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New York, June 2016 – Colin Jacobsen, Johnny Gandelsman, Nick Cords, Eric Jacobsen, Michael Nicolas

These guys from the string quartet Brooklyn Rider are just great. It was wonderful to film this episode with them. I had met founding member Colin Jacobsen in Sydney during the YouTube Symphony Orchestra in 2011. He was mentoring the strings and playing a piece of his own and I remember thinking back then how cool he was. I bought a CD of theirs- Silent City – when I got back and was immediately a fan.

When I decided to film four episodes of Sarah´s Music back-to-back in New York, I called my friends at the 21C Media group to ask what interesting concerts were happening during the time I was planning to be there. I was delighted to hear that Brooklyn Rider was performing at National Sawdust – the new cool concert space which I was dying to see anyway, so I starting planning a programme with them right away.

I was determined to surprise them with something fun instead of a normal sit-down interview, hence the Brooklyn bagels. I had hoped to continue the theme and interview them in the Brooklyn Bridge Park but as you can see from the introduction, it was pretty rainy that day so we were very lucky to be able to use my friend, Christina Piaia´s cool Brooklyn loft at the last minute – thanks, Christina!

After the bagels, we moved to National Sawdust in Williamsburg, a very cool part of Brooklyn. The Brooklyn Rider concert was part of the New York Philharmonic Biennial and there was a real buzz in the hall. It was a bittersweet occasion saying goodbye to founding member, Eric Jacobsen, but also wonderful to see how the quartet and the audience welcomed new member, Michael Nicolas. I feel very lucky that we could make our programme around such a special event in Brooklyn Rider´s history.

Long may they play together – thank you for this wonderful day with you all, for the awesome Horn Challenge “sounding your barbaric yawps over the rooftops of the world” and, most of all, for your wonderful music.

Wellington Barracks, London, May 2016 – Band of the Coldstream Guards, Sgt. Darren Hardy, the Horn Section

I hardly know where to start writing about my wonderful time filming with the Band of the Coldstream Guards! My first memories of this famous British Army marching band was as a 6 year old, watching them in awe during the Changing of the Guard, my face pressed up against the railings at Buckingham Palace. I fell in love with the red uniforms and tall black bearskin hats at first sight.

This episode of Sarah’s Music took quite a bit of organising. Quite innocently, I thought we’d be able to follow the band out of Wellington Barracks to Buckingham Palace, filming them all the way and back again. But I have lived out of the UK for so many years and had forgotten just how many tourists line the streets every day at 11:30am to watch the Band march out. There was no way our cameras could get through the crowds. However, we might not have made it to Buckingham Palace with them but we had such exclusive access inside Wellington Barracks that it didn’t matter in the end!

Special thanks to Bandmaster Laura Stead (also a horn player so we bonded immediately!) for her tireless organising, Colour Sergeant Darren Hardy for the interview, (being so close to the wonderful red uniform made me remember my first impressions as a 6 year old) and of course to Nick, Mick, Mark and Chris, the horn section, who made the time to show me the ropes and talk about life in the Band. Extra thanks to Nick for the special arrangement of the Horn Challenge piece. Don´t miss the outtakes…!

My team and I felt extremely privileged at the backstage access made possible for us by the Band of the Coldstream Guards and we enjoyed making this episode enormously. I am sure that you will enjoy it too. Rule Britania!

Click here to see the whole episode!

Click here to see the whole episode!

I am a big fan of Daniel Hope. He is truly multi-talented: a violinist, author, broadcaster, musical activist, festival director AND he has just taken over as musical director of the Zurich Chamber Orchestra.

I was delighted to be able to spend a day with Daniel and get a glimpse into his world and those who have influenced him.

Daniel says that Yehudi Menuhin was the reason he became a violinist. So, in this year that Menuhin would have turned 100, Daniel wanted to mark the occasion.

He recorded an album in tribute to Menuhin – such a pleasure to listen to – and then we also joined Daniel for the day at the Konzerthaus in Berlin where he had helped to set up a festival in Menuhin´s honour.

The day we filmed him he was taking part in a concert titled ‘Music and Kinetic Painting’ – a fascinating project involving Norman Perryman, also a long time friend of Menuhin, painting to live music.

I always love it when classical music is presented a bit differently so really enjoyed this fresh and exciting performance.

Norman even painted live to Daniel´s Horn Challenge, which I am sure you will giggle at! This is a special episode about a very special musician who is doing so much for our classical music world. I hope you will enjoy spending the day with Daniel as much as I did.

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Frankfurt, May 2016 – Simone Menne, David Schubert, Colin Touchin

My orchestra, the Berlin Philharmonic, was on a tour in Europe. I wasn’t needed for this tour so I stayed home. A member of my horn section called me up and excitedly told me that their Lufthansa pilot was a horn player and that I should interview him. This was a year ago and I’m really happy and proud to finally be able to do so – David Schubert, pilot and also a great horn player, is featured in this episode and it was so much fun playing a duet with him in the airport hangar!

Thanks to David I found out about the Lufthansa orchestra- an orchestra made up of pilots, flight attendants, technicians, office workers and many more, all who love playing their instruments in their spare time and who get together for 2-3 special concerts every year. I absolutely loved spending the weekend with these infectiously enthusiastic musicians, who all made me and my team feel so welcome. I was even allowed to play along for one piece in the concert!

This orchestra is very special, as Mrs Simone Menne, patron of the orchestra and a member of the Executive Lufthansa Board, tells us in her interview. I think every single member of the audience at the concert in Langen would agree. There is nothing like the power of music to bond and move people, and what I loved most about this orchestra is that although they are all amateurs, it was still a really high standard and you could sense that everyone wanted simply to give their best and enjoy the occasion.

A very special episode featuring a very special orchestra- thanks for letting us see into your world, dear LH Orchestra!

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I can honestly say that my time playing in youth orchestras were some of the best years of my life. I absolutely adored being part of my youth orchestras – they changed my life from being a solitary school girl who was always practising her horn to feeling like I belonged somewhere with other young people just as passionately and dedicated to the music as I was. I am so very grateful for my time in my various youth orchestras and to the conductors who worked so tirelessly with us – the Stoneleigh Youth Orchestra, the National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain and the European Community Youth Orchestra.

So I wanted to feature youth orchestra musicians of today on Sarah’s Music and was lucky enough to be joined by some members of the BJO – the German National Youth Orchestra – for this episode. Spending time with them brought back so many good memories for me. I felt so much like one of them – it was hard to remember that I wasn’t 16 any more. But I still had just as much fun with them as if I had been!

This was a great programme to film, thank you so much to the BJO team, especially Sönke Lentz, for being so supportive of this project. The BJO does wonderful work and my whole team and I really enjoyed the passionate energy which the young musicians ooze. Thanks also to my Berlin Phil horn colleagues for being such good sports about the filming whilst having to play one of the most difficult pieces for horn, the Schumann Konzertstück.

Do watch the concert on the Digital Concert Hall – it´s free and you can see -and hear – for yourself what a wonderful thing it is to play in a youth orchestra like this one. Enjoy!

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As I say in the introduction to this episode, I really didn´t know the Winterreise (Winter´s Journey) very well and it has been an absolute gift to get to know them. This combination of voice and piano is so intimate and so beautiful and the combination of Ian Bostridge and Julius Drake is a dream!

This episode took a lot of research- listening to the songs, reading Ian´s book, “Anatomy of an Obsession”, (which weighs a ton but is fascinating and extremely well written, so it was worth the extra weight in my hand luggage!)

The concert in the Berlin Chamber Music Hall as part of the MaerzMusic Festival was incredible. Every single one of the 24 songs was special. You could have heard a pin drop – the 75 minutes passed by so quickly.

I am now a firm Lieder convert and I hope this episode of Sarah’s Music will turn you into one too if you, like me, were not one before. Enjoy!

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Berlin 2016 / New York, Paris, Geilo, Sapporo, Sydney 2015

It is so much fun making these compilation episodes! We started out at the beginning of the year with Sarah´s Music Moments and then decided to celebrate the “globalness” of the programme with this special around-the-world episode.

I am loving going back and looking through previous programmes to find my favourite footage but, once again, I have to be banned from the studio in the last editing phase because I have so many favourite moments that the programme would last for hours.

Thanks to Kevin and Magda for being strict with me yet producing this lovely episode.

Sarah´s Music really has been global this past year – New York, Paris, Geilo (Norway), Sapporo and Sydney and I have loved every minute of filming them all. Which episode was YOUR favourite? I would love to hear from you!

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I first discovered Henrik’s music when I was asked to interview him for Apple’s series “Meet the Musician” at the Apple Store in Berlin. Henrik had just brought out his CD “Instruments” and Apple thought it would be interesting to have him chat to a classical musician. I really enjoyed talking to him, the interview link is below, and it was fascinating to find out about a world of music I really had no idea about before- the world of electronic and club music.

Since then I have looked forward to the opportunity to feature Henrik on Sarah’s Music and this concert in Berlin seemed the perfect chance. The Deutsches Kammerorchester Berlin (German Chamber Orchestra) performed two of his pieces in their concert series “Neue Meister” – “New Masters”. It was really fascinating to experience first hand how Henrik’s music sounds played on classical music instruments instead of a computer. And it was difficult to play! Thanks to Johannes Lamotke for letting me join the horn section.

Highlight of the day for me was our little composing / sampling session, although it was hard to believe that Henrik could create so much out of the few notes I played. You can hear the whole session exclusively below.

As usual, I had a great day with my wonderful Sarah´s Music Team. Thanks to our sound guy Manuel Wilhelm for the making-of photos! We laugh a lot whilst filming, especially when the presenter messes up – check out today´s outtake…

So what do you think? Does electronic music belong in the concert hall? Should classical music be played in the clubs? An interesting discussion…I would love to hear from you!

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The young pianist, Daniil Trifonov, is an astonishing musician. That’s not just my view, but the view of critics around the world. I had heard so much about him and have all his recordings, but I had never met him, or heard him play live. So I was absolutely delighted when he agreed to come on ‘Sarah’s Music’. I spent my entire train journey to Hamburg, reacquainting myself with his Chopin recordings, released to rave reviews in 2013 when he was just 22.

Hamburg is the home of Steinway pianos who were offering Daniil the choice of 3 beautiful instruments to play on for his concert there. So, the first thing we did on arrival in Hamburg (at 10pm!), was to go film the selection of the piano. As we were waiting for Daniil to arrive, I was thrilled to bump into another incredible pianist – the legendary Menahem Pressler – who was also choosing his piano for his concert a few days later.
It was touching to then see the meeting between the two and watch the elder Menahem give advice to the younger Daniil as which was his favourite piano and why.

Rupert Wagg, Head of Digital at Deutsche Grammophon, suggested attaching a GoPro camera to Daniil’s head so we could get a bird´s eye (ok, a pianist´s eye) view whilst he was making his choice of pianos. Daniil was a great sport and you can see a short clip of this playing in the episode.

Daniil and I had a fun interview in the Hamburger Rösterei, which is THE place to get coffee in Hamburg, by the way! And where the customers didn’t even flinch when I presented Daniil with my horn for the Horn Challenge…you’ll see how he did on the programme.

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Geilo, Norway, January 2016 – Terje Isungset, Daniel Herskedal

When I heard about this Ice Music Festival, held in the Norwegian ski resort of Geilo, I knew it was an absolute must for Sarah’s Music. There’s no other festival like it in the world – and as I write this blog on the train leaving Geilo on the way back to Oslo and look out at the beautiful snow covered landscape rushing past, it all seems like a wonderful dream! Happily, it wasn’t a dream as you’ll see from this episode…

My friend and Ice Music Festival media chief, Emile Holba, made me laugh with his quote that, ‘the Ice Music Festival is where art is lunacy’.  He is not far wrong.  To carve musical instruments out of ice (not just any old ice, but pure Norwegian fjord ice, if you please) and perform on them on beautifully built outdoor ice stages where the temperatures can drop to -20C is actually totally crazy! But it works and it is the most extraordinary experience.

The Ice Music Festival founder and director, Terje Isungset, and his tireless team of ice sculptors, musicians and extremely impressive sound people really put on a festival to remember. The highlight was the legendary midnight concert under the full moon with ice percussion and ice horns accompanied by beautiful medieval singing.  The atmosphere at the concert as the music and singing drifted across the frozen fjord surrounding us was something I’ll never forget.

It’s hard to describe the uniqueness of this festival well enough in words, so please have a look at the episode and the Making Of photos for a better understanding. A huge thanks to my Geilo team, especially Paul and Emile for all the organising. And to Daniel for letting me try his Mammuthaphone for the Horn Challenge – I FROZE my lips off! If you can make it to Norway to visit the Ice Music Festival in person, I thoroughly recommend it, this music should be experienced live. Just don’t forget to pack your warmest clothes!