The combination of violin and guitar as well as classical playing styles and jazz has been on everyone's lips since the inimitable duo Stephane Grappelli and Django Reinhard. An equally deep musical friendship exists between the Viennese violinist Rudi Berger and the Brazilian guitarist Toninho Horta, whose new album Belo Horizonte received the Latin Grammy Award for "Best Brazilian Album of the Year" in 2020. Their first collaborations started in 1988 in the United States, since then the two extraordinary musicians have played over 500 joint appearances to date. This album by the title "Rudi Berger featuring Toninho Horta" presents a cross-section of these years of musical life together, with recordings from Austria, New York City and Rio de Janeiro, from duo to 9-member formation. The compositions by Berger and Horta always transcend genre boundaries and incorporate influences from bossa nova, jazz, but also classical and folk music.

To this day, Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 is one of the most popular pieces of classical music in the world. But what is it about this global hit? The film charts the success of the symphony around the globe and encounters passionate amateur musicians and musical personalities. Watch as Greek conductor Teodor Currentzis works on Beethoven’s Ninth with his ensemble, MusicAeterna. Follow Chinese composer and Oscar winner Tan Dun as he creates a new composition inspired by the great Beethoven symphony. Experience the Orchestre Symphonique Kimbanguiste in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, as they play the Ninth. Visit a favela in Brazil, where Beethovens’s music helps people get off the streets. Be amazed as a choir of 10,000 in Japan sings the final chorus of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony, with great enthusiasm. Learn how Paul Whittaker helps make Beethoven accessible for deaf people. And find out how British DJ Gabriel Prokofiev performs a symphonic remix of Beethoven’s Ninth.

This release features key works by Astor Piazzolla, the king of composed tango, performed by three outstanding musicians. Shifting between fiery and melancholic, the tango nuevo is just irresistible. Born in 1971 in Münster, Germany, Friedemann Eichhorn studied violin with Prof. Valery Gradow in Mannheim, Alberto Lysy at the International Menuhin Music Academy in Switzerland and with Margaret Pardee at the Juilliard School New York. He regularly performs with orchestras such as St. Petersburg Philharmonic or the SWR-Radio-Orchestra and has concertized with Yuri Bashmet, Saschko Gawriloff, Gidon Kremer, Yehudi Menuhin and Igor Oistrakh. The German cellist Julius Berger studied at the Musikhochschule of Munich, Germany under Walter Reichardt and Fritz Kiskalt. Later, he studied at the Mozarteum in Salzburg, Austria under Antonio Janigro and at the University of Cincinnati under Zara Nelsova. When he was just 28 years old he was appointed to the Musikhochschule Wuerzburg and was one of the youngest Professors in Germany. A native of Buenos Aires, José Gallardo started piano lessons at the age of five, at first at the Conservatory in Buenos Aires, later continuing his studies with Poldi Mildner in the Faculty of Music at the University of Mainz, where he completed his diploma in 1997. Since autumn 2008 he has been teaching at the Leopold Mozart Centre at the University of Augsburg.

Julius Berger writes of his new release: "Johann Sebastian Bach’s suites for cello solo are arguably the purest form of music, works that require no explanation or background knowledge. Johann Sebastian Bach made one of his most profound affirmations, a Gradus ad Parnassum, which in six stages sets out an intellectual and technical challenge that is and will probably remain peerless in the history of music for our instrument. My colleague and friend, Prof. Peter Langgartner from the Mozarteum University of Salzburg pointed out to me that the Prelude of the first suite contains Luther’s chorale “Vom Himmel hoch, da komm’ ich her” (from Heaven above, from thence I come). I had always presumed so and was grateful for confirmation that the cello suites make allusions to chorales and religious messages. I have therefore found a musical way of opening a spiritual door to the suites and added chorales to Suites 1, 3, and 5 in the mould of sounds from John Cage’s work One 8, chorales that in my opinion are definitely consistent with messages conveyed in the suites. I find that John Cage’s music shares similarities with Bach’s. His music allows for inner reflection, providing a contemplative point of calm. Cage said the purpose of music is “to cleanse the soul and bring it peace, thus making it amenable to divine influences”. My son Immanuel intones the chorales to this special music; each chorale is followed by two Bach suites."

Recorded between 1950 and 1964, these holiday carols are sung by some of the finest recital singers of that time, including Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau and Rita Streich, Erna Berger, Elisabeth Grümmer. In tandem with exquisite arrangements that transcend the usual sentimental tropes, these famed carols gain a gem-like quality with the RIAS Symphonie Orchester (today known as Deutsches Symphonie Orchester Berlin).