150 days later to the day, Johannes Brahms’s “Ein Deutsches Requiem” returns to the place of its triumphal premiere on 10th April 1868, the stunning Bremen Cathedral, thanks to Grammy Award winner Paavo Järvi. He conducts the Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen & State Choir Latvija as well as acclaimed soloists Matthias Goerne and Valentina Farcas – “rarely you hear such an insightful performance!” (FAZ) Järvi shows the masterpiece in Brahms’s final version with all seven movements, using the same number of musicians as the composer himself, which is less than what is common practice today.
Beethoven – The Myth: His Life in 6 Sonatas
Already during his life time Beethoven was regarded as a myth, being the first modern artist in the sense of an autonomous spirit, not dependent on any sovereign, only committed to his own work. But how did Beethoven become hero, myth and legend? This docuseries looks into his piano sonatas as the key to these and many more questions as into a “journal intime”. Featuring animations, enactments, Dutch Beethoven biographer and bestseller author Jan Caeyers and Beethoven expert & pianist Rudolf Buchbinder.
Baden-Baden Opera Gala
“An extraordinary evening full of emotions!” that is how the press called “the concert event of the year”: Anja Harteros, Ekaterina Gubanova, Jonas Kaufmann and Bryn Terfel, four singers in a league of their own presented an extraordinary summit of classical music superstars. The star-studded cast took the audience on a long journey, exploring some of the most remarkable and popular operas and combining all the features of this supreme musical genre in a single concert: beauty, magical sound, tragedy, and overflowing passion.
Salzburg Festival 2019: Barenboim conducts the West–Eastern Divan Orchestra
Acclaimed by critics as an evening of superlative, Martha Argerich – arguably the greatest living pianist – joins Daniel Barenboim and his West-Eastern Divan Orchestra for an unforgettable interpretation of Tchaikovsky’s First Piano Concerto. Argerich’s playing is full of astonishing virtuosity and uncompromising, alternating with breakneck passages and tender tones: “Martha Argerich is and remains unique” (Die Presse). In addition to Tchaikovsky’s brilliant piece, Schubert’s Symphony “Unfinished” is played, a work that has never been performed during the composer’s lifetime, as well as Lutoslawski’s Concerto for Orchestra, completed in 1945 – a highly demanding technical piece that challenges orchestra members as virtuosos. PROGRAM Schubert: Symphony No 7; Tchaikovsky: Piano Concerto No 1; Lutoslawski: Concerto for Orchestra
Salzburg Festival 2017: Mozart Requiem
Teodor Currentzis and his Russian ensemble musicAeterna give their long awaited Salzburg Festival debut at the Felsenreitschule with an exhilarating interpretation of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s Requiem. The Greek-Russian star conductor, “visually the rock star amongst all conductors” (Kleine Zeitung), is for many today’s most exciting Mozart conductor. The musicAeterna orchestra and its fabulous choir, completely dressed in solemn black cassocks and afoot throughout the concert, perform with full verve and complement each other perfectly: “compelling and in its greatness hardly comparable” (Kronen Zeitung). The young quartet of excellent soloists – Anna Prohaska, Katharina Magiera, Mauro Peter and Tareq Nazmi – is “smoothly blending in with the ensemble” (Salzburg.com). The “phenomen Teodor Currentzis sets Salzburg on fire!” (Kleine Zeitung)
Salzburg Festival: Schubert, Fierrabras
“A revelation” wrote the NRC Handelsblad about Schubert’s rarely heard heroic-romantic opera Fierrabras, one of the highlights of Salzburg Festival 2014. The work, based on a libretto by Josef Kupelwieser after the old French epic Fierabras, is lead by director Peter Stein and conductor Ingo Metzmacher.
Lang Lang at the Royal Albert Hall
Since going on sale in November 2012, tickets for classical pianist Lang Lang’s solo recital at the Royal Albert Hall on November 15th 2013 sold out within 48 hours, a record for a recital by any classical musician at the venue in recent times. We’re delighted to be able to preserve his performance for the screen, so his many worldwide fans have a chance to experience the programme: Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: Piano Sonata No. 5 in G major, KV 283 – Piano Sonata No. 4 in E flat major, KV 282 – Piano Sonata No. 8 in A minor, KV 310 – Frédéric Chopin: Ballade No. 1 Op 23 in G minor – Ballade No. 2 Op 38 in F Major – Ballade No. 3 Op 47 in A flat – Ballade No. 4 Op 52 in F minor.The word’s first 4K classical music production. (Length of the 4K version: 115′ min.)
7 Lives of Music – The Kanneh-Mason Familiy
Seven siblings whom nobody expected – but the classical music world desperately needed. The story of the Kanneh-Mason Family reads like a fairytale. They have dealt with prejudice, they have been overlooked, they have been made to feel out of place. But they have picked themselves up and they have proven themselves time and time again. The Kanneh-Masons light up every room they enter and they have found this to ensure the support of people like Prince Harry and Meghan Markle, who invited Sheku to play at their wedding, and Elton John, who supported Isata with a scholarship. This film accompanies this family on their path and join them on and behind the stages of the world as they conquer it together, as they grow into their own as a family of talented musicians.