Classical

This intimate documentary by João Moreira Salles features one of the Brazil’s most prominent pianists. Nelson Freire was a child prodigy from Minas and was destined for fame later in life. The film covers his travels to France, Belgium, Russia and, of course, Brazil, as he performs in concert and recitals before admirers and fans. The music is absolutely extraordinary as Freire plays Brahms, Schumann, Tchaikovsky, Chopin, Bach, Gluck, Villa-Lobos and Rachmaninoff. Argentine Pianist Martha Argerich is also featured in this outstanding portrait of a extraordinarily talented contemporary artist.

Experience the best of Beautiful Europe with Rudy Maxa, one of America's premier consumer travel experts. High Definition photography and authoritative commentary make this 6-DVD collection the essential travel accessory. Join Rudy, as he heads outside of London to Dublin and Edinburgh, explore the splendors of France in Normandy and the wine country.

Series looking at the revolution in 20th century music.

A mind-bending sci-fi symphony, Stanley Kubrick's landmark 1968 epic pushed the limits of narrative and special effects toward a meditation on technology and humanity. Based on Arthur C. Clarke's story The Sentinel, Kubrick and Clarke's screenplay is structured in four movements. At the "Dawn of Man," a group of hominids encounters a mysterious black monolith alien to their surroundings. To the strains of Strauss's 1896 Also sprach Zarathustra, a hominid invents the first weapon, using a bone to kill prey. As the hominid tosses the bone in the air, Kubrick cuts to a 21st century spacecraft hovering over the Earth, skipping ahead millions of years in technological development. U.S. scientist Dr. Heywood Floyd (William Sylvester) travels to the moon to check out the discovery of a strange object on the moon's surface: a black monolith. As the sun's rays strike the stone, however, it emits a piercing, deafening sound that fills the investigators' headphones and stops them in their path.