and a host of bite-sized encores. Explore here.

Deutsche Grammophon Yellow Lounge
The German classical music giant is streaming Yellow Lounge broadcasts from its archives. Recent additions include clarinetist Andreas Ottensamer, pianists Alice Sara Ott and Chihiro Yamanaka, and cellist Mischa Maisky. Performances are broadcast in rotation, one video at a time, adding a new performance every few days. DG communicates the start of each new performance by newsletter at the start of each week. To keep updated sign up here.

English Symphony Orchestra
The English Symphony Orchestra’s ESO Digital is an expanding digital archive of music, performed by English Symphony Orchestra and its partners, that you are unlikely to hear anywhere else. Access is free with a monthly donation; however Musical America readers can get a free trial of one week when setting up a new donation by using the coupon code MusicalAmerica2021. Register here.

Finnish National Opera
Finnish National Opera presents a series of streamed archived performances on its website, which are then available for the next six months. An excellent company and some interesting and original work worth investigating. Explore here.

Handel and Haydn Society
Boston’s Handel and Haydn Society has created the H+H Listening Room where you can hear and watch H+H performances including Mozart’s Requiem, Handel’s Messiah, and Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas filmed at New York’s Met Museum. Explore here.

Kennedy Center: Arts Across America
Arts across America focuses on cultural leadership and art as a catalyst for public healing, decolonization, and genuine global change. With artistic contributions from the Black Trans theater community, programs about Sacrifice Zones and the environment, the fight for women’s rights in the Latinx community, and discussions of the prisons and detention center system, and about the importance of Indigenous food and health. Hosted by sage artistic minds, these performances and conversations strive to bring audiences together to heal our country, communities, and selves. Explore here and other Kennedy Center regular online releases via their digital stage here.

La Scala/RAI
Italy’s RAI presents a wide range of productions from La Scala Milan and other opera houses as well as a range of concerts. Explore and register here.

Les Arts Florissants
Les Arts Florissants’s annual Festival in Thiré, France included a series of 10- to 15-minute “Meditation” concerts recorded in summer 2020. Now available to enjoy online, the Meditations include performances by students of Juilliard’s Historical Performance program in the spirit of their annual participation in the festival. View here.

Lincoln Center Lincoln Center Passport to the Arts
A variety of virtual classes, performances, and bonus content designed for children, teens and adults with disabilities and their families. Offerings include programs with Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, Jazz at Lincoln Center, the Metropolitan Opera Guild, New York City Ballet, the New York Philharmonic, and The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts. All programs take place via Zoom. Register here.

Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra
LACO AT HOME offers streaming and on demand performances, including a full showing of the orchestra’s critically acclaimed West Coast premiere of Dark with Excessive Bright for double bass and strings by LACO Artist-in-Residence Missy Mazzoli. View on demand here.

Los Angeles Master Chorale
Videos recorded as part of the “Offstage with the Los Angeles Master Chorale” series from April 24 to June 19, 2020 included interviews conducted by Artistic Director Grant Gershon and Associate Conductor Jenny Wong with notable performers—including special guests Reena Esmail, Morten Lauridsen, Anna Schubert, Peter Sellars, Derrick Spiva—as well as Master Chorale singers. Available on demand here.

Minnesota Orchestra
Minnesota Orchestra at Home shares recent performances as well as video, audio, and educational materials through the categories of Watch, Listen and Learn, including videos from the orchestra’s archives and newly created “mini-concerts” directly from the homes of Orchestra musicians. Explore and view here.

New World Symphony
The New World Symphony presents a web-based series called NWS Archive+. Michael Tilson Thomas moderates discussions with NWS Fellows, alumni, guest artists, and visiting faculty about archived recordings. Performances will be available here or broadcast via Facebook Live.

Opera Australia
OA | TV: Opera Australia on Demand is the Sydney-based company’s new digital space. Alongside the world’s largest collection of Dame Joan Sutherland on video, OA will offer exclusive content from the OA back catalogue, productions from Handa Opera on Sydney Harbour, and a new series of chat show-style interviews conducted by AD Lyddon Terracini. The first posted full show is Sutherland in The Merry Widow, and the fileted aria’s in the section labelled “The Best of Dame Joan Sutherland” are even better. View here.

Opéra National de Paris
The Palais Garnier and Bastille Opera have made their digital stage, “The 3e Scène,” free. The platform is a pure place of artistic adventure and exploration, giving free rein to photographers, filmmakers, writers, illustrators, visual artists, composers, and choreographers to create original works. Explore here. In addition, Octave, the Paris Opera’s online magazine, is posting articles, videos, and interviews here.

Opera North
One of Britain’s most respected smaller opera companies, Opera North has put its acclaimed semi-staged concerts of Wagner’s epic Ring Cycle online. “Beg, borrow, or be like Wotan and steal a ticket for this show,” said the UK’s Times of Das Rheingold. “You’d be lucky to hear as good at Bayreuth,” said The Telegraph of Die Walküre. Richard Farnes proves a seriously impressive Wagner conductor. Watch here.

OperaVision
OperaVision offers livestreams of operas available for free and online for up to six months. Previous offerings include Barrie Kosky’s visually spectacular Moses und Aron, David McVicar’s superb Die Entführung aus dem Serail from Glyndebourne, and Deborah Warner’s thoughtful Death in Venice for English National Opera. View upcoming and past content here.

Trinity Wall Street
New York’s Trinity Church Wall Street introduces daily weekday “Comfort at One” (1 pm ET) streaming performances on Facebook with full videos posted here. Tune in for encore performances of favorite Trinity concerts, professionally filmed in HD, along with current at-home performances from Trinity’s extended artistic family.

Voices of Ascension
New York choir Voices of Ascension, which celebrates its 30th anniversary next season, is posting a daily offering of choral beauty on its website. Music is chosen by staff, members of the chorus and orchestra, and listeners. View here.

Warsaw Philharmonic
The Warsaw Philharmonic has made a selection of video recordings available on its YouTube channel. Recent offerings include Saint-Saëns’s Organ Symphony and Arvo Pärt’s Swansong conducted by Artistic Director Andrzej Boreyko, as well as rarities by Polish composers like Grazyna Bacewicz. It’s an excellent orchestra very much in the Eastern European tradition and concerts have been master edited for posting online.

Paid Digital Arts Services

Berlin Philharmonic Digital Concert Hall
The BPO Digital Concert Hall contains over 600 orchestra concerts covering more than ten years, including 15 concerts with the orchestra’s new Chief Conductor Kirill Petrenko, interviews, backstage footage. Subscriptions or single tickets available.

Medici TV
Thousands of classical music videos are available by subscription, as well as hundreds of events that are broadcast live for free each year, available for 90 days. Subscriptions cost $83.85 per year but single tickets are also available. www.medici.tv

Opera Philadelphia Channel
Opera Philadelphia has created its own channel through which to share its digital offering. Operatic films like David T. Little’s Soldier Songs, world premiere digital commissions by Tyshawn Sorey, Courtney Bryan, Angélica Negrón, and Caroline Shaw, and recordings of stage productions like La Traviata and Breaking the Waves are available on-demand. Season subscriptions priced at $99 are offered along with pay-per-view rentals for individual performances. The channel is available on computers and mobile devices, as well as AppleTV, Android TV, Roku, and Amazon FireTV. Explore here.

Top photo: Renata Scotto and Luciano Pavarotti