Ludwig van Beethoven headed for Symphony No. 9 literally his entire life. As early as the 1790s, he had an eye on Ode to Joy, perhaps the most well-known poem by Friedrich Schiller, written on the threshold of the French Revolution (1786). In his mature and, in particular, later years, the deaf composer with an acute ‘hearing vision’ increasingly distanced himself from conventional forms and genres and wrote parts beyond the possibilities of instruments of his day. He nurtured the idea of a symphony with a choir for at least several years. The history of the Ninth’s interpretations includes 200 years of staggering revelations and lingering stagnation. Performed by the musicAeterna orchestra, choir, and guest soloists under the baton of Teodor Currentzis, Beethoven’s opus magnum acquires the original poignancy and energy of a recent discovery.

Halloween, New York City, 1981 Live at The Palladium with Ray White, Steve Vai, Bobby Martin, Tommy ...

Elmer Fudd introduces two pieces of classical music: "Tales of the Vienna Woods" and "The Blue Danub...

The pianist Kyra Steckeweh and the filmmaker Tim van Beveren search for traces where Countess Dora P...

From the very first bars of the Coriolan Overture, it is apparent that this is Beethoven at his very...

The Third Part of the Third Measure creates an encounter with the militant minimalism of black avant...

Karajan conducts these symphonies with eyes closed, often intently enraptured by the music, smiling ...

There is hardly a better way to approach Ludwig van Beethoven than through his piano concertos. Beet...

Anne Boyd, one of Australia's leading contemporary composers, teaches music at the publicly funded U...

After marrying her long lost love, a pianist finds the relationship threatened by a wealthy composer...


The film is a parody of Disney's Fantasia, though possibly more of a challenge to Fantasia than paro...

The young Clara creeps downstairs on Christmas Eve to play with her favourite present – a Nutcracker...

Singer-songwriter Winslow Leach seeks revenge on the nefarious music producer Swan, who steals both ...
In 1985, cameras take a look inside the Berkshire Music Center, the most prominent pre-professional ...

Every year, the Berliner Philharmoniker hold a kind of classical-music fête with a bright, cheerful ...

Repertoire Modest Mussorgsky: Night on Bald Mountain; Antonín Dvořák: Song to the Moon from “Rusalk...

Anton Bruckner’s 6th Symphony was written between 1879 and 1881: a very happy time in his life. Unli...

“Clarity was one thing that made this performance a marvel. Another was the flexibility of Barenboim...

Almost any recording of a Mozart symphony by Austrian conductor Karl Bohm (1894-1981) is a sure thin...

Leonard Bernstein made these recordings during his wonderfully productive collaboration with the Wie...