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…

The Sächsische Staatskapelle, orchestra of the famous Dresden Semperoper gives a sample of its masterly interpretations of early 20th century music. Here they present Richard Strauss Alpensinfonie under their popular, former chief conductor Giuseppe…

The German Brass Ensemble presents some of Bach’s most popular tunes in breathtakingly brilliant and virtuoso arrangements for brass instruments. Recorded live in “Bach’s church” – the wonderful St Thomas’s Church in Leipzig - the programme includes…

This DVD is a documentary of Heinz Holliger, the leading oboist of our day. As a composer Holliger has become a classic exponent of musical modernism, while as an oboist and conductor he is one of the most inspirational figures on the contemporary…

Uwe Scholz, ballet director in Leipzig, was hailed as one of the most brilliant choreographic minds of his generation when he died in November 2004 at the early age of 45. His ballet “The Great Mass” is one of the most impressive works of this…

The two films on this DVD combine some of the most demanding chamber works ever written. Recorded at the atmospheric Academy of Sciences in Budapest, the Keller Quartet plays a version of Bach’s unfinished masterpiece The Art of the Fugue for string…

Conducting Mahler : The film documents the interpretations of Gustav Mahler's compositions by conductors Bernard Haitink, Riccardo Chailly, Riccardo Muti, Claudio Abbado and Simon Rattle, who detail the special relationship they have with Mahler's…

"Jubilee Concert in Buenos Aires": On the afternoon of 19 August 1950, a young boy in short trousers climbed the steps to the stage of the Sala Beyer in Buenos Aires to make his piano début. 50 years later, Daniel Barenboim returned “to the scene of…

Verdi first presented his Messa da Requiem in the Church of San Marco. It was his emotional response to the death of the Italian national poet Alessandro Manzoni. He poured his entire dramatic skill, the fruit of thirty years of theatrical work, into…

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.…