To celebrate the occasion of his 200th birthday on 1 March 2010, this film shows little known facets of Frédéric Chopin: the passionate opera fan, the admirer of the great female singers of his time, the advocate of the aesthetics of bel canto – the…

The collection “Classic Archive” presents great performances by legendary artists, remastered using the latest digital technology and enhanced with commentary for today’s audiences. These jewels of music broadcasting have been salvaged from various…

The composer Claude Debussy was born in St. Germain-en-Laye, a few miles outside Paris, in 1862. While a pupil at the Conservatoire, he composed music that did not conform to the theory of the times. He contradicted his teachers by claiming that…

This film gives us unique insight into the dedication and involvement of one of the world's greatest conductors. The programme includes footage of rehearsals and performances with the Berliner Philharmoniker, the Wiener Philharmoniker and the Gustav…

Recorded during the "Schwetzinger Festspiele" 1989 in the cathedral of Speyer.

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 In this invaluable historical document, he offers the audience an intimate portrait of living-legend violinist Yehudi Menuhin - talking about…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…

The six Brandenburg Concertos by Johann Sebastian Bach rank among the undisputed favorites of all baroque fans. They have become a firm fixture in music education and an integral part of our international musical heritage. So what’s their secret? The…

Berlioz’ “Fantastic Symphony” is widely regarded as one of the most important and representative pieces of the early Romantic period. Leonard Bernstein once called it “the first musical expedition into psychedelia” because of its hallucinatory and…

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…