A drummer-turned-composer, Steve Reich has produced some of the most vibrant, original and interesting music of our time, with influences as varied as Bach, Stravinsky, Miles Davis, John Coltrane, and Balinese and Ghanaian percussion. His technique…

When Giuseppe Verdi (1813 - 1901) started working on the opera Nabucco in the early 1840s, it was hard to foresee a promising career that would make him the most successful opera composer of all time. On the contrary: Verdi was already around 30…

The Gala from Berlin 2008 features the Berliner Philharmoniker, Sir Simon Rattle, and world-class singers Thomas Quasthoff and Pauline Malefane with an outstanding all-American program ranging from Gershwin’s Porgy and Bess and An American in Paris…

Discover Larry Weinstein’s award-winning film “Shostakovich Against Stalin – The War Symphonies”. Described by Shostakovich as his “tombstones for the victims of Stalin”, Symphonies 4 to 9 represented the composer’s weapons against tyranny and remain…

Among the multifaceted images that represent nature in music, the song of birds occupies a special place. The nightingale, for example, is often used as the embodiment of longing and the romantic ideal, its song reflecting the deepest human emotions…

Gioacchino Rossini's Petite Messe Solennelle was written in 1863, "the last", the composer called it, of my "péchés de vieillesse" (sins of old age). For its first performance (1864) Rossini arranged the work with only two pianos and harmonium…

Roman Zaslavsky understands how to contrast the two ingenious opposites Robert Schumann and Franz Liszt side by side, on one recording giving each one his due, thus offering a completely new approach to their music and also to two rather different…

Roman Zaslavsky is a master of piano technique that espouses nuance without resorting to arbitrary mannerisms. He first gained recognition by taking 1st prize - the Primer Gran Premio - at the José Iturbi International Music Competition in Valencia…

On the occasion of the premiere of the fifth Indiana Jones film, the Danish National Symphony Orchestra pays tribute to George Lucas’ Harrison Ford’s professor of archaeology, Dr. Jones, and his hunt for the accursed treasures and criminal Nazis…

In August 2022, the musicians of the world-class Rachmaninoff International Orchestra (RIO) gathered in Bratislava to perform their first recording under the direction of founder and artistic director Mikhail Pletnev . Experience the beloved tunes…