★★★★ “I have to tell the whole truth. I can tell the story of angels, but that wouldn't be the true story. My story is a mix of the devil and angels with a bit of meanness. You have to have a bit of everything to progress in life.” ★★★★ (Astor…

Songs of Love and Desire was the theme of the 1998 New Year's Eve concert of the Berlin Philharmonic under the musical direction of Claudio Abbado. Christine Schäfer, Simon Keenlyside, and Marcelo Àlvarez excelled in famous arias and scenes from…

Franz Liszt described the art of conducting as less than a task to be in evidence but rather a feat in disappearing behind the function itself. Conductors are pilots, not servants. Looking back at the past two centuries, we have been blessed with the…