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Franz Grundheber (Wozzeck), Waltraud Meier (Marie), Graham Clark (Hauptmann), Günter von Kannen (Doktor), Mark Baker (Tambourmajor), Endrik Wottrich (Andres), Siegfried Vogel (1er Handwerkbursche), Roman Trekel (2er Handwerkbursche), Peter Menzel (Narr), Dalia Schaechter (Margret) Staatskapelle Berlin, Staatsoper Unter den Linden & Chor der Deutschen Staatsoper Berlin, Daniel Barenboim Staged by Patrice Chéreau The legendary production of Alban Berg’s Wozzeck, formerly released by Warner Music, again available on DVD. A splendid opera under the musical direction of Daniel Barenboim and staged by his close friend Patrice Chérau. When Alban Berg saw a performance of the existentialist drama Woyzeck by Georg Büchner, he said it left such a tremendous impression on him that he immediately made up his mind to set it to music. Berg is recasting Büchner’s fragmentary drama in a nearly expressionistic way. His music tears into the flesh. Berg’s Wozzeck is not just an opera about social compassion, it is an opera in which fear finds consummate musical expression. This extraordinary performance at the Staatsoper Unter den Linden was staged by Patrice Chéreau who can be called one of the greatest theatrical directors of this century. Outstanding opera singers Franz Grundheber, Waltraud Meier, Graham Clark, Günter von Kannen and Mark Baker and many others complete this great opera performance. Picture format DVD: NTSC 4:3 Sound format DVD: PCM Stereo Region code: 0 (worldwide) Subtitles: English, German, French, Italian, Spanish Booklet notes: English, German, French Running time: 97 min | 
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“When the big melody appears in Dalila's seduction aria, Chung's idiomatic conducting encourages a tender restraint, where others produce a full-throated roar. Meier may not have an ideally sensuous voice for the role...but her feeling for words is strong and the characterization vivid.” Penguin Guide, 2010 edition **** | | | In stock - usually despatched within 1 working day. |
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| |  | Klaus Tennstedt conducts Mahler
Interview: Tennstedt discusses Mahler with Michael Oliver BBC STUDIOS 1987
Klaus Tennstedt (1926–1998) was one of the great Mahlerians of his time and, over a period of 10 years, he recorded a Mahler cycle in the studio with the LPO where he was music director from 1983 to his retirement due to ill health in 1987. This recording has never been issued before and is sourced from the BBC’s master tapes. This 1986 performance from London’s Royal Festival Hall differs from the studio recording made in the late 1970s. As Michael McManus states in his booklet notes, ‘Fine though the studio recording from 1979 was and is, this live performance has an intensity and integrity that few, if any, recordings of this work can match’ and ‘Tennstedt in concert was a very different creature from Tennstedt in the studio. Mahler in particular was a lifeand-death experience in the concert hall’. The sound captured by the BBC engineers is state of the art and easily captures Mahler’s huge dynamic range. As a bonus, there is a short interview from 1987 in which Tennstedt discusses Mahler interpretation with Michael Oliver. “This is an overwhelming experience. Tennstedt’s studio recordings of Mahler are impressive, but his concerts with the LPO at the Festival Hall were something different — among the greatest performances I have ever heard. This Mahler 3, given on October 5, 1986, is on fire from the first note. The Tennstedt strengths (huge dynamic range, maximum vividness of instrumental colour) strike you like a blow.” Sunday Times, 11th September 2011 “They are almost unbearably intense, recorded live as the pressures of illness loomed over the conductor. The intensity is palpable on the CD of the Third Symphony...but it is visible on the DVD of the Fifth: Tennstedt's unique way was to let the music unfurl with total freedom (and some vagueness) and then galvanise its climax with frightening concentration.” The Observer, 18th September 2011 “This is not the spick and span, vibrato-lite Mahler somewhat in vogue today...yet something special is going on, especially when the stick is discarded for much of the long-breathed, old-world, unashamedly subjective Adagietto...[Meier] contributes more than the statutory stoical poise...Exuding integrity, his finale is again straightforward, by no means unduly slow. Fortunately the sound is good.” Gramophone Magazine, November 2011 | | | (also available to download from $21.50) | In stock - usually despatched within 1 working day. |
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| |  | Mozart: Requiem & Ave Verum
Mozart’s Requiem is surrounded by mystery and myth: commissioned anonymously by a wealthy aristocrat through an enigmatic ‘grey messenger’, it was left incomplete when the composer died in 1791. For all that, its true power lies in the solemn, yet often impassioned dignity of its musical language. Conducting the Berliner Philharmoniker, two choirs from Sweden and a carefully chosen quartet of soloists, Muti, in the words of Gramophone leads ‘a big-scale reading, dramatically inclined’. | | | In stock - usually despatched within 1 working day. |
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| |  | Live Recording From The Grosses Festspielhaus, Salzburg Festival, 2010
Set by Raimund Bauer With Richard Strauss’ Elektra, the Salzburg Festival delivers a thoroughly impressive new production that the Vienna daily Kurier calls the “best new opera production of 2010”. Reaping acclaim are the top-quality vocalists as well as the mighty stage set and the sensitive direction of Nikolaus Lehnhoff. Portraying Elektra is Swedish soprano Iréne Theorin, who injects astonishing dramatic power into her role. “Impressive in every respect”, wrote the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung about her role debut here. Internationally acclaimed Wagner singer Waltraud Meier also gives her spectacular, commanding stage debut here as Klytämnestra. They are complemented by an outstanding Eva-Maria Westbroek as Chrysothemis, and a forceful René Pape as Orest. Nikolaus Lehnhoff’s many years of experience on the world’s greatest stages are clearly visible in his direction of the singers: moving about a sinister, forbidding set bathed in suggestively changing lighting, the vocalists are treated as stage actors, whose expressive gestures are captured with particular vividness and immediacy by the camera. Leading the Wiener Philharmoniker is Daniele Gatti. Alternating between late 19th-century lyricism and early 20th-century excess, he clearly emphasizes the dual conflicts at the heart of the work. “Nikolaus Lehnhoff’s new production of ‘Elektra’ ends with a stroke of genius that arrives with a shock.” Financial Times Sound Format: PCM Stereo, dts-HD Master Audio 5.1 Picture Format: 16:9 Resolution: 1080i FULL HD Subtitle Languages: DE, IT, GB, FR, ES, JP Running Time: 109 mins Blu-ray Disc: 25 GB (Single Layer) FSK: 6 “Here's a treat for Expressionism junkies...dominated by Theorin's extraordinary heroine, a Brunnhilde gone seriously to seed, a real tour de force of concentrated energy, vocal stamina and dramatic power, who occupies most of the very well-made film in close-up. Daniele Gatti gets marvellous sounds from the Vienna Philharmonic, all the score's fever and neurosis but also its tenderness... There's really not a weak link here” Opera Now, Summer 2011 ***** “Elektra's Freudian creepiness constantly attracts sensationalist productions, so it's a pleasure to report just how fine this 2010 Salzburg staging is. Daniele Gatti's conducting is powerful enough, but never loses sight of the score's eerie lyricism and sombre glow, which Nikolaus Lehnhoff's staging embodies to atmospherically...Among Elektras on DVD this, along with Karl Böhm's historical performance, must rank among the best; and on Blu-ray it is superb.” BBC Music Magazine, October 2011 *****  BBC Music Magazine
DVD & Blu-ray Choice - October 2011 |
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| |  | Ioan Holender Farewell ConcertGala from Vienna State Opera
Bellini: | Ah, non credea mirarti (from La Sonnambula) Diana Damrau (soprano) | Donizetti: | Ah! tardai troppo...O luce di quest'anima (from Linda di Chamounix) Stefania Bonfadelli (soprano) Pour ce contrat fatal...Salut à la France (from La fille du régiment) Natalie Dessay (soprano) | Giordano, U: | Amor ti vieta (from Fedora) Ramon Vargas (tenor) | Gounod: | L'amour, l'amour... Ah, lève-toi soleil (from Roméo et Juliette) Ramon Vargas (tenor) Quel trouble inconnu me pénètre… Salut! Demeure chaste et pure (from Faust) Piotr Beczala (tenor) | Hiller, W: | Holenderchen! Ich war dein Traumfresserchen (from Das Traumfresserchen) Herwig Pecoraro (tenor) | Korngold: | Glück, das mir verbleib 'Marietta's Lied' (from Die Tote Stadt) Angela Denoke (soprano), Stephen Gould (tenor) | Lehár: | So kommen Sie! ? Ich bin eine anstnd'ge Frau (from Die lustige Witwe) Angelika Kirchschlager (mezzo), Michael Schade (tenor) | Massenet: | Vision fugitive (from Hérodiade) Boaz Daniel (baritone) Werther! Werther!…Je vous écris de ma petite chambre (from Werther) Roxana Constantinescu (mezzo) Toute mon âme - Pourquoi me réveiller (from Werther) Piotr Beczala (tenor) Suis-je gentille ainsi? ... Je marche sur tous les chemins ... Obéissons quand leur voix appelle (from Manon) Anna Netrebko (soprano) | Mozart: | Un'aura amorosa del nostro tesoro (from Così fan tutte) Michael Schade (tenor) Prenderò quel brunettino (from Così fan tutte) Barbara Frittoli (soprano), Angelika Kirchschlager (mezzo) E Susanna non vien! … Dove sono i bei momenti (from Le nozze di Figaro) Barbara Frittoli (soprano) | Offenbach: | Hélas! mon cœur s'égare encore! (from Les Contes d'Hoffmann) | Puccini: | Firenze è come un albero fiorito (from Gianni Schicchi) Saimir Pirgu (tenor) Se come voi piccina io fossi (from Le Villi) Krassimira Stoyanova (soprano) | Strauss, R: | Wie schön ist doch die Musik (from Die schweigsame Frau) Thomas Quasthoff (bass-baritone) Nun will ich jubeln wie keiner gejubelt (from Die Frau ohne Schatten) Adrianne Pieczonka, Deborah Polaski (sopranos), Johan Botha (tenor), Falk Struckmann (baritone) Er ist der Richtige nicht für mich … Aber der Richtige, wenn's einen gibt für mich (from Arabella) Adrianne Pieczonka, Genia Khmeier (sopranos) | Verdi: | Stride la vampa (from Il Trovatore) Nadia Krasteva (mezzo) In braccio alle dovizie (from I Vespri Siciliani) Leo Nucci (baritone) Va, pensiero (from Nabucco) Elle ne m'aime pas! (from Don Carlos) Ferruccio Furlanetto (bass) Pace, pace mio Dio! (from La forza del destino) Violeta Urmana (soprano) Perfidi!…Pietà, rispetto, amore (from Macbeth) Simon Keenlyside (baritone) Tutto nel mondo è burla (from Falstaff) Elisabeth Kulman, Krassimira Stoyanova, Ileana Tonca (sopranos), Nadia Krasteva (mezzo), Gergely Nmeti, Herwig Pecoraro, Michael Roider (tenors), Leo Nucci, Alfred Ramek, Boaz Daniel (baritones) | Wagner: | Rienzi Overture Winterstürme wichen dem Wonnemond (from Die Walküre) Placido Domingo (tenor) Mild und leise 'Isolde's Liebestod' (from Tristan und Isolde) Waltraud Meier (soprano) O sink hernieder, Nacht der Liebe (from Tristan und Isolde) Maria Schnitzer (soprano), Peter Seiffert (tenor) In fernem Land (from Lohengrin) Johan Botha (tenor) Über Stock und Stein (from Das Rheingold) Elisabeth Kulman (soprano), Gergely Nmeti, Adrian Erd (tenors), Boaz Daniel (baritone) | Weber: | Und ob die Wolke sie verhülle (from Der Freischütz) Soile Isokoski (soprano) |
A star-studded benefit concert to celebrate Ioan Holender’s farewell after 19 years as the director of one of the world’s leading and most famous opera houses. The highly acclaimed cast was headed by brilliant singers such as Diana Damrau, Natalie Dessay, Angelika Kirchschlager, Waltraud Meier, Anna Netrebko, Pjotr Beczala, Plácido Domingo, Thomas Hampson, Leo Nucci, Thomas Quasthoff, Ramon Vargas and many others. No fewer than twelve conductors including Marco Armiliato, Bertrand de Billy, Fabio Luisi, Zubin Mehta, Antonio Pappano and Franz Welser-Möst led the way through a program lasting over four hours at the fully-packed Wiener Staastoper. Subtitles: English, German, French, Spanish, Chinese | | | In stock - usually despatched within 1 working day. |
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| |  | Recorded live at the Festspielhaus, Baden- Baden, Germany, in August 2004.
Ever since the world premiere of Parsifal at Bayreuth on 26th July 1882, the meaning of Richard Wagner’s last opera has been widely discussed. Nikolaus Lehnhoff’s visionary staging of this emotionally charged opera reveals a masterpiece of existential drama about human existence. Christopher Ventris and Waltraud Meier lead an inspired cast in a high definition recording in true surround sound. “It is by a long way the most thoughtful, positive and penetrating view of Parsifal that I have encountered” The Times Bonus features: Illustrated synopsis Cast gallery Parsifal’s Progress: a documentary analysis including interviews with Nikolaus Lehnhoff, Christopher Ventris, Waltraud Meier and many others. Running time 317 mins Region code All regions Video codec: AVC/MPEG-4 Disc size: 2 x BD50 Picture format 1080i High Definition / 16:9 Sound format 2.0 LPCM & 5.1 DTS-Master Audio Menu language EN Subtitles EN/FR/DE/ES/IT “a provocative but effective interpretation, in which the Knights of the Grail are struggling to hang on to life in a post-apocalyptic world (a symbolic meteorite dominates the set in Act I). It's a grim vision, but one that works with the established plot; and Lehnhoff's final suggestion of Parsifal leading the others on to a new life without the organised religion that has so patently failed them is inspiring in these over-zealous times.” BBC Music Magazine, June 2005 **** “Put simply, it is interpretively, vocally, instrumentally, visually and audibly a most impressive performance of Wagner's final opera...[Nagano's] generally brisk tempos, unerring sense for drama and his ability to point up crucial orchestral detail impart a feeling of urgency, of tension, of passion to the proceedings.” Classical Net | | | In stock - usually despatched within 1 working day. |
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| |  | Bayeruth Festival Staging
Tristan und Isolde in the acclaimed production by Heiner Müller from the Bayreuth festival from 1995, conducted by Daniel Barenboim with fire and sensitivity. Siegfried Jerusalem as Tristan and Waltraud Meier as Isolde have consistently drawn enthusiastic acclaim for their performance, not only in the year of the premiere, but in subsequent years as well Heiner Müller and stage designer Erich Wonder have compressed the monumental story into a clear and fascinating geometry of love. Wonder created highly evocative spaces through projections of colours and forms which shift according to the mood One widely noted example of Müller´s elegant, restrained interpretation, in which small gestures replace sweeping displays of passion, is the famous love duet, in which Tristan and Isolde, instead of embracing rapturously, stand back to back and side by side and touch, ever so lightly, only the tips of their fingers. Subtitles: Chinese, English, French, German, Spanish “This is a fine an intensely moving account of a supreme masterpiece of musical theatre. Müller's conception of the work is austere… and on the whole he has managed a difficult assignment with flair and conviction. …Meier's contained, richly nuanced approach to both acting and singing is ideally suited to this production. Her Tristan Siegfried Jerusalem, is not less impressive, with a poised demeanour avoiding the woodenness that afflicts so many Wagner tenors. Add a marvellously sonorous Marke in Matthias Hölle, no weaknesses in the other roles, and in the virtues stack up to something special.” Gramophone Magazine, November 2008 “As for the long awaited debuts of Meier and Jerusalem, the audience was ecstatic, so much so that Jerusalem excitedly hugged and kissed his partner several times during the curtain calls” Herald Tribune “Daniel Barenboim's earliest performances of Tristan at Bayreuth are documented in a DVD of the 1981 production by Jean-Pierre Ponnelle (filmed in 1983) with René Kollo and Johanna Meier in the title-roles (available from DG). In 1993, when he was vastly more experienced and assured in his handling of this formidable score, Barenboim returned to the work in conjunction with playwright and theatre director Heiner Müller. This recording was made two years later, over seven days during the festival's rehearsal period. One imagines that the acts were filmed (without audiences) on separate days, to great advantage where the singers' stamina is concerned: but one particularly evident edit, at the point of Isolde's long-awaited entrance in Act 3, indicates that this is in some respects a hybrid product, halfway between a live performance and a studio version of a particular staging.
This is a fine and intensely moving account of a supreme masterpiece of musical theatre. It is not perfect, with the setting for Act 2 particularly unappealing, but it is serious in its dramatic, theatrical intent, and (that Act 2 setting apart) accomplished in its realisation. Müller's conception of the work is austere, not expecting setting or acting to get in the way of things which are best left to the music, and on the whole he has managed a difficult assignment with flair and conviction. Nowhere is this clearer than at the end, where Waltraud Meier sings the Liebestod from the front of the stage, with no semaphoring gestures and only facial expression and beautifully graded vocal projection to convey the essence of the drama.
Singers with more opulent voices have undertaken the role, yet Meier's contained, richly nuanced approach to both acting and singing is ideally suited to this production. Her Tristan, Siegfried Jerusalem, is no less impressive, with a poised demeanour avoiding the woodenness that afflicts so many Wagner tenors. Add a marvellously sonorous Marke in Matthias Hölle, no weaknesses in the other roles, and the virtues stack up to something special.
Does Barenboim's very explicit musical moulding actually fit with such a restrained stage production? Or is the whole point in the contrast between the visible and the audible? Such basic questions make one think yet again about the nature and significance of Wagner's most provocative and inexhaustible work for the stage.
Something special, indeed.” Gramophone Classical Music Guide, 2010 “...a splendid partnership of Siegfried Jerusalem at his finest and the rich-voiced Waltraud Meier, also at her freshest...Barenboim is in his element” Penguin Guide, 2010 **** | | | In stock - usually despatched within 1 working day. |
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Subtitles in German, English, French, Spanish, Chinese | | | In stock - usually despatched within 1 working day. |
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BBC Music Magazine Awards 2012
