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See Terms & Conditions for p&p rates. | |  | Sophia – Biography of a Violin ConcertoA Jan Schmidt-Garre Film
In August 2007, Anne-Sophie Mutter performed the world premiere of Sofia Gubaidulina‘s 2nd violin concerto in Lucerne with conductor Simon Rattle and the Berlin Philharmonic. This piece by the Russian composer (born in 1931) was an important event in many respects. Sofia Gubaidulina is one of the world‘s leading contemporary composers. Her international breakthrough came in 1980 with her first violin concerto, Offertorium, which she wrote for Gidon Kremer. To this day, it remains her most often performed piece. In spite of all the other pieces she has written in the meantime, it is her second violin concerto that violinists, conductors and orchestras around the world have eagerly been awaiting, especially since she was commissioned to write it in 1992 by Paul Sacher, the Basel conductor and patron of the arts. It was his wish that Gubaidulina‘s new violin concerto first be performed by Anne-Sophie Mutter. Fifteen years later, that dream finally came true. The film focuses on the piece - from its inception, through the many stages of the creative process to its world premiere but also features the many great expectations of the music world and the resulting pressure on Gubaidulina. It’s not the usual portrait of the composer but concentrates on the work in progress and documents the collaboration between Anne-Sophie Mutter, Simon Rattle and the Berlin Philharmonic. "First I hear the end of the piece. I hear it all at once, all mixed up and hard to recognize. As if everything were tied in a knot. It‘s too complicated. I can‘t write that moment down. I have to make it clearer to eventually get back to what I originally heard." Sofia Gubaidulina "The most beautiful music film I have ever seen." Joachim Kaiser Award at the Columbus International Film Festival 2008, nominated for Prix Italia Sound Format: PCM Stereo Picture Format: 16:9 DVD Format: DVD 5, NTSC Subtitle Languages: DE, IT, GB, FR, ES, JP Running Time: 60 mins FSK: 0 “it's the polarity of composer and performer that is the kernel of the film: Mutter cool, sveltely glamorous and severely practical, Gubaidulina looking more and more like a rumpled Babushka but eloquent (in German and Russian) on matters spiritual...it's an absorbing, interesting, at times touching study of aspects of the creative process..I liked the piece anyway, but I felt I now had a greater understanding and appreciation of it” BBC Music Magazine, June 2011 **** “This documentary, which feels curiously like an old-school South Bank (and I mean that as a compliment), traces the progress of this new violin concerto...[Gubaidulina] wears her heart on her sleeve and has plenty to say about how she structured her new concerto around her proportion of a Bach chorale...And there are intriguing insights into other personalities” Gramophone Magazine, July 2011 | | | Usually despatched in 2 - 3 working days. |
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| |  | Rattle conducts Carmina BuranaRecorded 31 December 2004 at the Philharmonie Berlin
A joyful celebration welcoming the New Year with one of the best orchestras in the world. The Gala from Berlin 2004 presents the outstanding Berliner Philharmoniker, conducted by Sir Simon Rattle with Carl Orffs well known Carmina Burana as well as Beethoven's Leonore Overture No. 3 and Handel´s Hallelujah. Carmina Burana is intensely dramatic and one of the twentieth century's most widely performed works for chorus and orchestra. Simon Rattle is a musical force of nature and the interaction between his unique, varied musical gifts and the great performing traditions of the Berliner Philharmoniker is one of the most exciting features of our present cultural life. The soprano Sally Matthews, the tenor Lawrence Brownlee and the baritone Christian Gerhaher made this evening to an extraordinary event. Christian Gerhaher is one of the most important baritones of our times. (He just recorded the Carmina Burana with Daniel Harding, to be released on Deutsche Grammophone in August 2010) "Everything which I've written so far and which you've unfortunately published you can now pulp. My collected works begin with Carmina Burana." Carl Orff Picture format DVD: NTSC 16:9 Sounds formats DVD: PCM Stereo, DD 5.0, DTS 5.0 Region code: 0 Booklet notes: English, German, French Running time: 89 mins FSK: 0 Directed by Manfred Wittelsberger “Gerhaher really lives and breathes every moment of of hedonistic self-loathing and sexual longing in his various contrasting cameos.” BBC Music Magazine, February 2011 *** “Rattle leads his massed forces in a spine-tingling performance, injecting an exciting accelerando into the opening O Fortuna and producing a sonorous yet detailed reading that is brilliantly photographed by director Manfred Wittelsberger.” Classic FM Magazine, January 2011 ***** | | | Usually despatched in 2 - 3 working days. |
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| |  | Sir Simon Rattle conducts Mussorgsky & BorodinRecorded live at Philharmonie Berlin, 2007
A beautiful document of the outstanding contribution Sir Simon Rattle has made to the music world in his work with one of the greatest orchestras, the Berliner Philharmoniker. A perfect choice of programme: The best-known symphonic works of Borodin and Mussorgsky with immediate visceral impact on the audience. The wonderful encore, Shostakovich´s Polka from The Golden Age is announced by Sir Simon Rattle as crazy – it represents the prolonging of the process of modernization set in motion by Borodin and Mussorgsky. A feast for music lovers. The second Blu-ray Disc of Sir Simon Rattle and the Berliner Philharmoniker on EuroArts. "The musicians are very articulate, they are very open, they are very curious. They always want to know why we are doing something. They don't just do it – they are not an obedient orchestra in that way, but they are a very creative orchestra.” Sir Simon Rattle Picture format BD: 1080i Full HD - 16:9 Sounds formats BD: PCM 2.0, PCM 5.1 Region code: All Booklet notes: English, German, French Running time: 91 mins FSK: 0 “…is a sophisticated Russian New Year's Eve event from Berlin. …the impression remains that Rattle brings off the subtler, more atmospheric passages best.” BBC Music Magazine, July 2009 **** “Technically speaking this is an outstanding issue…picture quality and colour balance are exceptional…the sound-picture [is] clear and truthfully balanced…The Berlin Philharmonic's playing is as impressive as ever…Simon Rattle is as charismatic as ever…it is a joy to watch him engaging so obviously with Borodin's languorous Oriental melodies” International Record Review | | | Usually despatched in 2 - 3 working days. |
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| |  | Sir Simon Rattle conducts Brahms and WagnerRecorded live at Kabelwerk Oberspree, Berlin, 1 May 2007
Sir Simon Rattle conducts the 2007 Europa-Konzert on the occasion of the 125th anniversary of the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra. Lisa Batiashvili and Truls Mørk are the wonderful soloists for Brahms`s last orchestral work, the Double Concerto. Sir Simon Rattle and the Berliner Philharmoniker demonstrate their outstanding musicianship with a fresh and dynamic interpretation of Brahms`s 4th Symphony. Wagner’s Prelude to Parsifal - was the orchestra’s first recording in September 1913 under Alfred Hertz. The Kabelwerk Oberspree (power and cable factory) is one of the most impressive historical industrial buildings from late 19th-century Berlin and is an extraordinary venue for an extraordinary programme. 16:9, PCM Stereo, DD 5.1, DTS 5.1 Region code: 0 Booklet notes: English, German, French Running time: 103 mins | | | Usually despatched in 2 - 3 working days. |
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| |  | Recorded live at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, London, on 21st December 2002.
Angelika Kirchschlager (Sophie), Dale Duesing (Narrator), Rod Gilfry (Nathan), Gordon Gietz (Stingo), Adrian Clarke (Librarian), Frances McCafferty (Yetta Zimmerman), Stafford Dean (Zbigniew Bieganski), Stephanie Friede (Wanda), Abigail Browne (Eva), Billy Clerkin (Jan), Gillian Knight (Old woman on train), Neil Gillespie (Young man on train), Jorma Silvasti (Rudolph Franz Höss), Alan Opie (Doctor), Darren Jeffery (Bartender), Quentin Hayes (Larry Landau) Royal Opera Chorus & Orchestra of the Royal Opera House, Simon Rattle (conductor) & Trevor Nunn (stage director) In 2002, Nicholas Maw’s opera Sophie’s Choice, based on the novel by William Styron, was given its premiere at the Royal Opera House. The subject had struck Maw when he had first watched the film several years previously, and he immediately felt it would be ‘the most extraordinary basis for an opera’. Commissioned by the Royal Opera House and BBC Radio 3, Maw embarked on an adaptation of Styron’s book, which took six years to complete. Conducted by Simon Rattle, a long-term enthusiast of Nicholas Maw’s music, and with a wonderful cast led by Angelika Kirchschlager, Rod Gilfry, Dale Duesing and Gordon Gietz, the work won international acclaim and was later restaged in Washington, Berlin and Vienna. The Royal Opera House celebrates the work of this British composer, who died in 2009, with the release on DVD of the BBC transmission, as broadcast live in December 2002. “…the central performances of Angelika Kirschlager and Rodney Gilfry as doomed lovers Sophie and Nathan were deemed to be among the most committed and convincing ever seen at the Royal Opera House.” The Independent Extra features: Illustrated synopsis. Cast gallery. Interview with Simon Rattle. Running time 223 mins Region code All regions Picture format 16:9 Anamorphic Sound format 2.0 & 5.0 PCM Menu language EN Subtitles EN/FR/DE/ES/IT/NL “Angelika Kirchschlager's mobile-featured Sophie wins our deepest sympathy and even puts Meryl Streep's screen performances out of mind...Rattle gets all the line and bite the work needs” BBC Music Magazine, May 2010 **** “It's a tribute to the competence and stamina of the cast...that they all survive the ordeal by camera so well...as Maw's last major work it merits the kind of serious attention which this admirable and timely release makes possible” Gramophone Magazine, May 2010 | | | Usually despatched in 2 - 3 working days. |
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| |  | Coco Chanel & Igor Stravinsky
Naïve presents the original soundtrack of Coco Chanel & Igor Stravinsky, the eagerly-awaited film by Jan Kounen about the love story between the French fashion designer and the Russian-born composer. The disc includes a complete recording of Stravinsky’s The Rite of Spring, performed by the Berlin Philharmonic under Sir Simon Rattle – their only currently available version on CD – as well as the score by leading film composer Gabriel Yared. Released in many countries during the next few weeks, Coco Chanel & Igor Stravinsky stars Anna Mouglalis and Mads Mikkelsen in the title roles. The first 15 minutes of the film are devoted to one of the most famous and notorious premieres in musical history, the opening performance of Stravinsky's revolutionary work for Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes, The Rite of Spring, in Paris on 29 May, 1913. Accordingly this CD opens with a full performance of the legendary Stravinsky ballet, the first on CD by the Berlin Philharmonic conducted by Sir Simon Rattle, recorded in Berlin in 2003. The original soundtrack is composed by Gabriel Yared, one of today’s top film composers (The English Patient, The Talented Mr Ripley), and between these come two short piano pieces by Stravinsky also featured in the film. | | | (also available to download from $11.00) | Usually despatched in 3 - 4 working days. (Available now to download.) |
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| |  | Simon Rattle conducts Berlioz & RameauRecorded live at the Philharmonie, Berlin, 6-8 November 1993
This 1993 recording must be hailed as a document of supreme historical importance as it is the first audio-visual live recording of a concert given by Sir Simon Rattle and the Berlin Philharmonic. Six years later the orchestra voted by a large majority to appoint Rattle its new principal conductor and artistic director in succession to Claudio Abbado. Even at this early date Rattle was already attracting attention not only with masterly conducting but also with extremely interesting programming. In the present programme, for example, he combines the final work by Jean-Philippe Rameau, a composer who raised the music of the French Baroque to a level never to be surpassed, with the famous Symphonie fantastique by Hector Berlioz, who, only 26 at the time of the work’s composition, was soon to be acclaimed as one of the “musicians of the future”. NTSC 4:3, PCM Stereo, DD 5.1, DTS 5.1 Region code: 0, Audience: all Booklet notes: English, German, French Running time: 87 mins | | | Usually despatched in 2 - 3 working days. |
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| |  | Rattle conducts Tchaikovsky, Stravinsky & Rachmaninov
The famous annual Berlin Phil Open-Air concert at the Berlin Waldbühne is attended by more than 20,000 people.The atmosphere is unique and unconventionally relaxed. People bring champagne, salmon and caviar, making the Waldbühne a giant picnic area. Candles are lit, transforming the area into an atmospheric venue for some of the most popular pieces of classical music. The 2009 programme has a Russian feel to it, with classic pieces by Tchaikovsky, Rachmaninov and Stravinsky; three pieces of the core repertoire, among the most popular ones. Yefim Bronfman, an artist of international reputation and specialist in the Russian repertoire, achieves a brilliant performance of Rachmaninov's 3rd concerto.This is a superb summer night in Berlin - not only for fans of classical music. NTSC 16:9, PCM Stereo, DD 5.1, DTS 5.1 Region code: 0 Booklet Notes: English, German, French Running time: 103 mins Audience: all “Orchestral concerts al fresco don’t get more spectacular or more wide-spectrum than this. Here are Rattle and the Berlin Philharmonic in the Waldbuhne, a ravine-hollowed amphitheatre outside the city… It's a gift for the consummate film crew that the 88 rows of seats, filled with brightly coloured picnickers, rise up in the late afternoon sun behind Yefim Bronfman's phenomenally clear, no-nonsense but also weighty and poetic handling of Rachmaninov's Third Piano Concerto. Great shots, these, and a great performance...” BBC Music Magazine, March 2010 ***** | | | Usually despatched in 2 - 3 working days. |
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| |  | Sir Simon Rattle conducts Beethoven, Bruch & Stravinsky
Each year, the Berliner Philharmoniker celebrates the anniversary of its creation (May 1st, 1882) with an unforgettable concert taking place in a different big European city each time. In 2008, the ‘Europa Konzert’, was held in the Tchaikovsky Academy of Moscow, a holy place for music. The BPO is considered the best orchestra in the world, and it is conducted by the renowned Sir Simon Rattle. Vadim Repin, Prince of the violin - as many people call him - has been compared to Oistrakh. Bruch's is one of the most famous and best-loved of all violin concertos; the Symphony in Three Movements of Stravinsky highlights the virtuosity and the expertise of the Berlin Phil, whilst Beethoven's 7th Symphony shows the incomparable tone pallet of this orchestral limousine. "The musicians are very articulate, they are very open, they are very curious. They always want to know why we are doing something. They don't just do it - they are not an obedient orchestra in that way, but they are a very creative orchestra." Sir Simon Rattle NTSC 16:9 PCM Stereo, DD 5.1, DTS 5.1 Booklet notes: English, German, French Running time: 92 minutes “Fans of Vadim Repin's superlative playing will not be disappointed by his typically commanding account of the Bruch Concerto… the Beethoven Symphony has numerous special moments, such as the increasingly hushed strings as the Adagietto theme unfolds. ...the highlight is Stravinsky's Symphony in Three Movements. The slow movement is charmingly laid back, and the outer movements have Rattle's characteristic drive allied to the orchestra's finesse.” BBC Music Magazine, December 2009 “The piano in the Symphony in Three Movements takes the part of a sardonic commentator, sometimes an aggressor, and the dominance of the tonic in the Beethoven has seldom been subjected to such relentless threat. Yet devotees to the wit of his earlier recording with the CBSO may like to note the new balletic delicacy of Rattle's approach to the slow movement of the Stravinsky, perhaps inspired by his recent experiences of conducting The Nutcracker.” Gramophone Magazine, December 2009 | | | Usually despatched in 2 - 3 working days. |
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| |  | Ravel - L’Enfant et les Sortilèges & L’Heure Espagnole
Ravel: | L'enfant et les sortilèges Cynthia Buchan, Fiona Kimm, Malcolm Walker, François Loup, Hyacinth Nicholls, Thierry Dran, Louise Winter, Nan Christie, Jady Pearl, Carol Smith, Harolyn Blackwell, Anna Steiger & Alison Hagley Simon Rattle L'heure Espagnole Anna Steiger, François Le Roux, Rémy Corazza, Thierry Dran & François Loup Sian Edwards |
Designs by Maurice Sendak. Maurice Ravel’s one-act operas L’Enfant et les Sortilèges and L’heure espagnole are often performed as a double bill. These two productions for Glyndebourne Festival Opera were first recorded and seen on BBC TV in 1987, and are both designed by the great American children’s book writer and illustrator, Maurice Sendak, and directed by Frank Corsaro. L’Enfant et les Sortilèges or ‘The bewitched child’ is an enchanting fantasy which tells the tale of a boy who is angry because he does not want to learn his lessons. He destroys his books and vandalises the room he is in. But the room comes to life – chairs, grandfather clock, teapot and teacup – and seeks revenge… The staging of this production featured film projection, and this has been brilliantly reflected in the electronically-edited television recording. Cynthia Buchan sings the role of the boy, and the cast also includes Fiona Kimm, Malcolm Walker, François Loup, Hyacinth Nicholls, Thierry Dran, Louise Winter, Nan Christie, Jady Pearl, Carol Smith, Harolyn Blackwell, Anna Steiger, and Alison Hagley. Simon Rattle conducts The London Philharmonic. “…absolutely magical” THE TIMES L’heure espagnole means not only ‘the Spanish clock’ but also ‘the Spanish hour’; every Thursday at the same time, the clockmaker Torquemada has an appointment to wind and regulate the town clocks, thus leaving his wife alone in the house for an hour… The Spanish adventure is set in a Toledo square, over which towers the baroque façade of the town hall where Torquemada winds and minds the clocks. Maurice Sendak’s delightfully animated set comprises a huge baroque façade complete with working clocks and carved emblems. The cast includes Anna Steiger, François Le Roux, Rémy Corazza, Thierry Dran and François Loup. Sian Edwards conducts The London Philharmonic. “…a captivating fairy tale work that constantly seduces the eye and the senses.” DAILY TELEGRAPH “These affectionate productions of the Ravel double-bill have sumptuous orchestral playing and fine vocal characterisation. Sendak's distinctive designs are striking, but do not match the music for colour and sparkle in L'enfant.” BBC Music Magazine, September 2009 **** “L'heure espagnole boasts two singing actors who understand the limitations of camera close-ups. As Concepcion, Anna Steiger is wonderfully deadpan… Françoise Le Roux is the muleteer with little conversation but unquenchable energy… Sian Edwards conducts, with keen attention to all Ravel's use of Spanish dance rhythms. L'enfant et les sortilèges is the great challenge... there are many amusing details, such as the leapfrog antics of Thierry Dran and his crew, Françoise Loup and Hyacinth Nicholls as quite aggressive armchairs, and Anna Steiger again, now as the Squirrel, who sings one of Ravel's most enchanting melodies. Simon Rattle conducts a performance somewhat freer in spirit, I thought, than his more recent effort with the Berlin Philharmonic.” Gramophone Magazine, January 2010 | | | Usually despatched in 4 - 5 working days. |
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Gramophone Awards 2011
Gramophone Magazine
