Introducing Masterpieces of Classical Music is an informative and entertaining guide to some of the most important symphonic works of music history. As well as featuring a complete concert performance, it also includes an insightful documentary, in…

Vladimir Ashkenazy directs the highly acclaimed Chamber Orchestra of Europe and virtuoso violinist Valeriy Sokolov in this remarkable programme of Finnish works combined with Schumann's uplifting Symphony No. 2. Ashkenazy has particularly been…

This Claudio Abbado recording captures a very special night at the 2007 Lucerne Festival with the massive 3rd symphony by Gustav Mahler (1860-1911). Ever since its debut in 2003, the Lucerne Festival Orchestra has been enthusiastically received by…

The re-release in Blu-ray Disc will be available from May 2013. “Together with conductor Claudio Abbado, the cream of young European musicians who make up this outstanding orchestra infused the symphony with a luminosity that glowed with an inner…

A dim light picks out the outlines of the hall. Suddenly a massive shadow appears and moves swiftly over to the keyboard. There follows the vaguest of unsmiling acknowledgements in the general direction of the audience, and then the music begins…

In 2003, after a career spanning nearly forty years, Julia Varady discreetly retired from the public stage. She now dedicates her time to teaching. While for most great singers the transition from performing to teaching generally follows signs of…

"One hears from all sides that the Hofkapelle in Dresden is the best in Europe." Beethoven wrote these words as long ago as 1823. In 2008 the record magazine Gramophone named the present-day Staatskapelle one of the ten best orchestras in the world…

Waltraud Meier is “La Wagnerissima”, the queen of Wagner’s repertoire. In her very personal account “I follow a voice within me”, we enter her world and learn about her motivations, aspirations, and her joyful way of pursuing them. In addition to…

This exciting open-air staging of Nabucco was one of the classical highlights in summer 2007. The vast production of the Verdi masterpiece at St. Margarethen took place amidst the intoxicating scenery of a rustically romantic Roman quarry, which…

From its debut in 2003, the Lucerne Festival Orchestra has been enthusiastically received by public and press alike. The orchestra is a dream come true for Claudio Abbado who handpicked famous soloists, chamber recitalists and orchestral musicians to…