Art Blakey, Dexter Gordon, Ron Carter, Herbie Hancock, Thelonious Monk... these names are synonymous with the great Jazz Age. But how many people know Alfred Lion and Frank Wolff, to whom we owe the recorded memory of our Jazz legends? Two German…

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…

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…

A film about the pioneering career of Christopher Nupen, who founded one of the first independent production companies in the 1960s, at the dawn of the music documentary era. Seizing upon the emerging camera technology and his unique access to a…

Celebrating Bedřich Smetana’s 200th anniversary 2024 Live signal available, 8 June 2024, 8:15 pm CET From the Festival Hall in Litomysl, Czech Republic Bedrich Smetana (2 March 1824 – 12 May 1884) is regarded as the founder of Czech music. His father…

The choir and the orchestra of the Bach Collegium Japan - shooting-star among the celebrated baroque specialists -perform the St John's Passion with only a small ensemble of about 50 musicians (as was custom at the time) under the former Ton Koopman…

On a Sunday evening in August in the Berliner Waldbühne around 20,000 people with rain gear and blankets held thousands of colorful umbrellas while listening to Max Raabe and his Palast Orchester’s hits of the twenties and early-thirties. As the most…

In retrospect, the solo version of Strawinsky’s Sacre du Printemps can be interpreted as a bleak, oppressive dance about his own life. The ballet is one of the late works by Uwe Scholz, one of the most important choreographers of the twentieth…

El Sistema is a network of children’s and youth orchestras, music centres and workshops in Venezuela, in which more than 250,000 children and young people are currently learning to play an instrument. It was set up over thirty years ago by José…

Violinist Frank Peter Zimmermann is one of the world’s top instrumentalists. His numerous recordings are celebrated by both press and audience and have already received countless awards. Alongside his career as a celebrated soloist, he also focuses…