The Symphony No. 5 in E minor by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky was composed between May and August 1888. It was first performed, under Tchaikovsky's own baton, in St Petersburg on November 6, 1888. While composing the symphony, Tchaikovsky constantly…

Movies are the resolution of a conflict between light and shadows. Light reveals truth and shadows obscure it, with a broad base of tonality in between. These six Bach sonatas have been recorded in one of Germany’s most beautiful Baroque halls in…

There’s no question about it - this man is annoyed. His violin bow swooshes through the air like a saber. Again and again, the final bar of the famous E Major Partita for Solo Violin fills the empty baroque church in Lockenhaus. Gidon Kremer has…

“We are not a couple in the traditional sense. And that is exactly what is so paradoxical – a musical couple can become even more intimate with one another than a couple in love”. This is how Gidon Kremer describes his long partnership with Martha…

János Darvas joins the composer György Kurtág during a masterclass for chamber music held at the International Bártok Festival in Szombathely, Hungary. This film is an amazing and somehow intimate document showing György Kurtág’s various methods of…

Born in Montbrison, France in 1925, Pierre Boulez studied under influential figures such as Olivier Messiaen at the Conservatoire de Paris. Boulez's career began in the late 1940s as music director of the Renaud-Barrault theatre company in Paris, and…

From 1982 to 1992 Frank Scheffer worked with John Cage on many different occasions, which resulted in a unique archive of historical audio-visual material. Based on this unique archive, including interviews, musical performances and images of…

The film portrays Igor Stravinsky, one of the most fascinating artistic personalities of the 20th century. Numerous visual and audio documents trace his most important stations in life and work in Russia, Western Europe and America. Stravinsky is…

Throughout his life, Johannes Brahms was uneasy with women. Many of his works have their origins in his unfulfilled passions, but he was never prepared to commit himself to a woman. Several years of intensive research have resulted in this impressive…

This film portrait of talented singer/song- writer John Denver relates several of the stories behind his inspirations and also features exciting video footage of many of his songs.