Expand your knowledge. Chat with the experts. Join our community of kindred spirits on this exotic journey.

Our expert speakers are Ted Libbey and James Keller
Our performer is Awadagin Pratt

Join Us for Classical Music, Fully Lived.

Savor a program of private onboard recitals, social events, talks, and onshore performances. Nurture your listening skills; deepen your knowledge of music and musicians; feel a freshness of appreciation for the mysterious ways music touches mind, heart, and soul.

We'll go for Baroque with musicologist James Keller's sessions on Italian composers, and be proud to say "It's Greek to me" with a look at Greek classical music. NPR music critic and author Ted Libbey gives us a musical orientation to our ports of call, shares a look at American composers' European lives, and sweeps us away with conversations on Mozart and Debussy's "La Mer."

Noted concert pianist Awadagin Pratt, who has played for presidents and graced stages from Lincoln Center to the White House to Sesame Street, will wrap us in the moods, vistas, and vitality of classical piano in exclusive onboard recitals.

Classical Latitude Recitals

Beethoven Piano Sonatas

Does “Beethoven sonata” say strength and vitality to you? Are the sonatas historical bridges from the Classical to the Romantic? Or are they about exploring the capabilities of the piano? Awadagin Pratt has lived with Beethoven's sonatas, and will convey the expression he finds within them. "Piano Sonata No. 9 in E major, Op. 14, No.1"; "Piano Sonata No. 31 in A-flat major, Op. 110" (with its intense drama); and either "Piano Sonata No. 8 in C minor, Op. 13 ('Pathetique')" or "Piano Sonata No. 30 in E major, Op. 109," will communicate the vision Mr. Pratt feels Beethoven embodied in these works. New inklings, new insights, and new Beethoven memories await you in this exclusive recital with Awadagin Pratt.

Variations and Fugues

Variations, subjects, and answers. Our second recital with Awadagin Pratt features "Brahms Variations and Fugue on a Theme of Handel, Op. 24," and the "Bach-Pratt Passacaglia and Fugue in C Minor." Mr. Pratt tells us that he prepares to perform a work by internalizing it intellectually and emotionally. You’ll hear Mr. Pratt immerse himself in Brahms’ conversation with a theme from George Frideric Handel's "Harpsichord Suite in B flat" and in the primal music which has been called “among Bach’s most soulful works.” Join us as a virtuoso shares his own unique variations and interpretations of the dialogues within these classic works.

The Mystery Concert

Ah, the mysterious Mr. Pratt. He hasn't revealed the rich pieces he will unfold for us in our third recital. We do have clues — Awadagin Pratt seeks coherence in disparate ideas … he is adventuresome … he creates technique from spirit as well as mechanics … he has stories to tell us … Hmmm. Is the Liszt "Piano Sonata in B minor" in store, with its expressive tale of continuous transformation? Or will Mr. Pratt treat us to his noted performance of Mussorgsky's "Pictures at an Exhibition," a story of friendship, admiration, and loss? Perhaps a little Rachmaninoff? We'll settle into our seats, open hearts, minds, and souls, and enjoy the surprise!

Classical Latitude Lectures/Seminars

Ports of Call (90 minutes)
Speaker: Ted Libbey

Chart a course for a western Mediterranean sail inspired by 20th-century composers Jacques Ibert's "Ports of Call" and Ottorino Respighi's "Pines of Rome" and "Fountains of Rome", among others. We'll look at the color and mood of the music, as well as the thematic depiction of the Mediterranean's ancient cities.

Golden-Age Film Music (90 minutes)
Speaker: Ted Libbey

Cue the popcorn, cue the film clips, cue the glamour embodied by Monaco's late Serene Highness Grace in her film career as Grace Kelly — Ted Libbey directs a screening of the music that brought life to "Rear Window," "Ben Hur," the Errol Flynn swashbucklers, and other American cinema classics. We'll look at William Walton's scores for Henry V and Richard III, the latter written while he was living on Ischia, his home for the last 35 years of his life. And join the conversation — are there cinematic golden-age islands in today's movie soundtracks?

A European Pedigree (90 minutes)
Speaker: Ted Libbey

Let's take a look at 20th-century American composers who refined their craft in Europe, including Copland, Piston, Hanson (a Prix de Rome winner), Randall Thompson (another Prix de Rome), and Virgil Thomson. We'll also visit with the European composers and musicians who emigrated to America.

Genius In Every Department (90 minutes)
Speaker: Ted Libbey

Who mingles intellectual and listening pleasure like Mozart? Revel in an all-Mozart session, touching on concertos for brass (horn), wind (clarinet), strings (violin and viola, the Sinfonia concertante), and piano. Isaac Stern said "Mozart says things simply but profoundly. He says things you can think of but don't dare speak." Ted Libbey will illuminate how the rationality of Mozart touches the soul.

La Mer (90 minutes)
Speaker: Ted Libbey

Ted Libbey sweeps us away with an in-depth presentation on Debussy's "La mer". You'll compare different interpretations of the same passage(s), and immerse yourself in images of art works (by Turner, Hokusai, et al) that inspired the composer. A reflection on the perpetual ebb and flow of the sea and of mystery — perfect for a day at sea.

Birthplace of the Baroque: Italian Music in the 17th and 18th Centuries (3.5 hours)
Speaker: James Keller

The Baroque was one of the most musically radical, intellectually invigorating, and enduringly popular periods in the history of music. Italy served as its starting point and for more than a century reigned as the pinnacle of musical influence. We'll take a look at some of the ideas and aspirations that gave rise to the new style of the Baroque and we'll visit music by such influential Italian composers as Claudio Monteverdi, Giovanni Gabrieli, Archangelo Corelli, and Antonio Vivaldi, as well as by Northern European composers (including Heinrich Schütz and George Frideric Handel) who traveled to Italy to absorb the new style.

The Greek Way: Concert Music of Greece and the Adriatic Countries (90 minutes)
Speaker: James Keller

The philosophers and mathematicians of Ancient Greece laid the foundation for the European musical tradition, but Greek composers of more recent times have not enjoyed much prominence on concert stages outside their own country. Are we missing out on something? In this lecture we consider concert music by such Greek composers as Manos Hadjidakis (especially noted for his film scores) and Mikis Theodorakis (in whom music and politics intersected), and we also cast a glance to the countries immediately to the north. Warning: exposure to this repertoire may prove addictive.