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Daniela Barcellona (Didon), Lance Ryan (Énée), Elisabete Matos (Cassandre), Giorgio Giuseppini (Panthée), Gabriele Viviani (Chorebe), Stephen Milling (Narbal), Eric Cutler (Iopas), Dmitri Voropaev (Hylas), Zlata Bulicheva (Anna), Askar Abdrazaov (Priam), Oksana Shilvoa (Ascagne) Orquestra de la Comunitat Valenciana & Cor de la Generalitat Valenciana, Valery Gergiev After the very successful Ring from Valencia, here is another spectacular staging by La Fura dels Baus, this time conducted by Valery Gergiev. This monumental opera complete with ballets, large choruses and orchestral set pieces was recorded at Valencia’s Palau de les Arts in 2009. Great singers: Daniela Barcellona as “breathtaking Dido” (Opernglas), Lance Ryan, Elisabete Matos. Only one other Blu-ray in the market available. Staged by La Fura dels Baus Bonus Making of (21 minutes) Total: 261 minutes (Opera ´240 + ´21 Bonus ´) English, German, French, Spanish, Chinese, Korean BD: DTS-HD MA 5.1, PCM Stereo "Ancient myth meets Star Wars, and the eye is constantly engaged with images ranging from space-age technology to details of soccer uniforms." The New York Times "This is a worthy and compelling, glittering version of a sublime work." International Herald Tribune “while Padrissa's computer projections and airborne acrobats achieve memorable visions, he underproduces the human element. Embattled Troy is a dystopian ruin under nuclear dustclouds, the robotic Trojan Horse unleashing, like an internet 'Trojan', computer breakdown...Padrissa makes the only real stab I've seen at Berlioz's spectacular scenario for the Royal Hunt...Gergiev relishes the score's exotic colours.” BBC Music Magazine, September 2011 **** “The cast in Valencia has its strengths, prime among them the proud, brassy mezzo of Daniela Barcellona as Dido...Elisabete Matos is a properly intense Cassandra, and Lance Ryan as an Aeneas visiting from another planet, ray gun in hand, balances the lyrical and heroic sides of the role nicely...Gergiev rouses the Orquestra de la Comunitat Valencia to some energetic playing.” Gramophone Magazine, October 2011 | | | Usually despatched in 2 - 3 working days. |
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| |  | The Classical Album 2011
Bach, J S: | Concerto for Two Violins in D minor, BWV1043: Largo ma non tanto Julia Fischer (violin) Toccata & Fugue in D minor: Toccata Simon Preston (organ) | Beethoven: | Symphony No. 5 in C minor, Op. 67: 1. Allegro con brio Gustavo Dudamel Piano Sonata No. 14 in C sharp minor, Op. 27 No. 2 ‘Moonlight': Adagio sostenuto Daniel Barenboim (piano) Piano Concerto No. 5 in E flat major, Op. 73 'Emperor' - Rondo (Allegro) Hélène Grimaud (piano) | Bellini: | Casta Diva (from Norma) Cecilia Bartoli (mezzo) | Brahms: | Hungarian Dance No. 1 in G minor Iván Fischer | Capua: | O sole mio Luciano Pavarotti (tenor) | Chopin: | Waltz No. 6 in D flat major, Op. 64 No. 1 'Minute Waltz' Alice Sara Ott (piano) Nocturne No. 2 in E flat major, Op. 9 No. 2 Vladimir Ashkenazy (piano) | Daquin: | Le Coucou Trevor Pinnock (harpsichord) | Fauré: | Après un rêve, Op. 7 No. 1 Nicola Benedetti (violin) Sicilienne, Op. 78 Neville Marriner | Grieg: | In the Hall of the Mountain King (from Peer Gynt) Herbert Blomstedt | Haydn: | Trumpet Concerto in E flat major, Hob. VIIe:1 (3rd movement) Håkan Hardenberger (trumpet) | Hérold: | La Fille mal gardée: Clog Dance | Khachaturian: | Sabre Dance from Gayane Valery Gergiev | Lara, Augustin: | Granada Plácido Domingo (tenor) | Liszt: | Liebestraum, S541 No. 3 (Nocturne in A flat major) Lang Lang (piano) Grande Étude de Paganini, S. 141 No. 3 'La Campanella' Yundi Li (piano) | Massenet: | Meditation (from Thaïs) Anne Sophie Mutter (violin) | Mozart: | Vesperae Solennes de Confessore, K339: Laudate Dominum Danielle De Niese (soprano) Non piu andrai, farfallone amoroso (from Le Nozze di Figaro) Bryn Terfel (bass-baritone) Voi che sapete (from Le nozze di Figaro) Magdalena Kozená (mezzo) | Orff: | Carmina Burana: Ecce gratum Riccardo Chailly | Puccini: | O mio babbino caro (from Gianni Schicchi) Anna Netrebko (soprano) E lucevan le stelle (from Tosca) Jonas Kaufmann (tenor) Che gelida manina (from La Bohème) Roberto Alagna (tenor) Un bel di vedremo (from Madama Butterfly) Renée Fleming (soprano) | Rachmaninov: | Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini, Op. 43 (extract) Tamás Vásáry (piano) | Rodrigo: | Fantasia para un Gentilhombre: Danza de las hachas Carlos Bonell (guitar) | Satie: | Gnossienne No. 1 Pascal Rogé (piano) | Schumann: | Kinderszenen, Op. 15: Traümerei Nelson Freire (piano) | Shostakovich: | Jazz Suite No. 2 - Waltz No. 2 Riccardo Chailly | Strauss, J, II: | Frühlingsstimmen Walzer Op. 410 Willy Boskovsky | Tárrega: | Recuerdos de la Alhambra Eduardo Fernández (guitar) | Tchaikovsky: | The Nutcracker: Chinese Dance Charles Dutoit | Vivaldi: | The Four Seasons: Summer, RV315 - Presto Neville Marriner | Wagner: | Die Walküre: Ride of the Valkyries Sir Georg Solti | Williams, John: | Schindler's List - theme Janine Jansen (violin) |
This stunning collection showcases the greatest stars of classical music with dazzling performances from Gustavo Dudamel, Cecilia Bartoli, Lang Lang and Anna Netrebko, to name but a few... Also includes legendary performances from some of the greatest artists of all time, including Luciano Pavarotti, Sir Georg Solti, Plácido Domingo and Daniel Barenboim. Introducing the exciting talents of a number of rising stars such as Jonas Kaufmann, Danielle De Niese, Julia Fischer and Alice Sara Ott With 40 tracks and over 2½ hours of music this collection is outstanding value for money, providing the foundation for a library of classical music. | | | Usually despatched in 2 - 3 working days. |
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Daniela Barcellona (Didon), Lance Ryan (Énée), Elisabete Matos (Cassandre), Giorgio Giuseppini (Panthée), Gabriele Viviani (Chorebe), Stephen Milling (Narbal), Eric Cutler (Iopas), Dmitri Voropaev (Hylas), Zlata Bulicheva (Anna), Askar Abdrazaov (Priam), Oksana Shilvoa (Ascagne) Orquestra de la Comunitat Valenciana & Cor de la Generalitat Valenciana, Valery Gergiev After the very successful Ring from Valencia, here is another spectacular staging by La Fura dels Baus, this time conducted by Valery Gergiev. This monumental opera complete with ballets, large choruses and orchestral set pieces was recorded at Valencia’s Palau de les Arts in 2009. Great singers: Daniela Barcellona as “breathtaking Dido” (Opernglas), Lance Ryan, Elisabete Matos. Staged by La Fura dels Baus Bonus Making of (21 minutes) Total: 261 minutes (Opera ´240 + ´21 Bonus ´) English, German, French, Spanish, Chinese, Korean DVD: DTS 5.1, PCM Stereo "Ancient myth meets Star Wars, and the eye is constantly engaged with images ranging from space-age technology to details of soccer uniforms." The New York Times "This is a worthy and compelling, glittering version of a sublime work." International Herald Tribune “while Padrissa's computer projections and airborne acrobats achieve memorable visions, he underproduces the human element. Embattled Troy is a dystopian ruin under nuclear dustclouds, the robotic Trojan Horse unleashing, like an internet 'Trojan', computer breakdown...Padrissa makes the only real stab I've seen at Berlioz's spectacular scenario for the Royal Hunt...Gergiev relishes the score's exotic colours.” BBC Music Magazine, September 2011 **** “The cast in Valencia has its strengths, prime among them the proud, brassy mezzo of Daniela Barcellona as Dido...Elisabete Matos is a properly intense Cassandra, and Lance Ryan as an Aeneas visiting from another planet, ray gun in hand, balances the lyrical and heroic sides of the role nicely...Gergiev rouses the Orquestra de la Comunitat Valencia to some energetic playing.” Gramophone Magazine, October 2011 | | | Usually despatched in 2 - 3 working days. |
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‘A mix of futurism à la Metropolis, fantasy à la Batman and quotes from Piranesi’s Carceri, juxtaposed in the form of photo montages, enhanced with … robots, a helicopter, a shark and the winged vehicle of a pop star Pope’, was how the Neue Zürcher Zeitung described this astonishing Salzburg Festival production of Berlioz’s Benvenuto Cellini. The high-calibre cast, headed by Burkhard Fritz as the temperamental Renaissance artist and the 26-year-old Latvian soprano Maija Kovalevska as Teresa, the woman with whom he tries to elope, is conducted by Valery Gergiev who “pulled out all the stops. He whips the Vienna Philharmonic into a delirium similar to that which possibly took hold of the composer” (Der Standard). This is French grand opera at its fast-paced and spectacularly-staged best. HIGH DEFINITION 1080i 60 PCM Stereo. DTS-HD 5.1 | | | Usually despatched in 2 - 3 working days. |
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| |  | Mahler: Symphonies Nos. 4 & 5
Live recording of Symphonies 4&5 from the 26th BBC Prom at Royal Albert Hall, London, 5th August 2010. Under the baton of renowned conductor Valery Gergiev, the orchestra “gave exemplary performances”, as The Independent put it. Only performing on rare occasions, the World Orchestra for Peace is an ensemble of select players plucked from the world’s best orchestras. Includes a fascinating 23 minutes Documentary about the orchestra founded by Sir Georg Solti. 2011 is the 100th anniversary of the death of Gustav Mahler. “But the further this genially sunlit work progressed, the more it came together, and soprano Camilla Tilling's paean to the joys of Mahler's (very strange) child's-eye view of heaven made a gloriously serene climax.” The Independent “The bucolic Symphony No. 4 was genial and fairly rapt in the finale, where Camilla Tilling was the expressive soprano soloist.” Financial Times “…the World Orchestra for Peace gave exemplary performances of Mahler's Symphonies Nos 4 and 5, one serene and summery, Camilla Tilling the soprano soloist, the other passionate in its wintery maturity” The Independent Running Time Total: 155 minutes Symphonies: 132 minutes Documentary: 23 minutes Picture 16:9, colour Sound PCM Stereo, DTS 5.1 (Bonus: PCM Stereo) Subtitles Documentary: German, English (original language) Packaging NTSC: Amaray 1 DVD Booklet English, German, French “There is certainly a sense of holding in reserve in the Fourth Symphony...Camilla Tilling's brightly focused soprano is a plus in the finale. The Fifth Symphony displays far more drive and sharply characterised detail and draws some thrilling playing from the orchestra's principal trumpet and horn.” BBC Music Magazine, May 2011 **** “Excitingly filmed and with fine playing” Classic FM Magazine, July 2011 *** “One can only marvel at the collective skill and intuition that guides this tatterdemalion band through heavy-metal thrash second movement and at Gergiev's power of selective concentration, worthy of Karajan.” Gramophone Magazine, August 2011 | | | Usually despatched in 2 - 3 working days. |
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| |  | Live Recording from The Salzburger Festspiele, 2002
Set Design by Johan Engels Costume Design by Marie-Jeanne Lecca Puccini’s last opera “Turandot” stands out from the rest of his works. In the fairytale based upon Gozzi’s motif, the composer blends exoticism with psychology in a way that can not be imitated when telling the story of the men-hating Chinese princess who eventually finds love. In his music, Puccini also succeeds in merging foreign fl air with Italian melodramma while still staying tuned to his own unique musical language. In his production for the Salzburger Festspiele, David Pountney tries to give an account of the dominant feeling in Puccini’s time: the fear of being alienated by mechanisation and totalitarianism. Both Turandot’s salvation and the happiness in the closing scene are also refl ected in the release of the other characters from the system in which they had to live. This gives rise to a new hope of a humane society. The opera is staged using Luciano Berio’s completion of Act III. The Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra is masterly conducted by Valery Gergiev. Sound Format: PCM STEREO, DD 5.0, DTS 5.0 DVD Format: DVD 9, NTSC Picture Format: 16:9 Running Time: 125 mins & 16 mins (Bonus) FSK: 12 Subtitle Languages: GB, DE, FR, ES, IT, CN “At last, a concept that is more than a clever idea...[Pountney's] Turandot here at the Salzburg [sic] abandons its customary Chinoiserie taking its visual cue from Fritz Lang's movie Metropolis, with a touch of Tim Burton and Edward Scissorhands...In this reading of the work it helps immeasurably that Pountney and Gergiev have jettisoned both Franco Alfano's long and short endings” BBC Music Magazine, April 2011 ** “Pountney employs imagery of huge grinding cogs (drawn from, inter alia, Fritz Lang's film Metropolis) to show a brutal mechanized society being thawed by love. Gabriele Schnaut displays unflagging power as Turandot and Johan Botha (though hampered somewhat by his size) is equally thrilling.” Classic FM Magazine, April 2011 **** | | | Usually despatched in 2 - 3 working days. |
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Valery Gergiev chose to perform this work at his final concerts as principal conductor of the Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra. This memorable event – the finale of an era in the life of the conductor as well as in the history of the orchestra – was captured on film, and is now being released on DVD. For the performances, and recording, of this work, in which the choir plays a central role, the orchestra invited the renowned Swedish Radio Choir, as well as the soloists Solveig Kringelborn and Mariusz Kwiecien. Live recording made on 25th May 2008 at de Doelen Concert Hall, Rotterdam, for Valery Gergiev’s final concert as principal conductor of the Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra “This is a very deeply felt account, sung and played and directed by Gergiev with intense conviction...Mariusz Kwiecien is an authoritative baritone, Solveig Kringelborn meltingly maternal in her solo.” BBC Music Magazine, August 2010 **** “this performance is successful through its fundamental seriousness and earnest commitment. The Swedish Radio Choir, on which so much in this piece depends, is splendid. Anyone who has not heard the Polish baritone Mariusz Kwiecien should try to do so at the earliest opportunity. He's a solid musician who sings naturally and effortlessly” International Record Review, September 2010 | | | Usually despatched in 2 - 3 working days. |
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| |  | Valery Gergiev conducts StravinskyDsd recording, Mariinsky Concert Hall, St Petersburg December 2009 (Les Noces) Feb 2010 (Oedipus Rex)
Stravinsky: | Les Noces sung in russian Mlada Khudoley (soprano), Olga Savova (mezzo), Alexander Timchenko (tenor), Andrei Serov (bass), Svetlana Smolina, Yulia Zaichkina, Alexander Mogilevsky, Maxim Mogilevsky (pianos) Oedipus Rex sung in latin Sergei Semishkur (Oedipus), Ekaterina Semenchuk (Jocasta), Evgeny Nikitin (Creon & Messenger), Mikhail Petrenko (Tiresias), Alexander Timchenko (shepherd) & Gérard Depardieu (narrator) |
SACD in jewelcase with 80pp booklet in slipcase Notes in Russian, English & French. Each release from the Mariinsky label to date has featured music by some of the great Russian composers with whom the Mariinsky Theatre has enjoyed close relationships. For the label’s sixth release, Valery Gergiev turns to the music of Igor Stravinsky, a composer who grew up in St Petersburg, attending performances at the Mariinsky Theatre where his father sang. Less than four years separate the premieres of Les Noces and Oedipus Rex, yet they each represent high-points in two distinct phases of Stravinsky’s career. Although the concept of Les Noces is highly innovative – a ‘dance cantata’ – the music remains rooted in Russian folk traditions. Stravinsky dedicated the ballet to Diaghilev, whose Ballet Russes gave the première, and it marks the crowning glory of Stravinsky’s so-called ‘second Russian period’. The opera-oratorio Oedipus Rex is the first great work of Stravinsky’s neo-classical period. It features a major change in his compositional style, influenced in part by the loss of ‘Russian identity’ following his emigration. It is sung in Latin with Jean Cocteau’s original French narration spoken here by Gérard Depardieu. Valery Gergiev conducts a Stravinsky festival with the New York Philharmonic in April and May 2010, including performances of both Oedipus Rex and Les Noces. Later in May he conducts the LSO in London as well as on tour in Ireland and Germany performing music by Stravinsky, Debussy and Messiaen. Forthcoming releases from Mariinsky include the second title in Gergiev’s Grammy-nominated Shostakovich Symphony cycle followed in September by Wagner’s Parsifal. LSO Live releases Gergiev’s new recording of Rachmaninov’s Second Symphony in May, the first release in a cycle of the composer’s symphonies, and indeed the first by the composer on LSO Live. “Ekaterina Semenchuk...[is] the contralto with the biggest range and lustre since Bernstein's Troyanos, and Sergey Semishkur's Oedipus blends clarion authority with youthful pathos...all the right musical phrases shine through. Even Bernstein's recording can't match it for earthy authenticity.” BBC Music Magazine, August 2010 ***** “Ekaterina Semenchuk (Jocasta) sounds plummy at first but she and Sergei Semishkur (Oedipus) bring electrifying intensity to the duet where they realise their guilt. Overall this is a double-bill of at times shattering impact.” Gramophone Magazine, Awards Issue 2010 “this performance [of Les Noces], recorded live, has idiomatic vocal forces, essential for this fundamentally Russian work...the Mariinsky Chorus and players relish the primitivist rhythmic verve of this singular masterpiece.” Sunday Times, 16th May 2010 *** | | | Usually despatched in 3 - 4 working days. |
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| |  | Parsifal - The Search for the GrailRecorded: Mariinsky Theatre, St Petersburg, Ravello, Siena, Bayreuth
Tony Palmer’s documentary about Richard Wagner’s opera ‘Parsifal’, with extracts from Tony Palmer’s stage production of Parsifal starring Placido Domingo, Violeta Urmana, Matti Salminen and Anna Netrebko. The Grail – the cup which Jesus Christ is said to have used at The Last Supper – is one of the most powerful symbols in Western culture. Wagner’s three-act opera, Parsifal, is the most famous work which celebrates the search for the Grail. Parsifal is an opera about ideas, about philosophical questions rather than answers, where the questions themselves are what is important, and the power and eloquence with which they are expressed. With the help of a rare interview with Wolfgang Wagner, Richard Wagner’s grandson, who explains what his grandfather intended and why, plus an all-star cast including the first performance on film of Anna Netrebko, this documentary explores the explosive nature of Wagner’s dangerous ideas. Wagner was virulently anti-Semitic - to this day, it is not possible to perform Parsifal in Israel - and thus provided the Nazis with some powerful cultural propaganda, because for Hitler, Parsifal, the hero of the opera, was pure Aryan blood. When the film was originally released on DVD, the Germans censored 30 minutes of the film which they considered ‘political’, ‘uncomfortable’ and ‘irrelevant’. This is the original version, uncensored, as approved by Domingo. “It succeeds in exploring the legend of Parsifal quite brilliantly, while making it brutally relevant to us today.” John Ardoin, Great Performances (PBS) Interviews: With Placido Domingo, Wolfgang Wagner, Robery Gutman & Karen Armstrong Duration: 116 mins Classification: Exempt Picture Format: 16:9 Sound Format: Stereo Region Code: All Language: English Subtitles: None | | | Usually despatched in 4 - 5 working days. |
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| |  | You Cannot Start Without Me: Valery Gergiev - MaestroA Film directed by Allan Miller
Directed by academy award winner Allan Miller, 'You cannot start without me' offers viewers an intimate look into the demanding life of Valery Gergiev, widely acclaimed as one of the leading conductors of our time. This rich musical film offers rare insight into the talent training and concentration required of a great conductor and reveals how Gergiev combines an impossible international conducting schedule with his job as director of the legendary Mariinsky Theatre in St. Petersburg. The film includes scenes with London Symphony Orchestra, the Metropolitan Opera, Gergiev’s boyhood home in the Caucasus mountains, Moscow, cities along the Volga river and performances by Yefim Bronfman, Renée Fleming, Dmitri Hvorostovsky, Leonidas Kovakos, Uliana Lopatkina and Anna Netrebko. This film presents a penetrating portrait of Gergiev the man and artist. Format 16:9, NTSC PCM stereo, Dolby 5.1 Subtitles: Eng, Fr, Ger, Jap, Russ, Spa Bonus: interview, concerts excerpts, 87+ 69” “gives us enough of Valery Gergiev in rehearsal to validate the words bandied about so often by the man and his musicians: 'magic', 'magnet', 'atmosphere', 'human', 'beauty'. They're all here, reinforced by the material in the extras.” BBC Music Magazine, April 2010 **** “This documentary peers briefly down the corridors of Gergiev's life as impresario, conductor and family man, roughly in that order of prominence. We are promised 'an intimate look into the demanding life of Valery Gergiev'; and I think that's what we get...enjoy, especially, the 'extra' sequence of rehearsal and performance” Gramophone Magazine, August 2010 | | | This item is currently out of stock at the UK distributor. You may order it now but please be aware that it may be six weeks or more before it can be despatched. |
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Gramophone Magazine