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Classics in Concert NPR Music presents today's most exciting classical artists in concert around the world. Hear a mix of established masters and emerging musicians, powerhouse orchestras and intimate chamber groups in music from Bach to Bernstein and beyond.
Special Series

Classics in Concert

Established masters, emerging musicians, powerhouse orchestras and intimate chamber groups
A Rare American Oratorio At Carnegie Hall

James Conion leads the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra and Chorus at Carnegie Hall in New York, NY on May 09, 2014. Melanie Burford/Prime/Melanie Burford/Prime for NPR hide caption

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A Rare American Oratorio At Carnegie Hall

WQXR

Hear an intriguing program pairing John Adams' gorgeous Harmonium with an oratorio by black Canadian-American composer R. Nathaniel Dett — a work whose 1937 premiere was weirdly cut short.

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Seattle Symphony, New Pulitzer Winner At Carnegie Hall

Composer John Luther Adams accepts enthusiastic applause from the Carnegie Hall audience after the New York premiere of his 2014 Pulitzer Prize-winning piece, Become Ocean, performed by the Seattle Symphony Orchestra. Melanie Burford/for NPR Music hide caption

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Seattle Symphony, New Pulitzer Winner At Carnegie Hall

WQXR

John Luther Adams' prize-winning piece Become Ocean headlines a concert devoted to sea and sand that includes Debussy's La mer and an Edgard Varèse piece inspired by the New Mexico desert.

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Music By Arvo Pärt, From The Met Museum

Estonian composer Arvo Pärt's music is celebrated at the Metropolitan Museum of Art with a performance of his choral work Kanon Pokajanen at the Temple of Dendur. Kristian Juul Pedersen/AFP/Getty Images hide caption

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Music By Arvo Pärt, From The Met Museum

Q2

Watch the Estonian Philharmonic Chamber Choir perform an extended piece derived from an ancient canon of repentance. Unfolding as a long prayer, the music is rich, multilayered and mesmerizing.

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Mozart's Violin Comes To Boston, Live In Concert

Daniel Stepner performs on the violin once owned by Mozart himself. WGBH hide caption

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Mozart's Violin Comes To Boston, Live In Concert

WGBH

Hear the full program and see an excerpt of the performances in Boston, thanks to a collaboration between the Salzburg Mozarteum, the Boston Early Music Festival and Classical New England.

Spring For Music: Detroit Symphony Orchestra At Carnegie Hall

Leonard Slatkin leads the Detroit Symphony Orchestra at the Spring for Music festival at Carnegie Hall. Torsten Kjellstrand/for NPR hide caption

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Spring For Music: Detroit Symphony Orchestra At Carnegie Hall

WQXR

Pink Martini singer Storm Large joins Leonard Slatkin and the orchestra for Kurt Weill's satirical Seven Deadly Sins, in a program bookended by composers who straddled the turn of the last century.

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Spring For Music: National Symphony Orchestra At Carnegie Hall

Conductor Christoph Eschenbach and the National Symphony Orchestra gave the final performance in this year's Spring for Music Festival at Carnegie Hall on May 11, 2013. The program was of all 20th-century Russian music: Shchedrin's Slava, Slava; Schnittke's Viola Concerto; and Shostakovich's Fifth Symphony. Torsten Kjellstrand for NPR hide caption

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Spring For Music: National Symphony Orchestra At Carnegie Hall

WQXR

Hear an evening of intriguing 20th-century Russian music — including Shostakovich, Schnittke and Shchedrin — that pays tribute to the orchestra's late and longtime leader, Mstislav Rostropovich.

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Carnegie Hall Live: Dresden Staatskapelle Plays Bruckner

The Dresden Staatskapelle's principal conductor, Christian Thielemann, asserts that Anton Bruckner's music, in its long-winding search for beauty, is the perfect antidote for modern life. He and the orchestra brought Bruckner's Symphony No. 8 to Carnegie Hall on April 19, 2013. Melanie Burford for NPR hide caption

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Carnegie Hall Live: Dresden Staatskapelle Plays Bruckner

WQXR

When the orchestra brings Bruckner's Eighth Symphony to New York, listeners hear an ensemble comfortable with the composer's quirks and thrills. Hear what one critic calls a "mesmerizing experience."

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Tokyo String Quartet Bids Boston A Bittersweet Farewell

After 43 seasons, the Tokyo String Quartet launches a farewell tour and serenades Boston with a final concert. Christian Ducasse hide caption

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Favorite Sessions

Tokyo String Quartet Bids Boston A Bittersweet Farewell

WGBH

After 43 seasons, the revered ensemble, born in Japan, calls it quits. Here, the players serenade Boston at WGBH, with a concert of music by Haydn, Bartok and Ravel.

Carnegie Hall Live: Jonathan Biss And The Elias String Quartet

Pianist Jonathan Biss and members of the Elias String Quartet brought their Schumann: Under the Influence program to Carnegie Hall. Melanie Burford/for NPR hide caption

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Carnegie Hall Live: Jonathan Biss And The Elias String Quartet

Hear one of America's finest young pianists and an emerging English string quartet play music by visionary composer Robert Schumann, as well as music by Mozart and artists Schumann influenced.

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Max Richter In Concert: Reimagining Vivaldi

Composer-performer Max Richter (right) brings his revamped Vivaldi to Manhattan's Le Poisson Rouge. Denise DeBelius/NPR hide caption

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Front Row

Max Richter In Concert: Reimagining Vivaldi

Q2

Max Richter grew tired of Vivaldi's warhorse The Four Seasons. But instead of writing off the piece forever, Richter rewrote it. He blended Vivaldi's work with his own music.

Daniel Barenboim And Members Of The West-Eastern Divan Orchestra

NPR Music, WQXR and (Le) Poisson Rouge host an intimate evening of music that spans both great Western and Middle Eastern music with members of an inspiring orchestra, led by one of classical music's most eminent artists. Ryan Muir for NPR hide caption

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Daniel Barenboim And Members Of The West-Eastern Divan Orchestra

WQXR

NPR Music, WQXR and (Le) Poisson Rouge host a evening that spans great Western and Middle Eastern music with members of an inspiring orchestra, led by one of classical music's most eminent artists.

Carnegie Hall Live: Golijov's 'St. Mark Passion'

Osvaldo Golijov's St. Mark Passion at Carnegie Hall. Melanie Burford/NPR hide caption

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Carnegie Hall Live: Golijov's 'St. Mark Passion'

WQXR

Hear one of the most exciting pieces of 21st-century music: a new retelling of Jesus' last days, from Latin American and Jewish perspectives, courtesy of composer Osvaldo Golijov and collaborators.

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ACME In Concert: Steve Reich's Complete String Quartets

Members of ACME (violinists Caroline Shaw and Ben Russell, violist Nadia Sirota and cellist Clarice Jensen) dug into Steve Reich's Different Trains to open their performance, recorded live on Sept. 11, 2012. AJ Wilhelm for NPR hide caption

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Live in Concert

ACME In Concert: Steve Reich's Complete String Quartets

Q2

A group of New York City contemporary music dynamos traversed three landmark works in a single evening, recorded live at New York's (Le) Poisson Rouge.

Ensemble Matheus At Carnegie Hall
Melanie Burford for NPR

Ensemble Matheus At Carnegie Hall

WQXR

Hear a top French chamber orchestra bring passionate life to operatic works by Vivaldi, Handel and the little-heard Nicola Antonio Porpora — a composer who was once Handel's rival.

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Carnegie Hall Live: Daniel Barenboim Leads The West-Eastern Divan Orchestra

Daniel Barenboim conducts the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra in Beethoven's Symphony No. 2 live at Carnegie Hall on February 3, 2013. Melanie Burford for NPR hide caption

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Carnegie Hall Live: Daniel Barenboim Leads The West-Eastern Divan Orchestra

WQXR

The orchestra drawn from Israel and many countries across the Middle East and North Africa play two of Beethoven's Symphonies as part of their "Beethoven for All" initiative.

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A Choral Christmas With Stile Antico

The London-based a cappella choir Stile Antico brings a program of Christmas music to Cambridge, Mass. Marco Borggreve hide caption

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Deceptive Cadence

A Choral Christmas With Stile Antico

GBH

Hear the acclaimed British choral group perform Christmas music from 16th century England at the acoustically rich St. Paul's Church in Cambridge, Mass.

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Gustavo Dudamel Opens Carnegie Hall Season With 'The Rite Of Spring'

Gustavo Dudamel led the Simón Bolívar Symphony Orchestra to open the new season of concerts at Carnegie Hall Thursday, Oct. 6. Chris Lee/Carnegie Hall hide caption

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Carnegie Hall Live

Gustavo Dudamel Opens Carnegie Hall Season With 'The Rite Of Spring'

WQXR

The charismatic conductor first heard Stravinsky's rambunctious music when he was just 8. Watch him lead the Simón Bolívar Symphony Orchestra of Venezuela live on Thursday night.

Yuja Wang Plays Carnegie Hall

Yuja Wang played a demanding program at Carnegie Hall, topped by four encores. Ebru Yildiz/for NPR hide caption

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Carnegie Hall Live

Yuja Wang Plays Carnegie Hall

WQXR

Hear one of today's most charismatic pianists perform music with deep psychological — and physical — dimensions by Beethoven, Schumann and Brahms.

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The 'Leningrad' Symphony At Carnegie Hall

Conductor Mariss Jansons led the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra at Carnegie Hall Wednesday in Shostakovich's Symphony No. 7, "Leningrad." AJ Wilhelm for NPR hide caption

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Carnegie Hall Live

The 'Leningrad' Symphony At Carnegie Hall

WQXR

Dmitri Shostakovich's powerful Seventh Symphony was written during the devastating World War II siege of Leningrad. Hear Mariss Jansons lead the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra.

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Budapest Festival Orchestra Plays Carnegie Hall

Music director Iván Fischer leading an Budapest Festival Orchestra concert at Carnegie Hall in New York Thursday. A.J. Wilhelm for NPR hide caption

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Carnegie Hall Live

Budapest Festival Orchestra Plays Carnegie Hall

Music director Iván Fischer conducts a Liszt piano concerto with Marc-André Hamelin as soloist, and a powerful wartime symphony by Prokofiev.

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The Philadelphia Orchestra Brings Vienna To Carnegie Hall

Yannick Nézet-Séguin leads the Philadelphia Orchestra with pianist Jan Lisiecki at Carnegie Hall in a program inspired by Vienna. Ebru Yildiz/for NPR hide caption

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Carnegie Hall Live

The Philadelphia Orchestra Brings Vienna To Carnegie Hall

WQXR

With a Strauss waltz, a cheeky take on Strauss and a Beethoven concerto, conductor Yannick Nézet-Séguin conjures the sound of old Vienna, once the musical capital of Europe.

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Beethoven Symphonies At Carnegie Hall Via Berlin

Conductor Simon Rattle took his Berlin Philharmonic and symphonies by Beethoven to Carnegie Hall for a week-long residency. AJ Wilhelm/NPR hide caption

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Beethoven Symphonies At Carnegie Hall Via Berlin

WQXR

From an all-Beethoven residency week, hear the storied Berlin Philharmonic play the profound Sixth and witty Eighth with conductor Simon Rattle.

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A Tale Of Two Sergeys: Boston Symphony Orchestra At Carnegie Hall

Conductor Andris Nelsons led the Boston Symphony Orchestra and the Tanglewood Festival Chorus Thursday in Prokofiev's Alexander Nevsky at Carnegie Hall in New York. AJ Wilhelm for NPR hide caption

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A Tale Of Two Sergeys: Boston Symphony Orchestra At Carnegie Hall

WQXR

Conductor Andris Nelsons rallies the Tanglewood Festival Chorus in Prokofiev's riotous Alexander Nevsky and makes the orchestra shine in Rachmaninov's Symphonic Dances.

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