Mahler - Symphonies Nos. 1, 2 & 3

The Metropolitan Opera Centennial Gala

January 1983 •English

In celebration of its 100th anniversary in 1983, the Metropolitan Opera hosts a four-hour performance uniting some of the world's most spellbinding opera singers and conductors. The event includes a ballet from Samson et Dalila and boasts incredible classical performances from Kathleen Battle, Plácido Domingo, Jose Carerras, Leonard Bernstein, Marilyn Horne, Leona Mitchell, Luciano Pavarotti and many more.

Barenboim The Warsaw Recital

January 2010 •English

Chopin Year 2010 coincides with the 60th anniversary of Daniel Barenboims stage début, and as a pianist he has decided to devote this year to the great Romantic master of the keyboard. Fryderyc Chopin was born on 1 March 1810 in a small village near Warsaw, and on the eve of the 200th anniversary of this date Barenboim gave this wildly acclaimed Warsaw recital as part of an extensive European tour. Recorded live at the National Philharmonic Hall, Warsaw, the programme presents some of the composers best-known works, including the great B flat minor Sonata with its famous Funeral March, which sounded to many as the composer may well have imagined it. Ive been playing Chopin ever since I was a little boy. On the advice of my father, who was also my teacher, I performed some of his pieces in my very first concert, when I was just seven. At that point I was playing the Etudes and the Nocturnes obviously I didnt try and tackle the larger scale Sonatas or the Fantasy until later.

Summer Night Concert: 2014 - Vienna Philharmonic

May 2014 •English

The renowned orchestra presents the world's biggest annual classical open air concert live from their hometown Vienna, Austria on Thursday, May 29th, 2014. The Summer Night Concert with the Vienna Philharmonic is an annual open-air event that takes place in the magical setting of the Schönbrunn Palace Park in Vienna with the palace as a magnificent backdrop. Everyone is invited to come to this unique occasion with free admission. Each year up to 100,000 people can take up the invitation, or enjoy on radio and TV in over 60 countries.

Mahler: Symphony No. 5

October 2021 •English

For Mahler, symphonies always were a means of interpreting the most convoluted philosophical problems that couldn’t be resolved verbally. The ambitious structure of the five-part Fifth Symphony spans from the Funeral March to the roaring finale. It is a forthright attempt to resolve the tragic conflict with the surrounding world. The brilliant fourth part of the symphony, Adagietto, resembles a beautifully mysterious flower that every conductor reimagines in their own style. As one of the twentieth century’s most influential maestros, Mahler redefined the conductor’s role. For him, the conductor is just as integral to his own musical works as they are to the composer. When a maestro steps onto the podium and opens the score, he recreates musical universes from scratch. Teodor Currentzis and the musicAeterna orchestra have performed Mahler’s symphonies around the world for many years. The Fifth Symphony has earned its place as one of the highlights of the cycle.

Teodor Currentzis: Utopia

October 2022 •German

Utopia, the new orchestra of conductor Teodor Currentzis, can be experienced for the first time in Vienna on its inaugural tour with the 1945 version of Igor Stravinsky’s ‘The Firebird’ and Maurice Ravel’s Suite No. 2 of ‘Daphnis et Chloé’, ‘La Valse’ and ‘Boléro’.

Waldbühne 2009 | Russian Rhythms

June 2009 •German

Every year, the Berliner Philharmoniker hold a kind of classical-music fête with a bright, cheerful concert to end the season. In 2009 about 22,000 people had come together at the Berlin Waldbühne to enjoy the traditional summer picnic concert. The theme of the evening was “Russian rhythms”, and star conductor Sir Simon Rattle, the Berliner Philharmoniker and Yefim Bronfman, one of the most famous pianists in the world today, presented a superb selection of Russian music. Repertoire Tchaikovsky: The Nutcracker, op. 71, Overture, The Christmas Tree, March, Pas de deux (Intrada) Rachmaninoff: Piano Concerto No.3 in D minor, op. 30 Stravinsky: Le Sacre du printemps Lincke: Berliner Luft

Waldbühne 2017 | Legends of the Rhine

October 2017 •German

For their annual season end concert, the Berliner Philharmoniker take the audience on a dreamy, magically journey through the river Rhine with Schumann’s beloved 3rd Symphony Rhenish. Pieces from Wagner’s Der Ring des Nibelungen under the baton of dynamic conductor Gustavo Dudamel complete this evening.

Currentzis conducts Beethoven Symphony No. 9

February 2022 •German

Ludwig van Beethoven headed for Symphony No. 9 literally his entire life. As early as the 1790s, he had an eye on Ode to Joy, perhaps the most well-known poem by Friedrich Schiller, written on the threshold of the French Revolution (1786). In his mature and, in particular, later years, the deaf composer with an acute ‘hearing vision’ increasingly distanced himself from conventional forms and genres and wrote parts beyond the possibilities of instruments of his day. He nurtured the idea of a symphony with a choir for at least several years. The history of the Ninth’s interpretations includes 200 years of staggering revelations and lingering stagnation. Performed by the musicAeterna orchestra, choir, and guest soloists under the baton of Teodor Currentzis, Beethoven’s opus magnum acquires the original poignancy and energy of a recent discovery.

András Schiff plays Bach

January 2011 •English

Surely Bach’s French Suites, which he composed during his years at Cöthen (1717–1723), are among the finest inducements to practise that any teacher has ever made to a pupil. In this case Bach wrote them for his young wife, Anna Magdalena. The over-riding impression left by these suites is one of endearing tunefulness. Clavier-Übung II is a later collection of didactic keyboard pieces. It comprises two greatly contrasted works: the Italian Concerto and the Overture in the French Style. These performances admirably demonstrate the thoughtful and persuasive approach that András Schiff adopts when performing Bach. Recorded live at the Bachfest 2010, Protestant Reformed Church of Leipzig, 11 June 2010 Repertoire J.S. Bach: French Suites Nos. 1–6, Overture in the French Style in B minor, Italian Concerto in F major, BWV 971

Europakonzert 2008 from Moscow

May 2008 •German

The Berliner Philharmoniker’s European Concert, held each year on 1 May, is invariably an international highlight. Performing in 2008 in Moscow's renowned Tchaikovsky Conservatory, the orchestra under Sir Simon Rattle presented outstanding performances of works by Beethoven, Stravinsky and Bruch, whose Violin Concerto featured one of today’s most fascinating artists, the Russian violinist Vadim Repin. Stravinsky: Symphony in Three Movements Bruch: Concerto for Violin No.1, op.26 Beethoven: Symphony No.7 in A major, op. 92

Rostropovich Life & Art

February 2007 •English

Released as a memorial for the great Russian cellist Mstislav Rostropovich, who passed away on 27 April 2007, this DVD contains one bonafide cello concerto, the Schumann Cello Concerto in A minor, and two tone poems with prominent cello parts, Ernest Bloch's Schelomo and Richard Strauss' Don Quixote. Rostropovich mastered the Schumann in several famous recordings. Here, conducted by Leonard Bernstein, he provides a splendid performance. Featuring his trademark powerful technique, smooth legato and crisp vibrato, the Romantic roots of the concerto are never hidden for long, despite the relatively cool playing of the Orchestre National de France.

Bernstein Mahler Rehearsal

July 1976 •English

"Four Ways to Say Farewell" is a personal introduction to Mahler and his Ninth Symphony, during which Leonard Bernstein is seen and heard rehearsing the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra. Filmed in 1971, this rehearsal was directed by Humphrey Burton,

Mahler - Symphonies Nos. 4, 5 & 6

August 1976 •English

For Mahlerites, his symphonies are much more than musical performances--they can be an emotional or spiritual journey through the struggles, fears, and triumphs of life. This Sixth Symphony is a 1976 performance in the Vienna Musikvereinssaal with PCM stereo and DTS 5.1. The 2 dvd set also includes the 4th and 5th symphonies, which are performed as magnificently as the Sixth.

Mahler - Symphonies Nos. 7 & 8

July 1975 •English

Leonard Bernstein made these recordings during his wonderfully productive collaboration with the Wiener Philharmoniker in the mid-1970s when he was at the peak of his career. Humphrey Burton's direction is, as always, very fine, giving the viewer/listener both the larger picture and highlighting individual soloists, players or groups of musicians and, of course, the maestro. The video and audio tracks show their age, but are quite acceptable even for today's standards. Bernstein's Seventh is everything one could desire: dark and spooky, highly sensual, but also structurally strong and assertive where needed. Bernstein's reading does not gloss over breakdowns in tonality and the foreshadowing of later musical developments.

Beethoven Symphonies Nos. 4 & 7; Coriolan Overture

June 2010 •English

From the very first bars of the Coriolan Overture, it is apparent that this is Beethoven at his very best. Vladimir Jurowski and his absolutely brilliant Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment give us a new reading of old favorites that may well blow you out of your chair. There is plenty to discover: sounds and textures never heard before, an orchestral timbre as the composer himself may have envisaged and heard, incredible strength and cohesion and, on the other hand, sensitive nuances that often disappear under a blanket of massed strings in more traditional interpretations.

Brahms: The Symphonies

February 1980 •English

Karajan conducts these symphonies with eyes closed, often intently enraptured by the music, smiling occasionally when a passage or solo sounds just right to his ear. He conducts Brahms with a greater sense of urgency than does Bernstein: the First symphony is 11 minutes shorter as conducted by Karajan! Nothing is rushed but there is what can only be described as emotional compression, an intensity of expression that sounds quicker than Bernstein's performances.

Karajan in Rehearsal

March 1965 •English

Karajan conducts rehearsal and performance of Schubert's Symphony No. 4 with the Vienna Symphony in Vienna, Nov. 1965, and Beethoven's Symphony No. 5 with the Berlin Philharmonic, January 1966. Henri-Georges Clouzot directs.

Pierre et le loup : Avec Jean Reno et Renaud Capuçon

February 2025 •French

For Peter and the Wolf, premiered in 1936, Prokofiev chose the form of a symphonic tale, featuring a narrator alongside the orchestra. A unique work in which each instrument embodies a character. Renaud Capuçon conducts the Orchestre de Chambre de Lausanne, while Jean Reno takes on the role of narrator.

Beethoven Piano Sonatas Vol. 1

November 2015 •English

Beethoven Piano Sonatas Vol. 2

January 2016 •English