The marvellous Portuguese pianist Maria João Pires was joined by Pierre Boulez and the Berlin Philharmonic for the European Concert 2003. Since 1991, when the Berlin Philharmonic gave their first European Concert, this annual musical summit in…

LEGATO is a DVD series dedicated to presenting some of the most fascinating of today’s younger generation pianists - their development, their ideas and, of course, their music. Each DVD in this series presents an artist and explores an aspect of the…

Maestro Abbado left us with an inspiring bestowal when the Berlin Philharmonics and himself made an appearance at the Suntory Hall in Tokyo, Japan, in October 1994 Claudio Abbado’s Japan tour is seen as one the highlights of his musical career and…

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…

150 musicians from Cuba, Norway, Poland, Britain, Syria, Germany, Bulgaria and the USA to contribute their "spirits of music" to an unusual concert event uniting classical and world music Bobby McFerrin stands like no other for the reconciliation of…

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…

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 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…

We live in a “renaissance of the piano”, as the New York Times so surprisingly put it in summer 2005. A new generation is reviving the piano’s popularity as pianists with a passion for virtuosity and a willingness to expand their repertoire take to…

The Waldbühne in Berlin, one of the most appealing outdoor amphitheatres in Europe, is the home of the Berlin Philharmonic’s annual summer concert. With over 22.000 in attendance, these are some of the most popular classical music concerts in the…