This beautiful production by renowned opera director Michael Hampe was recorded at the exquisite Rococo Theatre in Schwetzingen Palace in May 1990. La scala di seta is one of the five one-act operas - farsa giocosa - in which the young Rossini first…

With this festive concert the Sächsische Staatskapelle Dresden under the baton of Fabio Luisi celebrated the moving reopening of the Frauenkirche in Dresden. After the bombing of Dresden on February 13, 1945, the church burnt out and its dome, the…

In anticipation of the Mozart Year 2006, Hartmut Haenchen conducted his Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach Chamber Orchestra in an all-Mozart Programme recorded live at the 19th century Konzerthaus Berlin in November 2005. The ensemble succeeded in bringing…

When Bach was in the service of Prince Leopold in Coethen, he had his own orchestra and was contracted to compose a great deal of instrumental music. This gave him an opportunity to try new techniques and to develop his own instrumental style. The…

Katia and Marielle Labèque received their first piano tuition at ages three and five and the sisters are famous for their unusual duo precision, their great musicality and the breadth of their repertoire. In this concert they perform with Il Giardino…

In this live recording from the Palazzo di Congressi Lugano in November 2005, Sir Neville Marriner conducts the Orchestra della Svizzera Italiana in a performance of an all-Mozart programme. On the advent of the Mozart Anniversary Year in 2006, this…

Die Entführung aus dem Serail (The Abduction from the Seraglio) is one of Mozart’s five great repertoire operas alongside Le nozze di Figaro, Don Giovanni, Cosi fan tutte and Die Zauberflöte. A typical ‘Singspiel’, a form in which all the dialogue is…

The Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra’s annual summer concert at the Waldbühne in Berlin is legendary. The Millenium concert, recorded live on 25 June 2000, gathered more than 22.000 people in one of the most appealing outdoor amphitheatres in Europe for…

Claudio Abbado, who first conducted his new Lucerne Festival Orchestra in the summer of 2003, realised a dream with this exclusive ensemble. Handpicked orchestral musicians and exceptional soloists such as violinist Kolja Blacher, flutist Emmanuel…

Recorded live in the Museum Quarter in Vienna in January 2006, this concert was inspired by the music of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, whose 250th birthday made this year a celebratory Mozart Anniversary all over the world. With artists like singer Dee…