Now entering his 255th-birthday year, Beethoven is universally recognized as a wildly inspired genius whose musical power was unique and transfixing. Beethoven—Romantic and Revolutionary presents Beethoven the way his first audiences heard him, with fire and passion.

We will focus on Beethoven’s heroic style as a response to revolutionary France and other tumultuous political and social changes of the early 19th Century.  Featured works include some of the most popular music Beethoven ever wrote, including the beloved Violin Concerto, Razumovsky String Quartets, and the Eroica, Fifth, and Seventh symphonies, all presented in stunning video performances.

Leonard Bernstein engaged in a dizzying number of roles before the American public: composer, conductor, pianist, teacher, entertainer and political radical. Along with John F. Kennedy he was the first ‘American Idol’ to realize the tremendous impact of television.

Chock full of thrilling video clips, this presentation captures the immense range of Lenny’s talents and his impact on generations of Americans.

Child prodigy, wife, mother of eight, widow, teacher, composer, and inspirational muse to her husband Robert, Clara Schumann was practically an otherworldly talent. “The practice of art is a large part of my self, it is the air I breathe,” she once noted.

As a virtuoso pianist, she performed to enraptured audiences throughout Europe, England, and Russia. Yet, owing to family pressures, gender disparities, and shrinking self-confidence, she stopped writing music when she was only 37.

In this session, we will explore the life and times of one of the most accomplished musicians of the 19th Century.

What makes Haydn hilarious, Beethoven buffoonish, and Mozart a madcap cutup? This richly entertaining presentation features live piano demonstrations and video examples of Mozart’s brash humor. Bickering servants, farcical farmers, petulant peasants of 18th-Century Vienna are all amusingly brought to life.

What makes a potent pianist? It’s more than Steinways and techniques. Discover the personalities, the influences as well as the dazzling virtuosity of the world’s greatest pianists.

Featured are yesteryear’s favorites such as Vladimir Horowitz and Arthur Rubenstein, but also today’s heroes, including Yuja Wang, Lang Lang, Martha Argerich, and many more.

What makes a great conductor? Why are some hated and others adored? Now that we’re in the fresh and exhilarating years of Yannick Nézet-Séguin, the Philadelphia Orchestra’s newest skipper, it’s time to review the mastery and heroics that established the great conductors.

What separates the podium wizards from the wannabes? Learn the secrets of the masters from a real maestro, Karl Middleman. We will survey rare footage of past Philadelphia Orchestra greats: Stokowski, Ormandy, and Muti. Look also for guest appearances by Leonard Bernstein, Simon Rattle, and Herbert von Karajan.

The Philadelphia Orchestra is in a golden age under music director Yannick Nézet-Séguin. Find out why. Magnificent videos and rare sound recordings will display the finest hours and astounding accomplishments of Those Fabulous Philadelphians under the dazzling maestro. We will also look at the mysterious craft of conducting, one that few people understand, as explained by “insider” Karl Middleman, a veteran conductor of many orchestras in Philadelphia and Europe.

Since the time of the great Paganini and earlier, listeners to great violinists felt enthralled by supernatural forces. Fainting spells, sexual license, even madness could result from overexposure to the instrument whose extravagancies could move the soul.

Here once again—in spectacular audio and visual display—are the great violinists—Jascha Heifetz, David Oistrakh, and Isaac Stern—to dazzle and delight.

Everyone is enchanted by the tales of the Arabian Nights. Often our fascination is kindled by composers such as Verdi and Borodin, whose colorful musical fantasies are inspired by the Orient.

Before them, hundreds of composers wrote music of exoticism and mystery. Many Orientalist masterpieces form the foundations of today’s most beloved concert repertoire. Scheherazade, Aida and Rudolph Valentino are just a few of the stops on this wide-ranging musical tour of the Orient.

Suspense, surprise, and shimmering beauty await you around every corner through the magic of sumptuous visual and audio highlights.

Vienna, city of dreams, land of musical magic.  For 150 years, Vienna was the preeminent musical center of the Western world. Numerous composers drew inspiration from the beautiful Blue Danube, elegant court balls, and much more. From Schubert to Strauss, they made Vienna their home. Musical Vienna—City of Dreams brings this legendary city to life.

Special focus will be given to the operetta Die Fledermaus, a masterpiece of Johann Strauss Jr. Scandalous love, mistaken identities, absolute chaos, and jail. Overflowing with dazzling waltzes, polkas, and Hungarian-styled czardas, it is a delightful satirical portrait of Old-World Vienna.

Great tenors are a breed apart. The grandest was Luciano Pavarotti, who towered over all others both physically and vocally. His singing combined sweetness and strength. As classical music’s first modern superstar, Pavarotti’s image became one of the most beloved in the whole world.

Here is the story of one of the greatest singers of all time. We will hear Pavarotti at his best in his calling card works, including The Daughter of the Regiment, The Elixir of Love, and Rigoletto. We will see the most influential people in his life, including soprano Joan Sutherland, James Levine, but also Lady Di and Liza Minelli.

Finally, we will measure his accomplishments amongst the other immortals of the great tradition of Italian tenors: Caruso, Gigli, and Corelli.

As they chased ‘The Good Life’ in the early 20th Century, many Americans searched for new ways to spend their leisure time. Harlem became an arts mecca for the full flowering of American culture. Jazz was found everywhere: in the speakeasies, in the dancehalls, in the homes, even in railroad cars.

Here was Harlem’s cathedral of entertainment, the Apollo Theater, where Ella Fitzgerald made her debut in 1934. Here was the Savoy Ballroom where mixed-race couples danced the Lindy Hop all night long to the music of jazz superstars Chick Webb, Count Basie, and Benny Goodman.  Here was the sexy stride piano music of Fats Waller careening out of Harlem rent parties.

We will survey key musical moments of the Harlem Renaissance and the ways they reflected changing sensibilities about race in America.

It seems like only yesterday that Sondheim was 25 and hailed as the wunderkind pal of Leonard Bernstein for his sharp lyrics to West Side Story. Of the greatest Broadway composers, only Irving Berlin and Cole Porter matched Sondheim’s brilliance as both a composer and wordsmith.

In this two-part series, we will pay homage to one of the most prolific masters of modern musicals with selections from his greatest hits: Sweeney Todd, Into the Woods, A Little Night Music, and much more.

They are “the only jewels of my life,” Ginger Rogers exclaimed of her films with Fred Astaire. Neither triumphs nor honors escaped Fred Astaire. America Dances with Fred Astaire traces the growth of our country’s greatest dancing star from his modest beginnings as a child performer on the Orpheum circuit through his Depression-era movie triumphs and to his late film triumphs.

More than any other American songwriting team, Rodgers and Hart epitomized the urban energy, confidence, and sophistication of the New York theaters in the 1920s.  The cleverness and suave naughtiness of their songs pulled together the motley elements of Vaudeville into sophisticated shows that served as Broadway models for over 20 years.

Here is the fascinating story of how Richard Rodgers, the son of a prominent physician from Queens, found common ground with Lorenz Hart, son of a shady promoter in Harlem, and completely transformed the art of American popular song.

Lyricist Oscar Hammerstein II is one of the most important figures in American musical show business history. Using historic recordings and thrilling videos, ‘Beyond the Yellow Surrey’ presents the story of Oscar Hammerstein and how his voice resonated deeply with post-war America.

Jerome Kern once said, “Irving Berlin has no place in American music. He is American music!” His masterworks include the greatest hits of Broadway and Hollywood, such as Easter Parade, White Christmas, and Annie Get Your Gun.

Irving Berlin’s AMERICA looks at the evolution of America’s greatest song composer back when New York’s Lower East Side was a true melting pot. This program follows the evolution of America’s greatest song composer while highlighting the priceless talents of his illustrious collaborators, including Judy Garland, Bing Crosby, Ethel Merman, and Fred Astaire.

Here they are: the early masters of the Great American Songbook. Crooners, scat singers, even singing cowboys. Jolson, Crosby, Garland, Astaire, Autry, and the Boswell Sisters all sing hits that lifted Americans’ spirits during the Depression era.

This series is more than a trip down Memory Lane. It’s a portrait of the epic saga of American entertainment history as featured in the confident first steps of the “talkie” films. Rare footage of the great stars illuminates these programs.

Harry Truman said it best: “His melodies will live in our voices and warm our hearts for many years to come; they are the simple, honest songs that belong to no time or fashion.”

Kern was the great emancipator who dragged songs away from Tin Pan Alley’s tiresome glitter into American soul. Here are the songs that made Florenz Ziegfeld weep: songs that burst at their emotional seams with tremulous whispers of sorrow and joy.

Songs like Ol’ Man River, The Way You Look Tonight, A Fine Romance, Smoke Gets in Your Eyes, and Yesterdays in performances by Frank Sinatra, Fred Astaire, Helen Morgan, and many more.

Different though they were, the two great patriarchs of jazz and pop music — Louis Armstrong and Bing Crosby — were mutual admirers. Bing Crosby, widely credited with originating the model of the modern popular singer, dominated radio, records, and movies as America’s first superstar of song.

As a young performer, he was smitten with jazz and freely acknowledged Louis Armstrong — the singer! — to be his greatest inspiration. This session explores the cross influence of two of America’s most beloved entertainers.

 “As American as Apple Pie” — so goes the evergreen saying. But during the songful holiday season, it might well be modified to read “Holiday Songs from Broadway Stages are as American as Christmas Trees.”

Song is indispensable to the joyous holidays, and Broadway stages have been crucial incubators for many of our favorite songs. Our sampling of Yuletide favorites alight upon many stages, including those of Broadway, Hollywood, the Metropolitan Opera, even the Dean Martin Show. Warm your heart with Judy Garland, Lucille Ball, and Bing Crosby in Christmas from the Broadway Stage … and many others.

Glenn Miller, Harry James, and the Andrews Sisters were a few of many 1940’s performers who gave their all to the war effort.

In this special tribute, we’ll celebrate their accomplishments with special attention to Irving Berlin and his hit show, “This Is the Army”. We will uncork a thrilling mélange of patriotic, toe-tapping songs and marches.

So proudly proclaims Tevye, the tradition-bound milkman. There were many fiddlers. The original creative team of America’s most beloved musical, Fiddler on the Roof, comprised many outsiders to America’s cultural identity and morality. 

Beginning with author Shalom Aleichem and his nonstarter bid for acceptance in American Yiddishe theater to director/choreographer Jerome Robbins and his coercion by the House on Un-American Activities Committee, the roof of Fiddler was crowded with iconoclasts and provocateurs.

2024 marked the 60th anniversary of the original musical. Somewhere in the world, whether in a country high school or a big city theater, Fiddler is being performed. Somewhere right now, Tevye is contending once again with his unruly daughters.

With large dollops of behind-the-scenes insight, entertainment, and video examples, this program provides a fresh look at the delights and upheavals of America’s most beloved musical.