Yehudi Menuhin is considered the prodigy of the past century. He was celebrated and adored as once W.A. Mozart, whose Violin Concerto No. 5 he interprets for this recording. After many years of performing and traveling, the outbreak of World War II marked a turning point for Menuhin. He plays in front of Allied troops, soldiers, and wounded. His concert in the liberated concentration camp Bergen-Belsen confronts him, the protected boy prodigy, with unimaginable horror. But Yehudi Menuhin does not despair. He decides to dedicate his life and his music to reconciliation and peace. As early as 1947, he returns to Berlin for a guest performance, the first Jewish musician to do so. Only a few years older, Herbert von Karajan takes a completely different path. His life is marked by the search for perfection and musical greatness. During the Nazi era, Herbert von Karajan builds his career in Germany and becomes one of the most influential and important conductors of the postwar period. This 1966 recording, masterfully staged by award-winning feature film director Henri-Georges Clouzot, proves that such contrasting biographies do not stand in the way of magical musical moments. International stars from the music scene such as Anne-Sophie Mutter, Daniel Hope, or Hillary Hahn, but also greats of cinematic art such as Sunnyi Melles and Bruno Monsaigeon, let themselves be enchanted by this valuable contemporary testimony, which documents the only collaboration of these musical legends. Together we experience how timeless beauty is realized in sound ideals and how music can still contribute to reconciliation today.
Muti conducts Brahms and Tchaikovsky – with Anne-Sophie Mutter
One thing you can rely on is the Salzburg Festival always offering compelling couplings of artistic personalities: in this case star violinist Anne-Sophie Mutter and Maestro Riccardo Muti. Exactly 30 years to the day since Mutter first performed Tchaikovsky’s Violin Concerto at the festival, Tchaikovsky’s masterpiece is back on the programme. Mutter’s playing is stupendous, she succeeds in a way that draws astonishment. In Brahms’s Symphony No. 2, the veteran conductor Muti “lets the string and wind groups demonstrate in exemplary manner how it can sound when all the musicians are in perfect harmony with one another.” (Salzburger Nachrichten)
Anne-Sophie Mutter, Encounters with Mendelssohn
One of the world’s foremost violinists, Anne-Sophie Mutter is a musical celebrity known even by countless people who rarely listen to classical music. The artist and teacher, who promotes young musicians and commissions new works from contemporary composers, made her spectacular breakthrough under Herbert von Karajan at the 1977 Salzburg Easter Festival. She has since concertized at every major venue throughout the world. In 2008 she was awarded not only the prestigious Ernst von Siemens Music Award, but also the Leipzig Mendelssohn Award. The award ceremony in March 2008 was crowned by a gala concert at Leipzig’s Gewandhaus with the Gewandhaus Orchestra under Kurt Masur, at which Mutter performed the Mendelssohn Violin Concerto in E minor op. 64 presented here. The recording offers a selection of masterpieces by Mendelssohn (1809-1847) in a variety of instrumentations. In addition to Mutter, Masur and the Leipzig orchestra, the performers also include Mutter’s chamber-music partners Lynn Harrell and André Previn. On the occasion of the Mendelssohn Year, UNITEL CLASSICA also offers the documentary Anne-Sophie Mutter – Encounters with Mendelssohn, in which the artist discusses her affinity to Mendelssohn and explains why she particularly admires the works presented here. Mutter has performed the Violin Concerto several times in her career. Joining her in Mendelssohn’s Violin Sonata is pianist André Previn, who is also an internationally renowned conductor and composer. Previn accompanied Mutter in several Mozart Trios that are part of her “Mozart Project” available from UNITEL CLASSICA. He and cellist Lynn Harrell now interpret the D-minor Trio with her. This is a stunning anthology of chamber and orchestral music from one of the most vibrant composers of the early romantic era, performed by top artists of today!
Karajan – Memorial Concert in Occasion of his 100th Birthday
A “triumph of remembrance,” wrote the daily “Die Welt” in its online service following a stirring concert that left its audience hovering between hushed reverence and deafening exultation. The Golden Hall of Vienna’s Musikverein was the dazzling venue for the live recording of one of four concerts given by the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra under Seiji Ozawa and with Anne-Sophie Mutter. The series began in Berlin’s Philharmonie before going on to Paris, Lucerne and Vienna, where it culminated on 28 January. And there, in Vienna, Karajan’s “Berliner” never sounded better, evoking “a time which self-confidently sought the private and subjective in music, and believed it could find them in the mirror of the works.” (Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung).
100 Years Salzburg Festival – From Austria to the World
The world’s largest classical music festival attracts thousands of music and theater lovers from all over the world to the city of Mozart every year. Since Max Reinhardt, Hugo von
Hofmannsthal and Richard Strauss founded the Salzburg Festival in 1920, the Salzburg Festival has established itself as the world’s most important festival of the performing
arts. The film portrays the festival and traces its incredible rise: From its beginnings as a peace project after the First World War, through the myth of the Jedermann (Everyman)
to the present day. What makes the Salzburg Festival so special and unique? Answers are provided by the festival organizers and some of the most internationally renowned
festival artists – including Tobias Moretti, Daniel Barenboim, Teodor Currentzis, Anne-Sophie Mutter or Peter Sellars.
Magic Moments of Music – Anne-Sophie Mutter and Herbert von Karajan
This series is dedicated to stellar musical events that gripped the whole world and remained unforgettable until today – with touching interviews of today’s artists, celebrities and eyewitnesses. Anne-Sophie Mutter’s and Herbert von Karajan’s version of the Beethoven Violin Concerto. Interviews with Anne-Sophie Mutter, Lisa Batiashvili, Robin Ticciati, Wilfried Strehle
The Berlin Concert – Anne-Sophie Mutter & Lang Lang
Celebrating 120 Years of Deutsche Grammophon, The Berlin Concert features performances from DG’s unbeatable roster of artists: Anne-Sophie Mutter, considered one of the greatest violinists of all time and Lang Lang, pioneering pianist and global cultural icon, accompanied by the Staatskapelle Berlin under the direction of Manfred Honeck. Works by W.A. Mozart, L.v. Beethoven and a german premiere of John Williams’ “Markings” are on the program of this highly anticipated concert in Berlin´s famous Philharmonie. PROGRAM L.v. Beethoven: Overture to Fidelio, op. 72; Leonore Overture No. 3, op. 72b, Romance in F for violin and orchestra, op. 50; W.A. Mozart: Piano Concerto in C minor, KV 491; John Williams: Markings for violin, string orchestra and harp
Tanglewood 75th Anniversary Celebration
Located in the beautiful Berkshire Mountains of western Massachusetts, Tanglewood is one of the world’s most beloved music festivals and serves as the summer home for the famed Boston Symphony Orchestra (BSO). Tanglewood 75th Anniversary Celebration festures the BSO, the Boston Pops Orchestra and the Tanglewood Music Center Orchestra, under the direction of conductors Keith Lockhart, Andris Nelsons, John Williams and David Zinman. Performers include pianists Emanuel Ax and Peter Serkin, cellist Yo-Yo Ma, violinist Anne-Sophie Mutter and vocalist James Taylor, as well as the Tanglewood Festival Chorus, John Oliver. Program: COPLAND Fanfare for the Common Man; BERNSTEIN Three dance episodes from On the Town; Selections / Great American Songbook; HAYDN Piano Concerto in D, 2nd & 3rd movements; TCHAIKOVSKY Andante cantabile, for cello and strings; SARASATE Carmen Fantasy, for violin and orchestra; RAVEL La Valse; BEETHOVEN Choral Fantasy
Krzysztof Penderecki – Concert in Celebration of his 80th Birthday
Grand Gala Concert with international classical music stars on occasion of the 80th birthday of Krzysztof Penderecki. Program: Threnody – To the Victims of Hiroshima, Conductor: Krzysztof Urbanski // Duo Concertante for Violin and Double Bass – Soloists: Anne-Sophie Mutter, Roman Patkoló // Concerto grosso for three Cellos and Orchestra – Soloists: Arto Noras, Ivan Monighetti, Daniel Müller-Schott, Conductor: Charles Dutoit // Credo – Soloists: Iwona Hossa, Ewa Vesin, Ekaterina Semenchuk, Krystian Krzeszowiak, Nikolay Didenko, Conductor: Valery Gergiev.
SIMON! The Joy of Conducting
Sir Simon Rattle is one of the most famous conductors in the world. His enthusiasm, his inspiring charisma and his empathetic manner inspire audiences in the big cities and in the provinces. ,,I always have music in my head,“ says the 70-year-old Peter Pan of classical music – we are there when the spark jumps and understand why he can ignite a fire and inspire people to love music like no other. In January 2025, Sir Simon Rattle will be 70 years old – no age for a conductor, but reason enough to look back and see what made him what he is today: A constant innovator who always had to deal with resistance, but who never lost his passion for communicating music.