Song of Rapa Nui

This feature length documentary tells the story of Mahani Teave who grew up on Rapa Nui (Easter Island) and left at age 9 to pursue her dream of being classical pianist-a journey that takes her from mainland Chile to The Cleveland Music Institute to Berlin and the great concert halls of Europe. At the age of 30, on the brink of international success, Teave gives up her career to pursue a new dream, coming back full circle to Rapa Nui to found a free music school for the island's children. The resulting school-named Toki, after the basalt tool once used to shape Easter Island's iconic sculptures-is a model of sustainability, incorporating tons of tires, bottles and Pacific Ocean plastic; surrounded by agri-environmental gardens to grow food. With Toki, Mahani hopes to shape a bold new future for Rapa Nui and inspire hope and change on Earth, our island home.

2020-11-30 | en

Beethoven: Symphony 9 by Riccardo Muti

Experience what Zell Music Director Riccardo Muti calls “the work of a divine architect” in this special encore presentation of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony. Recorded live September 18, 2014, at Orchestra Hall during one of the opening programs of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra’s 2014/15 season, this performance features Muti leading the Orchestra and Chorus and distinguished soloists in one of history’s most powerful and inspiring artistic works. A masterpiece whose staggering influence can be seen across classical music, it concludes with the famous Ode to Joy, which calls for understanding, peace and universal goodwill. The Chicago Symphony Orchestra is grateful to an anonymous donor for generously underwriting the recording of this concert in 2014.

2014-09-18 | en

Pavarotti, Birth of a Pop Star

Although he is unanimously credited with having democratised opera, making it accessible to the greatest number, focus is rarely put on the strategy he devised and implemented in order to carry out his actions, nor what his actions reveal of the man and artist, and of the resulting metamorphosis from opera singer to pop artist. Through this angle, this film sets out to pay tribute to the man who summed up his credo, obsession and life’s work, in the following way: “They led the public to believe that classical music belonged to a restricted elite. I was the way to prove to the world that was wrong.

2017-09-06 | fr

W. A. Mozart: Così fan tutte

A comic opera in two acts about the fickleness of women performed by HAMU students at the Disk... The alleged amorality of the story condemned Cosi fan tutte (They are all like that), Mozart's last opera to a libretto by Lorenzo da Ponte, to numerous contemporary adaptations and even to oblivion during the 19th century. What was the outrage? Following a bet, two bachelors in exotic disguises successfully exchange their fiancées, who have sworn eternal fidelity to them before parting. It's an old-fashioned plot based on a judgment on female constancy and male boastfulness arising from exaggerated vanity...

2022-08-17 | cs

Tosca by Giacomo Puccini

As part of the 2019 Aix-en-Provence Opera Festival, filmmaker Christophe Honoré delivers an innovative staging of Giacomo Puccini's famous drama. His cleverly staged "opera within the opera" is a melancholy homage to the fascinating figure of the diva, who thrives on art and love and upsets the laws of time and death.

2019-07-04 | fr

Echo Sonata

In the 1950s, a communist country. The film follows a retired detective who investigates two enigmatic murders. Both murders are connected to a murder exposing an old secret about a corrupt officer that causes controversy throughout the city and alerts the political security. As he uncovers clues, the detective plunges deeper and deeper into a maelstrom of political and personal intrigue that leads him to a final revelation.

2023-11-26 | en

The Forbidden City Concert: Carmina Burana

A spectacular concert at the site of Beijing’s Forbidden City. The concert features the renowned Shanghai Symphony Orchestra and Maestro Long Yu, who perform Orff’s Carmina Burana with Aida Garifullina, Toby Spence and Ludovic Tézier, before being joined by Daniil Trifonov for Rachmaninov’s Piano Concerto No.2 and Mari Samuelsen for Max Richter’s Violin piece "November". Length 114′ (complete repertoire) / 71′ (Carmina Burana & Jasmine Flower Song) / 43′ (Piano Concert & November)

2019-06-01 | en

RachmaninOFF Rhapsody

Violinist Aleksey Igudesman and pianist Hyung-ki Joo in a unique comedy show combining humor, classical music, and references to popular culture. A program in which they subject Sergei Rachmaninoff to their relentless but respectful scrutiny.

2023-04-01 | cs

Die Moldau – Smetanas Welterfolg

The story of the birth of Bedřich Smetana's most famous composition, from his first impressions of his stay in Šumava through the images of the Czech landscape through which the Vltava River flows, is told by Jakub Hrůša, chief conductor of the famous German orchestra, in Axel Fuhrmann's documentary film... The Czech composer Bedřich Smetana captured the "sound of the river's springs" as early as 1867 during his stay in Šumava. However, he did not compose "Vltava" until seven years later, when he was already completely deaf. For the individual movements of his world-famous symphonic poem he used various motifs, including the sound of the now extinct Svätojánské streams near Štěchovice. One of the main melodies is said to be taken from the Czech folk song Kočka leze hole, which Smetana transposed into the minor key...

2022-03-20 | de

Třetí koncert na kurtech

2007-01-01 | cs

Edward Elgar - The Dream of Gerontius

Newman's poem tells the story of a soul's journey through death, and provides a meditation on the unseen world of Roman Catholic theology. Gerontius (a name derived from the Greek word geron, "old man") is a devout Everyman. Elgar's setting uses most of the text of the first part of the poem, which takes place on Earth, but omits many of the more meditative sections of the much longer, otherworldly second part, tightening the narrative flow.

2019-05-20 | en

The Sound of Identity

In the spotlight of global media coverage, the first transgender woman ever to perform as Don Giovanni in a professional opera, makes her historic debut in one of the reddest states in the U.S.

2020-08-22 | en

Charles Ives: A Good Dissonance Like a Man

A thoroughly researched biopic of Charles Ives, America's greatest and most innovative composer (and insurance executive), who combined strikingly futuristic experimentalism with gentle nostalgia. Includes narration taken directly from Ives's own writings, and reminiscence from those who knew him.

1977-04-21 | en

London Symphony Orchestra: The Young Debussy

The evocative music of Claude Debussy has been described as the foundation of modern music. But how did the composer come to develop his unique style? On this video, maestro Francois-Xavier Roth and the London Symphony Orchestra present the UK premiere of a previously lost work by the young Debussy, alongside some of his earliest inspirations. Debussy's newly discovered Premiére Suite gives a rare insight into the mind of a young composer on the cusp of innovation. It's a work filled with Romantic and Eastern influences and glimpses of the unexpected harmonies that came to define Debussy's work. Paired alongside the composer's role models - from Wagner's powerful intertwining motifs, the abundant Spanish influences in Lalo's rarely-heard Cello Concerto performed here by Edgar Moreau, and Massenet's majestic Le Cid - Francois-Xavier Roth gives a fresh perspective on the much-loved composer.

2019-05-03 | en

Herbert von Karajan: Maestro for the Screen

Documentary on conductor Herbert van Karajan, focusing on his early adoption of audio and video recording technology and his impetus to make use of it to preserve his musical legacy for future generations.

2008-04-07 | de

Toscanini: The Television Concerts, Vol. 5: Verdi: Aida

The historic Toscanini television concerts with the NBC Symphony Orchestra. This concert, broadcast in two parts, on 26 March and 2 April 1949, from NBC Studio 8H, features the opera "Aida" by Giuseppe Verdi. (Both broadcasts were released as "Vol. 3" in the DVD series.)

1949-03-26 | en

Meze Waltera Hortona

The fact that the man succumbed one morning to an irresistible urge to sit down at the piano and play the entire Chopin Sonata in B Minor would not have been so strange if it had not been for the fact that he had never played the piano in his life and he himself had no idea that he could.

1969-09-18 | cs

Vivaldi: The Four Seasons

2019-06-02 | de

Toscanini: The Television Concerts, Vol. 8: Franck, Sibelius, Debussy and Rossini

The historic Toscanini television concerts with the NBC Symphony Orchestra. Broadcast #8 was of a concert on March 15, 1952, at Carnegie Hall, featuring Sibelius's En Saga, two of Debussy's Nocturnes, and Franck's Redemption. (Concerts #8 and #9 were released on "Vol. 5" in the DVD series.)

1952-03-15 | en

Symphonic Sketches

“Symphonic Sketches” tells the story of one classical music concert performed by the Denver Philharmonic Orchestra. Musicians from diverse racial backgrounds connect to the repertoire in unique ways and stage an unforgettable performance.

2023-09-28 | en