Howard Spence has seen better days. Once a big Western movie star, he now drowns his disgust for his selfish and failed life with alcohol, drugs and young women. If he were to die now, nobody would shed a tear over him, that's the sad truth. Until one day Howard learns that he might have a child somewhere out there...
An Hungarian youth comes of age at Buchenwald during World War II. György Köves is 14, the son of a merchant who's sent to a forced labor camp. After his father's departure, György gets a job at a brickyard; his bus is stopped and its Jewish occupants sent to camps. There, György find camaraderie, suffering, cruelty, illness, and death. He hears advice on preserving one's dignity and self-esteem. He discovers hatred. If he does survive and returns to Budapest, what will he find? What is natural; what is it to be a Jew? Sepia, black and white, and color alternate to shade the mood.
In this Baden-Baden concert, Simon Rattle presents a sonorous snapshot of the European music scene in the early 20th century. It includes Richard Strauss’s self-confidently impressive Don Juan, sumptuous songs by Alban Berg, Ravel’s overwhelmingly sensual song cycle Shéhérazade and finally Stravinsky’s both groundbreaking and nostalgic Petrushka. The star guest is the Latvian mezzosoprano Elina Garanca.
The annual New Year’s Eve Concert is one of the highlights in the calendar of every classical music fan in Berlin and beyond. On New Year‘s Eve, the Berliner Philharmoniker invite an exceptional soloist for a festive gala. Together, the musicians bid farewell to the old year and welcome the new. The 1999 concert was conducted by Claudio Abbado and featured Klaus Maria Brandauer, Rias Kammerchor, and Rundfunkchor Berlin. On the programme: Ludwig van Beethoven: Symphony No. 7 in A major, op. 92, Allegro con brio, Antonín Dvořák: Symphony No. 8 in G major, op. 88, Allegro ma non troppo, Gustav Mahler: Symphony No. 5, Rondo, Finale, Igor Stravinsky: Firebird (parts), Maurice Ravel: Daphnis et Chloé, Danse générale, Sergei Prokofiev: Alexander Nevsky, op. 78, Alexander's entry into Pskov, Arnold Schönberg: Gurre-Lieder (Excerpts), Paul Lincke: Folies Bergères, March, Paul Lincke: Brandbrief-Galopp, Otto Nicolai: The Merry Wives Of Windsor Overture, Walter Kollo: Solang noch unter'n Linden.
The annual New Year’s Eve Concert is one of the highlights in the calendar of every classical music fan in Berlin and beyond. On New Year‘s Eve, the Berliner Philharmoniker invite an exceptional soloist for a festive gala. Together, the musicians bid farewell to the old year and welcome the new. The 2018 concert was conducted by Daniel Barenboim. On the programme: Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: Concerto for Piano and Orchestra No. 26 in D major, K. 537 „Coronation”, Maurice Ravel: Rapsodie espagnole, Alborada del gracioso, Pavane pour une infante défunte, Boléro, George Bizet: Carmen-Suite No. 1.
The annual New Year’s Eve Concert is one of the highlights in the calendar of every classical music fan in Berlin and beyond. On New Year‘s Eve, the Berliner Philharmoniker invite an exceptional soloist for a festive gala. Together, the musicians bid farewell to the old year and welcome the new. The 2010 concert was conducted by Gustavo Dudamel and featured Elīna Garanča (mezzo-soprano). On the programme: Hector Berlioz: La Carnaval romain, Op. 9; La Damnation de Faust “D’amour l’ardente flamme”, Camille Saint-Saëns: Samson et Dalila (Excerpts), Georges Bizet: Carmen (Excerpts), Manuel de Falla: El sombrero de tres picos, Ruperto Chapi: Las hijas del Zebedeo, Manuel de Falla: La vida breve, Agustin Lara: Granada.
The annual New Year’s Eve Concert is one of the highlights in the calendar of every classical music fan in Berlin and beyond. On New Year‘s Eve, the Berliner Philharmoniker invite an exceptional soloist for a festive gala. Together, the musicians bid farewell to the old year and welcome the new. The 2001 concert was conducted by Daniel Barenboim. On the programme: Bach: Orchestra Suite in D major, Mozart: Divertimento K. 334, Menuett; Rondo for Piano and Orchestra, K. 382, Verdi: “Aida” (Excerpts), Dvorák: Slavonic Dance, Tchaikovsky: “The Nutcracker”, Waltz of the Flowers, Sibelius: Valse Triste, Strauss: Kaiserwalzer, Op. 437, Kodály: Dances of Galanta, Strauss: Unter Donner und Blitz, Op. 324, José Carli: El firulete, Brahms: Hungarian Dance No. 1.
“It would be hard to find anything greater, more significant or more moving anywhere in musical life today: total harmony of mind and heart, poetry and outcry, fear and consolation, knowing and feeling,” declared the Berne paper ‘Der Bund’ after this stunning performance of Mahler’s ‘Resurrection’ Symphony in August 2003 by the newly founded Lucerne Festival Orchestra. Claudio Abbado had formed this ensemble from famous instrumentalists, celebrated chamber-musicians and experienced soloists from the world’s best orchestras, and the event was sold out months in advance. The ‘Neue Zürcher Zeitung’ reported: “Once again the applause at the end was unequalled; the immense final chord … broke a tension that had lasted over 90 minutes without relaxing for a moment.”
The annual New Year’s Eve Concert is one of the highlights in the calendar of every classical music fan in Berlin and beyond. On New Year‘s Eve, the Berliner Philharmoniker invite an exceptional soloist for a festive gala. Together, the musicians bid farewell to the old year and welcome the new. The 2000 concert was conducted by Claudio Abbado and featured Andrea Rost (soprano), Alan Titus (baritone), Ramón Vargas (tenor), and the Prague Radio Choir. On the programme: Giuseppe Verdi: Un ballo in maschera (Excerpts), Don Carlos (Excerpts), Rigoletto (Excerpts), La Traviata (Excerpts), Falstaff (Excerpts), Johann Strauss: Maskenfest – Quadrille.
The annual New Year’s Eve Concert is one of the highlights in the calendar of every classical music fan in Berlin and beyond. On New Year‘s Eve, the Berliner Philharmoniker invite an exceptional soloist for a festive gala. Together, the musicians bid farewell to the old year and welcome the new. The 1998 concert was conducted by Claudio Abbado and featured Marcelo Álvarez (tenor), Mirella Freni (soprano), Simon Keenlyside (baritone), Christine Schäfer (soprano) performing: Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: Le nozze di Figaro (Excerpts), Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: Don Giovanni (Excerpts), Georges Bizet: L'Arlésienne (Excerpts), Gioachino Rossini: La gazza ladra: Overture, Giuseppe Verdi: Rigoletto (Excerpts), Giuseppe Verdi: Un ballo in maschera (Excerpts), Hector Berlioz: Le Carnaval Romain, Piotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky: Eugene Onegin (Excerpts), Giuseppe Verdi: La Traviata (Excerpts).
The ruthless gangsters of New York and the rough cowboys of the dusty prairie; the magic of cinema and the rich sound of a symphony orchestra. The Danish National Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Sarah Hicks, performs masterful pieces by legendary film composer Ennio Morricone, accompanied by Sonny Bono, Bernard Herrmann and Nino Rota.
This release captures a performance of the Leoš Janáček opera Katia Kabanova recorded at the Salzburg Festival in 1998.
The annual New Year’s Eve Concert is one of the highlights in the calendar of every classical music fan in Berlin and beyond. On New Year‘s Eve, the Berliner Philharmoniker invite an exceptional soloist for a festive gala. Together, the musicians bid farewell to the old year and welcome the new. The 2007 concert was conducted by Simon Rattle. On the programme: Alexander Borodin: Polovtsian Dances from the Opera "Prince Igor", Symphony No. 2 in B Minor, Modest Mussorgsky: Introduction to the opera "Khovantchina", Pictures at an Exhibition, Dmitri Shostakovich: Dance from “The Golden Age“, Ballet Suite, Op. 22.
Sharkey, part of the sinister world of child trade, picks up Vlado, an orphan of war, dreaming of freedom and a better life. They embark upon a strange and enlightening journey through war torn Bosnia. As they struggle to get out of the country and fight to stay alive, they find a special love and compassion from which emerges their ultimate moral and spiritual redemption.
Symphony No. 8 is as different musically from the Seventh Symphony as it is close in time since it was finished only five months later. It appears to be caught between the Dionysian scale of the Seventh Symphony and the titanic universality of the Ninth Symphony. The carefree nature of the "little symphony", as the composer called it himself, should not make one forget its welcome smile.
Live performance from Oper Leipzig, 26 November 2005.
The charismatic and inspiring Claudio Abbado and the mesmerising young pianist Yuja Wang, with the Lucerne Festival Orchestra, hold the audience spellbound in this opening concert of the 2009 Lucerne Festival. Prokofiev's popular and vibrant Third Piano Concerto demonstrates the composer's sharp musical wit, and Yuja Wang is a brilliant exponent of the work. Following this, and chiming beautifully with the festival's theme of the relationship between art and nature, Mahler's First Symphony is given an illuminating and rapturously received performance.
With the Fifth Symphony, the Symphony No. 9 is the most famous piece. Its unusual length, the adjunction of soloists and of choruses, the choice of the Ode to Joy by Schiller, all of this concurs to its fame. The Ninth Symphony is a "Big Bang" in symphonic terms. A grandiose apotheosis, sublimating all of Beethoven's work by being the most universal and immediately understood piece ever written.
