The only film biography of the world's most renowned violinist, featuring family home movies in Los Angeles and all over the world. Not since Paganini had there been such a magician on the violin. The first modern violin virtuoso, about whom Itzhak Perlman says in the films, "When I spoke with him, I thought 'I can't believe it. I'm talking with God'." A musical wunderkind, he went on to set the standard in violin playing for nearly a century. This...

Sir Peter is the master in being able to bring the great composers back to life. He reminds us of their most imortant events from their achievements down to their very human and personal encounters. With knowledge, fine feeling an humour, he leads us through these splendid films focusig on the life of some greatest composers of our time. Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy At just 9 years of age, he performed for the first time and 2 years later, he began...

Christopher Nupen's film The Magics of Music offers an intimate portrait of young piano star Daniil Trifonov both on and off the stage. Watch this unreleased version of the film, edited specifically for medici.tv! These hands make magic. A magic which we cannot explain but which can touch us in ways which we do not forget and once that happens, our response calls us back for the rest of our days. That is just one of the magics of music. It is multi-faceted,...

Cécile Patingre presents a stunning documentary on the Catalan pianist and composer Pascal Comelade. Pascal Comelade is an enigmatic artist, whose influences are as varied as his music. An offbeat pianist and a singular composer, the man of the mountain sets aside his instruments in this documentary to discuss his work, opening the doors of his "great mess" of a musical universe. Discreet, the eclectic composer rarely goes out in public, and when...

She is one of the most sought-after trumpet players in the world: at only 35, Alison Balsom gained worldwide recognition as a reference musician for her instrument. And beyond that, she managed to become the one female trumpet player -- the world had only known men before her -- and to boost the reputation of an instrument which was often neglected from the concert repertoire before. In 2009, she closed the BBC Proms in London with Haydn's Trumpet...

A portrait of the dancer Marcia Haydée. A tribute to her life achievement, and shot for her 65th anniversary, this documentary follows Marcia from her childhood to the present day, providing insight into her career as well as her private family life. Born in Brazil, Marcia Haydée left for Europe at the age of 15. In 1961, she met the choreographer John Cranko in Paris, who immediately hired her as a prima ballerina in Stuttgart. From 1976 to 1996,...

The Italian composer, Giacomo Puccini is reputed to have once described himself as "a passionate hunter of water birds, texts and women." It was an ironic description of the problems which are said to have accompanied him throughout his life. He was indeed a passionate, yet terrible, hunter. With every opera he wrote, he wore out numerous librettists in the search for the perfect text, because unlike Mozart, he couldn't write a single note before...

Nele Münchmeyer's documentary throws light upon Haydn as the ingenious composer and as the private person -- the "Libertine" in his private life and the "Servant" as the Kapellmeister of Esterházys'. Haydn's lifetime saw a series of striking changes in musical style. At the time of his birth and childhood baroque traditions still prevailed. By the end of his life the apparent stability of the classical style was being challenged, notably by Beethoven....

Watch the Secret Life Of Alban Berg, a fascinating documentary about Austrian composer Alban Berg which reveals details of his dual existence. Alban Berg (1885-1935) lived in the mainstream of well-to-do Austrian society. His marriage to the beautiful Hélène was supposed to be perfect. But how can this doyen of Viennese respectability be reconciled with the composer who wrote the dark operas Wozzeck and Lulu? In this multi-layered film, director...

From Mexico to Salzburg, the private life of the most spirited of today's tenors. Explosive, excessive, expansive, extrovert, exuberant and an ex-seminarist. Many exes serve to describe this Mexican tenor who openly expresses and exhibits his moods, and who, without exaggeration, has taken by storm all the opera stages of the world in no time at all, simply thanks the beauty of his voice, his wholehearted nature, his gift of the gab, his generosity...