Riccardo Chailly

Since the summer of 2019, the Lucerne Festival Orchestra and Riccardo Chailly have been taking audiences on a journey through Sergei Rachmaninoff’s symphonic and concertante world, featuring both essential works and rarities, such as his early opera "Aleko". But before you discover the magic of his music, let yourself be carried away by his Piano Concerto No. 4, performed by the young pianist Lukas Sternath.

To kick off the Lucerne Festival, Riccardo Chailly and the Lucerne Festival Orchestra, with pianist Frank Dupree, head west to perform a selection of American music. On the programme: works by George Gershwin and Charles Ives.

On the 50th anniversary of Shostakovich’s death, La Scala opens the Season with his masterpiece Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District, based on the novella by Nikolai Leskov. After its premiere in St. Petersburg, the opera – which was intended to be the first part of a trilogy on women’s condition in Russia – enjoyed great success at home and abroad. Stalin attended a performance in Moscow in 1936; two days later, the famous denunciation titled “Chaos Instead of Music” appeared in Pravda, through which the regime blacklisted the opera and its composer. Years later, Shostakovich prepared a new version that was staged in Moscow in 1963 under the title Katerina Izmailova, after Superintendent Ghiringhelli had unsuccessfully tried to secure its premiere for La Scala. Today, the theatre presents the original 1934 version, conducted by M° Chailly and the debut of director Barkhatov.

On the shores of Lake Lucerne, Riccardo Chailly and the Lucerne Festival Orchestra continue their Rachmaninov odyssey with the Symphonic Movement, a rarely performed piece, as well as the Symphonic Dances and the Scherzo in D minor. The highlight of the evening is the Piano Concerto No. 1, performed by Alexander Malofeev, a rising star on the keyboard. Chapters : Sergueï Rachmaninov - Scherzo in D minor - Symphonic movement in D minor (youth symphony) - Piano Concerto No. 1 in F sharp minor, Op. 1 - Danses symphoniques, op. 45

Every summer, Milan’s Piazza del Duomo hosts the La Scala Theatre Orchestra for a grand, festive open-air concert. This year the orchestra is conducted by musical director Riccardo Chailly and presents an evening of 20th-century American music.

Composed in 1824, Beethoven's "Symphony No. 9" will celebrate its bicentennial in 2024. With its famous finale based on Schiller's poem "An die Freude" (Ode to Joy), this colossal work is now one of the symbols of European unity. How was this symphony created? And how has it survived two centuries of history?

"Lucia de Lammermoor" should actually have opened this year's season. But Corona prevents the title heroine from stabbing her bridegroom to death in her madness. Instead of an opera premiere, La Scala is presenting a musical journey through the history of opera. This year, the world-famous opera house is replacing the originally planned performance due to the renewed outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic in northern Italy - with a grand gala evening to benefit the artists hit hard by the coronavirus crisis. In the glamorous setting of the legendary Teatro alla Scala, some of the most beautiful voices on the international opera scene - such as Roberto Alagna, Jonas Kaufmann and mezzo-soprano Elīna Garanča - will sing famous arias from the repertoire, accompanied by La Scala's orchestra. The program is complemented by well-known ballet scenes and performances by actors.

Since its founding in 2003, the Lucerne Festival Orchestra has established itself as a benchmark in the interpretation of Mahler. The composer's Symphony No. 10 and his Rückert Lieder, performed by Elīna Garanča and conducted by Riccardo Chailly will open the 2025 Lucerne Festival with a tribute to Pierre Boulez, another figure of this renowned festival.

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Legendary opera house, La Scala is more than just a stage— it’s a dream factory. And this year, over the course of four intensive months, 900 people will work relentlessly to incarnate Verdi’s opera masterpiece, ‘‘The Force of Destiny”. Under the masterful eyes of director Léo Muscato, we will follow set designer Federica Parolini, as her sketches evolve into towering architectural marvels crafted by dedicated artisans. In the costume workshop, Silvia Peroni and her team weave magic with fabric and thread through their expert hands. Then, a stellar international cast of virtuosos arrives in Milan, ready to fill La Scala’s hallowed halls with their soaring voices. But with the clock ticking, and expectations going through the roof, tensions unfold like an opera of its own. As Milan holds its breath for the legendary Prima on the 7th of December, the stakes couldn’t be higher. Will they be ready in time for curtain rise?

The Lucerne Festival Orchestra and its music director Riccardo Chailly dedicate an evening to Sergei Rachmaninoff, with Italian pianist Beatrice Rana shining in the highly virtuosic variations of the Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini. Also on the programme is the mysterious Symphony No. 1 and The Rock, an early work that already gives a glimpse of the Russian composer's musical sensibility.

This concert, held in Milan's famous Piazza Duomo, was one of the highlights of the 2024 season, which the Filarmonica della Scala offers to its city every year. This free outdoor concert is an annual event for music lovers from Milan and around the world. Riccardo Chailly conducts the orchestra, accompanied by Emmanuel Tjeknavorian, a world-renowned violinist who will conduct the Verdi Orchestra this year.

Visually this is a gripping production which captures the drama of this opera perfectly. It's downright exciting! and I found the singing, acting, and orchestral playing reasonably fine. I found only one major problem with it, a problem that kept Puccini for quite a few years. Turandot has been looking for an opportunity to kill Calif and Calif has singlemindedly tried to get Turandot to love and wed him focusing on her and ignoring a better looking girl who loves him truly. The problem is how to get the audience to applaud the match once Calif gets his wish. Puccini couldn't figure out how to do it. The traditional quick ending doesn't do it, and Berio's attempt is longer , tries its best, but ends up making it plain this is one wierd couple.

The 200-year-old story of Milan’s illustrious opera house, La Scala, home to the great tenor Placido Domingo, conductor Arturo Toscanini and acclaimed soprano Maria Callas.

The Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra and their Music Director Riccardo Chailly have already acquired legendary status – glorious reviews and many awards for their recordings testifying to their continuing success. At Leipzig’s International Mahler Festival, to mark the centenary of Mahler’s death, they performed his monumental Second Symphony in the Gewandhaus – together with two marvellous soloists and choral forces quite beyond compare. About the final movement the composer said: “The increasing tension, working up to the final climax, is so tremendous that I don’t know myself, now that it is over, how I ever came to write it.” The painting “Morgenrot” was chosen by internationally acclaimed artist Neo Rauch to feature on the cover of this release on DVD and Blu-ray.

As Riccardo Chailly points out, "The Fifth begins with a dark, gloomy, and tragic tone, but then is enlivened in the Scherzo and Adagietto, and eventually ends with a more positive character in the Finale perhaps for the last time in Mahler's life. The Adagietto is a revelation, a spiritual oasis. It is not an expression of pain, but rather Mahler's declaration of love to Alma a song without words." With the Gewandhaus Orchestra, Chailly gives the piece an unsurpassed intensity of sound and emotional expression. He achieves a compelling arc of tension in which the symphony's unique fascination unfolds. The Wiener Zeitung characterized Chailly's interpretation as "impressive with powerful and unreserved intensity."

The Waldbühne in Berlin, one of the most appealing outdoor amphitheatres on the European continent, is the home of the Berliner Philharmoniker’s summer concerts. With audiences of more than 20,000, these are some of the most popular classical music concerts in the world. Riccardo Chailly is famous for having one of the broadest and most eclectic repertoires. Here, under his baton, the orchestra presents perennial favourites by Shostakovich, Rota and Respighi. Live recording from the Waldbühne, Berlin, 23 August 2011, directed by Kasten Henning, produced by Jan Bremme. TV Producer: Dorothea Diekmann, RBB. Repertoire Dmitry Shostakovich: Suite No. 2 for Jazz Orchestra (Suite for Variety Orchestra), Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk Suite – Allegretto; Nino Rota: ‘La Strada’ Ballet Suite; Ottorino Respighi: Fountains of Rome • Pines of Rome • Danza gueresca ‘Belkis’; Paul Lincke: Berliner Luft

A passionate conductor and composer, Gustav Mahler never received the recognition he deserved during his lifetime but has since come to be known as a prominent post-Romantic master of song and symphony. Filmed in Vienna, Austria; Budapest, Hungary; Hamburg, Germany; and the Czech Republic, this documentary explores the Bohemia-born Mahler's life and inspirations, from his turbulent childhood years to his ambitious adult career.

The audience knows that the performance of a Mahler symphony is not only a musical experience but is also emotionally effective' (Chailly). This counts especially for Mahler's enigmatic sixth symphony, an emotionally stirring challenge for both performers and listeners, while also one of the most impressive works in musical history. Chailly's interpretation with the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra is 'intensely great' (Die Presse). 'Chailly uncompromisingly considers this sixth symphony through the lens of modernity; looking forward, not retrospectively staying in late romantic. In this celebrated orchestra, all sections splendidly come together and fulfill an 'open' sound, conserving whilst respecting its original beauty' (Salzburger Nachrichten).

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Felix Mendelssohn Concerto for Violin and Orchestra in E minor, Op. 64 Ludwig van Beethoven Concerto for Violin and Orchestra in D major, Op. 61 Nikolaj Znaider, violin Riccardo Chailly Gewandhausorchester Leipzig

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Riccardo Chailly - Mahler [Symphony No. 8] (Lucerne Festival 2016)

Juan Pons, Barbara Frittoli, Mariana Lipovsek, and Leo Nucci star in this 2008 La Scala production of the Puccini trilogy (Il Tabarro, Suor Angelica, and Gianni Schicchi) conducted by Riccardo Chailly.

A documentary based on Gustav Mahler's 9th Symphony. Riccardo Chailly is conducting and analyzing the four movements of the symphony.

Documents the interpretations of Gustav Mahler's compositions by conductors Bernard Haitink, Riccardo Chailly, Riccardo Muti, Claudio Abbado, and Simon Rattle, who detail the special relationship they have with Mahler's work.

Riccardo Chailly conducts the Gewandhausorchester Leipzig and pianist Martha Argerich in this 2006 celebration of the work of Robert Schumann (1810-1856), filmed at Leipzig, Germany's famed Gewandhaus. Selections include Schumann's Piano Concerto in A Minor, "Von Fremden Ländern und Menschen" from "Kinderszenen" and Symphony no. 4 in D Minor.

In Search of Beethoven offers a comprehensive documentary about the life and works of the great composer. Over 65 performances by the world's finest musicians were recorded and 100 interviews conducted in the making of this beautifully crafted film. Eleven interviews are included in the Extras and Six complete movements.

Early recordings of Franco Zeffirelli's 2006 production of Verdi's opera which saw Roberto Alagna's high-profile exit during the second performance. Egypt and Ethiopia are at war. Radames is appointed commander of the Egyptian forces by the King, whose daughter, Amneris, loves Radames. It is in fact Amneris' Ethiopian slave Aida whom Radames loves. Ramades wins the war against the Ethiopians, capturing Aida's father Amonasro in the process. On his return to Egypt he faces a choice between marrying Amneris or betraying his country through his love for Aida.

Live performance from Oper Leipzig, 26 November 2005.

Attrazione d'Amore is a touching illustration of the unique relation that has developed between the Conductor Riccardo Chailly and his famous Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra. Voyage to Cythera navigates through wonderful musical quotes made of performances conducted by Berio, rehearsals, archival documents and interviews featuring Riccardo Chailly and Louis Andriessen.

Claude D'Anna's film of Verdi's Macbeth is a gloomy affair, stressing the descent into madness of the principal villains. It's acted by the singers of the Decca recording of the opera (with two substitutions of actors standing in for singers) and the lip-synching is generally unobtrusive. The musical performance is superb, conducted by Riccardo Chailly with admirable fire, and sung by some of the leading lights of the opera stages of the 1980s. Shirley Verrett virtually owned the role of Lady Macbeth at the time, and she delivers a terrific performance, the voice equal to the role's wide register leaps and it's suffused with emotion, whether urging her husband on to murder or maddened by guilt in the Sleepwalking Scene. Leo Nucci's resonant Macbeth may lack the ultimate in vocal color and steadiness (his last notes of the great aria Pietà, rispetto, amore are wobbly) but he compensates with intensity in both singing and acting.

I Vespri Siciliani must me Verdi's most underrated masterpiece. Most people are put off by the fact that it has 5 acts, therefore they conclude that it must be incredibly long. It is long but not as long as some people may fear as most of the acts are under half an hour each. The total length of the DVD in question is 171 minutes, just under 3 hours, including titles at the beginning, applauses and curtain calls between the acts and at the end. The opera contains Verdi's most powerful overture and a number of very elegant arias, duets and ensembles for the principals.

"The greatest mix of colors that ever existed" was Gustav Mahler's description of the third movement of his Fourth Symphony. Ricardo Chailly and the Gewandhaus Orchestra transformed the entire Fourth Symphony into this kaleiodoscope of sound. The unmistakable timbre of the orchestra has become synonymous withwith late Romantic repertoire and Mahler-esque style - it was described by Der Tagesspiegel as "uncommonly present, even in the thread-fine piannissimo, compact, concentrated, satin:' Recorded live at the Gewandhaus zu Lepzig. 26/27 April 2012