In 1972, when Vladimir Ashkenazy was at a new peak both in his playing and in his career, we planned with him to shoot two recitals for television, one Chopin and one Beethoven. For quite some time he had been extremely reluctant to perform in…

In 1972, when Vladimir Ashkenazy was at a new peak both in his playing and in his career, we planned with him to shoot two recitals for television, one Chopin and one Beethoven. For quite some time, Ashkenazy had been extremely reluctant to perform…

Vladimir Ashkenazy has had a particular affection for the music of Rachmaninoff throughout his professional life, and his performances have long had the ring both of authenticity and of deep commitment. This is not surprising in a Russian-born and…

Vladimir Ashkenazy closed the 1984/85 season in London with a recital at the Royal Festival Hall that was regarded by many of those present as a new peak in his musicmaking. If that perception is correct, it is a remarkable achievement in a career…

This recording of Janacek’s String Quartet No. 1 is set in the intimate atmosphere of Villa Tugendhat, one of the prototypes of modern architecture in Europe. The work, inspired by Leo Tolstoy‘s novella The Kreutzer Sonata, uses a principle of…

On 9th of July 2001, Evgeny Kissin played a truly memorable piano recital in the old Roman theatre at Orange in the south of France, as part of the Chorégies d'Orange Summer Festival and although it rained, twice, in the two hours before it began, he…

On 9th of July 2001, Evgeny Kissin played a truly memorable piano recital in the old Roman theatre at Orange in the south of France, as part of the Chorégies d'Orange Summer Festival and although it rained, twice, in the two hours before it began, he…

On the tenth of August 1997 Evgeny Kissin played the first solo recital in the hundred and three year history of the London Promenade Concerts. It was a memorable occasion, to say the least, and has been described as perhaps the most extraordinary…

On 12 September, Gianni Schicchi opened the LA Opera’s 2015/2016 season, which marks its 30th anniversary. The production by director Woody Allen first saw the light of day in LA in 2008, travelled to Teatro Real in Madrid and now returns home…

“For those with ears to see and those with eyes to hear” is the motto of this vast collection of recordings, including live concerts, musical clips, a Guillaume Connesson talk regarding chamber music, Boris Giltburg‘s Five Minute Library, as well as…