MA's Free Guide to (Mostly) Free Streams, August 24-31

We will be updating this list weekly. 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 ET, while Pacific Time (PT) is three hours behind. Contact editor@musicalamerica.com.

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.

---

Monday, August 24

8 am ET: Edinburgh International Festival presents Catriona Morison & Malcolm Martineau. The British mezzo soprano and pianist perform songs and Lieder by Purcell, Viardot, Schumann, Britten, and Lewis Murphy. View here and on demand. LIVE

2 pm ET: Salzburg Festival & Medici TV present Daniel Barenboim plays Beethoven. Daniel Barenboim celebrates the 70th anniversary of his Buenos Aires performance debut as well as celebrating Beethoven's 250th birthday live from Salzburg’s Großes Festspielhaus. Beethoven's Piano Sonata No. 31 in A-flat is followed by the Diabelli Variations. View here. LIVE

2 pm ET: DG Stage presents Virtual Bayreuth Festival: Das Rheingold. In 1976, Patrice Chéreau's centenary staging of Wagner's Ring Cycle unleashed the greatest scandal in Bayreuth Festival history but, by the end of its last performance in 1980, this epoch-making production was acclaimed with an hour and a half of thunderous applause. Pierre Boulez’s conducting and an outstanding cast with Donald McIntyre, Gwyneth Jones, Manfred Jung, Peter Hofmann, Jeannine Altmeyer and many others also contributed to the legendary status of this production. Tickets 4.90 Euros here and view for 48 hours.

2 pm ET: Dreamstage presents Gil Shaham & Adele Anthony. Violinist Gil Shaham, his wife violinist Adele Anthony, and pianist Eri Kang perform a program that includes Bach/Brahms arranged for two violins, selections from Wieniawski’s Etudes-Caprices, Op. 18, Tchaikovsky’s Meditation from Souvenir d’un Lieu Cher Op. 42, Stravinsky’s Danse Russe, and Prokofiev’s Sonata for Two Violins, Op. 56. Tickets $25, register and view here. LIVE

4 pm ET: CHQ Assembly presents Chautauqua Chamber Music: Ying Quartet. Ying Quartet performs Beethoven’s String Quartet in F minor, Op. 95, "Serioso" and Dvorák’s String Quartet in E-flat, Op. 51, “Slavonic.”. Register for a 90-day free trial here.

7:30 pm ET: SalonEra presents Episode 1: All-Bach. Les Délices host a new livestreamed early music-focused variety show designed as a salon experience for the 21st century. Bach’s music is at once joyful and serious, accessible and intellectual. Perhaps most importantly, it feeds the soul in troubled times. SalonEra’s debut episode features soprano Sherezade Panthaki, violinist Shelby Yamin, and Artists in Residence including Eric Milnes (keyboard) and Mélisande Corriveau (viola da gamba and cello). Suggested donation $10 and view here.

7:30 pm ET: Met Opera Streams presents Verdi’s Rigoletto. Starring Diana Damrau, Oksana Volkova, Piotr Beczala, Željko Lucic, and Štefan Kocán, conducted by Michele Mariotti. From February 16, 2013. View here and for 24 hours.

Tuesday, August 25

8 am ET: Edinburgh International Festival presents Maxwell Quartet. The Maxwell Quartet performs Haydn’s String Quartet Op.74 No. 2 in F, Anna Meredith’s A Short Tribute to Teenage Fanclub, and Roukens’s Visions at Sea. View here and on demand. LIVE

1 pm ET: OperaVision presents #OperaHarmony 4. During lockdown, over 100 opera makers from across the world have formed an online community to create new digital operas. Each Tuesday in August, five of these short operas will be streamed and, after each presentation, viewers will have one week to vote for their favorite creation. Week 4 concentrates on movement—whether of feet, letters, people, or stolen disinfectant wipes—and stillness. View here.

2 pm ET: Temple Music presents Imogen Cooper. The British pianist performs Schubert’s Moments Musicaux and a trio of piano works by Ravel, including his Valses Nobles et Sentimentales in the unique acoustic of London’s historic, and otherwise empty Temple Church. Register here to view and afterwards on demand.

2 pm ET: European Concert Hall Organization presents The Concertgebouw Amsterdam. The South Netherlands Philharmonic and conducter Bas Wiegers perform Rodrigo’s Concierto de Aranjeuz with guitarist Pablo Sáinz Villegas. View here and on demand.

2 pm ET: DG Stage presents Virtual Bayreuth Festival: Die Walküre. In 1976, Patrice Chéreau's centenary staging of Wagner's Ring Cycle unleashed the greatest scandal in Bayreuth Festival history but, by the end of its last performance in 1980, this epoch-making production was acclaimed with an hour and a half of thunderous applause. Pierre Boulez’s conducting and an outstanding cast with Donald McIntyre, Gwyneth Jones, Manfred Jung, Peter Hofmann, Jeannine Altmeyer and many others also contributed to the legendary status of this production. Tickets 4.90 Euros here and view for 48 hours.

2 pm ET: Dreamstage presents Lise de la Salle. The French pianist presents a program centered around the theme of love. From Vienna and Schubert with the birth of romantic music through to the genius of Prokofiev, the program also includes music by Schumann, Liszt, and Wagner. Tickets $25, register and view here. LIVE

3 pm ET: San Francisco Symphony Orchestra presents CURRENTS Episode 3: ¡Viva México! Focussing on Mexican musical culture with curator and host Michael Morgan, Los Cenzontles ensemble, and Members of the San Francisco Symphony. View here.

5:45 pm ET: International Music Foundation presents Rush Hour Concert: Brahms’s Horn Trio. Hornist Neil Kimel, violinist Robert Hanford, and Andrea Swan on piano perform TJ Cole’s Drifter and Brahms’s Horn Trio, Op. 40. View here and on demand. LIVE

6 pm ET: National Sawdust presents Lucy Dhegrae. Vocalist Lucy Dhegrae confronted sexual violence squarely and unapologetically in The Processing Series, her National Sawdust residency project. She returns in the Digital Discovery Festival for a special performance on the theme of rebellion, accompanied by Nathaniel LaNasa. View here. LIVE

7 pm ET: LA Opera presents Living Room Recital: Ana María Martínez. Soprano Ana María Martínez performs the famous "Song to the Moon" from Rusalka, along with a selection of captivating Spanish songs.. View here. LIVE 

7:30 pm ET: 92Y presents Danish String Quartet plays Haydn & Beethoven. Recorded November 17, 2018 the Danish String Quartet (Musical America’s 2019 Ensemble of the Year) plays Haydn’s String Quartet in C, Op. 20, No. 2 and Beethoven’s String Quartet No. 7 in F, Op. 59, No. 1, “Razumovsky”. Those who saw their complete Beethoven cycle earlier this year will know they are in for a treat ** View here and on demand.

7:30 pm ET: Nightly Met Opera Streams presents Verdi’s Il Trovatore. Starring Anna Netrebko, Dolora Zajick, Yonghoon Lee, Dmitri Hvorostovsky, and Štefan Kocán, conducted by Marco Armiliato. From October 3, 2015. View here and for 24 hours.

8 pm ET: Grand Teton Music Festival presents Music From The Mountains. Program: Schumann’s Frauenliebe und -leben, Debussy’s Ariettes oubliées, and Quilter’s Elizabethan Lyrics, with so9prano Jacquelyn Stucker and Donald Runnicles on piano. View here. LIVE

Wednesday, August 26

8 am ET: Edinburgh International Festival presents Mark Padmore & Paul Lewis. The British tenor and pianist perform Lieder by Clara Schumann alongside Robert Schumann’s Dichterliebe. View here and on demand. LIVE

12 pm ET: CHQ Assembly presents An Organ Recital with Joshua Strafford. Stafford is the Chautauqua Institution organist for the 2020 summer assembly season. An internationally renowned and award-winning organist, he will succeed the late Jared Jacobsen as the principal performer on the Institution’s historic Massey Memorial Organ. Register for a 90-day free trial here.

7 pm ET: Great Lakes Chamber Music Festival presents Visions and Revisions. Pianist Shai Wosner, violinist Tessa Lark, violist Tien-Hsin Cindy Wu, cellist Paul Watkins, and the Brentano String Quartet play Beethoven’s Variations on “See the conqu’ring hero comes” from Handel’s Judas Maccabeus, WoO45, Purcell’s Fantasia upon One Note, Z. 745, Britten’s Lachrymae for viola and piano, Op. 48, and Mozart’s Piano Quartet No. 1 in G minor, K.478. Resister for free and view here. LIVE

7:30 pm ET: Nightly Met Opera Streams presents Verdi’s Luisa Miller. Starring Sonya Yoncheva, Olesya Petrova, Piotr Beczala, Plácido Domingo, Alexander Vinogradov, and Dmitry Belosselskiy, conducted by Bertrand de Billy. From April 14, 2018. View here and for 24 hours.

8 pm ET: Dreamstage presents The Horszowski Trio. Enjoy the elegance of Mozart's Piano Trio in B-flat, K. 502 and the romantic passion of Smetana's Piano Trio in G minor, Op. 15 with one of the most vital American chamber groups playing today. Tickets $25, register and view here. LIVE

10 pm ET: La Jolla Music Festival presents Fauré & Schumann. Program: Fauré’s Violin Sonata No. 1, Op. 13 and Schumann’s Piano Quartet in E-Flat, Op. 47. With violinists James Ehnes and Tessa Lark, violist Yura Lee, cellist Clive Greensmith, and pianist Inon Barnatan. Streaming package for six concerts from $90 here.

Thursday, August 27

8 am ET: Edinburgh International Festival presents Ursula Leveaux & Malcolm Martineau. The bassoon virtuoso and pianist perform Saint-Saëns’s Bassoon Sonata, Clara Schumann’s Three Romances (transcribed for bassoon & piano), and Mendelssohn’s Violin Sonata No. 1 (transcribed for bassoon & piano). View here and on demand. LIVE

1 pm ET: IDAGIO presents Thursdays with Thomas. Join Thomas Hampson in conversation with colleagues, friends, and other major personalities of the classical music world. Every week, Thomas invites a special guest for a discussion around their favorite piece of the classical repertoire. View here and later on demand. LIVE

2 pm ET: DG Stage presents Virtual Bayreuth Festival: Siegfried. In 1976, Patrice Chéreau's centenary staging of Wagner's Ring Cycle unleashed the greatest scandal in Bayreuth Festival history but, by the end of its last performance in 1980, this epoch-making production was acclaimed with an hour and a half of thunderous applause. Pierre Boulez’s conducting and an outstanding cast with Donald McIntyre, Gwyneth Jones, Manfred Jung, Peter Hofmann, Jeannine Altmeyer and many others also contributed to the legendary status of this production. Tickets 4.90 Euros here and view for 48 hours.

5 pm ET: CHQ Assembly presents The House on Mango Street. Writer Sandra Cisneros and composer Derek Bermel show selected excerpts recorded during Chautauqua’s 2017 world premiere of Mango Suite, while discussing how this collaboration has continued to influence their work. The collaborators will share thoughts on Bermel’s related opera project and on Cisneros’s adaptation of this story for the small screen. Register for a 90-day free trial here.

6 pm ET: National Sawdust presents Brooklyn Rider. The veteran string quartet performs eclectic repertoire in gripping performances that continue to draw rave reviews from classical, world, and rock critics alike. Program TBD. View here. LIVE

7 pm ET: Great Lakes Chamber Music Festival presents Chien-Kim-Watkins Trio plays Beethoven. Violinist Soovin Kim, cellist Paul Watkins, and pianist Gloria Chien play Beethoven’s Piano Trio in E-flat, Op. 1, No. 1 and Piano Trio in E-flat, Op. 70, No. 2. Resister for free and view here. LIVE

7 pm ET: LA Opera presents Living Room Recital: Andrew Owens. The tenor makes his virtual company debut, joined by pianist Chris Reynolds and flautist Jessica Warren, in a program of Italian romances and songs made famous by Mario Lanza. View here. LIVE 

7:30 pm ET: 92Y Summer Concerts presents Avi Avital & Friends. Bringing classical virtuosity to an instrument not widely considered in classical music at all, Avi Avital explores music from gypsy melodies and Bulgarian folk tunes to Bartók. The mandolinist brought the house down in Kaufmann Concert Hall in 2016 with this spellbinding concert. View here and on demand.

7:30 pm ET: Nightly Met Opera Streams presents Verdi’s Un Ballo in Maschera. Starring Sondra Radvanovsky, Kathleen Kim, Stephanie Blythe, Marcelo Álvarez, and Dmitri Hvorostovsky, conducted by Fabio Luisi. From December 8, 2012. View here and for 24 hours.

8 pm ET: Grand Teton Music Festival presents Music From The Mountains. Program: Beethoven’s Piano Sonata No. 7 in D, Op. 10, No. 3 played by Yefim Bronfman. View here. LIVE

8:30 pm ET: Third Coast Percussion presents Fields. The Grammy Award-winning, Chicago-based percussion quartet teamed up with genre-defying multi-instrumentalist, record producer, songwriter, singer, and composer Devonté Hynes (aka Blood Orange) for Field, an album originally created as the live soundtrack for choreography by Hubbard Street Dance Chicago. From the Third Coast Percussion Studio, TCP perform selections with a live Q&A. View here.

10 pm ET: Pacific Symphony presents Summer Replay. A performance of Berlioz’s revolutionary Symphonie Fantastique of 1830, with its massive orchestra, battery of percussion, and powerful brass. Eileen Jeanette opens the concert with an interview with Principal Bassoon Rose Corrigan. Register and view here and on demand for 45 days.

10 pm ET: Seattle Opera Songs of Summer presents Mary Elizabeth Williams. Mary Elizabeth Williams—a Seattle favorite from the start of her career as a Seattle Opera Young Artist—offers selections from Berlioz’s Les Troyens, Wagner’s Tristan und Isolde, and Puccini’s Turandot. View here and on demand for two weeks. LIVE

Friday, August 28

6 am ET: The Concertgebouw Orchestra presents Andris Nelsons conducts Rachmaninov. Nelsons leads the Concertgebouw Orchestra in Rachmaninov’s Symphony No. 2, a majestic work brimming with lyrical melodic lines and Russian vistas. View here and on demand.

8 am ET: Edinburgh International Festival presents Paul Lewis & Members of the Scottish Chamber Orchestra. Program includes Beethoven’s Fantasy Op.77 and his Piano Concerto No. 4 in a chamber version arranged by Lachner. View here and on demand. LIVE

1 pm ET: OperaVision presents Puccini’s La Bohème. Recorded January 21, 2020. In Opéra de Monte Carlo's production set in Paris in the interwar period, the artists’s impoverished state looks more like a chosen lifestyle. Jean-Louis Grinda’s staging reflects on Puccini’s romantic glorification of the precariousness of the human condition. Conductor Daniele Callegari, with Irina Lungu (Mimì), Mariam Battistelli (Musetta), Andeka Gorrotxategi (Rodolfo), and Davide Luciano (Marcello). View here and on demand for six months.

2 pm ET: DG Stage presents Virtual Bayreuth Festival: Parsifal. In 2016, director Uwe Eric Laufenberg transposed Parsifal to a region bordering Iraq, Turkey, Armenia and Azerbaijan. The cast boasted Klaus Florian Vogt as Parsifal, Elena Pankratova as Kundry, Georg Zeppenfeld as Gurnemanz, Ryan McKinny as Amfortas and Gerd Grochowski as Klingsor. The New York Times was full of praise: “With an excellent cast and the conductor Hartmut Haenchen drawing radiant sound and striking transparency from the festival orchestra, this was a sublime and provocative Parsifal.” Tickets 4.90 Euros here and view for 48 hours.

2 pm ET: Dreamstage presents Zlatomir Fung. Cellist Zlatomir Fung won the Gold Medal and First prize at the prestigious Tchaikovsky competition in 2019. His solo recital includes 18th-century caprices by Dall'Abaco and contrasting preludes by Weinberg. Fung plays on a cello by Antonio Stradivari on loan to him from Rare Violins of New York. Tickets $25, register and view here. LIVE

7 pm ET: Great Lakes Chamber Music Festival presents Miniature Music Dramas. Pianist Shai Wosner, violist Misha Amory, soprano Christine Goerke, the Brentano String Quartet, and cellist Nina Lee perform Matthew Aucoin’s open the gates!, Respighi’s Il Tramonto, Brahms’s Two Songs for voice, viola and piano, Op. 91, and Haydn’s String Quartet in G, Op. 17, No. 6. Resister for free and view here. LIVE

7 pm ET: Rockport Music presents Wu Han & David Finckel. Finckel and Han are recipients of Musical America’s Musicians of the Year award and continue to serve as Artistic Directors of The Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center and Music@Menlo. Their program includes Cello Sonatas by Saint-Saëns and Shostakovich. View here. LIVE

7:30 pm ET: Berkshire Opera Festival presents From Stage To Screen: The Show Must Go On(line). Performances from the cast of BOF’s recently canceled production of Don Giovanni, with André Courville, Erik Anstine, Laura Wilde, Joshua Blue, Joanna Latini, John Cheek, Natalia Santaliz, and Brian James Myer. Hosted by Brian Garman and Jonathon Loy, the hour-long concert will feature filmed arias, some from the singers' homes, others from BOF's home in Great Barrington. Tickets $20 and view here until September 4. 

7:30 pm ET: Nightly Met Opera Streams presents Verdi’s La Traviata. Starring Diana Damrau, Juan Diego Flórez, and Quinn Kelsey, conducted by Yannick Nézet-Séguin. From December 15, 2018. View here and for 24 hours.

10 pm ET: La Jolla Music Festival presents Mozart, Kodály & Suk. Program: Mozart’s Violin Sonata No. 21 in E Minor, K. 304, Kodály’s Sonata for Solo Cello, Op. 8, and Suk’s Piano Quartet in A Minor, Op. 1. With violinists James Ehnes and Tessa Lark, violist Yura Lee, cellists Clive Greensmith and Alisa Weilerstein, and pianist Inon Barnatan. Streaming package for six concerts from $90 here.

Saturday, August 29

11 am ET: Dreamstage presents Tiffany Poon. An expressive pianist, Poon engages listeners around the world and on YouTube with the focus, concentration, and depth of her playing. In her Dreamstage debut, she will perform a program contrasting the elegance and genius of Mozart with Schumann's dramatic Arabeske and Sonata, culminating in some of Chopin's most poetic works. Tickets $25, register and view here. LIVE

1 pm ET: Berliner Philharmoniker Digital Concert Hall presents Season opening 2020. For the first time in almost half a year the Berliner Philharmoniker will be playing in front of their audience in the Philharmonie. Chief conductor Kirill Petrenko opens the 2020/21 season with Brahms’ Fourth Symphony and Schoenberg’s Verklärte Nacht. View here (Euro 9.90 subscription required) and repeated Saturday, August 29 at 7 am ET.  

1 pm ET: The Metropolitan Opera presents Lise Davidsen. In the fourth of a 12-part series, the soprano performs live from the royal Oscarshall Palace in Oslo. The program, with piano accompaniment by James Baillieu, includes selections from Wagner’s Tannhäuser, Strauss’s Ariadne auf Naxos, and Puccini’s Manon Lescaut, as well as Scandinavian songs by Sibelius and Grieg. Shot with multiple cameras, the concert will be linked by satellite to New York City where it will be hosted by soprano Christine Goerke. Pay-per-view tickets are $20 and available here. The concert can be viewed for 12 days. LIVE

2 pm ET: DG Stage presents Virtual Bayreuth Festival: Götterdämmerung. In 1976, Patrice Chéreau's centenary staging of Wagner's Ring Cycle unleashed the greatest scandal in Bayreuth Festival history but, by the end of its last performance in 1980, this epoch-making production was acclaimed with an hour and a half of thunderous applause. Pierre Boulez’s conducting and an outstanding cast with Donald McIntyre, Gwyneth Jones, Manfred Jung, Peter Hofmann, Jeannine Altmeyer and many others also contributed to the legendary status of this production. Tickets 4.90 Euros here and view for 48 hours.

2 pm ET: VOCES8 Live From London presents The Gesualdo Six. Since the fourth century the service of Compline has ushered in the darkness of the night. Much of the music here is inspired by this ancient service, evoking a contemplative atmosphere: renaissance polyphony by Tallis, Byrd and Gesualdo that contains startling harmonic shifts and expressive word painting is juxtaposed with contemporary reflections by Arvo Pärt, Joanna Marsh, and Veljo Tormis. Tickets $16 and view here.

2:30 pm ET: The Regeneration Festival & Uffizi TV presents Rossini’s La Cenerentola. Streamed live from the Boboli Gardens, Pitti Palace, Florence, Rossini's retelling of the Cinderella fairy-tale features rising stars Bulgarian mezzo-soprano Svetlina Stoyanova in the title role and Canadian tenor Josh Lovell as her Prince, Don Ramiro. View here. 

7 pm ET: Washington Performing Arts presents Christopher Tin’s To Shiver the Sky. An inside look into conductor and Grammy Award-winning composer Christopher Tin’s oratorio based on humankind’s quest to conquer the heavens and the history of flight as told through the words of 11 of the greatest astronomers, inventors, visionaries, and pilots. The event will include appearances by Tin, soprano Danielle de Niese, the United States Air Force Band, and major figures in aviation and exploration. View here. 

7:30 pm ET: Nightly Met Opera Streams presents Verdi’s Don Carlo. Starring Marina Poplavskaya, Anna Smirnova, Roberto Alagna, Simon Keenlyside, Ferruccio Furlanetto, and Eric Halfvarson, conducted by Yannick Nézet-Séguin. From December 11, 2010. View here and for 24 hours.

8 pm ET: Grand Teton Music Festival presents Music From The Mountains Festival Finale. Program: Caroline Shaw’s Entr’acte with violinists Madeline Adkins and Jennifer Ross, violist Susan Gulkis Assadi, and cellist Matthew Johnson; Schumann’s Piano Quintet in E-flat, Op. 44, with pianist Yefim Bronfman; and Britten’s Fanfare for St. Edmundsbury with trumpeters Barbara Butler, Charles Geyer, and Charles Daval. View here. LIVE

8 pm ET: IDAGIO presents Garrick Ohlsson Celebrates Chopin. Live from the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, Ohlsson plays an all-Chopin program celebrating the 50th anniversary of his win at the International Chopin Piano Competition in Warsaw—the first American to receive this accolade. Program includes three Nocturnes, the Barcarolle in F sharp, two Mazurkas, and the Piano Sonata No. 3 in B minor. Tickets Euro 9.90 and view here until September 5. 

9 pm ET: Houston Symphony presents Live from Jones Hall: Schubert, Stravinsky & Marsalis. Seven Houston Symphony musicians perform the suite from Stravinsky’s Soldier’s Tale, which recounts a devilish fable of a violinist who sells his soul. It’s paired with a selection from Wynton Marsalis’s Fiddler’s Tale, which responds to Stravinsky’s work from the perspective of later 20th-century music. The livestream concludes with Schubert’s effervescent Symphony No. 2. Tickets $10. Register for link to view here. LIVE

10 pm ET: La Jolla Music Festival presents Finale: The Trout. Selections from Bach’s Two-Part Inventions (arr. for violin and double bass), Prokofiev’s Sonata for Two Violins in C, Op. 56, and Schubert’s Piano Quintet in A, D. 667, Op. 114 “The Trout”. With pianist Inon Barnatan, violinists James Ehnes and Tessa Lark, violist Yura Lee, cellist Alisa Weilerstein, and bassist Michael Thurber. Streaming package for six concerts from $90 here.

Sunday, August 30

12 pm ET: Glyndebourne Open House presents Wagner’s Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg. Described by its composer as “a grand comic opera,” Die Meistersinger combines lyrical arias and ensembles with vast choral statements to create a work of scope and intimacy, a piece that celebrates tradition while anticipating change and innovation. Vladimir Jurowski conducts Glyndebourne’s 2011 staging starring Gerald Finley in his role debut as the cobbler-poet Hans Sachs. View here until September 6.

12 pm ET: Miami Symphony Orchestra presents Light Your Sunday with the 3 Bs.  
Eduardo Marturet conducts MISO in Bach/Tarcisio Barreto’s Bach's Electric Journey for Electric Guitar and Orchestra (a world premiere and MISO 2019 commission), Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 3 in C minor, Op. 37, and Brahms’s Symphony No. 3 in F, Op. 90. With Miguel Barreto, guitar and Ethan Ford, piano. View here. 

1 pm ET: Great Lakes Chamber Music Festival presents “the singing will never be done”. Pianist Shai Wosner, violinist Tessa Lark, cellist Paul Watkins, bassist Michael Thurber, soprano Christine Goerke, and the Brentano String Quartet perform Bach’s Sonata No. 3 in G minor for viola da gamba and continuo, BWV 1029, Tessa Lark/Michael Thurber’s Wooden Soldier, Cedar & Sage, Weather Vane, and Tumble Time, and Massenet’s Elégie. Resister for free and view here. LIVE

3 pm ET: First Coast Opera & A Classic Theatre present Penelope Ann’s Revenge. A new one-act opera written by composer Curtis Tucker and librettist Nelson Sheeley, Penelope Ann’s Revenge is a sequel to Sullivan’s Cox and Box. It continues where the other ended, with two brothers sharing a rented flat in Victorian England. Their lives are turned upside down when Penelope Ann, who was formerly engaged first to Box, then to Cox, arrives. More information and view here.

4:45 pm ET: Dreamstage presents Peter Berton. The Organist and Choirmaster for St. John the Evangelist church in Newport, RI is joined by harpist Susan Knapp Thomas and singers from the Choir School of Newport County. Throughout the program, unique camera views will reveal the inner mechanisms of an organ hard at work on a range of transcriptions culminating in Bach's Passacaglia and Fugue in C minor. Tickets $25, register and view here. LIVE

7:30 pm ET: Nightly Met Opera Streams presents Verdi’s Falstaff. Starring Lisette Oropesa, Angela Meade, Stephanie Blythe, Jennifer Johnson Cano, Paolo Fanale, Ambrogio Maestri, and Franco Vassallo, conducted by James Levine. From December 14, 2013. View here and for 24 hours.

8 pm ET: Live From Music Mountain presents Cassatt String Quartet. Program includes works by Andy Teirstein, Daniel Godfrey, and Mozart. Michiko Oshima, former violist of the Cassatt String Quartet, will join from Japan to discuss how artists are getting back to in-person concerts there and, together with the current members, will take questions from the public in real time. View here. LIVE

Monday, August 31

7:30 pm ET: Met Opera Streams presents Strauss’s Elektra. Starring Nina Stemme, Adrianne Pieczonka, Waltraud Meier, Burkhard Ulrich, and Eric Owens, conducted by Esa-Pekka Salonen. From April 30, 2016. View here and for 24 hours. 

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 a number of streams available on its website. 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.

American Composer’s Orchestra
Volume 2 of Connecting ACO Community (June 7 - July 19, 2020) commissioned six short works for solo instrument or voice. Each composer was offered $500 to write the work, and each performer was offered $500 to perform the work, with the rights to stream for six months. Recorded sessions are available here.

 American Opera Project
American Opera Project presents AOPTV: Opera Comes Home, three world premiere English-language productions. As One is a chamber opera by composer Laura Kaminsky, librettist Mark Campbell and librettist/filmmaker Kimberly Reed in which two voices trace a transgender protagonist from her youth in a small town to Norway. Three Way, with music by Robert Paterson and libretto by David Cote, is an opera on the present and future of sex and love comprised. Harriet Tubman, with music and libretto by Nkeiru Okoye, tells how a young girl born in slavery becomes Harriet Tubman, the legendary Underground Railroad conductor. View here.

American Symphony Orchestra
American Symphony Orchestra presents ASO Online. Each Wednesday, for as long as live performances are not possible, the ASO will release a recording from its archives. Content will alternate weekly between live video recordings of SummerScape operas and audio recordings from previous ASO concerts. Ethel Smyth’s The Wreckers, Richard Strauss’s Die Liebe aus Danae, and Korngold’s Das Wunder der Heliane, all conducted by Leon Botstein, are highly recommended and available now. **

Apollo’s Fire: Music for the Soul
The Cleveland-based baroque orchestra founded by Artistic Director Jeannette Sorrell is offering a series of video streams entitled “Music for the Soul.” New episodes are posted here.

Australian Chamber Orchestra
ACO HomeCasts is an innovative digital content season curated by Artistic Director Richard Tognetti, and with an emphasis on content that reflects the ACO’s artistry, dynamism, and sense of adventure. Musicians have been equipped with a mini in-home studio and training, enabling them to record, produce, and broadcast content directly from their homes. This includes full-length ACO concerts broadcast as Facebook Watch Parties hosted by an ACO musician, intimate solo performances filmed live from musicians’ homes, and “Ask-Me-Anything” Instagram interviews. Each week’s schedule is announced Monday mornings here.

Baltimore Symphony Orchestra
BSO musicians are putting live-streamed concerts on the orchestra’s Facebook page on Wednesday and Sunday nights “for the near future.”

Bard SummerScape & Fisher Center
Archival works highlight Bard’s wealth and breadth of programming, including performances from its SummerScape Opera and BMF archives. Recent include Bard SummerScape’s 2011 production of Strauss’s rarely performed Die Liebe der Danae and last year’s Daniel Fish directed staging of Michael Gordon’s Acquanetta. More details here.

Budapest Festival Orchestra Quarantine Soirées
Hungarian conductor Ivan Fischer has created a new concert series in response to the worldwide musical shutdown. The Quarantine Soirées are LIVE and free to view online. Visit here for details of upcoming concerts.

Carnegie Hall
Live with Carnegie Hall features live performances, storytelling, and conversations that offer deeper insights and behind-the-scenes personal perspectives. In addition to live conversation and/performance, Live with Carnegie Hall programming will integrate historical or recent audio/video content drawn from concerts, master classes, and recordings. In most of the programs, artists will engage with viewers in real time via social media. A schedule will be found on carnegiehall.org/live.

Classical Movements Vox Virtual
An online a cappella festival from August 22-29 features nine professional vocal ensembles from around the world in daily livestreamed concerts, interviews and workshops. He lineup includes Cantus (USA), Insingizi (Zimbabwe), Olga Vocal Ensemble (Iceland and Netherlands), Nairyan Vocal Ensemble (Armenia), The Swingles (United Kingdom), Les Itinérantes (France), Accent (International), Ensemble Rustavi (Georgia) and Anúna (Ireland). Over the course of the week, ensembles will livestream five free concerts, each featuring two ensembles, and one finale concert featuring all nine. More details here.

The Cleveland Orchestra
The Cleveland Orchestra is offering archival videos, daily Mindful Music Moments videos, and videos from musicians performing from home. For information and to view visit here.

Cliburn at Home
Cliburn Watch Party relives some of the best moments of the Van Cliburn International Piano Competition, Cliburn Kids explores rhythm, storytelling, dance, and listening games in short entertaining, and educational journeys. Cliburn Amateur Spotlight are performance videos submitted by the 72 who were accepted as competitors for the 2020 Cliburn International Amateur Piano Competition (rescheduled to 2022). View here.

Daniel Hope
In Hope@Home on Tour, British violinist Daniel Hope took his livestreamed TV series out of his Berlin living room and on the road. The 27 half-hour episodes of live musical performance and conversation in English, all professionally produced for the German/French ARTE TV network, were filmed at a succession of visually compelling locations, many of which are not open to the public. All episodes have now been archived until October 31 in the ARTE Media Library 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.

Finnish National Opera
Finnish National Opera presents Stage24, a series of streamed archived performances on its website, which are then available for the next six months. Interesting recent content includes a staged version of Sibelius’s Kullervo, Stravinsky’s The Rake’s Progress, Caspar Holten’s staging of Wagner’s Der Fliegende Holländer with Camilla Nylund and Christoff Loy’s Tosca. An excellent company and some really 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. There are also more than a dozen videos of musicians performing from their homes, a special video of principal flutist Emi Ferguson teaching people how to make their own baroque flute, and a new podcast called “Tuning In”. In the first episode Principal Cellist Guy Fishman interviews Artistic Director Harry Christophers about Bach's St. Matthew Passion. Explore here.

International Keyboard Institute & Festival

IKIF 2020 is making archival content available for free. Among the performing artists are Jerome Rose, Marc-André Hamelin, Alessio Bax, Jeffrey Swann, Alon Goldstein, Arnaldo Cohen, and Alexander Kobrin. August celebrates the 22nd Season with the premiere of an archival video of IKIF Founder/Director Jerome Rose in concert at IKIF 2000 and 2002 from the stage of the Festival’s original home, Mannes School of Music. The repertoire includes works of Mozart, Liszt and Schubert. Explore here.

Kennedy Center
The Kennedy Center is offering a free, live digital performance initiative, Couch Concerts, to help inspire, uplift, heal, and bring the performing arts into homes across the country and around the world during these difficult times. Couch Concerts stream direct from artists’ homes on the Kennedy Center website. Audiences can discover a wide range of other at-home programming through the Kennedy Center at Home webpage.

La Scala/RAI
Italy’s RAI presents five productions from La Scala Milan including the world premiere of Kurtág’s Fin de Partie, Daniel Barenboim conducting Götterdämmerung, Lisette Oropesa in Verdi’s I Masnadieri, Montedervi’s Orfeo conducted by Rinaldo Alessandrini, and Les Vêpres Siciliennes conducted by Daniele Gatti. A wide range of concerts are also available. Click here to to register, view and for further details.

Lincoln Center
From the archives of Lincoln Center’s resident organizations comes a trove of video, including rarely seen footage from decades of Live from Lincoln Center, more recent performances from across campus, and live streams from wherever performances are still happening. In addition, Lincoln Center Pop-Up Classroom broadcasts on Facebook Live every weekday at 10 am ET and is led by some of the world’s best artists and educators. Finally, #ConcertsForKids teams up with top artists to bring world-class performances and diverse musical perspectives from their homes to yours. Explore upcoming calendar here.

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

Mark Morris Dance Group
The Brussels Years, 1988-1991, is a series of on-demand archival collections that rediscover dances from the earlier years of the MMDG. The Brussels Years includes three dances Morris choreographed when he was Director of Dance at the Théâtre Royal de la Monnaie in Brussels, the national opera house of Belgium, plus introductions of each work by Morris himself. The first dance, Pas de Poisson (1990), choreographed for three dancers to music by Erik Satie, is collection from its BAM premiere. Love Song Waltzes (1989) is set to Brahms’s song cycle of the same title and recorded at its Brussels premiere. The excerpt of Wonderland (1989) is from its premiere also at the Theatre Varia in Brussels. Performed only twice in the company’s history, Wonderland is a danse noir set to music by Schoenberg. Mikhail Baryshnikov performs in both Pas de Poisson and Wonderland. Explore here.

Metropolitan Opera Free Student Streams
Students and teachers worldwide can draw from the Met’s online library of operas and curricular materials plus new conversations with Met artists and educators. Resource materials will be made available weekly via the Met website starting on Mondays at 10 am ET, including extensive background information; activities to help students engage before, during, and after the performance stream; illustrated synopses; coloring pages; and audio clips. On Wednesdays at 5 pm ET, each week’s performance will be made available for streaming on the Met website, where it will remain for 48 hours. An hour before each performance stream, students from around the world will have the opportunity to interact directly with a singer or member of the creative team on Zoom. More information here.

Minnesota Orchestra
Minnesota Orchestra at Home shares 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.

National Sawdust
National Sawdust has launched Live@NationalSawdust, a free digital platform offering concerts from the past five seasons and professional development programs from Renée Fleming, Meredith Monk and others, and including fundraising efforts for National Sawdust and the artists involved. Initial releases will focus on the very first concert in the venue from October 2015, including performances by Philip Glass, Foday Musa Suso, Tanya Tagaq, Chris Thile, Nico Muhly, Nadia Sirota, Jeffrey Zeigler, Eve Gigliotti, Paola Prestini, Nels Cline, Glenn Kotche, Theo Bleckmann, ACME and more.

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. NWS Fellows also play live, informal chamber music concerts from their homes in Miami Beach and broadcast via Facebook Live. In addition, the NWS online archive contains master classes, tutorials and town halls, which can be found here. Finally, for the past 10 years, the Fellows have performed one-hour concerts for local school children. These concerts and preparatory material will be available free to students and parents. NWS Educational concerts can be found here.

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 are making 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. Visit here. Some of Opéra National de Paris’s productions are accessible on the company’s Facebook Page. 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.

Opera Philadelphia Digital Festival O
Opera Philadelphia premiered an online digital festival of new and classic works with four of the operas are available on demand. The Pedro Almodóvar-inspired staging of Rossini’s The Barber of Seville can be watched through June 29, while Daniel Bernard Roumain’s We Shall Not Be Moved, Lembit Beecher’s Sky On Swings (starring Frederica von Stade and Marietta Simpson), and Missy Mazzoli’s award-winning Breaking the Waves are available through August 31. Explore here.

Opera Saratoga: Connect Daily
In place of its planned 2020 Summer Festival, June, July and August will see Opera Saratoga feature performances by Festival Artists, premiering every morning at 9 am ET. Each month is dedicated to a different theme with July featuring Beethoven art song including many of his settings of folk melodies from around the world and scenes Fidelio. August will feature songs and ensembles from musicals by Stephen Sondheim, who celebrated his 90th birthday this year. View here and on demand.

OperaVision
OperaVision offers livestreams of operas available for free and online for 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. **

The Philadelphia Orchestra
Music Director Yannick Nézet-Séguin and The Philadelphia Orchestra are offering new ways to engage with the music and musicians of the Orchestra. Through WATCH, LISTEN, LEARN the Virtual Philadelphia Orchestra will fulfill its ongoing commitment to bring music, in video and audio forms, as well as interactive education and enrichment, to audiences. Content is available here.

Seattle Symphony
Seattle Symphony is rebroadcasting concerts on Thursday and Saturday evenings. In addition, Morning Notes on YouTube or Facebook features solo performances by individual musicians.

Orli Shaham Bach Yard Playdates
Pianist Orli Shaham brings her acclaimed interactive concert series for kids to the internet. Bach Yard Playdates introduces musical concepts, instruments, and the experience of concert-going to a global audience of children and their families. A number of 10-minute episodes are already available for on-demand streaming. Programs and performances range from Bach’s Two-Part Invention to Steve Reich’s Clapping Music. Explore here.

The Sixteen
The Sixteen, with founder Harry Christophers, has launched Quarantine with The Sixteen, a regular schedule of digital content. The Sixteen Virtual Choir’s performance of Sheppard’s Libera nos involved each part being recorded at each singer’ home. Other features include: Choral Chihuahua, a podcast by The Sixteen and I Fagiolini; Stay at Home Choir performing Sir James MacMillan’s O Radiant Dawn; Archive performances, including Sir James MacMillan’s Stabat Mater performed in the Sistine Chapel and Bach’s St Matthew Passion with Streetwise Opera; Recipes for isolation; Video diaries providing insight into daily lives during lockdown; Weekly playlists. Explore 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.

Tulsa Opera
Tulsa Opera has launched its Staying Alive web series, which includes virtual performances of opera, popular music, and musical theater, directly from guest artists’ homes. Each week, the series features artists from around the world, including artists that have been recently heard on the Tulsa Opera stage or would have been heard in the company’s new production of Tobias Picker’s Emmeline, cancelled due to the pandemic. New content appears every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday at 2 pm CT. Explore here.

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.

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. www.medici.tv

 Archived Recent Performances

The following broadcast events have occurred since the start of the COVID-19 crisis and are still available for viewing:

March 12

The Philadelphia Orchestra and Music Director Yannick Nézet-Séguin performed BeethovenNOW: Symphonies 5 & 6 as well as Iman Habibi’s Jeder Baum Spricht to an empty Verizon Hall for live broadcast. An outstanding concert captured in excellent visuals and sound. www.philorch.org/live

Miller Theater’s Bach Collection was performed live for a virtual audience. The program included Jesu, Joy of Man’s Desiring (arr. Hess), Concerto for Violin and Oboe in C minor, BWV 1060 (arr. Fischer), Chorale Prelude Ich ruf zu dir, Herr Jesu Christ, BWV 639 (arr. Busoni), and Cantata Ich habe genug, BWV 82, with Kady Evanyshyn, mezzo-soprano, Rebecca Fischer, violin, Alecia Lawyer, oboe, Simone Dinnerstein, piano, Baroklyn. View here.

March 14

Canadian pianist Garrick Ohlsson played an impressive selection of works by Beethoven, Prokofiev (the Sixth Sonata), and Chopin to an empty house at New York’s 92nd Street Y. View here.

March 16

In front of an empty auditorium (very visible thanks to excellent camerawork) Melbourne Symphony Orchestra was conducted by Forth Worth Symphony Music Director Miguel Harth Bedoya in dynamic performances of Bloch's Schelomo with soloist Timo-Veikko Valve, and Rimsky-Korsakov's Scheherazade. Available here.

March 26

92nd St. Y presents Jonathan Biss playing Beethoven’s last three piano sonatas. Written, as Beethoven said, “in a single breath,” these pieces represent the apotheosis of his piano writing, showing his mastery of the variation form (in Op. 109), his expertise in the forms of the musical past (the fugue, in Op. 110), and an ability to be cutting-edge (considering Op. 111 as a whole, but especially the famous ‘boogie woogie’ moments in the second movement). Available here.

April 10

Handel’s Messiah with The Tabernacle Choir and Orchestra at Temple Square and soloists Amanda Woodbury, Tamara Mumford, Tyler Nelson, and Tyler Simpson. Recorded in 2018 but archived for a rainy day such as this. Available here.

April 10

Bach's St. John Passion, performed by Bach Collegium Japan conducted by Masaaki Suzuki from the Cologne Philharmonic. View here.

April 14

92^nd St Y presents Marc-André Hamelin who streamed a characteristically elegant program from his home, with the timely inclusion of Liszt's Bénédiction de Dieu dans la solitude. The repertoire also included C. P. E. Bach, Enescu, Fauré, Scriabin, and six selections from Debussy's Preludes, Book II. View here.

May 8

The Berliner Philharmoniker’s European Concert. In order to comply with social distancing rules and hygiene requirements Kirill Petrenko conducts the orchestra in chamber music formation from the empty Philharmonie Berlin. Federal President Steinmeier to deliver opening address. Program: Pärt’s Fratres, Ligeti’s Ramifications, Barber’s Adagio for Strings, Mahler’s Symphony No. 4 (arrangement for chamber ensemble by Erwin Stein) with Christiane Karg, soprano. Subscribe or trial for free and view in the Digital Concert Hall.

June 28

San Francisco Symphony Orchestra presented MTT25: An Online Tribute for Michael Tilson Thomas. Hosted by famed vocalists Audra McDonald and Susan Graham, the event featured contributions and tributes by musicians of the San Francisco Symphony and Chorus, an array of distinguished guest artists, and many surprises. View here.

June 30

Live At Carnegie Hall presented Russian pianist Daniil Trifonov discussing his career with fellow pianists Emanuel Ax and Sergei Babayan and the venue’s Executive and Artistic Director Sir Clive Gillinson. Interspersed with excerpts from Trifonov’s performances, one newly recorded at home and others previously captured at Carnegie Hall. On demand here.

**Highly recommended

 

Pictured: Danish String Quartet