Don Giovanni

When Herbert von Karajan conducted Mozart’s opera Don Giovanni at the Salzburg Festival in 1987 featuring an outstanding cast of singers, the fantastic Wiener Philharmoniker and staged by Michael Hampe, it became a legendary performance of the highest artistic level. This dream of artistic collaboration made it one of the best opera performances, which now is available for the first time on Blu-ray.

Herbert von Karajan, Wiener Philharmoniker & Berliner Philharmoniker

The New Year´s Concert from the Golden Hall of the Musikverein Vienna with the Wiener Philharmoniker is always one of the best-selling classical albums each year. In 1987 Herbert von Karajan conducted his only performance of the New Year´s Concert performing famous pieces from Johann Strauss I, Johann Strauss II and Josef Strauss. As soloist in one piece you can hear the legendary soprano Kathleen Battle. The New Year´s Eve Concert 1988 was one of the last concerts that Herbert von Karajan gave with the Berliner Philharmoniker in Berlin. For this concert he invited the 17 year old Evgeny Kissin to his debut with the orchestra. After the concert the press did raving reviews about Kissin´s musicality and technical skills and he proves till today that he is one of the best pianists of our time. It was barely half a year after this concert, on July 16, 1989, that Herbert von Karajan passed away. The present recording thus forms an essential document of two highlights in the last years of the maestro’s life. One of many such documents that have made this great conductor immortal.

Kathleen Battle & Jessye Norman – Spirituals

Kathleen Battle and Jessye Norman teamed up with James Levine for this distinctive selection of famous Spirituals. PROGRAM: In That Great Getting Up Morning; Oh, What A Beautiful City; Lord, How Come Me Here; Over My Head / Lil‘ David; I Believe I‘ll Go Back Home / Lordy, Won‘t You Help Me; Ride on, King Jesus; Swing Low, Sweet Chariot / Ride Up in the Chariot; You Can Tell the World; Scandalize My Name; Great day; Oh, Glory; Calvary / They Crucified My Lord; Talk About a Child; Gospel train; My God Is So High; There is a balm in Gilead; He‘s got the whole world in His hands

Kathleen Battle at the Metropolitan Museum

This recital of Kathleen Battle, taped in the Temple of Dendur at the Met Museum in New York. Kathleen Battle presents a selections of famous songs and arias by Gershwin, Handel, Mozart, Strauss and Obradors as well as some spirituals.

Baroque Duet Battle & Marsalis

In this concert, the two superstars, long time admirers of each other´s work, come together to perform in a dramatically lit setting where the music of Bach, Scarlatti and Händel seems to stand outside of time.

Mythodea

The Mythodea concert in Athens, 2001, was a landmark event showcasing Vangelis’s visionary fusion of electronic and orchestral music. Held at the ancient Herodes Atticus Theater, the performance brought to life his composition Mythodea, originally created as the soundtrack for NASA’s Mars Odyssey Mission. Vangelis performed live on synthesizers, joined by the London Metropolitan Orchestra, sopranos Kathleen Battle and Jessye Norman, harpists, the Greek National Opera Chorus, and percussion ensembles Seistron and Typana. The concert combined sweeping electronic soundscapes with classical grandeur, evoking the mystery of space. It remains one of Vangelis’s most iconic performances, celebrating music as a bridge between earth and cosmos.

Carnegie Christmas Hall Concert

The film features thirty musical pieces performed at Carnegie Hall on December 8, 1991. Soloists like Kathleen Battle, Frederica von Stade, and Wynton Marsalis perform on a tiered stage before Christmas-themed panels. The uninterrupted program blends sacred and secular works from various traditions, including jazz, spirituals, European carols, and songs by composers like Hugh Martin and Mel Tormé. Performers also include the Wynton Marsalis Septet, the American Boychoir, and the Orchestra of St. Luke’s under André Previn.

Coronation Mass & Ave Verum Corpus

Saturday, June 29, 1985: Herbert von Karajan and the Wiener Philharmoniker perform Mozart’s Coronation Mass with four of the greatest singers of the decade as part of a mass celebrated by Pope Jean Paul II at the St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome. Ten thousand cardinals, bishops, diplomats from the world over, Italian political figures, and important personalities from the cultural scene are present. Two years earlier in during the pope’s visit to Austria, it was Karajan himself who suggested performing Mozart’s work in a religious service to the great religious leader.