DVD Videos

Student: Sebastian Bäverstam Accompanist: Catherine Edwards

Swedish cellist Frans Helmerson was born in 1945 and began playing the cello at the age of 8. After studies in Goteborg, Rome and London, followed by a debut in Stockholm, his solo career has taken him on countless tours all over Europe as well as the USA, Asia and Russia. He has performed with many of the finest orchestras under the baton of some of today's greatest conductors. He is also renowned throughout the world as one of the great teachers of the cello. He holds professorships at the Musikhochschule in Cologne, where he is based, and at the Escuela Superior de Musica Reina Sofia in Madrid. A regular teacher at the Verbier Festival Academy, here he gives a masterclass on the first movement of Dvorak's great Cello Concerto.

Gábor Takács-Nagy is one of the legendary performers and teachers of chamber music. Having studied in Budapest at the Franz Liszt Academy and later with Nathan Milstein, he was founding member and first violin of the Takács Quartet which became world-renowned as one of the finest string quartets of its day.

In this masterclass he works on the first movement of Brahms' tragic 3rd Piano Quartet.

Evelyn Glennie is without question the best known solo percussion player in the world. She gives more than 100 performances a year worldwide, performing with the greatest conductors, orchestras, and artists. Her diversity of collaborations have included performances artists such as Bjork, Bobby McFerrin, Sting, Emmanuel Ax, Kings Singers and the Mormon Tabernacle Choir.

In this masterclass she works on two twentieth century percussion compositions: Minoru Miki's "Marimba Spiritual" and Anders Koppel's "Toccata for Marimba and Vibraphone".

Håkan Hardenberger is regarded as the greatest trumpet soloist today. An outstanding teacher he is a professor at the Malmö Conservatoire and a Fellow of the Royal Northern College of Music in Manchester, England.

In this masterclass Håkan Hardenberger works with students on three key works from the 20th century trumpet repertoire

Steven Isserlis, one of the world's outstanding cellists, is a musician known for his strong ideas and passionate convictions about music. A champion of the works of Schumann, he also gets satisfaction in discovering and introducing into the repertoire works by lesser known composers which he considers deserve a wider audience. As well as giving concerts and recitals throughout the world, he is much sought after as a teacher. He is Artistic Director of the International Musicians' Seminar at Prussia Cove in Cornwall UK, the world-renowned residential workshop for talented young musicians, started by Hilary Behrens and the legendary Sandor Vegh.

In this masterclass, he works on the Robert Schumann's Fantasiestücke, a group of three "Fantasy Pieces" originally written for clarinet and piano but later arranged for cello and piano by Schumann himself.

Zakhar Bron is known the world over as one of the greatest of all violin teachers and an inspiring performer. Among his students were some of the best known violinists of today like Vadim Repin and Maxim Vengerov. Professor Bron has taught at the Royal Academy in London, the Conservatory of Rotterdam, the Musikhochschule Lübeck and the Escuela Superior de Musica "Reina Sofia" in Madrid where he still teaches.

In this masterclass he works on Bach's Chaconne for Solo Violin, considered a pinnacle of writing for solo violin and one of the most challenging pieces in the repertoire.

In Russian with simultaneous English translation

Students: Barbara Buntrock, Lilli Maijala, Jan Grüning

Yuri Bashmet is the pre-eminent viola player of the modern age and he has inspired the leading composers of our time such as Gubaidulina and Schnittke to expand the repertoire with significant new music. Described by The Times as 'without doubt, one of the world's greatest living musicians', he worked closely with such legendary names as Rostropovitch and Richter and is an inspiring teacher of the Viola.

In this masterclass he works on all three movements of Shostakovitch's Sonata for Viola and Piano - the last work he completed before his death in 1975.

Students: The Young Danish String Quartet

Gábor Takács-Nagy was born in Budapest where he started learning the violin at the age of eight. He attended at the Franz Liszt Academy, after which he studied with Nathan Milstein. From 1975 to 1992, he was founding member and first violin of the Takács Quartet which became world-renowned as one of the finest string quartets of its day. An inspiring and perceptive teacher, Gábor Takács-Nagy's chamber music masterclasses are greatly in demand. Since 1997, he has been Professor of String Quartet at the Geneva Conservatoire and he regularly gives masterclasses in various academies throughout the world such as the International Musicians' Seminar at Prussia Cove, UK and the Verbier Festival Academy. In this masterclass he works on the fourth movement of Bartok's 5th String Quartet.

DVD 1 RAVI SHANKAR ‘BETWEEN TWO WORLDS’ - The definitive account of India’s most celebrated musician follows two years of Ravi Shankar’s life - filmed in India and America – against the backdrop of seven decades of innovative collaboration with Western musicians. Archive footage shows concerts with Zakir Hussain and other key performances filmed from the 1930s to the present day.

DVD 2 LIVE IN CONCERT - Ravi Shankar performs two ragas (Raga Anandi Kalyan and Raga Rangeela Piloo) in the atmospheric Union Chapel in London, Summer 2002, with his daughter Anoushka and tabla virtuosi Bikram Ghosh and Tanmoy Bose.