Robert Craft's abiding love and understanding of Anton Webern's music have made him an internationally renowned champion  of this elusive composer's oeuvre.  Its utter originality, pristine architecture and refined emotionalism yield rich rewards indeed.  Whether transforming the  Ricercar from JS Bach's A Musical Offering into a kaleidoscope of orchestral sounds, creating vivid new colors through ever-changing vocal and instrumental groupings, revelling in multi-layered polyphony or  cultivating the purest simplicity, Webern reveals new musical worlds which remain as fresh and as fascinating today as when they were written.

From its triumphant, star-studded première in 1931 until 1985, Peter Ibbetson was the most-performed American opera at the Metropolitan  Opera in New York.  Based on George Du Maurier's story of two star-crossed lovers who escape to a mystical "dream world," it was immensely popular in the late 1930s.  Composer Deems Taylor - known to millions as the host of Disney's Fantasia - was the leading voice in American music.  His lush, romantic/impressionist music and masterful dramatic timing make Peter Ibbetson a most rewarding listening experience, and a must for all opera fans.  Rediscover an American classic with this world-premiere recording featuring some of today's leading opera stars.

Compositions attributed to this prolific composer stretch across the centuries, from the beginning of the Middle Ages, through the Renaissance, and into the early stages of the Baroque period. This music was by turns spiritual and secular, romantic and raucous, traditional and forward-looking. Anonymous (‘Ann Onymous’, perhaps?) was equally at home writing Gregorian chant, songs for troubadours, and instrumental dance music. She assimilated elements from both Western and Eastern cultures, tapping into musical traditions from England, France, Germany, Italy, Netherlands, Spain, Greece, North Africa and beyond. You name it, she could write it. Needless to say, we know virtually nothing about her. No artist sketched her features. No poet sang her praises. No registrar listed her birth. So this 2-CD set celebrates her extraordinary contribution across the centuries.

International Emmy
Best Arts Documentary, International TV Festival, Banff
Award of Merit, International TV Movie Festival, New Jersey

Francis Bacon revolutionised figurative painting in the 20th century. The English painter unmasked his subjects in a provocative and ruthless manner. Deformed bodies, grimacing faces and the materiality of colour make us aware of brutality and sexuality, existential abysses and the fears of existence. Works like Velázquez’s portrait of Pope Innocent X inspired him just as much as Eisenstein’s epic film The Battleship Potemkin for his famous motif: the Scream. Author Melvyn Bragg accompanies the painter throughout his day. This begins in his London atelier, leads us on to his favourite pub and ends up in a gambling club in Soho.

Featuring Grace Bumbry, Marian Anderson, Paul Robeson, Shirley Verrett, Leontyne Price, Betty Allen, Barbara Hendricks, Simon Estes, Bobby McFerrin and more.  An intriguing documentary about black singers of classical music set against the background of black emancipation in politics and society in the US. ‘I’m an American, but I’m obviously black, you see, I can’t wash this off. So what you have, you have with you forever – and that’s how people feel. If they take it the best way, that’s fine – if they take it the worst way they have difficulties all their lives’ (Betty Allen)            

Bruno Monsaingeon has dedicated a great part of his life to directing movies about the greatest musicians of our times (including Gould, Richter, Menuhin and Oïstrakh), sharing with us his passionate vision of artists. His last movie, which has already been awarded in several festivals, is an especially living portrait of the non-conformist pianist Piotr Anderszewski. Somewhere between documentary and fiction, this ‘on-the-road’ movie’s setting is a winter journey through Poland to Budapest, in a train in which the pianist has taken his grand piano with him... In this movie, Piotr Anderszewski gives us his innermost thoughts about music and his qualms: through words we gain immense insights into this artist, while this special train strides through the land of his childhood, revealing his true nature, generous but tormented. A brilliantly built film by Bruno Monsaingeon, utterly poetic and deeply emotional, which invites us to join the journey.

The Nobel Prize-winning writer Dario Fo applies his inventive genius to Rossini's comic opera in its première DVD release. Recorded in 2005 under the musical direction of Maurizio Barbacini, Fo's production brings fresh vitality and colour to the story of Lisetta, and of her father's attempts to find a husband for her through an advertisement in the newspaper La Gazzetta.

A new recording of works by Richard Strauss featuring the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra conducted by Marek Janowski.  PentaTone has recorded an extremely well received Brahms cycle with the same forces. See more Marek Janowski albums