Dutch conductor Bernard Haitink and the Berliner Philharmoniker meet at this year’s Easter Festival in Baden-Baden. Haitink is regarded as an authority, especially on the music of Beethoven. In this production he conducts Beethoven’s Symphony No. 6, the “Pastoral”. For the Violin Concerto multi-awarded Isabelle Faust is taken to the stage with him. Since her recordings with Claudio Abbado, she is the first choice when it comes to this masterpiece. This release has been chosen for the longlist of the renowned German award 'Preis der deutschen Schallplattenkritik'.

Documents the interpretations of Gustav Mahler's compositions by conductors Bernard Haitink, Riccardo Chailly, Riccardo Muti, Claudio Abbado, and Simon Rattle, who detail the special relationship they have with Mahler's work.

Translucence, transparency – warmth’ are the qualities identified by Bernard Haitink as necessary for an ideal sound performance of Beethoven's only opera, and all are present in this fantastic recording of Katharina Thalbach's 2008 production for Opernhaus Zurich. Haitink conducts the Zurich Opera Orchestra in a magnificent performance in which Leonore Overture No. 3 provides an interlude between the two scenes of the second act, following a tradition started by Gustav Mahler. German soprano Melanie Diener, in the role of Leonore, leads a brilliant cast including Alfred Muff as Rocco, Roberto Saccà as Florestan, Sandra Trattnigg as Marzelline and Christoph Strehl as Jaquino. This High Definition recording with true surround sound marks the start of the exciting collaboration between Opus Arte and Opernhaus Zurich.

Following the success of the Art of Conducting-Great Conductors of the Past, this second edition focuses on a further six of the twentieth century's greatest conductors, complemented by commentary from music personalities who knew the artists firsthand. Rare film clips are also included of Herbert von Karajan, Hermann Scherchen, Andre Cluytens and Vaclav Talich.

Live 1973 concert performances by celebrated Polish-American virtuoso concert pianist Arthur Rubinstein, with the Concertgebouw Orchestra under conductor Bernard Haitink. Filmed in August 1973 at the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, the performances include Beethoven's Third Piano Concerto, in C minor, op. 37; and Brahms's First Piano Concerto, in D minor, op. 15. These are followed by four short pieces for solo piano, by Schubert, Brahms, and Chopin. The 2008 DVD release by Deutsche Grammophon also includes a short documentary, "Rubinstein at 90", an interview with Robert MacNeil, filmed at Rubinstein's home in Paris in 1977.

These recordings, filmed in March and April 1974 for the BBC, occurred at the tail end of the old performance era and the very start of the new. Vladimir Ashkenazy was a graduate of the same Soviet school of piano playing that produced Sviatoslav Richter, Emil Gilels, Lazar Berman and a host of others of that era. There are simularities that unite them, including a broad romanticism, a degree of Lisztian showmanship coupled with periods of introspection, powerful technique that occasionally borders on pounding and an intellectual streak that produces some deeply insightful playing. Ashkenazy was younger than the others, more modern in his playing.

After conducting for 65 years, Bernard Haitink has retired at the age of 90. The musicians he has worked with are puzzled by the secrets of his technique. He himself says his job is to embrace the orchestra without suffocating them.

Don José is a guard who begins an affair with the tempestuous Carmen. He is imprisoned and loses his job, then flees with her to the mountains. When the relationship starts to break down José refuses to acknowledge it and will not leave, even when he gets news that his mother is dying. Carmen, meanwhile, has taken up with the bullfighter Escamillo. Bizet's most famous opera is brought to the Glyndebourne Festival Opera by Sir Peter Hall, with Maria Ewing and Barry McCauley heading an international cast.

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: Exsultate, Jubilate, KV 165 Et incarnatus est Credo from Mass in C minor, KV 427 Frédéric Chopin: Concerto for Piano and Orchestra No. 2, op. 21 Robert Schumann: Symphony No. 1, op. 38, B-flat minor

After 65 years at the rostrum, Bernard Haitink is making his departure from the concert stage at the age of 90. In his farewell concert at the Salzburg Festival, featuring the Vienna Philharmonic and pianist Emanuel Ax, the maestro conducts two tragical-lyrical works that mark the zenith of the respective composers’ creative powers - Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 4 and Anton Bruckner’s Symphony No. 7. The Dutch conductor was to enchant his audience, orchestra and apparently also himself in his final performance of the work.