The performance of all six of Anton Bruckner’s mature symphonies on six nearly consecutive evenings is an accomplishment that can truly be called “superhuman” (Der Tagesspiegel). Daniel Barenboim – conductor, pianist, all-round musical genius – set himself this task in June 2010 with the Staatskapelle Berlin at the Berlin Philharmonie. What Barenboim and his orchestra – he has been its principal conductor since 1992 – achieve in this marathon is a new view of the Bruckner opus that opts for grandeur and the mighty theatrical gesture. Bruckner’s symphonies as “operas without words” (Der Tagesspiegel).
Recital Cyprien Katsaris
Piano virtuoso Cyprien Katsaris plays Debussy’s Clair de lune from the Suite bergamasque, Ravel’s Pavane pour une infante défunte, Saint-Saëns’ The Swan (arranged by Godowsky), Brahms’ Sonata No. 3 in F minor Op. 5 and his own composition to celebrate European unity, Fantasie sur des hymnes. Each performance is introduced by Katsaris, who illustrates his insights into the music at the keyboard.
Overture 1912 – Deutsche Oper Berlin
In 2012 the Deutsche Oper in Berlin had ist centennial celebrations. Although today’s building was not opened until 1961, the history of the house on the Bismarckstrasse goes further back: it was built in 1912 and opened as Deutsches Opernhaus upon the initiative of a group of people from Berlin–Charlottenburg as the citizen’s opera in opposition to the Königliche Hofoper, now Staatsoper Unter den Linden. The film illustrates all facets of the different eras of this Berlin opera institution from the beginning
until today through interviews with artists closely connected to the Deutsche Oper Berlin as well as a large variety of archive footage that also includes documentations of rehearsals and performances from the last 100 years.
The Chopin Piano Concertos
The 200th anniversary of the birth of Frédéric Chopin stimulated a new appreciation of the Polish composer’s works. One of the truly great homages paid to Chopin was the concert presented on this recording and featuring the two Chopin piano concertos performed by Daniel Barenboim and the Staatskapelle Berlin under Andris Nelsons at the Ruhr Piano Festival in Essen. “Storms of applause for a dream couple: Daniel Barenboim and Andris Nelsons won over the audience [ ] with their rousing Chopin interpretations”, raved the press.
The Promise of Music – Beethovenfest Bonn
The concert given by the Simón Bolívar Youth Orchestra of Venezuela under its conductor Gustavo Dudamel at the Beethovenfest 2007 in Bonn was a highlight of the musical year. Over 200 young musicians between the ages of 10 and 24, many from underprivileged backgrounds, performed with nearly untamable energy under the baton of a young maestro destined to conduct the most fabled orchestras in the world. The concert program (2 x 45’) includes Beethoven’s Eroica Symphony, Bernstein’s Symphonic Dances, and pieces by Latin American composers Revueltas, Márquez and Ginastera. In the riveting 90-minute documentary ‘The Promise of Music’ (Prog. No. A05016554) directed by Enrique Sánchez Lansch (award-winning ‘Rhythm Is It’), we follow Dudamel as he prepares his orchestra in Caracas for its concert in Bonn, and we accompany the young musicians on their trip to Europe.
In Memoriam Mstislav Rostropovich
This Unitel documentary with unreleased footage material – produced in the course of his 80th birthday in March 2007 – shows the eventful and emotional life of the extraordinary cellist Mstislaw Rostropovich. In one of his last interviews, Mstislaw Rostropovich draws a touching bow from his childhood in Russia – when he suffered from the apathy of his father – to his emigration, his enormous prosperities in a foreign country and to the point of his triumphal return back home. The portrait describes emotional moments in the life of one of the most important cellists and lights up the political and social commitment of the artist. Companions and pupil of the musician like the composer Krzysztof Penderecki, Natalia Gutman and Maxim Vengerov give an impression of who and how he was.
The Promise of Music
The Promise of Music is a full-length feature film about the story of Gustavo Dudamel and the Simón Bolívar Youth Orchestra of Venezuela. The film documents Dudamel preparing his orchestra in Caracas for their upcoming concert at the Beethovenfest in Bonn, 2007. Following different young musicians in their day-to-day lives, the film shows how classical music has the capability of changing both the individual and their environment. A unique and deeply moving look behind the scenes of one of the most talked about phenomena in the musical world of today!
Rhapsody in Blue – LA Phil Opening Gala with Herbie Hancock & Gustavo Dudamel
The Opening Night Gala 2011/2012 of the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra features keyboard legend Herbie Hancock who joins Gustavo Dudamel and the LA Philharmonic for a high-spirited celebration of quintessential American composer George Gershwin. The concert begins with the iconic Tin Pan Alley composer’s Cuban Overture and his beloved An American In Paris. Then the multiple Grammy Award-winning pianist joins Dudamel and the LA Phil to perform arguably Gershwin’s most famous work, the jazz hued Rhapsody in Blue.
Liszt Celebration Concert
For the very first time Daniel Barenboim tackled Franz Liszt’s two highly virtuosic piano concertos in a single concert. With Pierre Boulez, his friend and esteemed colleague of many years, conducting Barenboim’s own orchestra, the Staatskapelle Berlin, they were showered with praise on their tour across Europe. For both musicians, Liszt was one of the most important pioneers of modern music, as composer, conductor and pianist. He influenced revolutionary contemporaries such as Robert Schumann and Richard Wagner. Two examples of the latter’s magnificent orchestral work round off this concert programme celebrating Liszt’s bicentenary.
The Reichsorchester
In 2009 the Berlin Philharmonic celebrated its 125th year.The orchestra is using its jubilee as an opportunity to examine a rather unknown chapter in its history: The years under the rule of the National Socialists (between 1933 and 1945). Thanks to contemporary witnesses from the orchestra and its fringes who are still alive today, and thanks also to extensive and until now unappraised archive materials, it is possible to gain an insight into this microcosmos: where does the thin line run separating autonomy from entanglement, innocence from guilt? A chapter from the history of Germany and Berlin, as gripping as it is volatile, comes to life once more.