A peaceful afternoon with Maria João Pires performing Beethoven’s Piano Sonata No. 17, The Tempest.

For everyone who thought it should be a good idea for me to create this npub, for everyone who reposted and zapped: Verdi’s Requiem with Angela Gheorghiu, the Berliner Philharmoniker, and conductor Claudio Abbado.

Pablo Sarasate’s Caprice Basque performed by Andrei Korsakov, violin, and Iolanta Miroshnikova, piano. (1977, Soviet TV. The audio is not the original because they had recording issues, but the performance is great nonetheless.)

Merry Christmas! 🎁 🎄 From the Norwegian Chamber Orchestra, Béla Bartók's Romanian Folk Dances for String Orchestra Sz 56 BB 68.

For your lunch break espresso, an excerpt with Khatia Buniatishvili playing Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concerto No. 2 in C Minor.

Mood: Annie Fischer playing the 2nd movement (Romance-Larghetto) of Chopin's piano concerto No. 1 in E minor. (From 1976, so not the best sound, but it's a page of history.) This is the link to the full YouTube concerto:

Alexander Markov performs Paganini Caprice 24, live on Belgium TV, as an encore after the Vieuxtemps Concerto.

Let's go on with more Liszt. Katica Illényi playing Hungarian Rhapsody No. 2, in 2011. Absolutely beautiful! It's very easy to understand why Liszt was the rockstar of his times, creating frenzy when he was performing.

For the Jazz lovers, Keith Jarrett plays the Soprano Sax with Charlie Haden, bass, and Paul Motion, drums. (1970)

If you're unsure what to listen to today, try György Sándor playing Liszt's Hungarian Rhapsody No. 6. (1947)

I will end the day with a leap back in 1979 with Margaret Marshall singing “Rejoice greatly” from Händel's Messiah, conducted by Sir Neville Marriner.

This year, during the Verbier Festival, Evgeny Kissin and Martha Argerich met again to celebrate Shostakovich’s 50th anniversary with his Concertino for two pianos.

A peaceful afternoon with Johanna Beisteiner performing Schubert's Ständchen. Have a great day!

To end the day, Daniel Barenboim with Anne-Sophie Mutter and Yo-Yo Ma playing Beethoven's Triple Concerto in C Major, Op. 56, No. 2. Bonne soirée!

Silent Night is the most recorded song, in more than 300 languages. Last year, through an ad from Erste Bank of Austria, the visual story of Joseph Mohr, a village priest in Oberndorf, Austria, and music teacher Franz Xaver Gruber, who composed and performed the song on Christmas Eve in 1818 during a time of hardship following the Napoleonic Wars, was depicted. The film highlights how the simple song spread globally, including performances before the Austrian Emperor in 1822, its broadcast during the first-ever radio entertainment in America in 1906, a moment of peace between German and English soldiers during World War I in 1914, and its transmission to the Skylab 4 space station in 1973.

Embrujo Mestizo performs Isaac Albéniz's Asturias in a classical guitar and castanets arrangement. (For the next two weeks or so I'll post very infrequently since the little one is on school break.)

I'll end the day with Yuja Wang in 2007, when she was 19, practising Mozart's Turkish March (Arkady Volodos' arrangement) along with her Carmen encore. Have a good evening!

I didn't post opera in quite some time. Natalie Dessay and Anne Sofie von Otter singing the Presentation of the Rose scene from Strauss’s “Der Rosenkavalier.” Vienna State Opera, 1994.

For today's lunch break, Callum Au plays Hoagy Carmichael's "Stardust". Not necessarily my usual post, but today I listened to anything from heavy metal to acid trance, and now it's time to slow down a bit. That being said, I wish you all a great day!

For the Jazz lovers, I'll dedicate today's last post to Joe Pass playing Satin Doll. Great chemistry with Bob Magnusson (bass) and Joe Porcaro (drums). Have a beautiful evening!