On 17 July 1986, Nathan Milstein played his last public recital in the Berwaldhallen in Stockholm. The recital included the Bach Chaconne, one of the towering masterpieces of Western music and one of the most difficult to do justice to. Milstein was…

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…

In the historic Weimar Herder Church Sir John Eliot Gardiner finds the perfect setting for his recording of the Bach Christmas Oratorio. Against the backdrop of the dramatic altar and Lucas Granach paintings, the Monteverdi Choir and the English…

Richard Strauss’s Elektra was the sensation that ushered in modernity by at the same time popularizing it. Heroes on the verge of madness, just what the audience loves! The world comes tumbling down upon us, specifically here: the Straussian…

In her native Georgia, Lisa Batiashvili performs one of the most difficult and beloved works for her instrument, Brahms's Violin Concerto. Under the baton of Daniel Harding, the Berliner Philharmoniker close out this concert with Beethoven's Fifth…

More than 30 years after creating the Russian National Orchestra, Russia's first independent orchestra, pianist and conductor Mikhail Pletnev is renewing his commitment to artistic freedom by founding the Rachmaninoff International Orchestra. The…

Can there be a more charming ambassador for Scotland than Amy Macdonald? On the other hand: On stage, there is an approachable and likable artist who has evidently found her voice, and furthermore— transforms Stuttgart's historic Schlossplatz into a…

One of the finest orchestras in the United States takes to the stage of the Konzerthaus in Vienna, Austria, the birthplace of its director, the great Franz Welser-Möst, for an evening devoted to Mahler! The ensemble is joined by the excellent Simon…

On the island of Ceylon, two pearl fishermen and childhood friends are torn apart by their love for the same woman, the young priestess Leïla. In this opera, which marks his debut, Bizet delivers luminous, tender music with a subtle Oriental flavour…