medici.tv in November presents Grimaud and Barenboim

This month, medici.tv has another must-see schedule of live events and vintage programming – including a three-concert series with pianist Hélène Grimaud, live from Paris November 3-6. The ever-expanding library of medici.tv video-on-demand offerings now includes all 32 Beethoven piano sonatas performed by Daniel Barenboim in 1983-84. Acclaim for the medici.tv experience keeps coming, with the Toronto Star recognizing that “medici initiated a seismic shift in the world of classical music.”
 
Hélène Grimaud – renowned for her distinctive, exciting programs as well as for her scintillating virtuosity – performs a three-concert series live on medici.tv from the Salle Pleyel and Cité de la Musique in Paris. The series, titled “Private Domain,” begins at 2pm EDT on November 3 with the French pianist performing Mozart’s elegant, spirited Piano Concerto No. 19 with the Chamber Orchestra of Bavarian Radio at the Salle Pleyel. This concerto – which features the piano and wind section in lyrical dialogue – is ideal for Grimaud’s talents as a chamber musician, as she interacts with the orchestra (led from the violin by Radoslaw Szulc). Grimaud also joins the wonderful French soprano Sandrine Piau for the concert aria, “Ch’io mi scordi di te.”
 
At 2pm EDT on November 5, Grimaud joins the Chamber Orchestra of Bavarian Radio at the Cité de la Musique for a program that juxtaposes the music of J.S. Bach with works by contemporary Ukrainian composer Valentin Silvestrov. Grimaud earned international praise with her 2009 Deutsche Grammophon recording of Bach (marked by a “captivating organic flow” according to Gramophone magazine), and she discerns the aching connection between the moving music of Silvestrov and the august tradition of the past. At 9:30am EST on November 6, Grimaud reprises her tour repertoire with virtuoso German cellist Jan Vogler at the Cité de la Musique, as they pair for Schumann’s Fantasiestücke Op. 73, Brahms’s Cello Sonata in E minor, and Shostakovich’s Cello Sonata.
 
In addition to these live webcasts, medici.tv also offers an extensive library of video-on-demand programs available via subscription. These performances, documentaries, and archival features spotlight leading musical institutions and world-class artists – from golden-age legends to today’s top stars. This month, medici.tv adds to its library the great film record of Daniel Barenboim performing all 32 of Beethoven’s piano sonatas at the Schloss Hetzendorf in Vienna, during the 1983-84 season. The pianist returned to Beethoven’s sonatas in recent years as an eminent veteran, but these films capture Barenboim in the prime of his early 40s, just at the time he was making his second full studio recording of the cycle for Deutsche Grammophon.
 
“Treasures aplenty” was how Gramophone editor-in-chief James Jolly has described medici.tv as one of the Web’s leading classical music experiences. The medici.tv app for iPads, iPhones, and other digital devices – available for free at the Apple app store – was recently named one of the top five apps for classical music by WQXR, the classical music station of New York City.
 
November events live at medici.tv
 
November 3, 2pm EDT: Hélène Grimaud, Sandrine Piau and the Chamber Orchestra of Bavarian Radio
Salle Pleyel, Paris
Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 19, “Ch’io mi scordi di te.”
 
November 5, 2pm EDT: Hélène Grimaud and the Chamber Orchestra of Bavarian Radio
Cité de la Musique, Paris
J.S. Bach, Silvestrov, Dvořák
 
November 6, 9:30am EST: Hélène Grimaud and Jan Vogler
Cité de la Musique, Paris
Schumann, Brahms, Shostakovich
 
About medici.tv:
 
Since its official launch in May 2008, medici.tv has gained international recognition, bringing together a community of music and arts lovers from 182 countries – online viewers who have watched over 12 million videos to date. The site currently averages more than 60,000 individual visitors each month. In addition to offering live concert hall events that music lovers can experience on their computers and entertainment systems, medici.tv now offers a free application (available at the Apple App Store) that makes it possible to experience world-class artistry on iPads and iPhones.
 
One of the biggest successes to date at medici.tv has been the webcast of a Lucerne Festival concert featuring Gustavo Dudamel and the Vienna Philharmonic. It has been watched more than 347,500 times (live and as video-on-demand) by visitors from 150 countries. Other recent popular offerings from medici.tv include an evening of chamber music at the Atelier Lyrique de l’Opéra de Paris; Georges Prêtre conducting La Scala Orchestra in a program of Franck and Respighi; Daniel Harding conducting the same orchestra in Strauss’s Alpine Symphony; and an all-Brahms evening featuring Leonard Slatkin and the Orchestre National de Lyon.
 
Building on the success of webcasts from the Verbier Festival in 2007, medici.tv has offered high-definition webcasts from many other leading festivals, including Aix-en-Provence, Saint-Denis, Aspen, Glyndebourne, and Lucerne; from such Parisian venues as the Opéra National de Paris, Auditorium du Louvre, Cité de la Musique, and Salle Pleyel; and from Milan’s famed La Scala. Many operas and concerts performed by the world’s top artists and orchestras have been webcast as live events and later as video-on-demand (VOD) – all available for free. The list of artists presented at medici.tv is a “who’s who” of today’s stars, including Claudio Abbado, Martha Argerich, Daniel Barenboim, Pierre Boulez, Plácido Domingo, John Eliot Gardiner, Valery Gergiev, Bernard Haitink, Riccardo Muti, Anna Netrebko, Maurizio Pollini, Thomas Quasthoff, and Simon Rattle. Among the featured orchestras are such renowned ensembles as the Berlin Philharmonic, Mariinsky Theatre Orchestra, New York Philharmonic, London Philharmonic, Royal Concertgebouw, Orchestre National de France, Orchestre de Paris, Filarmonica della Scala, and the Chamber Orchestra of Europe.
 
In addition to webcasts of more than 80 live concerts each year, medici.tv has partnered with the world’s top artists and music institutions to offer subscriptions, giving music-lovers the opportunity to watch more than 650 VOD programs – growing to 1,000 programs over the next two years. They include concerts, operas, recitals, documentaries, master classes, artist portraits, and archival material. Featured artists include such legendary musicians as Leonard Bernstein, Maria Callas, Glenn Gould, Herbert von Karajan, Yehudi Menuhin, David Oistrakh, Sviatoslav Richter, Mstislav Rostropovich, Arthur Rubinstein, Georg Solti, and Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, as well as such leading film directors as Bruno Monsaingeon, Paul Smaczny, and Frank Scheffer.
 
Subscriptions to medici.tv start at $10.90 monthly and $99 for a one-year subscription.
 
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medici.tv is produced by MUSEEC, in partnership with ROLEX.
 
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© 21C Media Group, November 2011