This is a celebration of the New Year in words and music, introduced by Andrew Cruikshank.

Towards the end of 1976 Itzhak Perlman and Pinchas Zukerman made a European tour together, playing duos for two violins and for violin and viola with Zukerman playing the viola part. The tour began with a concert in the Théâtre des Champs-Elysées in…

Although he was still in his early thirties when this film was made, Itzhak Perlman’s virtuosity was already something of a legend and he was soon to become one of the most popular figures on the international concert stage. This film played a major…

"Il Ballo delle Ingrate" is based on the Idea that the "Ingrate" (women who have been hard-hearted in love) should return to earth from hell to warn the ladies in the audience against a similar fate. The warning is not expressed in the form of…

A series of recitals by the master pianist Vladimir Ashkenazy at a new peak in his career. Both his audiences and the critics have been aware in recent years of new dimensions in Ashkenazy's playing. This may stem in part from his broadening…

It is not an account of events in an artist’s life, nor is it a critical examination of his music, which speaks more eloquently for itself than any words might do. It is an attempt at using the medium of film to echo something of the spirit of…

Jacqueline du Pré had a very unusual and elevated relationship with the Elgar 'cello Concerto. For critics and public alike, her performances focused new attention on the inherent pathos in Elgar's melancholy masterpiece and had a ringing authority…

Portrait of the famous French producer Pierre Braunberger who started his career in Hollywood. Among his “discoveries” are directors like Jean-Luc Godard and Francois Truffaut. Containing excerpts of 15 of his films this programme tells the amazing…

The Swedish composer, flutist and keyboardist Björn J. Lindh and the Swedish pianist Staffan Scheja create together their own interpretation of the changing face of Europe.

At the close of the 19th century, Vienna presented to the world a picture of ordered elegance and dignified gaiety, but beneath the surface the corruption and hollowness of the late Hapsburg Empire produced widespread and deep-seated confusion and so…