Magic Moments of Music - Menuhin & Karajan

In 1966, two exceptional artists meet: Karajan and Menuhin. Their collaboration peaked in a stroke of artistic genius and created a unique moment.

Yehudi Menuhin is considered the prodigy of the past century. He was celebrated and adored as once W.A. Mozart, whose Violin Concerto No. 5 he interprets for this recording. After many years of performing and traveling, the outbreak of World War II marked a turning point for Menuhin. He plays in front of Allied troops, soldiers, and wounded. His concert in the liberated concentration camp Bergen-Belsen confronts him, the protected boy prodigy, with unimaginable horror. But Menuhin does not despair. He decides to dedicate his life and his music to reconciliation and peace. As early as 1947, he returns to Berlin for a guest performance, the first Jewish musician to do so. Only a few years older, Herbert von Karajan takes a completely different path. His life is marked by the search for perfection and musical greatness. During the Nazi era, Karajan builds his career in Germany and becomes one of the most influential and important conductors of the postwar period. This 1966 recording, masterfully staged by feature film director Henri-Georges Clouzot, proves that such contrasting biographies do not stand in the way of magical musical moments. International stars from the music scene such as Anne-Sophie Mutter, Daniel Hope, or Hillary Hahn, but also greats of cinematic art such as Sunnyi Melles, and Bruno Monsaigeon, let themselves be enchanted by this valuable contemporary testimony, which documents the only collaboration of these musical legends. Together we experience how timeless beauty is realized in sound ideals and how music can still contribute to reconciliation today.

Original title Magic Moments of Music - Menuhin & Karajan play Mozart
Genre Documentary
Duration 52 mins
Production Company sounding images, co-produced by UNITEL, commissioned by ZDF, in collaboration with ARTE
Director Grete Liffers