In time for his 65th birthday in November 2007, Daniel Barenboim has completed a cycle of Beethoven's piano concertos. Recorded live at the prestigious Klavier-Festival Ruhr in May 2007, this recording reflects both a very individual and special…

Almost no musical work has had such a powerful influence or evoked as much controversy as Igor Stravinsky's ballet score “The Rite of Spring”. The work's premiere on May 29, 1913, at the Théatre des Champs-Elysées in Paris, was scandalous. The…

The Concerto for Orchestra by Bela Bartok is one of the most frequently performed works of the twentieth century. The French composer and conductor Pierre Boulez explains how he interpreted this composition with the Berlin Philharmonic. He also…

Robert Schumann’s famous piano concerto is not a traditional virtuoso showpiece but a cooperative venture between the soloist and the orchestra. This new relationship transported the piano concerto into the realm of symphonic music. The German…

Ludwig van Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony has the character of an appeal. From the very start, the four-note “fate” motif casts a spell on listeners. The German Beethoven expert Wulf Konold illustrates the ingenious variations of this motif on piano…

René Pape is a star who represents like no other a new generation of opera singers: casual and up-to-date in appearance, hungry for new challenges and open to ambitious experiments. In the musical film My Heart Is Burning René Pape sings and plays…

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…

Today Sir Simon Rattle is one of the world’s most famous conductors. He earned this international reputation during his 18 years as conductor of the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, which he led to global fame. This recording of Massiaen’s “Et…

The concert of the Münchner Philharmoniker under Sergiu Celibidache was recorded as part of the MusikTriennale 1994. In this concert from the Philharmonie in Cologne, one can clearly experience how deeply the conductor allows his musicians to immerse…