Bruno Monsaingeon is famous for getting up close and personal to world-class artists in his documentaries. In this invaluable historical document, he offers the audience an intimate portrait of living-legend violinist Yehudi Menuhin - talking about…

The great German baritone Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau is greatly admired for his interpretive insight, note-perfect control of the tonal qualities, and shadings of color in his voice, for exceptional rhythmic sense and impeccable diction. His reputation…

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…

This film essay focuses on the music of Claude Chalhoub, a highly gifted violinist and composer from Lebanon, who was classically trained at the Royal College of Music in London. When Chalhoub composes and plays, he has abstract visions – he…

“Aggressive, nasty and violent. That’s us: Estonians.” This is Anu Tali´s warning on her first meeting with the Munich Chamber Orchestra. For her debut, the Estonian conductor has put together a very Baltic programme: Peteris Vasks´ violin concerto…

Mahler: "Ich bin der Welt abhanden gekommen" is based on Mahler’s 9th Symphony. In the four parts of this film, renowned conductor Riccardo Chailly and Mahler’s internationally acclaimed biographer, Henry-Louis de la Grange, analyse the four…

David Fray’s sparkling talent is such that he is one of the few pianists of the new generation to have signed an exclusive recording contract recently with one of the current majors, Virgin Classics. In January 2008 he recorded a programme entirely…

Waltz, a revolutionary thing? Historically, it was the first dance having couples clasping each other, men and women hugging, whirling to the rhythm of its music to the point of giddiness and rapture. A dance with a triple time rhythm both simple and…

The story of Caffé Taci, downtown Manhattan: the craziest place in the opera universe, with diamond dealers, losers, up-and-coming singers, opera stars like René Pape, an-85-year-old Russian pianist, aficionados, agents and bohemians. Life is a big…

In the fifties, Pierre Henry provoked a scandal by inventing Musique Concrète with Pierre Schaeffer. Music was no longer written with notes on a score for instrumentalists but was based on sounds and noises from our environment., collected, edited…