Wigmore 125: Brahms' Piano Quintet

The Leonkoro Quartet and pianist Igor Levit mark Wigmore Hall's 125th anniversary with a masterpiece by Brahms plus exclusive orchestral music by Beethoven and Strauss from American conductor Karina Caellakis.

As part of the Wigmore Hall’s 125th anniversary celebrations, we’ll be hearing specially recorded performances from celebrated London venue's current festival. Today, former Radio 3 New Generation Artists, the Leonkoro Quartet join with German pianist Igor Levit for a performance of Brahms's thrilling Piano Quintet, alongside music by Mendelssohn and Haydn.

Today’s celebrated conductor spot is taken by the American Karina Canellakis, one of the most in-demand conductors of her generation. We’ll hear her conducting the Orchestre de la Suisse Romande in Beethoven’s Second Symphony and Richard Strauss’s tone-poem Death and Transfiguration; and also Brahms’s Alto Rhapsody with soloist Sophie Harmsen and the Netherlands Radio Philharmonic Orchestra and Choir, of whom Karina is the Chief Conductor.

Introduced by Elizabeth Alker:

Joseph Haydn
String Quartet in D Op. 76 No. 5
Leonkoro Quartet

Richard Strauss
Tod und Verklerung Op. 24
Orchestre de la Suisse Romande
Karina Canellakis (conductor)

Ludwig van Beethoven
Symphony No. 2 in D Major, Op.36
Orchestre de la Suisse Romande
Karina Canellakis (conductor)

Johannes Brahms
Piano Quintet in F minor Op. 34
Igor Levit (piano)
Leonkoro Quartet

Johannes Brahms
Alto Rhapsody, op. 53
Sophie Harmsen, alto
Netherlands Radio Philharmonic Orchestra and Choir
Karina Canellakis (conductor)

Felix Mendelssohn
String Quartet No. 6 in F minor Op. 80
Leonkoro Quartet