This selection of some of Bach’s most perennially popular keyboard music admirably demonstrates the many varied facets of the composer’s fertile imagination. Deep pathos is contrasted with witty humour, serenity is paired with fleetness of foot, and…

In March of 2004, the Royal Opera Covent Garden in London cancelled its contract with Deborah Voigt. The official reason given by the casting director: too fat. The opera world was outraged. Since when can't opera singers be overweight? Since Callas…

Hungarian pianist Zoltán Kocsis performs various child scenes and pieces for children composed by Robert Schumann, Claude Debussy, and Bela Bartok. The intimate atmosphere of the recording allows to admire the artist closely while playing.

To celebrate the occasion of his 200th birthday on 1 March 2010, this film shows little known facets of Frédéric Chopin: the passionate opera fan, the admirer of the great female singers of his time, the advocate of the aesthetics of bel canto – the…

The composer Claude Debussy was born in St. Germain-en-Laye, a few miles outside Paris, in 1862. While a pupil at the Conservatoire, he composed music that did not conform to the theory of the times. He contradicted his teachers by claiming that…

This film gives us unique insight into the dedication and involvement of one of the world's greatest conductors. The programme includes footage of rehearsals and performances with the Berliner Philharmoniker, the Wiener Philharmoniker and the Gustav…

The great German baritone Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau is greatly admired for his interpretive insight, note-perfect control of the tonal qualities, and shadings of color in his voice, for exceptional rhythmic sense and impeccable diction. His reputation…

Berlioz’ “Fantastic Symphony” is widely regarded as one of the most important and representative pieces of the early Romantic period. Leonard Bernstein once called it “the first musical expedition into psychedelia” because of its hallucinatory and…

In their new series EuroArts presents audio-visual concert guides to masterpieces of classical music. The guides allow listeners to experience and enjoy great music from the Baroque to the present day in an entirely new way by offering a combination…

The Alpine Symphony is one of Strauss’ largest non-operatic conceptions, and the composer himself considered it his best-wrought work in terms of its orchestration. Despite its title, it is not a symphony in the generally accepted sense of the word…