Bernhard Fleischer

"What would the world be like without Beethoven?" That’s the provocative question posed by this music documentary from Deutsche Welle. To answer it, the film explores how Ludwig van Beethoven's innovations continue to have an impact far beyond the boundaries of classical music, 250 years after his birth.

Massenet's opera centres on its charming but contrary heroine, the vivacious young Manon who longs for luxury and excitement. We first encounter her en route to a convent, where her family are sending her to be educated. Along the way, she falls in love with the young student Des Grieux, and, impetuously, runs off with him. She soon leaves him, however, to become the mistress of a rich nobleman. Thus begins her descent into criminality and depravity, all too soon dragging the besotted Des Grieux with her, until she is imprisoned. Despite its tragic story, the opera is full of French charm and vitality – typified by the ambiguous Manon herself. Her plight is touching because of the subtle play of innocence and calculation in her character. The score contains many sparkling arias and ensembles, moving rapidly from moods of exuberance to tenderness, with perfect dramatic timing. Recorded live at the Staatsoper Unter den Linden, Berlin, April/May 2007.

DG presents John Williams in Vienna, the live recordings of the Hollywood legend's Vienna Philharmonic 2020 debut. Saying it's "one of the greatest honors of my life," he received a standing ovation before a single note was played. Sharing the stage with the famous orchestra and violinist Anne-Sophie Mutter, he performs iconic themes from Star Wars, Harry Potter, Indiana Jones, Jurassic Park and other cinematic landmarks that have earned countless awards: 5 Oscars, 5 Emmys, 25 Grammys & more.

The Queen of the Night enlists a handsome prince named Tamino to rescue her beautiful kidnapped daughter, Princess Pamina. Aided by the lovelorn bird hunter Papageno and a magical flute that holds the power to change the hearts of men, young Tamino embarks on a quest for true love, leading to the evil Sarastro's temple where Pamina is held captive. The Pierre Audi production of Mozart's Die Zauberflöte was recorded live at the 2006 Salzburger Festpiele.

The opera: Nina, o sia La Pazza Per Amore itself, is an extra-ordinary sad and touching story, and seems very difficult to be performed if the singer has no acting talents. Therefore we adore Cecilia Bartoli for the magnificent performance as the crazy Nina who lost her mind totally. Her magnificent singing, we don't doubt at all, but her acting is amazingly such that it expressed a real situation of a girl becoming crazy and losing her mind caused by painful incidents in her love life. It is also supported by the other singers who are singing matching as perfectly and splendidly as the diva Cecilia Bartoli, especially the baritone Laszlo Polgar with his deep rich voice as the cruel father who has remorse and came back to see his daughter Nina and the young tenor Jonas Kauffmann with his clear light voice, resulting in a surprisingly beautifully performed opera.

The star pianist Yuja Wang releases her latest album with the live recording of her concert from April 2022 at the Vienna Konzerthaus. The eclectic program displays once more Wang’s fiery virtuosity, musical imagination and mature musicality in both lesser known and recognised masterpieces by Albéniz, Beethoven, Ligeti and Scriabin. The pianist commented on the selection: “I believe that every program should have its own life and reflect my current feelings.”

Enjoy Ravinia Festival’s production of Leonard Bernstein’s theater piece starring Tony Award-winning baritone Paulo Szot and featuring the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. Baltimore Symphony Orchestra artistic director Marin Alsop conducts.

For the 2014/15 Opening Night Concert and Gala, the Los Angeles Philharmonic paid loving tribute to composer John Williams, long a champion and close friend of the LA Phil. Gustavo Dudamel, an awestruck fan of the musical icon, led the orchestra in a crosssection of Maestro Williams' matchless canon. Featuring Itzhak Perlman with a very special musical performance of pieces from Schindler's List as well as the Cadenza and variations from Fiddler on the Roof. Jazz elements will fill the air during Escapades from Catch Me if You Can, and may the force be with you during the iconic tunes from Star Wars.

A live recording of the premier of Korean composer Unsuk Chin's Alice in Wonderland opera at National Theater Munich in June 2007. It is a modern opera based on Lewis Carroll's fantasy novel of the same name. The amazing characters Alice meets are portrayed with a colorful combination of puppets and singer-actors.

2014 marks a year of celebration recognizing the 150th birthday year of the German late-Romantic orchestral, operatic and lied master composer, Richard Strauss (1864-1949). Arabella (premiered 1933, Dresden) was the last of the half dozen Strauss works to feature a libretto by the great Austrian writer Hugo von Hofmannsthal. This production, from the most recent Salzburg Easter Festival is, after Capriccio, the second of three Richard Strauss operas C Major is releasing in honor of the composers birth, life and work. The star-laden cast includes soprano Renèe Fleming, baritone Thomas Hampson, Albert Dohmen (Covent Garden, Wiener Staatsoper, MET) and Gabriela Beaková (Wiener Staatsoper, Covent Garden). With Christian Thielemann and the Staatskapelle Dresden, the music of Richard Strauss is in the best of hands. (ORF) Thielemann gets the best out of the cast...especially Renée Fleming with her luxurious soprano FAZ

A world-class pairing, the Los Angeles Philharmonic and their charismatic new Music Director Gustavo Dudamel, mark the start of their partnership with this concert, filmed live at the Walt Disney Concert Hall. The program defines everything that is fresh and exciting about their collaboration: a John Adams world premiere, City Noir, music that steps back into the dark past of Los Angeles, and the allembracing First Symphony by Mahler, the composer who launched Dudamel's dazzling international career. "This was an exceptional and exciting concert by any standard." - The New York Times

When a wealthy Turkish aristocrat arrives in a humble Italian town, the married women roll their eyes in delight, their rival lovers lose out, and the husbands rage with jealousy. These may be silly clichés, but they are the subject of IL TURCO IN ITALIA and the composer plays with them – quite deliberately. He knows that he is putting archetypes of Italian comedy on stage with figures such as the exotic lady-killer Selim, the young woman Fiorilla, who is chained to the stove at home, but adventurous, and her husband Geronio, who is ridiculous because he is much too old – and relishes the ironic exaggeration. Franz Welser-Most conducts the Zurich Opera House Chorus and Orchestra in this performance of Rossini's opera buffa.

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The Mexican Maestro Alondra de la Parra has taken the world's concert halls by storm. Born in 1980 in New York, she decided early on she wanted to become a conductor. Her great dream has taken her on a long journey - and it is not over yet, by any means. Alondra de la Parra'a roots are in Mexico - but her orchestras and her audiences are to be found all over the world. Alondra de la Parra is one of those trailblazers who has made history by being appointed the first conductor and music director of the Queensland Symphony Orchestra in 2017. She began playing the piano at age 7 and the cello at 13. After she studied in England and the United States - with mentors such Kurt Masur and Kenneth Kiesler, she founded the Philharmonic Orchestra of the Americas (POA) at age 23 in 2004.

Austrian classical conductor Carlos Kleiber (1930-2004) was as eccentric and reclusive as he was brilliant, persistently and obstreperously declining to participate in the international music community or business. This set him apart from his more public contemporaries, such as Herbert von Karajan. This biographical documentary attempts to resolve the ambiguities surrounding Kleiber. The product of exhaustive research, it features rare performance footage of Kleiber leading orchestras, and draws on interviews with individuals who knew and worked with the maestro, including Otto Schenk, Riccardo Muti, Michael Gielen and Ioan Holdender. Carlos Kleiber also turns up to conduct a series of illustrative musical excerpts.

The documentary accompanied the work of the Simón Bolívar Youth Orchestra of Venezuela.

Since its premiere on 2 June 1937 in Zurich, Alban Berg's second opera "Lulu" has the reputation of being surrounded by scandals. On the one hand, this is due to the dubious character of the subject, the man-eating femme fatale, which Berg had taken from Frank Wedekind's two Lulu tragedies – "The Earth Spirit" and "Pandora's Box" – and combined into one opera libretto. On the other hand, Berg's widow had (for personal reasons) repeatedly refused to have the opera completed, which was unfinished when Berg died. This video is of the unfinished two-act torso of "Lulu."

How do artists keep creating even in the darkest of times? How did the life-altering events of World War II shape our musical landscape up to today? This documentary uncovers the poignant stories of Mieczyslaw Weinberg and Erich Wolfgang Korngold: Two 20th-century composers of profound artistry, whose legacy is only recently being rediscovered after having been overshadowed in the aftermath of the Holocaust.

Gustavo Dudamel and the LA Philharmonic accentuate the colors, rhythms and passion of the music of Argentina's leading composers on this invigorating evening at the Hollywood Bowl: Astor Piazzolla, the master of the New Tango, whose four tangos the Tango Buenos Aires dance company performs on stage, known worldwide as the most authentic and uncompromising representative of the tango, Alberto Ginastera, one of the most important classical composers of the Americas in the 20th century and Piazzolla's first teacher, and Lalo Schifrin, who, in addition to his concert music, is the composer of the famous soundtracks for Mission: Impossible and Dirty Harry. His "Concerto for Guitar and Orchestra", a world premiere recording, is composed by Ángel Romero, an iconic master of the classical guitar.