The Indomitable Bow is a unique portrait of Mstislav Rostropovich, a formidable personality as well as a complex, deeply political musician constantly engaged in a whirlwind of activities. Including unreleased documents, archive films, interviews and…

Before Hitler’s arrival in 1933, Germany was the centre of the musical world. Within five years, thousands of musicians had fled the country as the Nazi regime tightened its race laws and fashioned its cultural image. "EXIT: MUSIC" explores the lives…

The remarkable life and career of opera singer Soňa Červená: After escaping from the Iron Curtain, she made a career in Western Germany both as an internationally successful opera singer and actress on TV and on the theatre stage. It was not before…

Having made his conducting debut with the Berliner Philharmoniker in 1987, Sir Simon Rattle was appointed as Claudio Abbado‘s successor in 1999. On 7 September 2002, Sir Simon gave his first concert as the orchestra‘s chief conductor. Sixteen years…

“Jazz is more than just a style of music”, says Amro Salah. “It’s about freedom.” Salah, a jazz pianist, is an enthusiastic promoter of the genre. Every year he organises the Cairo Jazz Festival, but doesn’t view himself as a festival director: He is…

Recalling a life of love, tyranny and triumph, Zuzana Ruzickova endured forty years of persecution in Czechoslovakia for her refusal to join the Communist Party, while becoming a legendary harpsichordist and interpreter of Bach around the world. ‘I…

Martin Schläpfer is one of the most important dance creators in Europe at present. Keep the Flame is an intimate portrait of the passionate artist and the private person Martin Schläpfer and illustrates on many levels how and why dance is so much…

In the mid 19th century, the free spirited gypsy cigarerra from the Tabaco factory of Seville scandalizes the world and right away becomes a symbol of the modern, independent woman. For more than a century musicians, singers, directors, researchers…

A Christopher Nupen film with Daniil Trifonov –– pianist, composer, Russian and a magician at the keyboard. The astonishing musical gifts of Daniil Trifonov have to be seen and heard to be believed. How many have won both the Rubinstein and…

Deaths, suicides, overdoses, kidnapping, extreme wealth, diseases ... Gordon Getty has seen the lot within his own notorious family. How did it affect his music? Filmed over the last 9 years around the world, award-winning director Peter Rosen has…