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What a feel-good day it was filming this episode! We feature the wonderful horn section of the Simón Bolívar Symphony Orchestra of Venezuela, who were on tour in Europe playing sold-out concerts under their music director Gustavo Dudamel. I had never met any of the horn players before but thanks to our digital age, had been in touch with them via Facebook. So when we finally met face to face at the Philharmonie in Berlin it was like meeting old friends.

This orchestra, all trained in the music education programme ‘El Sistema’, is so full of positive energy and you can really sense that they absolutely love what they do. They play with such passion and such precision, it was a pleasure to be around them all day and to also enjoy their concert.

Our live Horn Hangout was a huge success, with around 2000 live viewers tuning in from South America to Sri Lanka, from Japan to Australia. Incredible! The guys were so much fun to interview and I loved playing with them in an arrangment of typical Venezuelan pieces arranged especially for the Horn Hangout by Luis Alberto Castro. I adored being Sarah-naded by Leo Melgarejo on his cuatro (now my cuatro, gracias Leo!) and a huge thank you to José José Giménez for all his help in organising everything.

I hope you have as much fun watching this episode as we had making it. I can’t wait to take Sarah’s Music to Venezuela to film with these guys again!

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Berlin – December 2015 – Peter Sellars

The American opera director, Peter Sellars, is simply one of the most inspirational people I have ever met. When I researched his life and work in more detail for this interview, I became even more star-struck. Peter knows so much, has done so much, is so widely honoured and respected and is such a pleasure to work with.

My orchestra, the Berlin Philharmonic, recently performed Claude Debussy’s opera ‘Pelleas and Melisande’ in the Philharmonie in Berlin . The Philharmonie is of course a concert hall, not an opera house, but Peter staged this opera especially for us and, as you will see in the programme, he used the whole hall to spectacular effect. This was one of the most special projects I have worked on in my time with the Berlin Philharmonic – Peter placed the singers all over our concert hall which created a whole new listening and visual experience.

If you can, I really recommend watching ‘Pelleas and Melisande’ on the Berlin Philharmonic’s Digital Concert Hall. (www.digitalconcerthall.com). Once logged in, also have a look at Peter’s staging of J.S.Bach’s St. Matthew and St John Passions with the Berlin Philharmonic. Sir Simon Rattle described the St Matthew production as “ the single most important we ever did here”. I absolutely agree – there are no horns in the piece so I had the pleasure of being in the audience and watching it live several times. I had goosebumps practically the entire piece.

Peter is a phenomenon – he is incredibly well read, taught himself to read music and knows his music inside out. He’s also known for his legendary hugs! The music world is lucky to have him and I was so happy he took time for Sarah’s Music.

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After 31 (31!!) episodes of Sarah´s Music I thought it was finally time to delve into the archives and share with you some of my favourite moments. Easy, or so I thought…It proved to be so difficult! I got lost down memory lane and loved re-watching all these wonderful musicians and experiences I have had this past year and a half. Then I painfully picked out my favourite moments, but when our picture editor Kevin Steiner added it all together, we saw we would have had a 45 minute programme. So Deutsche Welle editor Martin Roddewig had to come in, I was banished from the editing room and together he and Kevin made this 12 minute episode of favourites. I love what they did and was glad that I didn’t have to choose. But I have many more favourite moments so watch this space – there are going to be more episodes like this one coming up in the next year! I would love you to let me know YOUR favourite moments and where you watch Sarah´s Music from too, you are more than welcome to write to me in the chat at the bottom of this page.

What a fantastic experience it has been making the first 31 programs – may there be many more. Thanks to the Deutsche Welle for giving me the chance to share my music world and also to the tireless team at Bernard Fleischer Moving Images for producing the program. Enjoy these Sarah´s Music Moments and Happy New Year!

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Christmas wouldn’t be Christmas without the Nutcracker! For me, Tchaikovsky´s ballet is magical and it´s the perfect piece to feature in our Christmas episode. We spent the day with the Berlin State Ballet and watched their final rehearsals for this year´s performances. My mother is a ballet critic so I was brought up in and around the dance world. I also spent 10 years in the Berlin State Opera orchestra, so have played the Nutcracker many times. This music is pure Christmas for me.

The studio rehearsal was very lively with excited children everywhere and props flying around –dolls, mouse costumes, toy trumpets, all sorts of things. It must be fantastic to dance these roles as a child, the joy was very evident and I enjoyed talking to Frieda, who was dancing the role of the young Clara. A real dream come true for her. We were allowed to watch the private rehearsal of the grown up Clara and her Nutcracker prince, danced by principal dancers Krasina Pavlova and Mikhail Kaniskin. It was beautiful to see Krasina soaring through the air, she made it look so easy! Thanks to them both for taking the time to talk to me, and especially Mikhail who put his Nutcracker costume back on for the cameras, even though it was tropical in that rehearsal room! I also very much enjoyed talking to the legendary choreographers Vasily Medvedev and Yuri Burlaka, and thanks to my mum who did the Russian translation.

The dress rehearsal in the main auditorium of the Deutsche Oper was a bit chaotic, as all good dress rehearsals tend to be…a good omen that everything will be all right on the night. At the last moment, I was allowed to film backstage in the wings with Chris (our Sarah´s Music cameraman) and Manuel (sound). This was wonderful as there was so much going on, dancers stretching and warming up, mice running loose (in costume, don’t worry!) Chris almost got knocked over by a giant piece of cheese and I forgot to warn Manuel about the very loud cannon at the beginning of the battle scene…his headphones almost blew up. Sorry Manuel!

I hope you enjoy this episode and, if you can, do go and see the Nutcracker live somewhere near you. It´s a magical treat for Christmas. Thanks to you all for watching our programme and being Sarah´s Music supporters, it means a lot to us! Merry Christmas and see you in the New Year!

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Ballroom dancing has made a huge comeback thanks to TV shows like “Dancing with the Stars” (USA) and Strictly Come Dancing (UK). I admit to enjoying these shows and wishing I could be whisked around the dance floor like the celebrities…so when I was on tour in Vienna with my orchestra, the Berlin Philharmonic, I had the idea of making a Sarah´s Music episode about the Viennese Waltz and finally trying it out for myself!

Every single person I asked for recommendations for a good dance school said the best place to go to in Vienna is the Elmayer Dance School so we callled to sign me up for a lesson. I´m hugely grateful and honoured that the head of this historical school, Professor Thomas Schäfer-Elmayer himself, offered to talk to me and give me my first Viennese waltz lesson. Talking to him was wonderful and dancing with him was blissful! I felt like I was flying across the dance floor – everything around me rushed by out of focus but Mr Elmayer stayed upright and all I really saw was him. I absolutely adored it but when we stopped I almost fell over. Mr Elmayer told me the men learn that they have to hold on to the lady for a few extra moments after finishing the waltz in case she is dizzy- if he hadn’t held me, I would have landed on the floor!

Inspired by the waltz lesson, we went to the Vienna Konzerthaus to hear The Philharmonics play. These guys are incredible musicians and personalities. They rose to fame when they were featured in the interval film of the Vienna Philharmonic´s traditional New Year´s Day concert and haven’t looked back since.

One of the great things about Sarah´s Music is the calibre of musicians we feature – being a musician myself, I know and/or have worked with most of the people I interview for the programme. So the access we have is really exclusive and this episode is a perfect example.  I was allowed to sit on the stage in the middle of the group whilst they rehearsed – wonderful for me and great for our viewers. Thanks, dear Philharmonics, I am forever a fan!

Enjoy waltzing around Vienna with us and, if any of the producers of the dance shows are watching:  if you ever need a horn player to be one of your contestants, please think of me!

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I love musicals! Always have! So when the classic musical Chicago opened here in Berlin I decided to feature it on Sarah´s Music. The Theater des Westens, one of Germany´s most historic and beautiful musical theatres, is showing the original Broadway production – sex and scandal in the heart of Berlin! Chicago has been described as a musical for the advanced…it´s not your typically heart-warming musical like Lion King or Mamma Mia. Its raw, blatantly sexy and the music is fabulous. The scantily clad singers certainly can’t hide behind their costumes in this production! And one of my favourite things about this production is that the band is on stage the whole time and is included in the action.

The TDW is truly a stunning theatre, as you can see in this episode and also in the photos in the Making-of Gallery. We spent the whole day there so were able to experience the whole build up to the show in the evening – I love the atmosphere in a theater when it´s empty, it has almost a holy air about it. The first interviews were with Artistic Director Markus Brühl and MD Jochen Kilian – I could have talked to them all day about the running of a musical theatre. I loved what Markus said about routine being their biggest enemy – to do the same show at such a high level 8 times a week takes such dedication. Another highlight for me was filming with Caroline “Velma Kelly” in her dressing room. After all the bustle around the stage, it was so peaceful in there and so interesting to see her pre-concert routine. Thanks for sharing that with us, dear Caroline!

Nigel “Billy Flynn” looked so gorgeous in his tuxedo that I almost forgot my questions and Caroline produced the most incredible Horn Challenge considering she was wearing mountains of red lipstick! I had forgotten my spare mouthpiece which meant lots of mouthpiece-polishing afterwards…

The band for Chicago are fantastic, thanks to them all for playing the exit music especially for us- twice! Skip, Friedrich, Alex and Shay were fun to interview and I loved sitting up there with them- a real bird´s eye view of the show! My team and I were wonderfully looked after all day by Michaele Pruemmer, and as you can see, a great day was had by all of the Sarah´s Music team. If you get a chance to go and see this production anywhere in the world where it is showing, do it and let us know what you think!

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Here in Germany, the French Horn has been proclaimed Instrument of the Year 2015. Now, my horn makes an appearance on every episode of Sarah’s Music but I wanted to do something special to mark this year and when the opportunity came up of doing a tour of all the horned animals at the Berlin Zoo with my friend Dr Andreas Ochs, I thought this would make a good basis for one of our episodes. It was definitely a first for me doing the introduction with a rhino…I got thoroughly slobbered on by Ine the Rhino who has two rather magnificent horns of her own!

In this episode you can get an idea of how a French horn like mine evolved from the animal horn to the concert stage, I have included some links below as I am sure you will want to know more details…:-) We all had fun at the Zoo and I loved playing our little barn concert with my friends and fellow horn players, Thomas Jordans and Klaus Wallendorf. It was a family affair and their children showed how they take after their fathers by playing loudest during the Horn Challenge!

The Berlin Philharmonic Horn Marathon Day at the Philharmonie was also a perfect opportunity to show you how we horn players like to get together and play our favourite instrument. Horn is really much more fun in a group and the more the merrier, as you can see at the end in the Flashmob. Well, we were more like just a mob because we took so long to get organized and tape the music onto the backs of the person in front of us, so it wasn’t really a surprise flash, more like a little concert. I had the best human music stand of all – you’ll have to watch to see what I mean! Clemi was also our very first Sarah´s Music Horn Challenge, have a look here.

I hope you enjoy this episode and will agree with us horn players that our instrument really does deserve the honour of being Instrument of the Year 2015!

Berlin, May 2015 Iván Fischer, Konzerthaus Orchestra

I have spent much of my life sitting in orchestras and well understand that a concert sounds very different from the ‘inside’ than it does from the ‘outside’ as the audience hears it. But why not let the audience discover what music sounds like it for us musicians on the ‘inside’? All kudos to Maestro Iván Fischer and his Konzerthaus Orchestra Berlin for this great idea – to sit ‘Mittendrin’, meaning ‘right in the middle’, of the orchestra during a concert.

It was my first taste of Mittendrin and we had a great day filming in the beautiful Konzerthaus in Berlin as the orchestra rehearsed and then performed Stravinsky’s ‘The Firebird’. My seat for the concert was next to a desk of first violins which gave me a very different perspective on the piece and was a whole new acoustic journey. It was also wonderful to watch the audience’s very visible reaction as they sat among the musicians and it was good to see that the audience was made up of all ages.

But, as my wonderful cameraman Henning said during the filming of this episode, the Mittendrin concept is easy to convey visually but it’s very difficult to capture the true audio experience. For that, you really have to be there to hear with your own ears. Our editor Kevin, who had not been present at the shoot, was so impressed at what he saw in the editing studio that he has booked tickets for his family for the next Mittendrin concert. What a great result! I really do think this is a fantastic concept and hope you have the chance to go try it for yourselves. Let us know if so!

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I absolutely LOVE being in Australia. Such a beautiful country and such great people with their humour, openess and culture of fun and good times. And their classical musicians are pretty talented too! So I was very happy to be at the Australian World Orchestra (AWO) at the Sydney Opera House this July.

The AWO is truly unique – as their founder and artistic director, Alex Briger, pointed out in this episode – there is no other professional orchestra made up of musicians from just one nationality. To reunite Australian musicians from orchestras at home and abroad for the performances of the AWO makes for a very special atmosphere both on and off the stage. On stage there is a unifying spirit to the music – and off stage there is so much hugging and laughing going on as they all get together as many are old friends. It’s said that the AWO is like the Australian Youth Orchestra with wrinkles..!

It was such a treat to spend a whole week in Sydney filming for Sarah’s Music. In true Australian style, we worked hard and played hard. There was the interviewing of the AWO members and the playing with the horns on the Opera House steps when it was cold and windy and they had to rush back to play Bruckner 8. Such sports. (Check out the Horn Challenge and the Outtakes). And then there was the nightly gathering at the Sydney Opera Bar!

A few thanks from me: to my Berlin ‘boss’, Sir Simon Rattle and his melodious wife Magdalena Kožena for their interviews; the AWO management team led by the tireless Gabrielle Thompson were fantastic and put on an amazing week; and last but not least, to my great Aussie team of José, Dan, Patrick, Deb and Juliette, who I hope enjoyed the two days exploring my often-crazy world of classical music!

That’s all from me for this episode of Sarah’s Music. I hope you enjoyed being Down Under with us. And have I said yet how much I love Australia..?

Sapporo, July 2015 Pacific Music Festival

I love the spirit and the globalness of the Pacific Music Festival! This year, the PMF orchestra was made up of 78 young musicians from 23 countries – who have all won their place in the orchestra through online auditions – and the mentors/teachers come from some of the best orchestras in the world. I was very happy to be there in Sapporo as a mentor for the second year running. PMF has a really positive energy about it but, of course, it’s a lot of hard work for everyone too.

It’s so interesting to learn how people from different countries make music in their own unique ways. My horn section were already good players so my job as a mentor was to bring their different schools of playing together and create one unified sound. I was so proud of them – the PMF Horns rocked! (but didn’t rock the boat…check the video in the Outtakes below).

In fact, my horn section rocked so much that they are the stars of this episode of Sarah’s Music. The highlight was our Kimono adventure when we were dressed in traditional Japanese costume to play a concert in the local park. It was a lot of fun but we all agreed that it´s extremely difficult to play the horn in a kimono! I had been told that Japanese women always stand with their feet together while wearing kimono – but YOU try playing horn in a boiling hot (‘atusi’ in Japanese) and extremely tight kimono with your feet together.. It certainly was a unique experience and the audience in the park were very appreciative of the music and the fact we had dressed up for them. We were very grateful to the Harmony Volunteers who lent us the kimonos and dressed us so patiently. Check out the Making Of photos – you can see more there, including how hot we got!

A huge thank you to the wonderful PMF team, especially Nick Akers who was such a help with the organizing. Also many thanks to my Japanese on-site producer, Naoyuki Hayashi – I couldn’t have done this without him! I hope you enjoy this episode and see what wonderful things PMF are doing for the young musicians in our music world.