1970 was the 200th anniversary of Ludwig van Beethoven’s birth and, to mark the occasion, Daniel Barenboim and Christopher Nupen collaborated on a thirteen-part series about the man and his music. Close friends at the time, Barenboim as artist and…

Towards the end of 1976 Itzhak Perlman and Pinchas Zukerman made a European tour together, playing duos for two violins and for violin and viola with Zukerman playing the viola part. The tour began with a concert in the Théâtre des Champs-Elysées in…

A series of recitals by the master pianist Vladimir Ashkenazy at a new peak in his career. Both his audiences and the critics have been aware in recent years of new dimensions in Ashkenazy's playing. This may stem in part from his broadening…

A television film about a single work, Modest Mussorgski’s “Pictures at an Exhibition”. Written as a tribute to a lost friend, Victor Alexandrovich Hartmann, it is a strange and moving masterpiece which has become Mussorgski’s most popular work. It…

Vladimir Ashkenazy has had a particular affection for the music of Rachmaninoff throughout his professional life, and his performances have long had the ring both of authenticity and of deep commitment. This is not surprising in a Russian-born and…

Daniel Barenboim and the Berliner Philharmoniker perform Mozart's last 8 Piano Concertos. Live recording from the Siemens-Villa in Berlin (1986 - 1989). All concertos also available separately.

Yehudi Menuhin has long been revered as one of his generation's foremost violinists. In this 1987 recording from Moscow, he performs pieces by Bach, Bartók, Beethoven and Tchaikovsky. He was joined on the conductor's plateau by inimitable, living…

Guiseppe Verdi: Overture from "La forza del destino" Carlo's recitative and aria from "Don Carlos" Hector Berlioz: Excerpts from "La Damnation de Faust" Franz Schubert: Symphony No. 7 in B minor ("Unfinished") Richard Wagner: Sigmund's aria from "Die…

On the 17th of June 1986 Nathan Milstein, who was 82 years old at the time, gave his last public recital. It was a historic occasion and it took place 72 years after his famous first appearance in Leopold Auer's violin class in St Petersburg in 1914…

Anton Bruckner: Symphony No. 8 in C minor