When Pinchas Zukerman was twelve years old, it was already clear to Pablo Casals and Issac Stern that he might become one of the greatest violinists of all time. From this came the idea to make, for the first time ever, a film which deliberately sets…

Although he was still in his early thirties when this film was made, Itzhak Perlman’s virtuosity was already something of a legend and he was soon to become one of the most popular figures on the international concert stage. This film played a major…

It is not an account of events in an artist’s life, nor is it a critical examination of his music, which speaks more eloquently for itself than any words might do. It is an attempt at using the medium of film to echo something of the spirit of…

Jacqueline du Pré had a very unusual and elevated relationship with the Elgar 'cello Concerto. For critics and public alike, her performances focused new attention on the inherent pathos in Elgar's melancholy masterpiece and had a ringing authority…

At the close of the 19th century, Vienna presented to the world a picture of ordered elegance and dignified gaiety, but beneath the surface the corruption and hollowness of the late Hapsburg Empire produced widespread and deep-seated confusion and so…

A retrospective view of twenty years in the life of this Soviet-born master pianist who has lived in the West since 1963. We have been producing films and television programmes with Vladimir Ashkenazy since 1966 and this one spans the entire period…

This is the first of two films about the music of Tchaikovsky, written and directed by Christopher Nupen. It covers the period from the first tentative stirrings of Tchaikovsky's musical talent to the time of the composition of Eugene Onegin and the…

This is the second of Christopher Nupen's films about Tchaikovsky and it continues his examination of Tchaikovsky's preoccupation with the idea of fate as a governing force in our lives. The first film (Tchaikovsky's Women) focused on the young…

The "Platz der Republik" in Berlin is the middle of Germany which was once the sight of the Kroll Opera. Caruso sang and Otto Klemperer conducted there. The film tells the story of the Kroll's establishment and the Platz der Republik.

Mitsuko Uchida in conversation: She discusses her intellectual and technical approaches to the masterworks of keyboard literature and performs the works under discussion. Arnold Schönberg Drei Klavierstücke Op. 11, Joseph Haydn Klaviersonate C-Major