The essence of Verdi’s Requiem can be found in the words Libera me - “Free me”. The great composer employs every means at his disposal to portray man as prisoner of himself, with both his fear of death and yearning for salvation. Recording Dates: 14…

In 2011 the Grand Opera Gala in support of the AIDS Foundation was held again at the Deutsche Oper Berlin. The chorus and orchestra of the Deutsche Oper Berlin under the internationally acclaimed conductor welcome some of the world's leading Opera…

Lutoslawski’s delicate lament serves as prelude to Berlioz’s Requiem, a superlative work requiring an impressive cast of two orchestras and choirs, here under the direction of Pablo Heras-Casado. An event not to be forgotten! The concert was recorded…

Dietrich Buxtehude (1637-1707) is considered today one of the founding fathers of the 17th century German school, whose influence on composers such as Johann Sebastian Bach, his spiritual son, cannot be overestimated. Not only was he an indisputable…

In the ensemble’s Advent concerts at the Marktkirche, the Knabenchor Hannover sets out under the baton of Jörg Breiding in search of the dynamics and tensions that build up in the weeks between the First Sunday of Advent and Christmas Day – the…

Johann Sebastian Bach's most famous Christmas work was recorded live at the Salle Henry Le Bœuf in the Palais des Beaux-Arts in Brussels. Who would have thought, three centuries ago, that these cantatas, written by Bach for the services from…

Compelling love duets, escalating conflicts and arias bursting with virtuosity and emotion. In his three Tudor Queens operas, bel canto master Gaetano Donizetti composed at the top of his game. In this concert, an international cast takes you on an…

The composer of Hansel and Gretel, Engelbert Humperdinck, was born in Germany in 1854. In the 1890s, his sister, Adelheid Wette, had written a libretto based on the Grimm fairy tale, and asked her brother to set it to music as a Christmas…

Fauré was not drawn to compose a Requiem because of the death of a loved one, even though his mother had died during the early stages of composition and his father had passed away two years before. Fauré’s composition does not set his Requiem to the…

The turn of 2009/2010 has been celebrated with an extraordinary New Year's Concert from Havana: with Caribean salsa-rhythms and classics of Cuban music, the new year has been welcomed. Also on the occasion of the 70th anniversary of the TROPICANA…