The choir and the orchestra of the Bach Collegium Japan perform the St John's Passion with a small ensemble - as was customary in the composer’s life time - under Masaaki Suzuki, former student of one of the nestors of authentic interpretation, Ton…

This recording presents the most important work of the baroque keyboard repertoire – The Well-Tempered Clavier - played by four world-class pianists. Each artist performs twelve Preludes and Fugues selected from this well-cherished collection of…

Thunderous applause and loud cries of “bravo” greeted the première of Beethoven’s Fidelio at the inaugural performance of the first opera season in Valencia’s new Palau de les Arts. With this spectacular production directed by Pierluigi Pier’Alli…

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…

“And the Beethoven! They played Beethoven differently from the way Beethoven had been played before!” Said the composer William Schuman, then president of New York’s Juilliard School of Music, who initiated the Juilliard String Quartet as a resident…

With his sixteen string quartets, Beethoven forged the backbone of this repertoire. The six quartets Opus 18 show the composer’s mastery of the classical form. In contrast, the five middle quartets burst this form, with a very free treatment of the…

The Gala presented by the Deutsche Oper Berlin in 2011 in support of Aids-related charities brought together the cream of Europe’s opera singers, in a programme of well-lover operatic excerpts, from Rossini, through Verdi to Wagner. Conducting was…

Bizet’s passionate tale of the self-willed gypsy woman Carmen is certainly one of the most popular works in the history of opera. It shows how a cigar factory worker in Seville enchants and bewitches the men around her. Melodies like Carmen’s…

This legendary quartet has been the authority on Russian string quartet repertoire for more than 60 years. Founded in 1945 and renamed in 1955 after Russian chamber music composer Alexander Borodin, the quartet was so sought after, already in their…

Alfred Brendel is arguably the most outstanding modern exponent of Schubert's piano music currently before the public. He is capable of bringing not only the verve of this music but also its poetic intensity and intellectual depth to life with a…