Ludwig van Beethoven’s ninth and last symphony is considered one of the highlights of symphonic music. Through the use of song, Beethoven questions the effect of purely instrumental music, and he exerted a sustained influence on all generations of…

Anton Bruckner's Symphony No. 8 in C minor is the last Symphony the composer completed. When Bruckner sent it in 1897 to Hermann Levi, the conductor who had lead his 7th to great success, he did not understand this very different work at all and…

The Symphony No. 5 by Gustav Mahler is arguably the best known Mahler symphony. The musical canvas and emotional scope of the work are huge. Herbert von Karajan said once that when you hear Mahler's Fifth, “you forget that time has passed. A great…

No composer before Mahler had ever devoted himself exclusively to two genres so apparently incompatible as the intimate lied and the grandiose symphony. Thus it is fascinating in “Das Lied von der Erde” to see him combining, at this late stage of his…

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…

There’s no question about it - this man is annoyed. His violin bow swooshes through the air like a saber. Again and again, the final bar of the famous E Major Partita for Solo Violin fills the empty baroque church in Lockenhaus. Gidon Kremer has…

EuroArts celebrates the 100th anniversary of Giuseppe Verdi's death presenting one of the most impressive performance of Verdi's Requiem: Claudio Abbado conducts the Berliner Philharmoniker together with the extraordinary soloists Angela Gheorghiu…

This documentary shows Harnoncourt in rehearsal and the finale of the fourth act of the Salzburger Festspiele 1995 performance of Mozarts "Le Nozze di Figaro".

Norbert Beilharz captures the Swiss choreographer Heinz Spoerli's work methods on film, basing his portrait on the development of the Swiss master's new ballet: "Goldberg Variations".

On the tenth anniversary of Herbert von Karajan's death the Berliner Philharmoniker paid tribute to their late maestro in his home town of Salzburg. In a live shooting from the city's imposing Cathedral, Claudio Abbado conducted an all-Mozart…