Watch some of the latest videos below, and for the complete archive, visit the WGBH Music channel at YouTube.

New Broadcast Era Begins with New BSO Season

Classical New England's Cathy Fuller and Ron Della Chiesa team up as co-hosts

 
To hear the program, click on "Listen" above, and see video below.

Drive Time Live: Leif Ove Andsnes plays the Granados "Spanish Dance" Op. 37 No. 5 from WGBH Classical New England on Vimeo.

Leif Ove Andsnes was born in Karmøy, Norway in 1970, and studied at the Bergen Music Conservatory under the renowned Czech professor Jirí Hlinka.  After more than 30 discs for EMI Classics, he now records for Sony Classical.  Andsnes is also an active recording artist, as well as an avid chamber musician who has joined select colleagues each summer at Norway’s Risør Festival of Chamber Music. He will serve as Music Director of the 2012 Ojai Music Festival in California.

Andsnes has just begun "Beethoven - A Journey," a multi-year performance and recording project centered on the five concertos.

Andsnes currently lives in Copenhagen and Bergen, and also spends much time at his mountain home in Norway’s western Hardanger area.  He is a Professor at the Norwegian Academy of Music in Oslo, a Visiting Professor at the Royal Music Conservatory of Copenhagen, and a member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Music.  In June 2010, he achieved one of his proudest accomplishments to date: he became a father for the first time.

During his performance in our Fraser Performance Studio, Andsnes performed Granados's Spanish Dance, Op. 37, No. 5, Chopin's Waltzes, Op. 70, and the "Norwegian Peasant March" from Grieg's Lyric Pieces, Op. 54. Andsnes and Fuller also explored facets of Beethoven's Piano Concerto No. 1.

Here's a fun video of Andsnes with his friend, Marc-André Hamelin:

More from Classical New England's birthday party for the composer who changed everything.

Bryce Milano, mandolin, and Sylvia Barry, fortepiano, perform Beethoven's rarely heard Sonatina in C, WoO 44a.

Trombonists Ron Barron, Greg Spiridopoulos, Don Lucas, and Gabe Langfur perform Beethoven's Equale No. 1 WoO 30 No. 1.

In Part 2 of "Beethoven:  New Discoveries and Fond Farewells," tenor William Hite and pianist Gilles Vonsattel perform the song cycle An die ferne Geliebte, and Vonsattel performs the Piano Sonata Piano Sonata No. 26 in E flat, "Les Adieux," Op. 81a.

To hear the program, click on "Listen" above.

Hear Part 1 and watch more video
 

Classical New England throws a birthday party for the composer who changed everything.

Tenor William Hite sings "Come Draw We 'Round This Cheerful Ring," one of Beethoven's British Isles folksong arrangements, freshly arranged for piano, cello, and mandolin by Classical New England's James David Jacobs. With Gilles Vonsattel, piano; Brian Howard, cello; Bryce Milano, mandolin.

There is probably no more recognizable composer than Ludwig van Beethoven, whether encountered as a hovering presence for Schroeder in "Peanuts," as the sound of Fate through the four-note theme of the Fifth Symphony, or, best of all, in the concert hall.

For Beethoven's birthday (most likely Dec. 16th), Classical New England celebrates this most fascinating of artistic minds with a program of music that uncovers rarely heard works of heart-felt emotion and sublime beauty.

Enjoy the video preview above, and to hear the program on-demand, click on "Listen" at the top of this page.

On the program:

Equale for Trombone Quartet, WoO30, No. 1
Ron Barron, Greg Spiridopoulos, Don Lucas, Gabe Langfur, trombones

Sonata in F for Horn and Piano, Op. 17
William Purvis, horn; Mihae Lee, piano

Three Irish and Welsh Songs:

• Cupid's Kindness, WoO 155 No. 2

• The Kiss, Dear Maid, Thy Lip Has Left, WoO 153, No. 9

• Come Draw We Round the Cheerful Ring,  WoO 152 No. 8

William Hite, Tenor; Gilles Vonsattel, piano; Brian Howard, cello; Bryce Milano, mandolin

Sonatina in C for Mandolin & fortepiano, WoO 44a
Adagio in E flat  for Mandolin & fortepiano, WoO 43b
Bryce Milano, mandolin; Sylvia Berry, Fortepiano

Drive Time Live: Bella Hristova Plays "Obsession" by Eugene Ysaye from WGBH Classical New England on Vimeo.

Violinist Bella Hristova visits our Fraser Performance Studio for Drive Time Live with Cathy Fuller.

To hear the program, click on "Listen" above.

Hristova was in Boston to perform Mendelssohn's Violin Concerto in E minor with the Longwood Symphony Orchestra in a benefit concert for the Sharewood Project.  Her Drive Time Live performance includes music by Bach, Ysaÿe, and Parashkev Hadjiev.

Highlights from Hristova's 2011-12 season include a return as soloist with the New York String Orchestra at Carnegie Hall, an appearance in Ravinia’s Rising Stars Series, a tour with Musicians from Marlboro, and performances throughout the season with CMS Two at Lincoln Center. 

First Prize Winner in the 2008-09 Young Concert Artists International Auditions, Ms. Hristova made her debut in the Young Concert Artists Series during the 2009-10 season at Merkin Concert Hall in New York, and at the Kennedy Center in Washington DC. At the Auditions, she was the first recipient of the Helen Armstrong Violin Fellowship, was honored with the Miriam Brody Aronson and the Ruth Laredo Memorial Awards; and won the Candlelight Concert Society Concert and the Lied Center of Kansas Concert Prizes.

Born in Pleven, Bulgaria in 1985, Ms. Hristova began violin studies at the age of six. At 12, she participated in master classes with Ruggiero Ricci at the Mozarteum in Salzburg. Since the age of 13, she has lived in the United States. In 2003, Ms. Hristova entered The Curtis Institute, where she worked with Ida Kavafian and studied chamber music with Steven Tenenbom. She received her Artist Diploma with Jaime Laredo at Indiana University in 2010. Ms. Hristova plays a 1655 Nicolò Amati violin, once owned by the violinist Louis Krasner.

Here is more information about the Sharewood Project:

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Cellist Matt Haimovitz and pianist Christopher O'Riley were each recognized early on as standard-bearers for their generation.  They've also each charted unexpected, genre-busting, and ultimately, highly rewarding career trajectories.  One common thread between those two trajectories is an engagement with classical music that crosses boundaries of generation, genre, and convention. 

O'Riley, as the host of NPR's From The Top, connects with younger generations of performers and listeners through radio, television, and the web.  He also found rich material to bring to the concert hall in the music of Radiohead, the English alt-rock band.

Haimovitz, a cellist who also sees no distinction between conventional categorizations of music, has transcribed rock legend Jimi Hendrix's music for his instrument and brought Bach's Solo Cello Suites to innumerable new listeners by performing them in clubs across the country.

O'Riley and Haimovitz have now teamed up for Shuffle.Play.Listen, a recording and concert project that brings together the best elements of these performers' omniverous approach to music.

Matt Haimovitz and Christopher O'Riley joined us for Drive Time Live in our Fraser Performance Studio, with music by Bernard Herrmann, Leos Janacek, Igor Stravinsky, Astor Piazzolla, Radiohead, and more.

To hear the program, click on "Listen" above.

And here is a video from Shuffle.Play.Listen:



(photo of Matt Haimovitz and Christopher O'Riley by Sarah Scott)