United Kingdom of Pop

Let’s hope that the blessing of British pop culture is not lost to us after Brexit. After all, the UK is Europe’s number one pop nation, by a long stretch. The British gave us the Beatles, Led Zeppelin, Coldplay and Adele. James Bond and Harry Potter. Monty Python, Mr Bean and Eddie Izzard. Music, humour and films from the UK are permanent fixtures in definitive European culture. Now the divorce is looming. But despite the nostalgic feelings, it has never been an easy relationship. In the two-part cultural documentary United Kingdom of Pop, Signed Media pays homage to Europe’s most innovative pop superpower and presents the main genres, their stars sand subcultures in the form of film essays. United Kingdom of Pop revisits the most important protagonists and contemporaries behind the crucial lines of development over the past decades, reviews them with experts and categorises them. In the course of this process, United Kingdom of Pop also follows up the most important political, cultural and economic events that are reflected in the country’s pop culture, and celebrates the open and multicultural spirit that has made British pop culture so great and so unique. Each episode is commented by the stars of britpop: New wave icon John Watts, Spice Girl Mel C, late Malcom McLaren, Rag ‘n’ Bone Man and many more.

Blomstedt conducts Beethoven

More than 200 years after its premiere at the Gewandhaus in Leipzig, the famous trio Isabelle Faust, Jean-Guihen Queyras and Martin Helmchen have congenially mastered the artistic challenge of Beethoven’s gemstone. Under Herbert Blomstedt’s sensitive direction, the soloists unite chamber music intimacy together with virtuoso sophistication – and prove once again that the Triple Concerto is an unduly underestimated, much too rarely programmed masterpiece. The composer’s fifth symphony – indeed, the hit of classical music – is better known. In Leipzig, however, Blomstedt succeeds in achieving an entirely new perspective of this work. In the culmination of his three-year, intensive reenactment of Beethoven’s cosmos, the impressive sound that characterizes the Swedish grand seigneur’s conducting is heralded by transparency rather than showmanship, relevance instead of pathos, and tenderness in place of sentimentality.

80 Years Israel Philharmonic Orchestra – The Jubilee Concert

Over the past 47 years, Zubin Metha has given more than 3000 concerts with “his” Israel Philharmonic Orchestra, individually selecting each musician himself. “We are one great family. One can both see and hear that,” explains Metha on the occasion of the 80th anniversary of the IPO. Founded in 1936 by Bronislaw Huberman as the Palestine Symphony Orchestra, ist inaugural concert on 26 December was conducted by Arturo Toscanini. 80 years later on the very same day, Zubin Mehta, the orchestra’s musical director for life, conducted the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra in a veritable Jubilee Concert with an all-Beethoven program. Mehta was joined by his longtime artistic friends Pinchas Zukerman, Amanda Forsyth, and Yefim Bronfman. PROGRAM Beethoven: Leonore Overture No. 3; Violin Concerto; Triple Concerto for Violin, Cello and Piano

Ludovico Einaudi at the Waldbühne, Berlin

It started as just another warm night, back in June 2017 at the Waldbühne, Berlin. But when Ludovico Einaudi started to play, it became a Midsummer Night’s dream for everyone there. An unforgettable concert, in which he performed music from his album “Elements” as well as further repertoire, Nuvole Bianche, Una Mattina, Night and many more…

HAUSER – Live in Zagreb

HAUSER performing his favorite classical music pieces recorded at the prestigious Lisinski Concert Hall Zagreb, with the Zagreb Philharmonic Orchestra and Choir Zvjevdice, conducted by Elizabeth Fuchs. The concert including HAUSER’s deeply moving performance of the Adagio by Albinoni.

Bayreuth Festival 2017: Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg

The high-point of the 2017 Bayreuth Festival, Barrie Kosky’s “astonishingly entertaining and convincing” (Der Spiegel) new Meistersinger is “a triumph” (Berliner Morgenpost): “a production of enormous insight and great quality … that plumbs the depths of both the opera and its composer” (Opera News). The “exquisite cast” (Die Zeit) is headed by Michael Volle’s “eloquent” Hans Sachs (The New York Times). “Philippe Jordan’s supple conducting is moulded around Kosky’s staging… and the Bayreuth Orchestra and Chorus are superb” (The Guardian).

LSO: Rattle conducts Mahler & Turnage

Sir Simon Rattle and the LSO give the world premiere of Mark-Anthony Turnage’s Remembering. The work is written in memory of Evan Scofield, the son of guitarist John Scofield, with whom Turnage worked closely. The premiere is coupled with Mahler’s Sixth Symphony; a disturbing in its nihilistic despair yet attains a true and monumental grandeur. PROGRAM Turnage: Remembering ‘In Memoriam Evan Scofield’; Mahler: Symphony No 6

LSO: Roth conducts Bruckner, Debussy & Bartók

Francois-Xavier Roth conducts the LSO in Debussy’s evocative Prelude a l’apres-midi d’un faune, alongside Bartok’s Viola Concerto with Anton Tamestit and Bruckner’s Symphony No.4, filled to te brim with evocative images of love, nature and a simpler time. PROGRAM Debussy: Prélude à l’après-midi d’un faune; Bartók: Viola Concerto; Bruckner: Symphony No 4

LSO: Rattle conducts Stravinsky Ballet Music

An authority on Stravinsky, Sir Simon Rattle celebrates three of the composer’s revolutionary ballets. Stravinsky sent shockwaves through classical music in the 20th century. His first three ballets – The Firebird, Petrushka and The Rite of Spring, all composed between 1911 and 1913 – brought a new and frenzied sense of rhythm, so distressing to audiences that it caused uproar; The Rite of Spring even caused a riot. And it’s not hard to see why. Is there any moment in music more demonic than the opening to The Firebird, a terrifying rumble of strings that would make Jaws tremble? There are few pieces more unsettling than The Rite of Spring with ist carnal, tribal rhythms; or Petrushka with ist impish Punch and Judy puppets. Sir Simon Rattle brings these three creations to life in this dramatic programme. PROGRAM STRAVINSKY The Firebird (original ballet), Petrushka (1947 version), The Rite of Spring