At the age of 20, Robert Schumann decided to dedicate himself to music. He became one of the greatest composers of the romanticism. This documentary covers Schumann’s life from 1828 until his early death in 1856. Excerpts of productions with Leonard…

In "Moro no Brasil“, the Finnish director, Mika Kaurismäki dives into the overflowing musical diversity of Brazil. Having got to know Brazil well during more than 12 years, Kaurismäki sets out on a 4000 km journey to discover local, popular culture…

Rebirth of an Opera: Persée in the Court of Atelier is a two-hour performance documentary focusing on the remount of a three hundred year old French Baroque opera based on the Greek Myth of Perseus and Medusa. Rehearsals and corresponding stage…

Knowledge is the Beginning tells the story of the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra where Arab and Jewish young people are sitting side by side. It illustrates how prejudices are surmounted during the rehearsals, the concerts and the laid-back…

Inspired by the Tea Ceremony, Tan Dun, the contemporary Chinese composer living in New York, wrote the opera “Tea”. Tea is a tragic love-story set against the background of Chanoyu, the Japanese tea ritual. In “Tea”, Tan Dun combines Eastern and…

“The boy with the Wig - Kids on Mozart” shows the fascination of the children for Mozart. In the 30-minute film children have the podium: boys and girls aged between eight and eleven recount Mozart’s life in their own words. In this way, an at times…

We live in the “renaissance of the piano”, as the New York Times put it in summer. A new generation has made the piano popular again: pianists with a passion for virtuosity and a willingness to expand their repertoire. In addition to the usual…

Franz Schubert's Symphony No. 8 in B minor, commonly known as the Unfinished, was started in 1822 but left with only two movements complete even though Schubert would live for another six years. Since Schubert's death at the age of 31, the Unfinished…

In the eyes of his contemporaries, Johannes Brahms’s violin concerto was so different from everything that had come before that, after the premiere, a critic stated that it wasn’t a concerto, but a “symphony with violin obligato”. In an interview…

The Surprise Symphony is the best known of the over 100 symphonies by Haydn. Its second movement is the most popular and gave the symphony its name: legend has it that the sudden beat of the timpani was meant to rouse members of the audience who had…