Riccardo Chailly’s inaugural concert as Kapellmeister of the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra capturing the full atmosphere of a unique musical occasion is a feast of Mendelssohn from the orchestra the composer founded. The concert includes an…

Monteverdi is generally regarded as the father of European opera. His "Poppea" is a blood and thunder melodrama, set in Nero's Rome and loaded with passion, jealousy, murder and savage ambition.

The legendary Concierto de Aranjuez has never been performed with such sensuality and profundity as by guitarist Pepe Romero and the Academy of St. Martin-in-the-Fields conducted by Sir Neville Marriner. Romero’s interpretation is influenced by…

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 In this invaluable historical document, he offers the audience an intimate portrait of living-legend violinist Yehudi Menuhin - talking about…

Until now a concert of the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra in Ramallah was just unthinkable, but Palestine was the centre of attraction when the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra performed there on August 21. Faced with myriad organizational and political…

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…

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…

Debussy’s “La Mer” is a masterpiece of suggestion and subtlety in its rich depiction of the ocean. Several authors have claimed that “La Mer” sounds like nothing before it. As a specialist in French Impressionism, the British pianist and writer Paul…

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…

In their new series EuroArts presents audio-visual concert guides to masterpieces of classical music. The guides allow listeners to experience and enjoy great music from the Baroque to the present day in an entirely new way by offering a combination…