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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
World-famous baritone Thomas Hampson hosts this tribute to Italy's best known and most beloved composer, Giuseppe Verdi. Tracing the life of one of opera's greatest luminaries, this documentary, shot on location in Italy and France, invites you to visit the hometown of the composer and takes you on a journey to the cities -- including Paris -- that Verdi visited during his musical career. The video also includes four Verdi arias sung by Hampson.
Nele is a young call center agent who moonlights as a cloakroom attendant at the State Opera. When she falls in love with the small-time street dancer Kolja, she must confront the demons of her past and descend into the underworld. At the same time, talent scout Höllbach notices Nele's singing talent and offers her a great opportunity for a career as an opera singer. Axel Ranisch's modern adaptation of Orpheus and Eurydice is a cinematic opera pastiche between Puccini, Handel and Christian Steiffen.
A triumph of remembrance, wrote Die Welt following this stirring concert given by the Berliner Philharmoniker under Seiji Ozawa and with Anne-Sophie Mutter as soloist. It left its audience hovering between hushed reverence and deafening exultation. The Golden Hall of Vienna's Musikverein was the dazzling venue for the live recording of this concert celebrating the 100th birthday of Herbert von Karajan. And there Karajan s Berliner never sounded better, evoking a time which selfconfidently sought the private and subjective in music, and believed it could find them in the mirror of the works (Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung). It is a concert that commemorates Herbert von Karajan for the ages in a supremely moving manner. Beethoven: Violin Concerto, Tchaikovsky: Symphony No. 6, Bach: Sarabande,br. Seiji Ozawa, Anne-Sophie Mutter
A drug-addicted doctor who works in an asylum discovers that one of his patients is a gifted writer.
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.
“Gaming in Symphony” is an epic concert performed by the Danish National Symphony Orchestra with the Danish National Concert Choir and various soloists conducted by Eímear Noone. The visual design and the light effects during the performance are spectacular, drawing you into the fascinating world of video games.
Mahler Symphony No.9 - Gustav Mahler Youth Orchestra - Claudio Abbado
“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 1977 concert was conducted by Herbert von Karajan and featured Ludwig van Beethoven's Symphony No. 9 and the Chor der Deutschen Oper Berlin.
A striking interpretation of Mozart's opera that became a sensation at the 2008 Salzburg Festival. This is not only a rethinking of the place and time of the opera, but also a deep disclosure of the characters' characters, their ambiguous inner world. A simple, at first glance, plot is turned by the creators of the play into a dynamic psychological thriller.
Claudio Abbado conducts the prestigious Berliner Philharmonikerfor during a concert dedicated to Beethoven. The programme includes the Piano Concerto No. 2 in B-flat major, Op. 19 with the Russian pianist Mikhail Pletnev whose dazzling technique adding to a delicate sensitivity merges instinct and intellectual rigour, and the Symphony No. 9 in D minor, Op. 125.
Documentary on musician Robbie Robertson.
