A 2 parts documentary, moderated by Dee Dee Bridgwater. Part 1: From Blues to Bossa On the search for the roots and origins of Jazz, we journey into the European and African music traditions and discover the cultural heritages of Jazz from Rio to New…

Classical music is not supposed to be fun, right? And yet, every concert of the Philharmonix is a living, grooving, finger-snapping testament to the contrary. The Philharmonix’ sophisticated sense of humor allows them to move seamlessly from the…

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…

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…

A television film about a single work, Modest Mussorgski’s “Pictures at an Exhibition”. Written as a tribute to a lost friend, Victor Alexandrovich Hartmann, it is a strange and moving masterpiece which has become Mussorgski’s most popular work. It…

Vladimir Ashkenazy has had a particular affection for the music of Rachmaninoff throughout his professional life, and his performances have long had the ring both of authenticity and of deep commitment. This is not surprising in a Russian-born and…

“Trifonov has everything and more. What he does with his hands is both technically and musically unbelievable. And then there is his touch — so gifted with tenderness and at the same time he has the demonic element. I have never heard anything like…

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…

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…