The founding of the Berliner Philharmoniker on the first of May in 1882 is annually celebrated with a concert in a European city of cultural significance. For this newly released Europakonzert Blu-ray Disc all recordings were lovingly restored and converted to High Definition video.

The conductor is two-time Grammy Award winner Bernard Haitink, who was also nominated "Musician of the Year" in 2007 by Musical America.

The concert takes place at St Mary Church, Krakow, a basilica on which most of the Churches in the US that were built in the so called 'Polish style' were modelled. One famous example is St Michael’s in Chicago.

Soloist Christiane Schäfer, a renowned soprano, is noted for her fine and subtle voice. The pianist is Emmanuel Ax, Arthur Rubinstein International Piano Competition winner.

“Ax is an extremely satisfying pianist; he is at home in a wide variety of music and his pianism is always thoughtful, lyrical, lustrous.” - The Washington Post

The BD is enhanced by an enticing documentary containing interviews with contemporary Polish composer and triple Grammy Award winner Krzysztof Penderecki and footage from a performance of the Studium Musicae Cracoviense, an ensemble dedicated to historically accurate performance of – particularly Polish – Renaissance and Baroque music.

Picture format: 60i - 16:9 - Documentary: SD NTSC
Disc Format: BD 25
Sound formats: PCM Stereo, DTS-HD Master Audio
Region code: All
Booklet notes: English, German, French
Language (Documentary): German
Subtitles: English, French
Running time: 95 mins Concert, 19 mins Documentary
FSK: 0
Available Worldwide