In 2020, the City Birmingham Symphony Orchestra turned 100. Throughout its history, it has been led by musicians such as Edward Elgar and Adrian Boult, but it was not until the era of Simon Rattle (1980-1998) that it made the leap to the forefront of classical music. Rattle not only raised the musical level of the ensemble, but also established a new venue, Symphony Hall, and worked consistently with contemporary composers. His successors Sakari Oramo, Andris Nelsons and Mirga Gražinyte-Tyla built on these successes; in 2004, the CBSO Youth Orchestra was founded as a training ground for young talent. Among the orchestra's many awards are the German Record Critics' Prize and the Gramophone Award for the best classical recording of the past 30 years. CLOSE

Kazuki Yamada's sensitive musical approach makes him a sought-after guest conductor for concert, opera, and choral performances worldwide. He first gained international attention in 2009 when he won first prize at the 51st Besançon International Competition for Young Conductors. Since then, he has performed with the most renowned orchestras in Europe as well as in America and Asia. Since this spring, he has been Chief Conductor and Artistic Advisor of the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra (CBSO). In addition to his duties in Birmingham, Yamada is also Artistic Director and Music Director of the Orchestre Philharmonique de Monte-Carlo. Born in Kanagawa, Japan, he continues to work and perform in his homeland, where he is the Principal Guest Conductor of the Yomiuri Nippon Symphony Orchestra. CLOSE

"Louis Schwizgebel makes Liszt an event", was the headline in the NZZ in 2018 after the pianist's debut at the Tonhalle Maag – incidentally at the invitation of Migros Culture Percent Classics. At that point, the young Swiss pianist was no longer an unknown quantity among classical music fans. After competition successes in Geneva and New York, he had made his breakthrough with 2nd prize at the Leeds Piano Competition; a year later he was accepted into the BBC's coveted "New Generation Artists" promotion programme. Schwizgebel is now at home as a soloist all over the world: in Europe anyway, but also in the USA, China and Singapore. His debut CD, containing works by Liszt, Ravel and Holliger, already caused a sensation. In the following years, he recorded piano concertos by Beethoven and Saint-Saëns as well as late piano sonatas by Schubert. CLOSE

In 1917, in the midst of the turmoil of the Russian Revolution, the young Sergei Prokofiev retreated to the countryside to devote himself quietly to new compositions. The fact that among the works written there was a symphony in the style of Joseph Haydn is not without irony: of all people, the man who was considered a rebel of the Petersburg music scene sought artistic refuge in the past? But that made perfect sense, since Prokofiev saw in the virtues of Viennese Classicism - clarity, humor and concentration on the essentials - a musical antidote to the ballast of late Romantic overload.

Camille Saint-Saëns was an exceptional artist - as a pianist as well as a composer. In 1868, at the request of conductor Anton Rubinstein, he wrote a piano concerto in only 17 days and took over the solo part at the premiere himself. The result: not a routine work, but one that plays with the solo concerto form in a highly original way. At the beginning, the piano introduces the thematic material soloistically; the orchestra is given the task of "making" something out of it. If this reversal of the usual circumstances still caused irritation at the premiere, today, op. 22 is considered Saint-Saëns' most popular piano concerto.

Many Russian composers were fascinated by the world of the Orient, Borodin, Balakirev and Mussorgsky as well as their companion Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov. His most famous work is based on episodes from "One Thousand and One Nights": the princess Scheherazade, embodied by the solo violin, tells the cruel sultan a story night after night in order to save her life. Rimsky-Korsakov's orchestral suite is not only a feast of timbres and spectacular instrumental solos, but additionally balances the needs of an opulent sequence of images with symphonic structures.

Symphony or dance sequence? In his last work, Sergei Rachmaninov plays a conundrum with listening expectations and form. With the exception of the waltz-like 2nd movement, one looks in vain for dances here, but there can be no question of symphonic in the traditional sense. Rather, in op. 45 Rachmaninoff musically reviews his life, his lost homeland. Hence the programmatic subtitles Noon - Dusk - Night, hence the many quotations from earlier compositions. The finale is darkened by the medieval Dies Iae theme, before an Old Russian hymn of praise provides hope in the final bars.