In the big hall of Tchaikovsky Conservatory in Moscow, where once Vladimir Horowitz gave his legendary concert, 12 Cellists of the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra celebrate their Russian premiere in a concert crowning the ensemble's 36-year history. They belong to the top orchestra of its class and are respected worldwide, and here they present a great program from Angel Dances and Dance Around the World as a part of the first international cello festival in Moscow, an event dedicated to the big "Slava," the cellist Mstislav Rostropovich.
In 1992, Jazz at Lincoln Center and New York City Ballet commissioned the famous jazz musician Wynton Marsalis to compose music for a new ballet by choreographer Peter Martins, Ballet Master in Chief of the NYCB. The film shows the preparation and the perfomance of the ballet.
Gustavo Dudamel, designated music director of the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra, is acknowledged to be one of the most important conductors of his generation. On October 2009 he conducted the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra at the Disney Concert Hall. On the programme was Gustav Mahler's Symphony No. 1 in D major, "Titan" and the world premiere of City Noir, the latest work by Pulitzer Prize for Music winner John Adams.
The Los Angeles Philharmonic is widely regarded as the most contemporary minded, forward thinking, talked about and innovative, venturesome and admired orchestra in America. Dudamel made his U.S. conducting debut with the Los Angeles Philharmonic at the Hollywood Bowl on September 13, 2005. In April 2007, during a guest conducting engagement with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Dudamel was named the LAP's next music director as of the 2009-2010 season, succeeding Esa-Pekka Salonen.
Appalachian Journey Live in Concert captures three of the world's most extraordinary musicians and some very special guests at their sold out performance at New York City's Avery Fisher Hall. The unique and compelling trio of cellist Yo-Yo Ma, violinist Mark O'Connor and bassist Edgar Meyer reaches a whole new level of artistic and technical prowess as they weave their way through a wide variety of musical genres.
In The Little Mermaid, Hamburg Ballet Director and Chief Choreographer John Neumeier blends dance, dramatic storytelling and spectacle into a stunning interpretation of Hans Christian Andersen's fable. With choreography, sets and costumes all by Neumeier, this ballet - as much theatre as it is dance - reveals the psychological transformation and the resilience of the spirit, human or otherwise.
The Russian pianist Boris Berezovsky is one of the most virtuous piano interpreters of our times. One can tell that for him the borders of keyboard possibilities have not yet been reached. Boris Berezovsky brought attention to himself with his daring dexterity at the 1990 International Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow. He won the Gold Medal straight off. The film accompanies Boris Berezovsky on his musical journey. The artist Boris Berezovsky drives through the Yekaterinburg, as a passionate player he goes to the casino and improvises along with a little band in a Jazz Club.
Each year, the traditional Festive Opera Gala combines real musical delight and the joy of charity. The gala, which is organised for the benefit of the German AIDS Foundation, has for years been one of the social highlights on the German agenda. In the years 2005 and 2006 conductor Lawrence Foster was the responsible leader of the choir and the orchestra of the German Opera Berlin.
Each year, the traditional Festive Opera Gala combines real musical delight and the joy of charity. The gala, which is organised for the benefit of the German AIDS Foundation, has for years been one of the social highlights on the German agenda. In the years 2005 and 2006 conductor Lawrence Foster was the responsible leader of the choir and the orchestra of the German Opera Berlin.
"Ich will euch trosten" (I will comfort you), sings the soprano in Brahms's Ein deutsches Requiem. Indeed, this is music of comfort, not of lamentation. With this work, Mariss Jansons is continuing the Requiem ritual started in 2011 to allow listeners to contemplate the transience of life at the beginning of autumn. Rather than using the standard Latin mass text, however, Brahms selected his own text from the Bible. He completed the work after the death of his mother. Following the premiere, the music critic Hanslick wrote, "Since Bach's Mass in B Minor and Beethoven's Missa Solemnis, nothing in this vein has been written which is comparable to Brahms's Ein deutsches Requiem. " It was this work, which became immensely popular, that truly established Brahms as a composer.
Daniel Barenboim is the soloist in this production of Brahm's Piano Concerto No. 1. Mariss Jansons conducts the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra. Also on the programme, Rachmaninov's Symphonic Dances, Op. 45.
In December 1989, the artists came together to record some of the early chamber works of Brahms. Part I of each volume focuses on the preparation, rehearsal and re-takes, while Part II captures the final record performance. Emanuel Ax, Isaac Stern, Cho-Liang Lin, Jaime Laredo, Michael Tree, Yo-Yo Ma, Sharon Robinson.
In December 1989, the artists came together to record some of the early chamber works of Brahms. Part I of each volume focuses on the preparation, rehearsal and re-takes with artists providing commentary for the rehearsal section of each programme, while Part II captures the final record performance. Emanuel Ax, Isaac Stern, Jaime Laredo, and Yo-Yo Ma performed the actual recording session at the Troy Savings Bank Music Hall in Troy New York.
"In my opinion, comrades, we really should end the monotony of this Yeah, Yeah, Yeah or whatever they call it" (SED General Secretary Walter Ulbricht about pop music).
As classical music was considered politically harmless in the former GDR, its education was highly encouraged. The regime quickly discovered its great potential for generating valuable cultural exchange — as well as much needed hard currency.
Classical music "made in the GDR" became an export hit for the regime, thanks to, for example, the Staatskapelle Dresden, the Gewandhausorchester Leipzig and renowned artists like Kurt Masur, Peter Schreier, Franz Konwitschny, Kurt Sanderling and Theo Adam.
Through case studies of individuals who lived under the system, "Classical Music & Cold War" explores the fates of both the privileged and the non-privileged, and delivers insight into the influence of the political system on artistic life. The film includes interviews with contemporary witnesses both from GDR and the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG).
Truls Mørk was the first Scandinavian ever to win the Moscow Tchaikovsky competition, a triumph that marked the start of his musical career. He enjoys a close friendship with the principal conductor of the Bamberg Symphony Orchestra, Jonathan Nott. He played the Cello Concerto in B minor by Anton Dvořák with the entire orchestra at the conclusion of his time as "artist in residence."
"Extraordinary pieces of music transport me to another state of consciousness. I don't know if I can describe it any better. At least that is how playing the Dvořák cello concerto makes me feel."
The film visits Truls Mørk at his Scandinavian holiday home, accompanying him on his boat out at sea and on walks along the coast. The Cello Concerto by Anton Dvořák with the Bamberg Symphony Orchestra and the Chopin interpretations are focal points of the story.
The young French countertenor Philippe Jaroussky is one of the most exceptional artists of our time. He is highly acclaimed by critics all over the world for his virtuoso coloratura technique, as well as for his compelling and lively interpretations of baroque cantatas and operas. Together with the Concerto Köln he embarks on a journey into the world of an almost forgotten composer. Antonio Caldara (1670-1736) was on one of the most renowned opera composers of his time. Philippe Jaroussky and the ensemble transfer selected arias of the composer into the 21st century. The film accompanies the musicians to rehearsals and to the concert at the Prinzregententheater in Munich.
St. Petersburg is one of the most beautiful cities of the world. In this program, Renee Fleming and Dmitri Hvorostovsky will explore the most spectacular corners of the city that was born in the remarkable mind of Peter the Great. On this occasion, they will be singing operatic duets and arias by Verdi, Tchaikovsky, Ambroise Thomas and Bellini, accompanied by Constantine Orbelian and the State Hermitage Orchestra. They will be leading us through the city and will perform in the Golden Ballroom of Peterhof Palace, as well as the White Columns Room and extraordinary baroque Theater of the Yusupov Palace where they will also sing romances by Rachmaninov and Tchaikovsky, accompanied by pianists Olga Kern and Ivary Ilja.
Concert on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of Bernard Haitink's collaboration with the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra.
The date is 2 May 1957. Stalin died only four years before and perestroika is still a long way off. However, the Canadian pianist Glenn Gould, who is just 24, arrives in Moscow for an exceptional tour: he is the first North American musician to play behind the iron curtain. Witness accounts from musicians such as Ashkenazy and Rostropovitch, the original recordings of his concerts in Moscow and Leningrad, as well a recording that had never been released before of his lecture-recital in Leningrad make this an invaluable documentary revealing a whole side of Glenn Gould's past few people are aware of.
On occation of his 80th birthday, legendary conductor Bernard Haitink leads "his" Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra in this great production of Beethoven's 7th Symphony .
The world is going to see increasingly less of legendary conductor Nikolaus Harnoncourt, who celebrates his 80th birthday in December 2009. So the time is right for a comprehensive portrait of one the most important conductors of our time.
Harnoncourt - the captivator. One immediately comes under the spell of his admirable intensity, his humorous comparisons, his wit and his brilliant rhetoric. It's nearly impossible not to succumb to his fascinating congeniality. Even his critics are captivated!
The film also draws parallels between Nikolaus Harnoncourt and Joseph
Haydn, who in their popularity and diversity are both unique. Besides great concerts in Eisenstadt and Esterháza, Harnoncourt conducts Haydn's famous opera Il mondo della Luna at the stunning Theater an der Wien. In his inimitable way Harnoncourt presents his own picture of Haydn, which is different from anything we have known before.
Haydn's lifetime saw a series of striking changes in musical style. At the time of his birth and childhood Baroque traditions still prevailed. By the end of his life the apparent stability of the Classical style was being challenged, notably by Beethoven. Haydn did not simply live through this long development; he was a central part of it. Nele Munchmeyer's documentary throws light upon Haydn as the ingenious composer and as the private person – the "Libertine" in his private life and the "Servant" as the Kapellmeister of the Esterhazys.
The film includes excerpts from highly acclaimed performances of Haydn works. Amongst them are the opera Armida with the German soprano Annette Dasch, arias from Haydn performed by the Freiburger Barockorchester and the baritone Thomas Quasthoff, and performances of Die Schopfung and Die Jahreszeiten conducted by Roger Norrington.
Mariss Jansons and the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra with Arthur Honegger's Third Symphony, "Liturgique" from the main hall of the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam.
Recorded and broadcast in May 1982, Horowitz's technique was beginning to decline, though he retained all the fire of his playing.
A recording of Horowitz's historic recital in Moscow, the program also includes highlights of his return to his native Soviet Union - his first visit in 61 years.
After a few years rest and some at-home unofficial rehabilitation Horowitz was ready to begin performing again. Horowitz recorded the material on this production in his own living room. We see a rejuvinated, different Horowitz, someone in much more control than in the 1982 and 1983 recitals. The only thing lacking in Horowitz's performance from this point on was preparation; Horowitz admittedly did not practice very much and it shows.
This film is both a memoir of the Berliner Philharmoniker director Claudio Abbado's early years, and a personal introduction to the orchestra. It culminates in a deeply felt introduction to the sections of the orchestra with Abbado leading the Youth Orchestra of a United Europe.
Daniel Harding, one of the most sought-after young conductors of our time, and the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra performing Janáček's Lachian Dances, which originally were titled Wallachian Dances after the Moravian Wallachia region. The composition reflects folk songs from that specific area of Janáček's home country.
Featuring Jessye Norman in an exclusive rehearsal of Bizet's Carmen at Radio France Studio with Seiji Ozawa leading the French National Orchestra.
For the 2014/15 Opening Night Concert and Gala, the Los Angeles Philharmonic paid loving tribute to composer John Williams , long a champion and close friend of the LA Phil. Gustavo Dudamel, an awestruck fan of the musical icon, led the orchestra in a cross-section of Maestro Williams' matchless canon.
Herbert von Karajan was the only major orchestral conductor to create film – and later video productions – at his own expense. "I am actually born too early," he said, well aware that video's possibilities were still in their infancy. Georg Wubbolt did interviews with Karajan's team: his director of photography, his cutter, his secretary, his producer and musicians of the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra and the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra. This documentary includes outstanding performance material from the Unitel and Telemondial library, as well as unreleased digitally remastered excerpts from the legendary RBB (SFB) and ORF archive. We see Karajan talking about this subject in talk shows and television. It underlines Karajan's appearance as a real Maestro for the Screen from a side unknown to most people, introduced by his closest collaborators.
The film is constructed chronologically. It starts with the very first concert productions in 1957 at NHK in Japan, followed by the impressive cooperation with director Henri-Georges Clouzot in 1965 and ends with Karajan's own film company Telemondial. The Silvesterkonzert 1988 at the Philharmonie in Berlin marks the end of the great era, long before music video entered the entertainment industry.
Two hundred orchestral musicians are playing Orff's Carmina Burana in total darkness. A power cut has hit the Ngiri Ngiri district of Kinshasa, only a few bars before the last section of the work. Kinshasa's power stations and main networks are insufficient to supply electricity to all the 8 million inhabitants of what is Africa's third-largest city. Once again the lights have gone out in the "Salle des fêtes", a kind of open garage where the orchestra practises. But for its members this is no reason to stop rehearsing. Most of them know their parts by heart. Small lapses of memory are compensated for by a talent for improvisation and the grace of God.
Carlos Kleiber, the eccentric and reclusive conductor, was a fabled perfectionist who was known as much for the rarity of his appearances as for the brilliance of his interpretations. Georg Wübbolt's film sheds light on the relationships with his family, including his father and mother, traces the development of Kleiber's career and covers the "mythologizing" that started during the lifetime of the maestro.
Krzysztof Komeda – jazz pianist and film composer. With compositions like the lullaby for Rosemary's Baby from Roman Polanski, Komeda succeeded in writing his own chapter in the history of soundtracks. As a jazz musician he gained cult status in Poland. As a film composer he made it into Hollywood's first ranks. But there his career came to a sudden end.
The film essay Komeda - A Soundtrack for a Life is a reflection on Komeda's soundtracks, which changed the common film scores forever. It is a contemporary document about the attitude to life in a time of social, political and cultural change after war, and about the work and exodus of the Polish artist in the 50s and 60s.
This film features interviews with directors who worked with Komeda and who were also his friends, including Roman Polanski, Jerzy Skolimowski, Henning Carlsen, and Andrzej Wajda. His wife, Zofia Komeda, and his sister, Irena Orlowska, also remember him.
Since going on sale in November 2012, tickets for classical pianist Lang Lang's solo recital at the Royal Albert Hall on November 15th 2013 sold out within 48 hours, a record for a recital by any classical musician at the venue in recent times. C Major is delighted to be able to preserve his performance for the screen, so his many worldwide fans have a chance to experience the programme. His repertoire includes Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's Piano Sonata No. 5 in G major, KV 283 - Piano Sonata No. 4 in E flat major, KV 282 ?EUR" Piano Sonata No. 8 in A minor, KV 310 ; Frederic Chopin's Ballade No. 1 Op 23 in G minor ?EUR" Ballade No. 2 Op 38 in F Major ?EUR" Ballade No. 3 Op 47 in A flat ?EUR" Ballade No. 4 Op 52 in F minor. and many more.
"The most popular pianist on the planet" (CNN) performs at the
stunning Musikverein in Vienna, recorded for the first time at a special TV recital!
"For me, there are few halls around the globe that have the same
prestige as Carnegie Hall and the Musikverein. Of course there are
other great halls, but I always feel these two have a unique place in
people's hearts. So I felt that after Carnegie Hall, the Musikverein
would be the place where I should do another live recordings." (Lang
Lang)
The programme also includes special backstage features, interviews
and much more.
"To his millions of fans worldwide the 27-year-old Chinese musician is
a God-like star, whose skill and energetic performance style put him
in a league of his own."(CNN)
Star baritone Thomas Hampson is the soloist in this performance of Mahler's Lieder eines Fahrenden Gesellen . Joining him are famous conductor Mariss Jansons and the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra. Also on the programme: Antonín Dvorák's Symphony No. 8.
In many ways Gustav Mahler's Seventh and Eighth Symphonies are the most unusual works that the late Romantic composer ever wrote. The Seventh was the last in a series of middle-period pieces that were purely instruments in character. Two movements headed Nachtmusik and the remarkable writing for a guitar and mandolin help to create a sequence of darkly Romantic visions. And even within Mahler's markedly eclectic output, the Eighth Symphony enjoys the status of an exotic outsider thanks not only to its two-movement form combining an early medieval hymn and the final scene from Goethe's Faust but also to the vast forces for which it is scored, earning it the title of Symphony of a Thousand
After the two famous Mahler festivals in 1920 and 1995, the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra Amsterdam is now presenting a special two-season Mahler series, which includes ten large-scale symphonies plus Das Lied von der Erde , performed in chronological order by the world's greatest orchestra under the direction of great conductors – all brought to life in the wonderful acoustics of the Main Hall of the Concertgebouw.
After the two famous Mahler festivals in 1920 and 1995, the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra Amsterdam is now presenting a special two season Mahler series, which includes ten large-scale symphonies plus Das Lied von der Erde , performed in chronological order by the world's greatest orchestra under the direction of great conductors – all brought to life in the wonderful acoustics of the Main Hall of the Concertgebouw.
After the two famous Mahler festivals in 1920 and 1995, the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra Amsterdam is now presenting a special two-season Mahler series, which includes ten large-scale symphonies plus Das Lied von der Erde , performed in chronological order by the world's greatest orchestra under the direction of great conductors – all brought to life in the wonderful acoustics of the Main Hall of the Concertgebouw.
After the two famous Mahler festivals in 1920 and 1995, the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra Amsterdam is now presenting a special two-season Mahler series, which includes ten large-scale symphonies plus Das Lied von der Erde , performed in chronological order by the world's greatest orchestra under the direction of great conductors – all brought to life in the wonderful acoustics of the Main Hall of the Concertgebouw.
After the two famous Mahler festivals in 1920 and 1995, the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra Amsterdam is now presenting a special two-season Mahler series, which includes ten large-scale symphonies plus Das Lied von der Erde , performed in chronological order by the world's greatest orchestra under the direction of great conductors – all brought to life in the wonderful acoustics of the Main Hall of the Concertgebouw.
After the two famous Mahler festivals in 1920 and 1995, the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra Amsterdam is now presenting a special two-season Mahler series, which includes ten large-scale symphonies plus Das Lied von der Erde , performed in chronological order by the world's greatest orchestra under the direction of great conductors – all brought to life in the wonderful acoustics of the Main Hall of the Concertgebouw.
After the two famous Mahler festivals in 1920 and 1995, the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra Amsterdam is now presenting a special two season Mahler series, which includes ten large-scale symphonies plus Das Lied von der Erde , performed in chronological order by the world’s greatest orchestra under the direction of great conductors – all brought to life in the wonderful acoustics of the Main Hall of the Concertgebouw.
Gustav Mahler spent 1909 and 1910 working on his final two symphonies. The Ninth has gone down in history as the culmination of his symphonic output and a prophetic anticipation of musical modernism. But owing to his declining health, he had to stop work on the Tenth after a few months and was unable to resume it before his death.
Only the first movement, included here, was orchestrated to a point where it can be performed without non-authorial additions. The Mahler cycle, performed by the Frankfurt Radio Symphony Orchestra under Paavo Jarvi has already been internationally acclaimed as one of the most important Mahler projects of the new millennium.
After the two famous Mahler festivals in 1920 and 1995, the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra Amsterdam is now presenting a special two season Mahler series, which includes ten large-scale symphonies plus Das Lied von der Erde , performed in chronological order by the world’s greatest orchestra under the direction of great conductors – all brought to life in the wonderful acoustics of the Main Hall of the Concertgebouw.
A series for young people of our time, it embraces classical music as well as jazz. After each performance, Marsalis illuminates the music in terms that everyone can understand, using language that is clear and simple, and infused with the colourful vernacular of Jazz. Musical performances include The Nutcracker , Prokofiev's Classical Symphony , Stars and Stripes Forever and more.
A series for young people of our time, it embraces classical music as well as jazz. After each performance, Marsalis illuminates the music in terms that everyone can understand, using language that is clear and simple, and infused with the colourful vernacular of Jazz. Musical performances include The Nutcracker , Prokofiev's Classical Symphony , Stars and Stripes Forever and more.
A series for young people of our time, it embraces classical music as well as jazz. After each performance, Marsalis illuminates the music in terms that everyone can understand, using language that is clear and simple, and infused with the colourful vernacular of Jazz. Musical performances include The Nutcracker , Prokofiev's Classical Symphony , Stars and Stripes Forever and more.
A series for young people of our time, it embraces classical music as well as jazz. After each performance, Marsalis illuminates the music in terms that everyone can understand, using language that is clear and simple, and infused with the colourful vernacular of Jazz. Musical performances include The Nutcracker , Prokofiev's Classical Symphony , Stars and Stripes Forever and more.
Kurt Masur, one of the world's greatest maestros, challenges and teaches the next generation of young musicians and conductors by stretching their limits and transforming their perspectives and abilities. Following master classes around the world over a period of few years, the film is a carefully constructed collage organically interviewing the maestro's teachings and his personal life experiences.
The result is a comprehensive emotional portrait of one of the most respected conductors of our time.
Legendary Canadian artist Joni Mitchell in collaboration with internationally acclaimed choreographer Jean Grand-Mâitre of the Alberta Ballet Company created The Fiddle and The Drum , a special ballet that speaks volumes of Joni Mitchell's life-long concerns about environmental neglect and the warring nature of mankind. It is a celebration of the profoundly humanistic questions and testimonies that are expressed so poetically by Joni Mitchell, a world-renowned poet.
"Rarely is such a warm, captivating and smooth voice heard here in the
Netherlands," wrote Peter van der Lint in the Dutch newspaper Trouw following the Italian bass Ferruccio Furlanetto's last performance with the RCO, for which he garnered wide acclaim with the orchestra singing Mussorgsky's Songs and Dances of Death on 25 August 2010. Now he returns with his favourite arias from Mozart's Le nozze di Figaro and Don Giovanni . This is followed by a truly unique event happening for the very first time, a work by Anton Bruckner is performed at one of the legendary Concertgebouw Christmas Matinee conducted by chief conductor Mariss Jansons.
Legendary pianist Vladimir Horowitz, conductor Carlo Maria Giulini and The Orchestra of La Scala perform Mozart's Piano Concerto No. 23 in A Major in a studio setting. The film also includes discussions, playback sessions and interviews.
Frans Brüggen and his Orchestra of the Eighteenth Century reinvent the classical masterpieces of Mozart, Haydn, Beethoven and other 18th-century composers by playing them on period instruments and interpreting the music as if it were written yesterday. After almost 30 years of traveling all around the globe they now, in their 99th world tour, play Mozart with the spirit, freshness and eagerness of their first concert. On the programme are Mozart's final three symphonies, including No. 40, the first symphony ever played by Frans Brüggen and his band.
Music, Mon Amour delves into the secret of a grand passion – the love of music. What makes it irresistible? Why can't we live without music? In Music, Mon Amour we embark on a search for clues – together with the Israeli singer Yasmin Levy, the Japanese violinist Midori and the German composer Helmut Oehring. They reveal their deep love of music and talk of the joy and despair that go with it. Their accounts, intimate and affecting, and from widely differing perspectives, convey their existential and contradictory relationship to music.
Magic was created one starlit night in July 1990, when Luciano Pavarotti, Placido Domingo, and Jose Carreras met onstage at the Baths of Caracalla in Rome and became the Three Tenors. 800 million people attended this live event which caused the biggest hype ever in the history of classical music. They eschewed competitive instincts and cooperated in the spirit of mutual admiration to create one of the greatest musical events ever. This concert is an awe-inspiring orgy of greatest hits for the tenor voice.
This 1985 documentary focuses on conductor Seiji Ozawa and the behind-the-scenes world of the symphony orchestra. It communicates the intensity and passion that Ozawa brings to his work as conductor and teacher, and shows him in the context of his relationship with former masters, current students and family. It also explores the cultural tensions that caused him to leave Japan and begin a career in the West.
After over thirty years on the concert stage the pianist Murray Perahia has himself become a legend, one of the most sought-after pianists of our time. This film is not designed to be a conventional portrait. The documentary observes Perahia at work on the interpretation of some pieces by Chopin and Schumann at his holiday home in Switzerland. It shows him as conductor of the famous Academy of St. Martin in the Fields, follows him into the recording studio and a master class in Hanover and finally captures a concert performance at a Warsaw Chopin recital in February 2010. Interviews with Murray Perahia cast light on his approach to music, his personality and the way he has managed to cope with the personal crises that has beset him.
Kimmo Pohjonen is one of the cutting-edge accordion virtuosi and composers of our time. After having heard a record of Pohjonen's during their concert tour in Finland, Kronos Quartet – who is well known for breaking new musical ground – decided to get in touch with him. The Kronos/Kluster project entitled Uniko is a mutually beneficial sonic/visual adventure with this goal: to create unique and never-before-heard sounds from accordion and strings. "The Making of Uniko" is a short documentary giving an insight into the collaboration between Kimmo Pohjonen, who has taken the accordion to new dimensions, his Kluster partner Samuli Kosminen, Finland's sampling guru, and the world's most revolutionary string quartet – the Kronos Quartet.
Puccini's Gianni Schicchi perfomed at the AVRO Kerstmatinee 2000 by Riccardo Chailly and the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra.
Riccardo Chailly and the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra with a highly acclaimed perfomance of Puccini's opera in one act, Suor Angelica , at the legendary AVRO Kerstmatinee in 1999.
From the main hall of the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam: Riccardo Chailly and the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra perfoming Puccini's opera in one act, Il tabarro . Joining them is a great cast of high-class singers. Amongst them star tenor José Cura.
The Italian composer Giacomo Puccini is reputed to have once described himself as "a passionate hunter of water birds, texts and women." It was an ironic description of the problems which are said to have accompanied him throughout his life. He was indeed a passionate, yet terrible, hunter. With every opera he wrote, he wore out numerous librettists in the search for the perfect text, because unlike Mozart, he couldn't write a single note before the "script" for a new piece of work was just as he wanted it. And for as long as he lived, he was almost manic in his hunt for and collection of beautiful women.
The film by Andreas Morell looks at Giacomo Puccini's life from the point of view of his manic psychological preoccupation with one subject: women. He makes connections between the women in Puccini's life and those in his operas, looking as he goes at what made Puccini tick. Starting with a characteristic situation in Vienna in 1923 – one year before the composer's death – the film offers an insight into Puccini and reflects a repetitive pattern which spanned almost three decades of his life. As he summarised for his own credo: "I cannot compose without love in my life!"
In 2007 the Berlin Philharmonic celebrates its 125th year. The orchestra is using its jubilee as an opportunity to examine a rather unknown chapter in its history: The years under the rule of the National Socialists (between 1933 and 1945). The centre stage is taken by the musicians, the people and their individual fates.
Thanks to contemporary witnesses from the orchestra and its fringes who are still alive today, and thanks also to extensive and until now unappraised archive materials, it is possible to gain an insight into this microcosmos: where does the thin line run separating autonomy from entanglement, innocence from guilt? A chapter from the history of Germany and Berlin, as gripping as it is volatile, comes to life once more.
The film made by Enrique Sanchez-Lansch - whose documentary Rhythm is it! was awarded with the Bavarian Film Award 2004, the German Critics Award 2004 and two times with the German Film Award LOLA for Best Documentary and Best Editing - seeks out witnesses from all over the world and forgotten (or carefully concealed) footage of propaganda events such as the Nuremberg Rallies or the opening ceremony of the 1936 Olympics. It visits the relatives of the four Jewish members who were removed from the orchestra, the descendants of the musicians...
Fierrabras of 1823 is the last of Franz Schubert's stage works. Rarely performed to this day, this heroic-romantic opera has now been staged for the first time ever at the Salzburg Festival by famous director Peter Stein. The strong cast includes the marvellously expressive miracle Dorothea Roschmann (Die Zeit) and Michael Schade, who exudes his exceptional tenor in Fierrabras's heroic arias (Der neue Merker). Under the energetic baton of lngo Metzmacher, the Vienna Philharmonic unfold "the melos, the poetry, the sweetness and the dramatic force of Schubert's highly refined and atmospheric sound worlds" (Kleine Zeitung) in highly romantic fashion.
Solti's professional advancement starts at a time when Germany was on its knees. The film depicts this situation by including historical video documents. Only a couple of hours before his death on 5 September 1997, he made his last corrections for the book. By using a narrator who reads excerpts of his biography, Solti is virtually given a voice in this film. The interview partners add an important dimension to the film. All of them were very well acquainted with Solti and have fascinating stories to tell. In regards to capturing performances, Solti was as productive as Bernstein and Karajan. The archives of the ARD network list about 120 TV productions, interviews, rehearsals. Further rich sources are the archives of BR, HR, SWR, ORF, Unitel and the BBC.
Eric Schulz reveals in his latest music film a new perspective on the personality and oeuvre of Richard Strauss , who saw himself as the last great composer at the end of an era, "at the end of the rainbow". This carefully researched production presents spectacular hitherto unreleased pictures of Richard Strauss. Among others: a live recording of the premiere of the Olympic Anthem at the Berlin Olympic stadium in 1936. The very first performance of this piece ever to be heard, performed by the Berlin Philharmonic and a choir of 1000 singers conducted by Richard Strauss himself. These spectacular rare pictures are embedded in interviews with relatives, famous musicians and Strauss experts, such as Christian Strauss, Stefan Mickisch and Brigitte Fassbaender.
Stravinsky's opera-oratorio Oedipus Rex from the Concertgebouw Amsterdam with Robert Dean Smith, Waltraud Meier, Juha Uusitalo and Jan-Hendrik Rootering. Riccardo Chailly conducts the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra.
This ambitious production uses a number of striking visual elements including a massive set that floats above a reflecting pool, huge puppets and sculptures. The noted Butoh artist, Min Tanaka, dances the role of Oedipus, and is joined by twenty dancers to portray this classical tragedy.
The stage-play for a Baroque-Orchestra, two Sopranos and one actor is based on the real-life story of Jack Unterweger, a notorious womanizer and celebrated author and journalist, who was suspected of killing prostitutes in Vienna, Graz, Prague and Los Angeles; later vanished from Vienna, fled into the U.S., got arrested in Miami, transferred to Austria, accused and finally committed suicide after being convicted of homicide in eleven cases.
Gala in commemoration of the 150th birthday of Peter Tchaikovsky.
The Wiener Staatsballet is one of the great companies in the world. Yet never before had Rudolf Nureyev's world-famous choreography of The Nutcracker performed in Vienna. The present production remedies this omission by presenting Nureyev's final, 1985 Paris version with two magnificent young soloists and the splendid Vienna corps de ballet. Nureyev's version enjoys a particular standing in the history of this well-known ballet in that it was the first to incorporate the psychology of E.T.A Hoffman's fairy tale on which Tchaikovsky's ballet is based. The critic Clive Barnes set the tone by remarking: "No version of the Nutcracker that we have ever seen has been more potently dramatic; few have displayed so sharp an imprint of personal style."
It is the one ballet that everyone knows, has heard of or seen, and it is one of the loveliest and most frequently performed works in the ballet literature. No other ballet is capable of conjuring up such intensive images, dreams and yearnings as Tchaikovsky's Swan Lake! Rudolf Nureyev created his now classic version 1964; to mark the 50th anniversary of this early masterpiece by a ballet genius, the Vienna State Opera has revived his production for 2014 with new sets and costumes.
In 2014 the World Orchestra for Peace returned with its conductor Valery Gergiev for their fourth appearance at the BBC Proms, to play a special concert marking the centennial of the outbreak of World War I. The concert also celebrated the 150th anniversary of Richard Strauss's birth with the colourful, fairy-tale soundscapes of the Fantasia from his operatic masterpiece Die Frau ohne Schatten, Roxanna Panufnik's Three Paths to Peace , commissioned by the orchestra and Mahler's Sixth Symphony . The World Orchestra for Peace, founded in 1995 by Sir Georg Solti to reaffirm, in his words, "the unique strength of music as an ambassador for peace" is a classical supergroup made up of leading players from the world's finest orchestras. The concert is introduced by an illuminating documentary with Solti and Gergiev, marking the orchestra's 20th anniversary.
Commissioned by the Viceroy of Egypt, Aida is Verdi's only opera to be written for a non-European house. Although set in Egypt in the 19th century BC, it borrows only superficially from the current fashion for exotic subjects but on closer examination emerges as an implacable indictment of nationalism and imperialism.
First performed in Naples in 1845, Alzira is an eloquent example of the refinement and emotional depth of Verdi's musical language, and yet it remains one of his least-performed works. The dream unfolds against the background of the Spanish conquest of Peru and inspired Verdi to write original melodies and magnificent choruses, to be heard here in a concept performance from the Alto Adige Festival in Dobbiaco.
In 1792 King Gustavus III of Sweden was shot at a masked ball, and this was the starting point of Verdi's Un ballo in maschera . But Before the opera could be performed in Rome in 1859, the composer had to deal with a whole series of problems with the censor. It was only when the action was moved to Boston and all reference to real-life figures removed that work could be launched on its triumphant career.
La battaglia di Legnano is the only opera by Verdi to have any direct bearing on the Risorgimento - the Italian liberation movement. Only superficially is the action concerned with the conflict between the Lombard League and Frederick Barbarossa, the Hohenstaufen emperor. Among the opera's highlights are its patriotic choruses, with which Verdi stirred up opinion in favour of a united Italy.
One of Verdi's least performed work, Il corsaro is based on a poem by Byron and was written between 1845 and 1848. The action takes place in the 16th century, a period notable for its skirmishes between Christian pirates and the Ottoman Empire, yet the action centres not on maritime battles and duels but on complex love affairs, all of which end badly for the protagonists.
Based on Schiller's play of the same name, Don Carlos was written for the Paris Opera between 1865 and 1867 in the tradition of a French grand opera. Repeatedly revised and performed in Italian as Don Carlo, the opera is seen here in the version that Verdi prepared for Modena in 1886. In many respects, this is Verdi's most ambitious and most forward-looking work.
I due Foscari was Verdi's sixth opera and is based on Lord Byron's play The Tow Foscari . Rich in intrigue, the plot tells of the final days of the famous Venetian doge, Francesco Foscari, and his illegal overthrow in 1457. The opera was first performed at the Teatro Argentina in Rome in November 1844.
Ernani is Verdi's fifth work for the stage and is based on Victor Hugo's Hernani . It takes as its starting point the theme of vengeance in all its manifold aspects and received its first performance at the Teatro La Fenice in Venice in March 1844, its success proving Verdi's definitive breakthrough as a composer. The fact that the work has been staged with increasing frequency in major opera houses in recent years is due to the renaissance of bel canto singing.
Based, in part, on Shakespeare's The Merry Wives of Windsor and King Henry IV, Falstaff is Verdi's last work for the stage - and only his second comic opera. And yet the humour in this multilayered masterpiece is distinctly wry, for all the main characters exhibit an array of of human weaknesses that are implacably exposed by Verdi and his librettist Arrigo Boito.
For La forza del destino , Verdi created one of his most famous melodies, the "fate" motif that permeates the whole of the score. Music and action alternate in masterly fashion between large-scale crown scenes and intimate interiority, in that way illustrating Verdi's real them: the manner in which fallible human beings are destroyed by a cruel fate.
Un giorno di regno is the rare case of a musical comedy by Verdi. But his second stage work proved a complete fiasco when unveiled at La Scala, Milan, in 1840 and more than half a century was to pass before he attempted a second comedy with his final opera Falstaff . Today, conversely, Verdi's early melodramma giocoso enjoys increasing popularity thanks to its wellspring of musical ideas and effervescent melodies.
Giovanna d'Arco is based on Friedrich Schiller's tragedy The Maid of Orleans and deals with the life of Joan of Arch. But Verdi and his librettist Temistocle Solera departed from both Schiller and historical fact by turning Joan's father into the opera's powerful antagonist. Ever since its first performance in Milan in 1845. Giovanna d'Arco has been admired and loved for its emotionally affecting arias and thrilling choral writing.
I Lombardi alla prima crociata (The Lombards on the First Crusade) was Verdi's fourth opera and received its first performance at La Scala, Milan, in February 1843. The grandiloquent subject matters is fleshed out with broad-brushed musical and dramatic effects and lavish choral scenes and created a correspondingly impressive impact. A great success in Milan, it spread to the rest of Europe within a matter of only a few years.
Luisa Miller is based on Schiller's famous stage play Kabale und Liebe and marks its composer's first departure from the world of the Bible and historical legend. Rather, Verdi depicts everyday conflicts between ordinary people. Musically, too, the opera broke with a number of the operatic conventions of its time.
A reworking of Shakespeare's tragedy of the same name, Verdi's Macbeth received its first performance in Florence in March 1847, although the heavily revised version of 1865 is the one that is almost always performed today. The subject matter is dark and was little known in Italy in Verdi's day. Moreover, the opera contains no real love story. For all these reasons Verdi was taking a huge risk in tackling the subject.
Based on Schiller's play The Robbers , I masnadieri was commissioned by Her Majesty's Theatre in London where it was first performed in 1847, conducted by the composer. Once again Verdi was fascinated by the idea of giving musical expression to the eerie and earthy elements in his source. No wonder, then, that the work had many detractors among critics but was a popular success with its audience.
When the revered writer Alessandro Manzoni died in 1873, Verdi was unable to bring himself to attend the funeral. Instead he composed his monumental Messa de Requiem in Manzoni's memory and conducted its first performance on the first anniversary of the writer's death. In addition to its profound spirituality, the work also brings together all the finest qualities from Verdi's operas, qualities that include endless melodic lines and powerful musico-dramatic effects.
The present performance was recorded in Los Angeles' legendary Hollywood Bowl in August 2013 and brought together Ildebrando D'Arcangele, all of them at the top of their form.
"Gustavo Dudamel puts an intimate flourish on Verdi's Requiem", the Los Angeles Times writes about Dudamel's performance of Verdi's Requiem at the Hollywood Bowl. "A page was turned and a new chapter begun in the maturation of a music director." Dudamel is joined by a cast of high-class singers: Ildebrando D'Arcangelo, who regularly performs at La Scala, the Wiener Staatsoper, London's Royal Opera or the Salzburg Festival, the upcoming star tenor Vittorio Grigolo, who regularly guests at La Scala, Covent Garden, the MET etc., Michelle DeYoung, who performs with leading orchestras like the New York Philharmonic, Boston Symphony Orchestra, Chicago Symphony Orchestra etc., and Julianna Di Giacomo, who regularly guests at the MET, the LA Opera an other international opera houses.
Verdi wrote his Messa da Requiem in 1873-1874 for Alessandro Manzoni, a poet whom he much admired. Like Brahm's German Requiem , Verdi's Mass for the Dead is not intended for liturgical use but for the concert hall. In addition to its profound spirituality, this masterpiece brings together the finest qualities from Verdi's operas: endless melodic lines and captivating musico-dramatic effects.
Nabucco was Verdi's third work for the stage and proved his first great success when performed in 1842. It deals with the Hebrews' attempts to break free from the yoke of their Babylonian oppressors and is nowadays numbered among Verdi's most popular works, not least on account of its famous Chorus of Hebrew Slaves, which has one of the best-loved melodies in the whole history of opera.
Oberto was the first of Verdi's operas to be staged and was heard for the first time at La Scala, Milan, in November 1839. As a young unknown composer, Verdi was subject to the rules then governing the opera industry in Italy. Even so, there are already many scenes in this early work that reveal unmistakable signs of the composer's individual style
Verdi was over seventy when he set about raising Italian opera to a whole new level, succeeding magnificently in combining two traditions in his penultimate masterpiece. Based on Shakespeare's famous tragedy, Otello not only sumps up the history of Italian opera since Rossini but at the same time looks far into the future.
For Verdi, Victor Hugo's play Le roi s'amuse was arguably the greatest drame of the present day. But many of his contemporaries were scandalized by this tale of corpses, jesters, cripples and a king addicted to venal love. And yet this no doubt helps to explain why Rigoletto turned out to be Verdi's second great success and laid the foundations for his emergence as Italy's leading opera composer.
None of Verdi's other operas was subjected to as radical a series of revisions as Simon Boccanegra . The initial version of 1857 was not a success, so that in 1880/81 Verdi not only rewrote large sections of the score but together with his new librettist Arrigo Boito also reworked the libretto. The result was a sombre work full of overwhelming sound pictures. This second version proved a great and lasting success.
The wife of a Protestant preacher as an adulteress - problems with the censor were inevitable from the outset with Verdi's opera Stiffelio , which was premiered in November 1850. Even today the finale seems astonishingly bold: superficially it deals with forgiveness and reconciliation, but the orchestral writing is in such striking contrast that Verdi appears to be tolling the death knell of the protagonists' marriage.
La traviata is Verdi's most popular opera and one of the best loved of all stage works. Romance, tragedy and unforgettable tunes - this opera has it all. But modern audiences have largely lost sight of the fact that its plot was altogether unprecedented at the time of the work's composition: with the tale of high-class prostitute dying of consumption, Verdi raised his fondness for daring subjects to a whole new level.
Love and revenge are fatally interwoven in Il trovatore , and barely any of the characters survives the sombre action. Based on a Spanish play in the tradition of gothic horror, the work was written in 1851-52 and proved to be a triumph for Verdi. Within only a few years it had been performed in major opera houses all over the world and remains one of the most popular operas in the international repertory.
Not until 1855 did Verdi have a chance to try his hand at the genre of French grand opera. A setting of a libretto by Eugene Scribe, Les Vepres siciliennes proved a success in Paris despite the problematical nature of the its subject matter, which deals with the Sicilian uprising against occupying French forces in Palermo in 1822. Today, the opera is usually given in the Italian version of 1861 as I Vespri siciliani .
From the Gasteig in Munich: Germany's most popular tenor Jonas Kaufmann presents an evening with the most famous German operatic arias. Amongst them are "Dies Bildnis ist bezaubernd schön" from W.A. Mozart's The Magic Flute, "In fernem Land" from Wagner's Lohengrin and "Winterstürme" from Die Walküre. With this repertoire Kaufmann goes back to his roots: "I grew up with this music. It is embedded in my genes."
Sasha Waltz is one of the world's most exciting choreographers. Her work includes provocative one-woman shows, inventive dance comedies, and philosophical dance-drama exploring subjects like the human body, sensuality and transcendence. The international company Sasha Waltz and Guests is renowned for the originality and creativity it has brought to contemporary dance. Brigitte Kramer's biopic lays bare the trials, the tribulations and the triumphs of 20 years in Sasha Waltz's soaring career. It reveals her research and working methods, her self-doubt and self-reflection, and her capacity for joy - including interviews with Waltz and her dancers. Garden of Lust presents extracts from many of the choreographies in rehearsal and performance, and captures astonishing moments on and off stage.
Paul Wittgenstein, the Austrian concert pianist, lost his arm at the age of twenty-seven while serving as an officer in the First World War. Nonetheless, he was determined to continue his career. Major composers such as Ravel and Strauss wrote pieces for him, and from this he gained international acclaim. Eventually forced to leave Austria by the Nazis, he died in New York in 1961.
Paul's father Karl, millionaire and chief Austrian iron and steel baron, had been determined to have his five sons follow in his footsteps and become industrialists, so he did not permit them to pursue artistic careers. He paid for his intransigence with the lives of his three eldest children, who escaped their father's authority by committing suicide; finally he allowed his two remaining sons the freedom to choose their own profession. Paul chose music, and his younger brother Ludwig turned to philosophy.
Paul Wittgenstein's biography is an extraordinary, life-affirming story. It is the tale of a man who persevered in the face of seemingly insurmountable obstacles and prevailed.
