For more than six decades, Pierre Boulez has had greater influence on the development of contemporary music than anyone else. Already in younger days, he gained a reputation as a doughty champion of the avant-garde. With his compositions…

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…

Since its founding over 500 years ago the Wiener Sängerknaben, a.k.a. Vienna Boys' Choir, has been a fixed attraction in musical life. A number of important musicians have been connected with the famous choir. Joseph Haydn, and Franz Schubert for…

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…

In October and November 2010, Valery Sokolov recorded the Tchaikovsky Concerto and the Bartok second Concerto for Virgin Classics with the Tonhalle-Orchester-Zürich conducted by David Zinman, in the Tonhalle Great Hall. On this occasion, Bruno…

Performed in the grandeur of Berlin's foremost opera house, the Staatsoper Unter den Linden, the Mozart Celebration is dedicated to the life's work of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. This one-time-only gala concert features exuberant Mozart pieces…

An unmatchable highlight of the Mozart year is the Festkonzert from Salzburg. A Gala concert with the Wiener Philharmoniker under Riccardo Muti and stars of the highest calibre such as Thomas Hampson (baritone), Gidon Kremer (violin), Yuri Bashmet…

In his late years, Sergiu Celibidache (1912-1996) focused his attention on one particular composer: Anton Bruckner. In March 1991 he rehearsed Bruckner´s Ninth in unusually long and intense sessions with the Munich Philharmonics. Using unpublished…

On December 24th, 2011, one of the world’s most renowned classical orchestras, the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra, celebrated the 75th anniversary of its founding. The film portrays the orchestra and its eventful history, which correlates both with…

Fauré was not drawn to compose a Requiem because of the death of a loved one, even though his mother had died during the early stages of composition and his father had passed away two years before. Fauré’s composition does not set his Requiem to the…