“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…

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…

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…

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…

Movies are the resolution of a conflict between light and shadows. Light reveals truth and shadows obscure it, with a broad base of tonality in between. These six Bach sonatas have been recorded in one of Germany’s most beautiful Baroque halls in…

The best way to get through the streets of the metropolis of Mexico City is with one of the famous green Volkswagen Beetle Taxis. In this city of 18 million people, Tenor Rolando Villazón was born. With a look somewhere between latin lover and Mr…

The life of an orchestra musician is marvelous. Mozart, Schubert and Strauss surround you. All day long you hear beautiful music. What other people pay a lot of money for, you get paid to do. You are gifted, you bring joy into people’s lives…

Testing Mozart is a 60 minute film about the "Mozart Effect", the power of Mozart's music to fight disease and increase the mental ability of its listeners. It is common knowledge that cows give more milk and tomatoes grow bigger when played Mozart…

Even a master like Mozart does not fall from the heavens. With all his divine genius, he was born into a particular environment and was decisively formed here from his childhood and youth. "Mozart in Salzburg" makes the Composer's Salzburg years…