Category: Episode

September 2017 , Holstebro, Denmark – The Danish String Quartet: Rune, Frederik, Asbjørn, Fredrik

I´ve been fans of these four for a while so when I was invited to take part in the Klassiske Dage Festival in Denmark and saw that they would be performing there too, I knew I wanted to get them onto Sarah´s Music. And here they are!

Klassiske Dage is a wonderful festival in Holstebro, Denmark, run by my dear friend Janne Thomsen. Holstebro is a small, tight knit community and everyone was so excited that the DSQ were coming to town. I had watched their videos on YouTube so often that I felt like I was meeting pop stars. And they are! These four musicians play so well together – even their feet tap in perfect time together during their folk music. I loved getting to know them and also playing in the encore which Rune had arranged especially for all the Klassiske Dage soloists – you can see it here in the Extras.

If you get a chance to see them live, do go! And if you can´t, buy their latest CD for a taste of how beautifully they play. Last Leaf is a collection of Scandinavian folk tunes and you´ll love it, I promise!

Bonn, September 2017 – Beethovenfest 2017

This episode documents the opening weekend of the annual Beethovenfest in Bonn. Sarah´s Music is there every year as the Deutsche Welle is the media partner. We had exhausted Beethoven and Gummibears in previous years so this year I decided to just roam about with my team on the opening weekend and see what was going on.

Loved the energy of the ONE group – it´s always inspiring for me to see young people getting others involved through music. Johanna and Christina, you are great and keep on doing what you do!

The Jazztube wasn´t part of the Beethovenfest officially but I was happy to discover it by chance so just had to include it.

And I was really happy to include the Gustav Mahler Youth Orchestra, one of the best youth orchestras in the world. My own youth orchestra days were the best of my life, so it was great to be around their energy and talent and to hear their rehearsal – they sounded great!

Rain, sunshine, lovely interviews, we had a great time in Bonn this year! Oh, and my tip for any of you visiting Bonn: go to the Konditorei Müller-Langhardt on the Marktplatz…they made all the edible Beethoven creations and we loved being there!

Lucerne, August 2017 – Lucerne Festival Orchestra, Ricardo Chailly, Michael Haefliger, Reinhold Friedrich

Lucerne can be the most beautiful and magical place if the weather is good. It is also a beautiful place when the weather is bad…it´s just not as fun to film outside as it could be! We really didn´t expect Lucerne to be so cold and rainy in the middle of August but it was. It didn´t dampen our spirits though – it was pure pleasure to be around the musicians of the Lucerne Festival Orchestra. As Kirsty Hilton says in the programme, the LFO is like a grown-up youth orchestra, and for me it was so lovely to see so many old friends who I hadn´t seen in ages. A very special orchestra!

A huge thank you to the LFO brass and percussion, led by the inimitable Reinhold Friedrich! We weren´t able to film the rehearsals as the orchestra were making a CD (buy it!) so we didn´t have enough music for this episode. The brass and percussion came to my rescue and surprised me by playing a march up on the roof of the KKL concert hall. I was so honoured and adored it – and them!

Enjoy Lucerne in the rain, next Sarah´s Music I make there I will insist the sun shines so I can show you the mountains, but for now you´ll have to make do with an alpine horn in the rain…

Berlin, May 2017 Albrecht Mayer, Kammerakademie Potsdam

The Oboe is the Instrument of the Year 2017 in Germany and to celebrate this beautiful but fiendishly difficult instrument for Sarah´s Music we were lucky to have Albrecht Mayer – “the man who made the oboe cool”. I was going to call this episode just “The Oboe” but Albrecht spoke so inspiringly that it has turned into his episode. Very happy and proud to have him on the programme, also to be able to include the Kammerakademie Potsdam, a really wonderful orchestra full of lovely people. And…Albie did a very impressive Horn Challenge and I honked my best too…don´t miss it!

Berlin, July 2017 –  Christopher Rowe, Martin Roddewig, Jeanne Gröllmann, Kevin Steiner, Jörg Theiss

To make a great TV programme you need a great team – and I am so lucky to have these wonderful people to work with on Sarah´s Music. They have been with me from the beginning and have seen and heard it all,  so I thought that for this compilation I would put them in front of the camera instead of behind and ask them which were their favourite episodes and why.

They all turned out to be just as good in front of the camera as behind it – I must admit I was amazed and impressed at how well they all spoke during the filming!

I am very grateful for you, my wonderful team, and look forward to many more Sarah´s Music adventures with you all!

Hamburg, May 2017  Angelika Bachmann, Iris Siegfried, Anne-Monika von Twardowski, Sonja Lena Schmid

These girls rock! I mean really rock! I met them at the Echo Klassik awards in Berlin and loved their energy immediately. I´m so happy to have them on Sarah´s Music, they are such great ambassadors for music. And such talent! They play, sing, direct, create, make people smile…and find the time to support a music project for underprivileged children in Chile. Oh, and they are gorgeous too…a perfect recipe for success!

They are already very well-known around the world, but in case you haven´t met them yet, I hope this episode will turn you into a fan too like I am. Enjoy Salut Salon!

Berlin, July 2017 Avi Avital, Iván Fischer, Simon Halsey, Lisa Batiashvili, cast of Chicago

Berlin, Berlin! I loved putting this compilation together of all my favourite Sarah´s Music episodes which we have filmed in Berlin. When choosing clips for the compilations, I get all nostalgic but also proud, as we have some great episodes out there! It´s just often hard to decide which ones to include…

We also had fun filming the pieces to camera for this episode – it was a really hot summer´s day and I dragged my team all around Berlin. But they were rewarded with Currywurst and fries at the end! Enjoy Sarah´s Berlin Music!

Berlin, June 2017  Daniil Trifonov, Håkan Hardenberger, Martin Grubinger, Daniel Hope

A compilation of some of my favourite Sarah´s Music soloists we have featured  on the programme so far. I feel so lucky and privileged to meet and film with so many amazing musicians. And it´s so much fun revisiting old programmes to make these compilations.

All the links to the complete episodes are posted here, go back and enjoy!

Berlin, May 2017 Alban Gerhardt, Musicians4United Europe Soloists

“It will be called ‘Europe’ in the 20th century, and in the following centuries, even more transfigured, it will be called ‘humanity’…let us not be Englishmen, Frenchmen or Germans but Europeans. Let us no longer be Europeans but humans.”            – Victor Hugo

Kudos to my friend, the wonderful cellist Alban Gerhardt, for founding this initiative and putting this concert together. I was very proud to take part and was bowled over at the support we had. We all feel so strongly about supporting a united Europe, and we tried to show this the best way we know how – by making music. It was also wonderful to be with so many musician friends that day, everyone has such busy careers that we all usually just stay connected on social media, so it was a real treat to be in the same room all together.

Thanks to the Radialsystem and the Pulse of Europe for organising and supporting this event. When Alban suggested it I just knew that I wanted to not only be a part of it but that I wanted to feature it on my programme to be able to share the message of these wonderful musicians with all of you. Let´s all work together for a United Europe – or at least a more united world.

(thanks to Thomas Rosenthal for the photos)

May 2017, Barbican Centre, London – Sound Unbound Festival
I´m a big fan of anything which gets people interested in classical music who might not be familiar with it. This weekend was about inspiring new audiences but also offering new ideas for the classical music fans. There was so much going on in this huge arts centre, the Barbican was the place to be!
I enjoyed everything I experienced this weekend but there were two special highlights: the first was hearing the London Symphony Orchestra play John Williams’s film music.  The LSO is such a fantastic orchestra, they know these pieces so well (they recorded the soundtracks to most of the films) and hearing the film music without the movie distracting me made me realise just what a genius John Williams is. Loved it and wished we could have shown you more of it.
Second highlight was, of course, the London Horn Flashmob! I had had no idea if anyone would show up – I just put out the word that everyone was welcome and look at the crowd we had! I was especially touched at the mixture – from a 7 year old to seasoned pros to enthusiastic amateurs to talented students. And, the icing on the cake, my friends from the Coldstream, Grenadier, Scots and Irish Army Bands came to surprise me – in full uniform! It was so fabulous to see them again.
A great day was had by all – hope you enjoy the Barbican too!