Everything you wanted to know about conductors but were afraid to ask

Like his father, Tom is a real estate agent who makes his money from dirty, and sometimes brutal, deals. But a chance encounter prompts him to take up the piano and become a concert pianist. He auditions with the help of a beautiful, young virtuoso pianist who cannot speak French - music is their only exchange. But pressures from the ugly world of his day job soon become more than he can handle.

The Summer Night Concert of The Vienna Philharmonic is the world's biggest annual classical open-air concert set in the magical Schönbrunn Palace Baroque park in Vienna. The concert will take place on 31 May 2018 and its theme for this year is 'An Italian Night'. The concert is broadcast on TV and radio in more than 60 countries, and thus reaches an audience of millions. The evening’s repertoire is an attractive combination of extremely popular works for orchestra including the William Tell Overture, the March from the opera Aida and the Intermezzo from Cavalleria Rusticana, as well as famous Soprano arias like Vissi d’arte, vissi d‘amore from the Opera Tosca. Valery Gergiev returns to conducts the Summer Night Concert and is joined by star Soprano Anna Netrebko in what promises to be one of the most popular concerts this year!

Recorded live at the Gewandhaus zu Leipzig in May 2017, this release features a delightful concert by the Gewandhausorchester Leipzig and conductor Andris Nelsons. For the program, the conductor has chosen works by Antonin Dvorak, including the Othello Concert Overture, and his famous Symphony No. 9 in E minor- “From the New World.

The Italian Character: a film within music and about music. The Italian character is the story of one of the most renowned orchestras in the world, enriched by archive material of the last thirty years about the great conductors who have been performing on the most famous rostrum in Rome.

Jenny is young. Her life is over. She killed someone. And she would do it again. When an 80-year-old piano teacher discovers the girl’s secret, her brutality and her dreams, she decides to transform her pupil into the musical wunderkind she once was.

The film covers a hundred years in the lives of the Ricordi family, the Milan publishing house of the title, and the various composers and other historic personalities, whose careers intersected with the growth of the Ricordi house. It beautifully draws the parallel between the great music of the composers, the historic and social upheavals of their times, as well as the "smaller stories" of the successive generations of Ricordi.

Kamenný orchestr

Violinist Mischa Elman performs a set of two of the most recognizable popular classic violin pieces: "Humoresque" composed by Antonín Dvorák, and "Gavotte" by François-Joseph Gossec. He is accompanied off screen by pianist Josef Bonime, although Bonime's instrument can be seen in the background behind Elman on screen. In one continuous single shot, the stationary camera focuses in squarely on Elman as he performs the two pieces.

Emma, a talented conductor and rising star on the Montreal scene, has a complicated relationship with her father and agent Patrick. She has to face up to her emotions and decide whether she wants to successfully combine her career with her love affair with Naëlle, a recently separated cellist and mother of a young son.

At night, in the dark recesses of the woods, a male cellist lures in viewers with a performance of Bach's "Cello Suite No. 1 in G Major." It stars Paul McCoy Drutz-Hannahs, a professional cellist with the Johns Hopkins University Orchestra.

After a successful South African tour in 2010, the Vrijthof concerts were all about Africa that year. André invited the South African soloists from the tour to take part in this summer’s Vrijthof concerts: the fantastic young soprano Kimmy Skota from Cape Town, the Bloemfontein Children’s Choir and the children from the Hout Bay Music Project provided a real South African atmosphere. This fabulous summer evening concert also featured the sopranos Mirusia Louwerse and Carmen Monarcha, the Platinum Tenors and the Berlin Comedian Harmonists. The evening has an upbeat end with a guest appearance from DJ Ötzi. This is a truly fantastic concert that you really can’t miss!

Laerte, a talented violinist who after failing to be admitted into the OSESP Orchestra is forced to give music classes to teenagers in a public school at Heliopolis. His path is full of difficulties, but the transforming power of music and the friendship arising between the teacher and the students open the door into a new world.

This short film is made for the "Chopin-Pletnev" disc which marked Mikhail Pletnev's debut as a pianist on Deutsche Grammophon. In the film, we witness Mr. Pletnev's journey, starting from him on his way to studio, through his performance of Chopin's Etude Op. 25 No. 7 in C sharp minor "The Cello" and the process afterwards. One is struck repeatedly by Pletnev's crystalline arpeggiations, the velocity of his passage work, his singing tone, his rhythmic suppleness, and, above all, the grandeur of his sound.

Mozart: Requiem KV 626 – Chor und Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks, Mariss Jansons

Based on an idea by the writer Francis Marmande, Michel Portal, jazz clarinetist, leads young virtuoso musicians for this concerto.

Thirty years’ Johann Strauss Orchestra, and on the Vrijthof square for the thirteenth year running. Surely a good reason for a party! Enjoy André Rieu and his Johann Strauss Orchestra and an evening that is more festive than ever! To name a few highlights: Handel's impressive Hallelujah, sung by all soloists and the choir, Hava Nagilah, Think of Me from The Phantom of the Opera, Ballade pour Adeline, O Sole Mio, sung by the Platin Tenors, La Traviata, Highland Cathedral and of course beautiful waltzes by Johann Strauss. And as icing on the cake, a performance by David Hasselhoff, who together with André Rieu, goes through the roof with Looking for Freedom, Love Me Tender and Paloma Blanca! The audience sings and dances along ecstatically. It was a magical evening in Maastricht, relive it with this fantastic anniversary Blu-Ray.

New year's Eve Concert 2017: Berlin Philharmonic

Joseph Haydn is renowned for taking the established forms of the symphony and string quartet and shaping them into the powerful media for musical expression that they became thereafter. He brought symphonic traits to the piano sonata and was a master of chamber music. His masses and choral works also continue as standards in the concert repertory, and his operas are highly valued. These informative programs are a concise overview of the composer's life and times, filmed on location in the cities and places that influenced their works. Also included in a detailed list of each composer's most significant musical compositions.

Hudební jaro

DVD review DAVID OISTRAKH violin: EMI Classics Archive Series Bach A minor Concerto Allegro - Trio. Piu moderato Filmed London, May 1958