As a musical highlight during the Summer Olympics 2012 in London, the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra under the baton of Daniel Barenboim performed all nine symphonies by Ludwig van Beethoven during the famous BBC Proms at the Royal Albert Hall. Also available: DOCUMENTARY “Barenboim on Beethoven: Nine Symphonies that changed the World”. A film by Michael Waldman; Cat. No. A02007374 // SYMPHONIES Lengths: No. 1 = 29′ / No. 2 = 35′ / No. 3 = 53′ / No. 4 = 39′ / No. 5 = 35′ / No. 6 = 44′ / No. 7 = 39′ / No. 8 = 30′ / No. 9 = 78′
At Home with Daniel Barenboim
For this episode of the “Private concert at…” series, Maestro Daniel Barenboim opens us the doors of his house in Berlin and performs Beethoven’s famous “Gheister” Trio with his son Michael Barenboim (violin) and Kian Soltani (cello). In conversation with Annie Dutoit in the intimate setting of his home, he shares very personal memories and anecdotes of his life.
Barenboim On Beethoven
As a musical highlight during the Summer Olympics 2012 in London, the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra under the baton of Daniel Barenboim performed all nine symphonies by Ludwig van Beethoven during the famous BBC Proms in the Royal Albert Hall. In 2011, Barenboim worked on and performed the symphonies with his truly one-of-a-kind orchestra made up of young musicians from across the Middle East, and scored great successes on his tours with them through Europe and Asia.With his film the well-known English filmmaker Michael Waldman documents the rehearsals and the Asia tour. As a supplement to the concerts, he offers a fascinating look at Daniel Barenboim’s work with the young musicians. We see Barenboim showing them how Beethoven forged a new symphonic language, while also investigating how this music continues to communicate with such undiminished power.
In Search of Beethoven – Part 1
This four-part program sets out to “search for Beethoven” in the interpretation of his orchestral works. Each episode explores one specific work as it is understood by great conductors and musicians of our day. Sir Georg Solti, Riccardo Muti, Lorin Maazel and Roger Norrington are seen rehearsing passages from Beethoven’s symphonies with the Vienna Philharmonic and the Camerata Academica Salzburg. Creating a counterpoint to these sections are excerpts from performances by Leonard Bernstein and Herbert von Karajan, as well as historical footage of concerts led by Wilhelm Furtwängler and Arturo Toscanini. Also expressing their views are a number of other distinguished musicians such as Pierre Boulez, Claudio Abbado, John Eliot Gardiner and others. A fascinating panorama of contemporary interpretations of Beethoven’s music!
In Search of Beethoven – Part 2
This four-part program sets out to “search for Beethoven” in the interpretation of his orchestral works. Each episode explores one specific work as it is understood by great conductors and musicians of our day. Sir Georg Solti, Riccardo Muti, Lorin Maazel and Roger Norrington are seen rehearsing passages from Beethoven’s symphonies with the Vienna Philharmonic and the Camerata Academica Salzburg. Creating a counterpoint to these sections are excerpts from performances by Leonard Bernstein and Herbert von Karajan, as well as historical footage of concerts led by Wilhelm Furtwängler and Arturo Toscanini. Also expressing their views are a number of other distinguished musicians such as Pierre Boulez, Claudio Abbado, John Eliot Gardiner and others. A fascinating panorama of contemporary interpretations of Beethoven’s music!
In Search of Beethoven – Part 3
In Search of Beethoven – Part 4
Beethoven Piano Concerto Cycle – Jan Lisiecki
Just aged 25, Canadian pianist Jan Lisiecki has won acclaim for his extraordinary interpretive maturity, distinctive sound, and poetic sensibility. The New York Times called him “a pianist who makes every note count”. Lisiecki’s insightful interpretations, refined technique and natural affinity for art give him a musical voice that belies his age. The Academy of St Martin in the Fields is one of the world’s finest chamber orchestras, renowned for fresh, brilliant interpretations of the world’s greatest orchestral music.
Zubin Mehta for his 80th – The Gala Concert in Mumbai
On April 29, 2016, Zubin Mehta will celebrate his 80th birthday. On April 17, however, he will offer himself a birthday present of his own, together with the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra, which has appointed him Musical Director for Life. The event will take place in the new National Centre for the Performing Arts in Mehta’s birthplace, Mumbai, in India.
It will be a celebratory concert with works by three of Mehta’s favorite composers: The program will include Dvoráks “Carnival Overture”, Beethoven’s Concerto for Violin in D major, Op. 61 as well as Ravels’ “La Valse” and the second suite of “Daphnis & Chloé”. Pinchas Zukerman, one of Mehta’s closest colleagues – who has also always had a close connection to the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra – will be the soloist.
Blomstedt conducts Beethoven and Nielsen
The Swedish conductor Herbert Blomstedt is a phenomenon – as he approaches his 88th birthday, he is one of the oldest conductors in the world. And yet: on the rostrum he embodies such a vitality and energy, that he at once enthralls his musicians as well as his audiences. Blomstedt directs the orchestra in two symphonies that could scarcely be less alike: The musicians play Ludwig van Beethoven’s Fourth Symphony and Symphony No. 5 by the Danish composer Carl Nielsen with concentrated intensity, honouring Nielsen in his 150th anniversary year.