Claudio Abbado - Mass in E Flat Major / Mass in C minor - BLU-RAY

Strumming the strings of the piano like a harp and performing Beethoven and the Beatles on a toy piano are among the surprising scenes in Evans Chan's documentary, which celebrates the trans-cultural career of Singapore-born, New York-based pianist Margaret Leng Tan.

The public and press enthusiastically celebrated the long-awaited return of Claudio Abbado to the Salzburg Festival in 2012. The conductor brought with him Mozart's youthful Mass K. 139, the so-called Waisenhausmesse, and Schubert's late Mass in E flat major. In a fascinating way, Abbado succeeded in merging the singers and instrumentalists into a total collaborative effort 'Seldom has one heard such a perfect balance between choir, orchestra, and vocal soloists; one has also seldom heard such a beautifully coordinated and perfectly balanced vocal ensemble' (Salzburger Nachrichten).

Abbado's approach to the music of Bruckner is soft and songlike, at times tense and urgent, but constantly filled with warmth of feelingInch - not only the Neue Zurcher Zeitung is full of praise when Claudio Abbado and the Lucerne Festival Orchestra play Bruckner. Their interpretation of his awe-inspiring Fifth Symphony reflects the composer's burgeoning powers and exquisite compositional artistry. As the Guardian poetically states InchThe composer himself, one suspects, might have leapt to embrace Abbado as an ideal interpreter.