Discovering Masterpieces

Watch the series ‘Discovering Masterpieces’! Your audio-visual concert guide to the great masterpieces of classical music. The series brings you 20 half-hour documentaries on 20 classical masterpieces: acclaimed experts, famous soloists and outstanding conductors take you on a journey back to the time and place of composition. In today’s documentary, Joseph Haydn’s best-known Symphony, No. 94, also known as the ‘Surprise Symphony’, is discussed. Its second movement is the most popular and gave the symphony its name: legend has it that the sudden beat of the timpani was meant to rouse members of the audience who had fallen asleep. Pianist Robert Levin tells the story of the legendary “surprise” and shows, on piano, the special characteristics of the composition.

Watch the series ‘Discovering Masterpieces'! Your audio-visual concert guide to the great masterpieces of classical music. The series brings you 20 half-hour documentaries on 20 classical masterpieces: acclaimed experts, famous soloists and outstanding conductors take you on a journey back to the time and place of composition. In today’s documentary, W. A. Mozart’s ‘Symphony No. 41’ is discussed. Mozart’s piece, nicknamed the “Jupiter Symphony” (1788), is regarded as the epitome of the classical symphonic form. Conductor Hartmut Haenchen presents his personal view of this masterpiece using select examples from concert footage with the Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach Chamber Orchestra recorded live at the Konzerthaus Berlin in November 2005.

In the new series ‘Discovering Masterpieces’, Brava presents audio-visual concert guides to the great masterpieces of classical music. The series brings you 20 half-hour documentaries on 20 classical masterpieces: acclaimed experts, famous soloists and outstanding conductors take you on a journey back to the time and place of composition. In today’s documentary, Brava presents Ludwig van Beethoven’s ‘Symphony No. 9’. Beethoven’s ninth and last symphony is considered one of the highlights of symphonic music. Through the use of song, Beethoven questions the effect of purely instrumental music, and he exerted a sustained influence on all generations of composers after him. The German Beethoven expert Wulf Konold explains the central characteristics of this exciting masterpiece.

Watch the series ‘Discovering Masterpieces’: your audio-visual concert guides to the great masterpieces of classical music. The series brings you 20 half-hour documentaries on 20 classical masterpieces: acclaimed experts, famous soloists and outstanding conductors take you on a journey back to the time and place of composition. In today’s documentary, Franz Schubert's ‘Symphony No. 8 in B minor’, commonly known as ‘the Unfinished’. Schubert started working on it in 1822, but he left only two movements complete, even though the composer would live for another six years. Ever since Schubert died at the age of 31, the Unfinished Symphony has been shrouded in mystery, but research has shed new light on the composer's original intentions, as the German author and musicologist Habakuk Traber explains.

Watch the series ‘Discovering Masterpieces’, your audio-visual concert guide to the great masterpieces of classical music. The series brings you 20 half-hour documentaries on 20 classical masterpieces: acclaimed experts, famous soloists and outstanding conductors take you on a journey back to the time and place of composition. In today’s documentary, Felix Mendelssohn’s ‘Violin Concerto’ is discussed. Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy (1809-1847) was the Gewandhaus Orchestra Leipzig’s first conductor. Violinist Frank Michael Erben and musicologist Armin Koch reveal how the composer created a musically rich and virtuoso piece that remains a popular favourite with audiences until today.

Watch the series ‘Discovering Masterpieces’, your audio-visual concert guide to the great masterpieces of classical music. The series brings you 20 half-hour documentaries on 20 classical masterpieces: acclaimed experts, famous soloists and outstanding conductors take you on a journey back to the time and place of composition. In today’s documentary, Hector Berlioz’ ‘Symphonie Fantastique’. This ‘Fantastic Symphony’ is widely regarded as one of the most important and representative pieces of the early Romantic period. Leonard Bernstein once called it “the first musical expedition into psychedelia” because of its hallucinatory and dream-like nature. The German musicologist Wulf Konold describes the idea behind and the realization of this fascinating work.

Watch the series 'Discovering Masterpieces’, your audio-visual concert guide to the great masterpieces of classical music. The series brings you 20 half-hour documentaries on 20 classical masterpieces: acclaimed experts, famous soloists and outstanding conductors take you on a journey back to the time and place of composition. In today’s documentary, Maurice Ravel’s ‘Bolero’. This piece, originally composed as a ballet, is Maurice Ravel's most successful work: its world-famous melody has been featured in popular music, motion pictures and even video games. Pianist and writer Paul Roberts vividly explains the music and its structure and also lets the audience know why Ravel was a stringent critic of his own work.

The series 'Discovering Masterpieces’ brings you 20 half-hour documentaries on 20 classical masterpieces: acclaimed experts, famous soloists and outstanding conductors take you on a journey back to the time and place of composition. This episode presents Igor Stravinsky’s Le Sacre du Printemps (‘The Rite of Spring’). Almost no musical work has had such a powerful influence or evoked as much controversy as Stravinsky's ballet score ‘The Rite of Spring’. The work's premiere on May 29, 1913, at the Théatre des Champs-Elysées in Paris, was scandalous. The renowned English pianist and musicologist Peter Hill explains why and opens the door to Stravinsky’s energetic music. The musical excerpts in this episode are performed by the Berlin Philharmonic under the baton of Bernard Haitink.