Chamber Music & Recitals

Beethoven started composing Leonore in January 1804. The subject - the release to freedom of an unjustly imprisoned man by his devoted wife - was part of the genre of 'rescue operas' which were very popular at the end of the 18th century. The premiere of...

Donizetti's three-act tragic opera Belisario was a resounding success in it's day, driven by it's composer's superlative theatrical instinct and his skillful interweaving of intense tragic narrative and emotional pathos. Belisario is betrayed by his wife...

Alceste is an idealist and a master of hurtful words, always eager to hold up a mirror to his fellow human beings. But he has finally found his match in the young widow C?lim?ne: As rhetorically gifted as he is, she has no intention of giving in to his...

One of the most important dramas in the German language, Georg B?chner's fragile fragment is based on the case of the soldier J. Ch. Woyzeck, who stabbed his lover to death in 1824. B?chner explores the question of our dependence on social conditions,...

Director and author Simon Stone rewrote, updated and questioned Chekhov's famous drama for the present day: with brilliant dialogue, subtle characterization and the ambivalent figures which these so reliably generate. Avoiding pathos, spectacle and...

Johann Sebastian Bach was undoubtedly the greatest musical thinker of his age. Dubbed 'the Old Testament of music' by the conductor and pianist Hans von B?low, the Well-Tempered Clavier is acknowledged to be one of the most significant works ever written...

Henry Purcell was a genius whose ability to combine French and Italian influences transported the English language to new levels of expression in music. Dido and Aeneas was pioneering in it's day and is considered one of Purcell's foremost theatrical...

Distinguished Bach specialist Sir Andr?s Schiff returned to the BBC Proms in 2018 to present Book II of The Well-Tempered Clavier. Extending the variety already evident in Book I (available on 2.110653), Bach's effortless brilliance and new-found...

Established by an Act of Congress in 1798, the United States Marine Band is America's oldest continuously active professional musical organization. It's mission is unique - to provide music for the President of the United States and the Commandant of the...

Inspired by hearing performances of Handel's oratorios during his visits to London, Haydn composed Die Sch?pfung ('The Creation') in 1798. Through a series of accompanied recitatives, arias, duets and choruses, the music depicts the creation of the...

These live performances from Snape Maltings Concert Hall present some of the most popular classical works for younger audiences. Their perennial appeal is a result of vivid melodies, witty instrumental characterisation, and in three works, the use of...

Goldbergvariationen DVD