MA's Free Guide to (Mostly) Free Streams, August 16-30, Including September Highlights

Please note that all times are given in U.S. Eastern Time (ET). To calculate in other time zones or counties, British Summer Time (BST) is currently five hours ahead of ET and Central European Time (CET) is currently six hours ahead. U.S. Central Daylight Time (CDT) is one hour behind ET. Mountain Time (MT) is two hours behind while Pacific Time (PT) is three hours behind.

Classical music coverage on Musical America is supported in part by a grant from the Rubin Institute for Music Criticism, the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, and the Ann and Gordon Getty Foundation. Musical America makes all editorial decisions.

** Highly recommended

Monday, August 16

1:30 pm ET: Gstaad Digital Festival presents Anastasia Kobekina. Cellist Anastasia Kobekina and pianist Jean-Sélim Abdelmoula perform Debussy’s Cello Sonata in D Minor, CD 144, Paul Juon’s Märchen for Cello and Piano in A Minor, Op. 8, and Franck’s Violin Sonata in A, FWV 8 (arr. for cello and piano by Jules Delsart). The concert was recorded live on 14 August at Gstaad. View here and on demand.

7:30 pm ET: Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center presents Ravel & Rachmaninov. Recorded this spring at the Frederick R. Koch Foundation Townhouse, this newly curated full-length HD concert features violinist Stella Chen, pianist Michael Brown, and cellist Nicholas Canellakis performing Ravel’s Sonata for Violin and Piano and Rachmaninov’s Sonata in G minor for Cello and Piano, Op. 19. View here for one year.

Tuesday, August 17

1 pm ET: Salzburg Festival presents Benjamin Bernheim. French tenor Benjamin Bernheim puts on a recital at the Haus für Mozart. Joined by pianist Mathieu Pordoy, Bernheim’s program begins with Chausson’s Poème de l’amour et de la mer (Poem of Love and the Sea) and continues with melodies by Clara Schumann, Brahms, Britten, and Frank Bridge. View here.

3 pm ET: The Harris Theater presents Redemption. Multi-genre musical artist and social justice advocate Adrian Dunn joins the Chicago Philharmonic for a performance of Redemption, a new collection of spirituals and gospel songs that reimagine and modernize the genre’s historical roots, celebrate African American history, and honor victims of systemic injustice. Each song, written and arranged by Dunn, has a powerful message, with many dedicated to nationally recognized cases of injustice. Joining them are the Adrian Dunn Singers, an all-Black professional vocal ensemble established in 2018. View here.

** 7:30 pm ET: IDAGIO Global Concert Hall presents Boston Baroque: Biber’s Mystery Sonatas. Grammy-nominated violinist Christina Day Martinson performs Biber's The Mystery Sonatas, a virtuosic tour de force of the Baroque. Performed here on Baroque violins, the sonatas depict each of the mysteries of the rosary. Featuring Michael Unterman on baroque cello, Michael Leopold on theorbo and baroque guitar, and Music Director Martin Pearlman on harpsichord and organ. Tickets from $13. View here until December 31.

10:30 pm ET: Our Concerts presents Music in the Vineyards at Chimney Rock Winery. Bach’s Brandenburg Concerto No. 6, Jessie Montgomery’s Voodoo Dolls for String Quartet, and Vivaldi’s The Four Seasons are performed by Gabrielle Després, Francisco Fullana, Axel Strauss, and Daria Tedeschi Adams violins, Dimitri Murrath and Masumi Per Rostad viola, Edward Arron, Nicholas Canellakis, and Tanya Tomkins cellos, Scott Pingel bass, Eric Zivian harpsichord, and the Solideo Quartet. Tickets $15. View here until August 31.

Wednesday, August 18

8:30 pm ET: Orcas Island Chamber Music Festival presents Montrose Trio. Haydn’s Piano Trio in E, hob. XV:28 and Schubert’s Piano Trio No. 1 in B-flat, D. 898, are performed by the Montrose Trio (Martin Beaver, Clive Greensmith, and Jon Kimura Parker), while Chopin’s Ballade No. 4 in F minor, Op. 52, is played by Jon Kimura Parker. Register and view here for three days. LIVE

Thursday, August 19

**8 am ET: Wigmore Hall presents Steven Isserlis. A repeat of a concert streamed live at Wigmore Hall in Spring 2021. Cellist Steven Isserlis and pianist Mishka Rushdie Momen perform Beethoven’s 12 Variations on "'See the conqu'ring hero comes" from Handel's Judas Maccabaeus, Bruch’s Kol Nidrei: Adagio on Hebrew Melodies Op. 41, Bloch’s Suite No. 1 for solo cello, Ravel’s Deux mélodies hébraïques (arr. Isserlis), and Mendelssohn’s Cello Sonata No. 2 in D Op. 58. View here for 30 days.

10 am ET: The Atlanta Opera presents The Threepenny Opera. In this world premiere ‘Big Tent’ version of The Threepenny Opera, an army of puppets are led by their live doppelgängers. Classic tunes including “Mack the Knife,” “Pirate Jenny” and ballads for broken relationships, struggle, love, life and death are the heart of the production. This filmed production is led by Tomer Zvulun and Felipe Barral and features Jay Hunter Morris, Ronnita Miller, and Gina Perregrino. Tickets $10. View here and on demand.

7:30 pm ET: Prototype presents OPERA | THEATRE | X: Funeral Doom Spiritual. To celebrate its 10th anniversary, Prototype looks back at nine of the cutting-edge works it has championed over the years. This week, 2017’s Funeral Doom Spiritual a monodrama composed by M. Lamar and Hunter Hunt-Hendrix drawing on themes of apocalypse, end times, and rapture found in Negro Spirituals. Taking place a century into the future, the piece features male soprano M. Lamar on piano, accompanied by two basses, two contrabasses, and electronics, enveloped in immersive light and video. Following the stream join Lamar for a virtual conversation. View here.

** 8 pm ET: Tippet Rise Summer Festival presents Geneva Lewis & Brandon Patrick George. Filmed at Cyclopean House, Brookline, Massachusetts, violinist Geneva Lewis performs Kaija Saariaho’s Nocturne, Biber’s Passacaglia, and Ysäye’s Sonata No. 5 in G for solo violin, Op. 27. Filmed at Jerome Robbins Theater at Baryshnikov Arts Center, New York by Tristan Cook, flautist Brandon Patrick George performs Bach’s Partita in A minor for solo flute, BWV 1013, Takemitsu’s Air, and David Lang’s Thorn. There will be a backstage pre-performance Live Zoom Discussion at 7:30 pm ET. View here.

10:30 pm ET: Our Concerts presents Music in the Vineyards at Silverado Vineyards. Brahms’s Sonata for Piano and Cello No. 1 in E minor, Amy Beach’s Romance for Violin and Piano, Maria Theresa von Paradis’s Sicilienne for Violin and Piano, and Clara Schumann’s Piano Trio are performed by Gabrielle Després and Axel Strauss violins, Edward Arron and Nicholas Canellakis cellos, and Michael Brown and Eric Zivian pianos. Tickets $15. View here until September 2.

Friday, August 20

** 12 pm ET: Carnegie Hall Selects presents Voices of Hope. Last spring, Carnegie Hall’s Voices of Hope festival celebrated the life-affirming power of music and the arts during times of crisis, exploring the resilience of artists and the works they felt compelled to create. One of the featured composers was Shostakovich, who wrote many of his most impressive works under the shadow of Stalin’s tyranny in the Soviet Union. This performance of his Fifth Symphony was recorded at the Téatro Cólon in Buenos Aires with Mariss Jansons conducting the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra. View here until August 27.

** 1 pm ET: OperaVision presents When the Fern Blooms. After 40 years of oblivion and ban by the Soviet authorities, Ukrainian composer Yevhen Stankovych's opera-ballet When the Fern Blooms finally premiered at the Lviv National Opera. Unique in its genre, this performance combines millennia-old folk traditions with an expressive musical language, choral singing, and contemporary choreography set against spectacular scenery. Recorded on December 15, 2017, the production was conducted by Volodymyr Sirenko and directed by Vasyl Vovkun. View here for six months.

7:30 pm ET: Charlotte Symphony presents Music for Clarinet & Strings. CSO Principal Cellist Alan Black hosts a concert in his backyard and engages the musicians in conversation about the music and their lives. Guests include assistant concertmaster Karl Giles, Jenny Topilow violin, Alaina Rea assistant principal viola, Taylor Marino principal clarinet, and Sam Sparrow clarinet playing Poulenc’s Duo for Two Clarinets, Price’s “Swing Low, Sweet Chariot” from Five Folksongs in Counterpoint, and Coleridge-Taylor’s Quintet for Clarinet and Strings. View here and on demand.

8 pm ET: Tippet Rise Summer Festival presents Arlen Hlusko & Jenny Chen. Filmed at The Isamu Noguchi Foundation and Garden Museum, Long Island City, NY, by Jean Coleman, cellist Arlen Hlusko performs John Conahan’s Philly ‘hood Flashes, Nicholas Yandell’s Restless/Release, Michelle Ross’s Haiku, David Jaeger’s The Blue Trees Rise Again, and Seth Cole’s Mi’Mahalah L’Mahol (From Sickness to Dancing). Filmed at: Blue Gallery, New York, NY, by Xuan, pianist Jenny Chen performs Liszt’s Three Concert Études, S. 144, Étude No. 3 Un Sospiro, Chopin’s Barcarolle in F-sharp, Op. 60, and Liszt’s Hungarian Rhapsody No. 10, in E, S.244/10. There will be a backstage pre-performance Live Zoom Discussion at 7:30 pm ET. View here.

Saturday, August 21

** 10 am ET: DG Stage presents Bayreuth Festival: Götterdämmerung. Frank Castorf’s staging of the Ring Cycle, premiered in 2013 and filmed in 2016, provoked controversy right from the beginning. For Castorf, the Rheingold of our days is oil. The final part of the tetralogy is set somewhere in the GDR, ending up at New York’s stock exchange. Whilst Castorf’s staging polarized, Marek Janowski’s musical reading was praised, as was the cast including in this opera Stefan Vinke (Siegfried), Markus Eiche (Gunther), Albert Pesendorfer (Hagen), and Catherine Foster (Brünnhilde). Register and view here for two days.

The London Contemporary Orchestra performs Glassworks conducted by Robert Ames 

** 2 pm ET: VOCES8 Live from London presents London Contemporary Orchestra. The LCO under Robert Ames performs Philip Glass’s Glassworks, composed in 1982 specially for the new experience of the Walkman personal stereo. Glass’s Vessels, from the movie Koyaanisqatsi (meaning “life out of balance”) continues the theme, performed by VOCES8 and Apollo5 who also sing the world premiere of a new commission by Russian/British/Ghanaian composer and producer Afrodeutsche. The concert will include an arrangement of Ascent, composed by Hildur Guðnadóttir, that is included in VOCES8’s upcoming album, Infinity. Tickets $15. View here until August 31.

** 8 pm ET: Grand Teton Music Festival presents Festival Finale: Ravel, Stravinsky & Tchaikovsky. Sir Donald Runnicles conducts Ravel’s Alborada del gracioso, Stravinsky’s Concerto for Violin in D with Leila Josefowicz, and Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No. 4 in F minor, Op. 36. Register and view here for 72 hours. LIVE

8 pm ET: Tippet Rise Summer Festival presents Geneva Lewis & Brandon Patrick George. Filmed at Tractor Barn, Edwards, Colorado by Tristan Cook, pianist Anne-Marie McDermott plays Schubert’s Piano Sonata in B- Major, D. 960. There will be a backstage pre-performance Live Zoom Discussion at 7:30 pm ET. View here.

8:30 pm ET: Orcas Island Chamber Music Festival presents A Montrose Foray. Martin Beaver violin, Aloysia Friedmann viola, Clive Greensmith cello, and Jon Kimura Parker piano, perform excerpts from Fanny Mendelssohn’s Piano Trio in D minor, Op. 11, David Baker’s Roots II for Piano Trio, Rebecca Clarke’s Piano Trio in E-flat minor, Weinberg’s Piano Trio in A minor, Op. 24, and Fauré’s Piano Quartet No. 1 in C minor, Op. 15. Register and view here for three days. LIVE

Sunday, August 22

1 pm ET: Edinburgh International Festival presents Chineke! Orchestra & William Eddins. The Chineke! Orchestra joins mezzo-soprano Andrea Baker in a filmed performance of the trailblazing song cycle woman.life.song, featuring influences of pop, blues and jazz. The work is a unique collaboration between five eminent women: composer Judith Weir, writers Maya Angelou, Toni Morrison and Clarissa Pinkola Estés, and singer Jessye Norman, who commissioned and premiered the piece in 2000. View here until February 20, 2022.

** 2 pm ET: VOCES8 Live from London presents English Chamber Orchestra & VOCES8. The world's most recorded chamber orchestra, directed by James Sherlock, joins with VOCES8. The program includes Beethoven’s Elegischer Gesang and his outpouring of renewal in the Choral Fantasy. Also in the concert are Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 12 in A, K.414 played by James Sherlock on his own Blüthner piano, music by Samuel Coleridge-Taylor and Frank Bridge, Brahms’s Geistliches Lied, and Mozart’s Ave Verum Corpus. Tickets $15. View here until August 31.

7 pm ET: Old First Concerts presents San Francisco International Piano Festival: Nicholas Phillips. A varied and compelling array of works by leading composers of our time, including World Premieres by Quinn Mason, Mark Winges, and Mark Olivieri, plus works by Sahba Aminikia, Reena Esmail, Carter Pann, Gabriela Lena Frank, and Mary Kouyoumadjian. Tickets $20. View here.

8 pm ET: Tippet Rise Summer Festival presents The New Concert & Michael Brown. The New Consort, vocal ensemble (Madeline Apple Healey, Rhianna Cockrell, Clifton Massey, Nathan Hodgson, and Brian Mummert) performs Gesualdo’s “Moro, lasso, almio duolo”, Monteverdi’s “Zefiro torna e'l bel tempo rimena”, Ted Hearne’s Ripple, and Samih Choukeir’s Lau Rahal Sawti. Filmed at: Blue Gallery, New York, New York by Xuan, pianist Michael Brown plays Ravel’s Jeux d’eau, Michael Brown’s Breakup Etude for Right Hand Alone, Chopin’s Impromptu in F-sharp, Op. 36, Scriabin’s Poème in F-sharp, Op. 32, No. 1, and Mendelssohn’s Rondo Capriccioso, Op. 14. There will be a backstage pre-performance Live Zoom Discussion at 7:30 pm ET. View here.

Monday, August 23

8 am ET: Wigmore Hall presents Angela Hewitt. A repeat of a concert streamed live at Wigmore Hall in Autumn 2020. Pianist Angela Hewitt plays Bach’s The Art of Fugue BWV1080. Left incomplete on his death in 1750, Bach’s vast contrapuntal work nevertheless stands not only as a monument to his extraordinary abilities in this field but also to his determination to create an exemplar for others to follow. View here for 30 days.

**10 am ET: DG Stage presents Bayreuth Festival: Tannhäuser. Tobias Kratzer’s brilliantly inventive production of Tannhäuser is set as a wildly contemporary parable of art and freedom. Valery Gergiev makes his Bayreuth Festival debut alongside Norwegian soprano Lise Davidsen as Elisabeth, American heldentenor Stephen Gould in the title role, and Russian mezzo Elena Zhidkova as a scene stealing Venus. Register and view here for two days.

1 pm ET: Music from Copland House presents Viet Cuong's Fine Lines. Inspired by Picasso's famed line drawings, this new commission recognizes one outstanding Fellow each year from Copland House's acclaimed emerging composers institute. The free, hour-long program features the ensemble's complete performance of the piece, and includes an introductory conversation with several of the performers, and a post-performance, live Q&A with the composer. Performers featured are Beomjae Kim flute, Moran Katz clarinet, Curtis Macomber violin, Alexis Pia Gerlach cello, and Michael Boriskin piano. Register and view here with a second performance here at 7 pm ET.

7:30 pm ET: Pittsburg Symphony presents Hollywood Hits. Jack Everly and the Pittsburgh Symphony perform iconic and unforgettable music from movies and television from the epic cellos in the opening of Game of Thrones, the plaintive and multi-award-winning “Moon River” from Breakfast at Tiffany’s, the theme from Downton Abbey, and so many more. Tickets $15. View here until September 5.

7:30 pm ET: Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center presents Beethoven & Saint-Saëns. Recorded this spring at the Frederick R. Koch Foundation Townhouse, this newly curated full-length HD concert features pianist Anne-Marie McDermott, violinist Chad Hoopes, and cellist Dmitri Atapine performing Beethoven’s Trio in E-flat for Piano, Violin, and Cello, Op. 1, No. 1 and Saint-Saëns’s Trio No. 1 in F for Piano, Violin, and Cello, Op. 18. View here for one year.

Tuesday, August 24

** 10 am ET: DG Stage presents Bayreuth Festival: Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg. The high point of the 2017 Bayreuth Festival, Barrie Kosky’s entertaining production of Wagner’s comedy is headed by Michael Volle’s eloquent Hans Sachs. Philippe Jordan conducts a cast that includes Günther Groissböck, Johannes Martin Kränzle, Klaus Florian Vogt, Daniel Behle, and Anne Schwanewilms. Commentary by Philippe Jordan, Barrie Kosky, and Michael Volle will precede the stream. Register and view here for two days.

** 7:30 pm ET: IDAGIO Global Concert Hall presents Boston Baroque: Fidelio. Soprano Wendy Bryn Harmer and tenor William Burden sings the leads in Beethoven's operatic masterpiece, performed on period instruments, and filmed at a live performance on Boston Baroque's stage. Martin Pearlman conducts with Nathan Stark as Rocco, Anna Christy as Marzelline, Andrew Stenson as Jacquino, Mark Walters as Don Pizzaro, and Brian Kontes as Don Fernando. Tickets from $13. View here until December 31.

Thursday, August 26

**8 am ET: Wigmore Hall presents Kaleidoscope Chamber Collective. A repeat of a concert streamed live at Wigmore Hall in Spring 2021. Matthew Hunt clarinet, Elena Urioste violin, Sheku Kanneh-Mason cello, and Tom Poster piano, perform Messiaen’s Quatuor pour la fin du temps. View here for 30 days.

** 3 pm ET: San Francisco Symphony Orchestra presents Soundbox: Jeremy Denk. Pianist Jeremy Denk curates a program that includes Bach’s Mach's mit mir, Gott, nach deiner Güt, BWV 377, Schumann’s “Intermezzo” from Violin Sonata, ‘F-A-E,’ WoO 22, Marin Marais’s Le Tableau de l'Opération de la Taille (Urinary Bladder Operation), Walter Moloney’s The Influenza Blues (A Syncopated One Step), Griffes’s De Profundis, Missy Mazzoli’s The Shield of the Heart Is the Heart, Part 1 from Schoenberg’s String Trio, Opus 45, the “Presto” from Mozart’s Piano Sonata in A minor, K.310(300d), and “Hard Times Come Again No More” by Stephen Foster. Tickets $15. View here and on demand.

7 pm ET: United Arts Studies presents Episode 3: Sandro Botticelli & Dvorák. A lighthearted video series coupling opera arias with masterpieces from the world of art. Founded by opera couple, soprano Elizaveta Ulakhovich and baritone Perry Sook, the series created during the pandemic follows the story of two young opera singers who, finding themselves with free time, decide to enroll in an online art history course. This episode features Early Renaissance Italian painter Sandro Botticelli’s work alongside “Song to the Moon” from Dvorák’s Rusalka. View here and on demand.

10:30 pm ET: Our Concerts presents Music in the Vineyards at Inglenook. Duke Ellington’s In a Sentimental Mood for String Quartet, Raja Orr’s Piano Quartet (World Premiere), Boccherini’s Quintet for Guitar and Strings, Fandango, and Brahms’s Piano Quartet No. 1 in G minor, Op. 25 are performed by Adam Barnett-Hart, Francisco Fullana, Brendan Speltz, and Daria Tedeschi Adams violins, Pierre Lapointe and Masumi Per Rostad violas, Nicholas Canellakis and Brook Speltz cellos, Michael Brown piano, and Jason Vieaux guitar. Tickets $15. View here until September 9.

Friday, August 27

12 pm ET: Carnegie Hall Selects presents Vienna City of Dreams. Carnegie Hall’s Vienna: City of Dreams festival in 2014 explored the cultural splendor of the great Austrian city where Beethoven composed and premiered his greatest works. One of the festival highlights was a complete cycle of the composer’s sonatas for violin and piano with Leonidas Kavakos and Enrico Pace. In this recording from the Salzburg Festival in 2012, the duo performs the Kreutzer Sonata, famously named after Beethoven’s second dedicatee in an act of artistic revenge. View here until September 3.

** 1 pm ET: OperaVision presents Britten’s The Turn of the Screw. Based on a ghost story by Henry James, Britten’s opera is a psychological thriller in chamber opera format. The work is directed by Andrea Breth and conducted by Ben Glassberg. Recorded on April 29, 2021, with Sally Matthews as The Governess, Henri de Beauffort, Katharina Bierweiler, Carole Wilson, Julian Hubbard, Giselle Allen, Ed Lyon, and the Orchestre de chambre de la Monnaie. View here for six months.

** 1 pm ET: Berliner Philharmoniker Digital Concert Hall presents Season Opening. Kirill Petrenko opens the new season of the Berliner Philharmoniker with Schubert’s “Great” C major Symphony, in which exuberance, dance and nobility are shaken by moments of deep despair. Also on the program, Carl Maria von Weber’s Overture to Oberon, which inspired Hindemith’s colorful Symphonic Metamorphosis. Tickets EUR 9.90. View here. LIVE

1 pm ET: Edinburgh International Festival presents The Soldier’s Tale. A Faustian pact with the Devil, a book that can foretell the future, and behind it all, a violin with uncanny powers. Nicola Benedetti’s final performance as the International Festival’s 2021 resident artist presents Stravinsky’s The Soldier’s Tale alongside a specially selected ensemble of musicians. View here until February 20, 2022.

** 3 pm ET: Opera Streaming presents Verdi’s Aroldo. Verdi’s opera is streamed live from the Teatro Galli, Rimini, where it first premiered on August 16, 1857. Aroldo was reworked extensively from 1850’s Stiffelio, with three acts turned into four, and the action transported to 13th-century Scotland to avoid problems with the censors around the religious theme. The new production by directors Emilio Sala and Edoardo Sanchi stars tenor Antonio Corianò in the title role opposite young Russian rising star soprano Lidia Fridman as his wife Mina, with Michele Govi as Mina's father Egberto. Rimini-born conductor Manlio Benzi leads the Orchestra Giovanile Luigi Cherubini. View here and on demand. LIVE

11 pm ET: Old First Concerts presents Terrie Baune & John Chernoff. Two rarely heard violin sonatas by Béla Bartók and Grazyna Bacewicz are performed by Bay Area musicians Terrie Baune and John Chernoff. Tickets $20. View here.

Sunday, August 29

** 1:30 pm ET: Edinburgh International Festival presents Strauss’s Ariadne auf Naxos. Two entertainments have been double-booked: a serious opera and a slapstick comedy. The star soprano is throwing a tantrum and the staff are hiding the chaos from the boss. There’s only one solution: perform both shows at the same time. This new concert staging by director Louisa Muller features German soprano Dorothea Röschmann as the opera’s wronged heroine, Thomas Quasthoff as the house’s major-domo, and Scottish singer Catriona Morison as the composer. View here until February 27, 2022.

7 pm ET: Old First Concerts presents San Francisco International Piano Festival: Les Années Folles. The festival concludes through the lens of an historical epoch that brought the 1918 Spanish Flu, the armistice of 1919, and the advent of the roaring twenties, with works by Boulanger, Poulenc, Saint-Saëns, Tailleferre, Ravel, and more. With Jory Vinikour and Philippe LeRoy on harpsichord, and Gwendolyn Mok and Jeffrey LaDeur on piano. Tickets $20. View here.

Monday, August 30

1:30 pm ET: Gstaad Digital Festival presents Nicolas Namoradze. Pianist Nicolas Namoradze performs “Building Bridges”: a piano cycle created by Sir András Schiff, Bach’s French Suite No. 1 in D Minor, BWV 812 and from The Art of Fugue BWV 1080: Contrapuncti VI & VII, Nicolas Namoradze’s Etudes I-VI, Bach / Busoni “Ich ruf zu dir, Herr Jesu Christ”, BWV 639, and Liszt’s Totentanz, S. 525. The concert was recorded live on August 28 at Gstaad. View here and on demand.

7:30 pm ET: Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center presents Schubert Fantasies. Recorded this spring at the Frederick R. Koch Foundation Townhouse, this newly curated full-length HD concert features pianists Alessio Bax and Gilles Vonsattel, and violinist Sean Lee performing Schubert’s Fantasie in F minor for Piano, Four Hands, D. 940, Op. 103 and Fantasy in C for Violin and Piano, D. 934, Op. 159. View here for one year.

September Highlights

The following events will all be accessible in September:

Friday, September 3

** 12 pm ET: Carnegie Hall Selects presents Vienna City of Dreams: Berg’s Wozzeck. Last spring, Carnegie Hall’s Voices of Hope festival celebrated the life-affirming power of music and the arts during times of crisis, exploring the resilience of artists and the works they felt compelled to create. One of the featured composers was Shostakovich, who wrote many of his most impressive works under the shadow of Stalin’s tyranny in the Soviet Union. This performance of his Fifth Symphony was recorded at the Téatro Cólon in Buenos Aires with Mariss Jansons conducting the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra. View here until September 10.

Monday, September 6

1:30 pm ET: Lucerne Festival presents Räsonanz Concert. The Bamberg Symphony in conducted by Jakub Hrusa with soprano Juliane Banse and violinist Ilya in a program of new music including Iris Szeghy’s Offertorium for soprano and orchestra based on a poem by Emily Dickinson (world premiere), Beat Furrer’s Concerto for Violin and Orchestra (Swiss premiere), and Miroslav Srnka’s move 01-04 for Orchestra. View here and on demand. LIVE

Wednesday, September 8

** 8 pm ET: The Philadelphia Orchestra presents Yannick & Mozart. Wind instruments take center stage in Mozart’s Gran Partita, notable for its 13 instruments, including basset horns, over seven movements and 50 minutes long. Jacques Ibert’s Flute Concerto features Principal Flute Jeffrey Khaner. Written in 2009, Valerie Coleman’s Red Clay & Mississippi Delta is inspired by her mother’s family and the delta region from which they hail. View here and on demand until September 15.

Friday, September 10

** 12 pm ET: Carnegie Hall Selects presents Vienna City of Dreams: Mahler’s Symphony No. 4. Gustav Mahler achieved many of his professional successes in Vienna, the focus of Carnegie Hall’s 2014 Vienna: City of Dreams festival. Decades after Mahler’s death in 1911, Leonard Bernstein established himself as the ultimate champion of Mahler’s works, becoming the first conductor to record all of the composer’s symphonies. In this performance from 1973 filmed in Vienna’s Musikverein, Bernstein leads the Vienna Philharmonic in Mahler’s Fourth Symphony with soprano soloist Edith Mathis. View here until September 17.

Saturday, September 11

7 pm ET: Musicians For Harmony presents 20th Anniversary for Peace. An online and in-person concert at Merkin Hall at Kaufman Music Center in New York City. The special event aims to elevate musical voices in the service of peace, health, and equity to commemorate the victims of 9/11, Covid-19 and social injustice. The two-hour concert will be one of the first in-person music events of the fall season post-Covid. The show will feature the music of The Juilliard String Quartet, Kinan Azmeh (clarinet), ETHEL and Musique Sans Frontières. Composers will include Ladysmith Black Mambazo, Ulysses Owens, Jr, James “Kimo” Williams, Robert Mirabal, Patrick Derivaz, Pat Irwin and John King. View here. LIVE

Thursday, September 23

12 pm ET: National Institute of Social Sciences & Angel Blue present What’s Next for Opera?. The NISS and soprano Angel Blue are joined by opera singers Anthony Roth Costanzo and Denyce Graves, directors James Robinson and David Lomeli, with host Marc Scorca in a free webinar to discuss the future of opera coming out of the global pandemic. Topics will include the future of opera, innovation, safety issues associated with live performances, and "to stream or not to stream". Register here.

7 pm ET: Orpheus Chamber Orchestra presents Orpheus with Caleb Teicher & Company. A program exploring the movement of music through time and space, weaving together connections, transformations, and new collaborations. Orpheus’s collaboration with Caleb Teicher and Company’s includes Villa-Lobos (arr. Krance) “Aria” from Bachianas Brasilieras No. 5, Ney Rosauro’s Concerto No. 1 for Marimba and String Orchestra (with Britton-René Collins, marimba), and Bach (arr. Sitkovetsky) selections from the Goldberg Variations. Tickets from $5. View here.

Friday, September 24

7 pm ET: White Snake Projects presents A Survivor’s Odyssey. Cerise Jacobs and her activist opera company White Snake Projects announce their third live virtual world premiere opera since the beginning of the pandemic. A Survivor’s Odyssey: The Journey of Penelope and Circe uses characters from Homer’s Odyssey to explore the ongoing crisis of intimate partner violence (IPV), which includes domestic violence and rape, especially as exacerbated by the pandemic lockdown. With music by Mary Prescott and a libretto by Jacobs, the opera will feature a cast of four remote singers and the technological innovations that have become White Snake’s hallmark. View here and also on September 26 and 28. LIVE

8 pm ET: Opera Philadelphia presents La Voix Humaine. Described by Poulenc as “a musical confession,” La voix humaine tells the story of one woman as she grapples with grief, denial, and anger in the face of unrequited love, all expressed through one side of a telephone call. Filmed at the gilded Elkins Estate in Cheltenham Township, Pennsylvania, this new cinematic interpretation is directed by James Darrah and stars Patricia Racette as Elle. Tickets from $20. View here.

Tuesday, September 28

** 2:30 ET: Academy of Ancient Music presents Haydn’s The Creation. The AAM open their first season under the direction of new Music Director Laurence Cummings, who conducts the ensemble, chorus, and a solo cast featuring some of Britain’s finest singers in Haydn’s The Creation. With Mary Bevan as Gabriel, Stuart Jackson as Uriel, Brindley Sherratt as Raphael, Rachel Redmond as Eve, and Ashley Riches as Adam. Tickets £12.50. View here. LIVE

 Artists and Organizations Offering Free Content

The following are all accessible during the coronavirus pandemic:

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.

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.

Picutred: Kirill Petrenko, chief conductor of the Berlin Philharmonic