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When it comes to shaping a musical event for the ears and the eyes, the monumental majesty of Anton Bruckner’s (1824–1896) symphonies and the exhilarating vibrancy of St. Florian’s monastery in Austria are a perfect match – especially when they are captured on film so thrillingly by such an eminent director as Brian Large.

The Fourth Symphony marks a major milestone in Bruckner’s attempt to establish a symphonic design suitable to sustain his innovative musical thought. Not surprisingly, the score was subjected to extensive revisions. The Fourth, in fact, represents the most convoluted revision history of all his symphonies – and this for a composer for whom variant editions of a work, often involving substantial changes, became the norm. The result is that the identification of the “authentic” final score that should be performed is a matter of ongoing debate for many of his symphonies – in particular the Fourth.

Franz Welser-Möst, the Music Director of The Cleveland Orchestra and General Music Director of the Vienna State Opera, is an acknowledged Bruckner specialist who has developed a passion for the composer’s Fourth Symphony – called the “Romantic” by its creator – in its infrequently played first edition (1888/89).

The Cleveland Orchestra, called the most European of America’s prestige formations, has been setting new standards in Bruckner interpretation for several years now through the “expertise” of Franz Welser-Möst, who “elicits a grandiose interpretation from his technically unsurpassable ensemble … It was an excellent concert … as anticipated.” (Austria’s leading daily, Die Presse).

Sound Format: PCM Stereo, DD 5.0, dts-HD Master Audio 5.0

Picture Format: 16:9, 1080i FULL HD

Running Time: 74 mins

Blu-ray Disc: 25 GB (Single Layer)

FSK: 0

at LUCERNE FESTIVAL in Summer 2011

“Abbado’s approach to the music of Bruckner is soft and songlike, at times tense and urgent, but constantly filled with warmth of feeling” – not only the Neue Zürcher Zeitung is full of praise when Claudio Abbado and the Lucerne Festival Orchestra play Bruckner.

Their interpretation of his awe-inspiring Fifth Symphony reflects the composer’s burgeoning powers and exquisite compositional artistry. As The Guardian poetically states: “The composer himself, one suspects, might have leapt to embrace Abbado as an ideal interpreter.”

Picture Format DVD: 16:9 NTSC

FULL HD

Sound Formats DVD: DTS HD Master Audio, PCM Stereo

Region Code: 0 (worldwide)

Running Time: 80:33 min

Disc Format: BD 25

The Dresden Staatskapelle has a living Bruckner tradition, stretching back a century and more, which is lovingly curated by its new music director, Christian Thielemann, who is himself a powerful advocate for the composer’s symphonies as the pinnacle of the Austro-German tradition; and in particular for the Wagnerian resonances of the Seventh, whose Adagio was shaped by news of Wagner’s death in Venice. Hugo Wolf was also deeply affected by that news; his songs, like Bruckner’s symphonies, can be seen as oblique reflections on the influence of Wagner, especially when sung, as they are here by Renée Fleming, with the utmost delicacy and intimacy.

Christian Thielemann’s first concert as Principal Conductor of the Staatskapelle Dresden.

Both Thielemann and Fleming are renowned interpreters of Romantic repertoire.

Bruckner’s 7th Symphony premiered in 1884 to universal acclaim & established him as a serious composer of symphonic music, Wolf’s Songs were composed four years later.

Wolf was a great admirer of Bruckner and both idolized Wagner, whose influence is felt in the 7th Symphony.

Running time: 106 minutes

Subtitles N/A

Sound format: 2.0LPCM + 5.1(5.0) DTS

A new release from the series of Metropolitan Munich programs.

For the first time after 37 years, Celibidache returned to the podium of the Berliner Philharmoniker for a reconciliatory concert. This was to be his final concert with the Berliner Philharmoniker before his death.

This Blu-ray Disc also includes the Documentary ‘The Triumphant Return’ directed by Wolfgang Becker: The film documents the maestro Celibidache’s reunion with the Berliner Philharmoniker after 38 years, and includes extensive footage from the rehearsals of Bruckner’s Symphony No. 7 and interviews with former orchestra members.

It is also the only video recording of Celibidache conducting the Berliner Philharmoniker.

The assets were upscaled from SD 4:3 to HD 16:9

Picture format DVD: 1080i - 16:9

Sound formats DVD: PCM Stereo

Region code: 0

Booklet notes: English, German, French

Runnning time: 96 mins

With the mighty build-ups and monumental fortissimi of Bruckner‘s Seventh, Welser-Möst and his Clevelanders have their work cut out for them. And they do not disappoint. The most popular, and perhaps most easily accessible, of Bruckner‘s symphonies, the Seventh casts its spell on the audience with its clear-cut architecture and the wealth and fullness of its melodies. From the sweeping opening theme of the first movement to the victorious chords of the finale, the Cleveland Orchestra and its conductor deliver a magisterial reading of Bruckner‘s masterpiece.

Cleveland‘s Severance Hall is the venue for this performance. This hall, an eclectic yet elegant mix of Art Deco, Art Nouveau, Classicism, Egyptian Revival and Modernism was inaugurated in 1931 and is still hailed today as one of the world‘s most beautiful concert halls. The Cleveland Orchestra, founded in 1918, began its ascent to the upper ranks of the world‘s ensembles after it moved to Severance Hall in 1931.

BONUS: Introduction by Franz Welser-Möst

Sound Format: PCM Stereo, dts-HD Master Audio 5.1

Picture Format: 16:9

Resolution: 1080i FULL HD

Languages: GB, DE (Bonus)

Running Time: 66 mins + 14 mins (Bonus)

Blu-ray Disc: 25 GB (Single Layer)

FSK: 0

The Eight Symphony – A monument carved from musical tones.

With its majestic themes soaring upwards like gothic pillars and its brilliant chorales and fanfares glowing like stained – glass windows, Anton Bruckner’s Symphony No. 8 is the most monumental of his orchestral works, a cathedral in sound that grows out of pianissimo murmurs. Coming after the triumphs celebrated by the composer’s Seventh Symphony and Te Deum, the Eight was considered by Bruckner as the artistic climax of his career.

Cleveland‘s Severance Hall is the venue for this performance.

This hall, an eclectic yet elegant mix of Art Deco, Art Nouveau, Classicism, Egyptian Revival and Modernism was inaugurated in 1931 and is still hailed today as one of the world‘s most beautiful concert halls. The Cleveland Orchestra, founded in 1918, began its ascent to the upper ranks of the world‘s ensembles after it moved to Severance Hall in 1931.

BONUS: Pre-concert talk with Dee Perry and Franz Welser-Möst

Sound Formats: PCM Stereo, dts-HD Master Audio 5.1

Picture Format: 16:9

Resolution: 1080i FULL HD

Language: GB (bonus)

Running Time: 95 mins + 17 mins (bonus)

Recorded live at Philharmonie Berlin on 20 June 2010.

Daniel Barenboim is an expert in exploiting the impact of cyclical performances of composers’ works: In this series he focuses his sharp intellect on all six of Anton Bruckner’s mature symphonies. Der Tagesspiegel described Barenboim's performance of the works with the Staatskapelle Berlin on six nearly consecutive evenings in June 2010 as a “superhuman” accomplishment and went on to praise how: “His Bruckner is conceived and performed very theatrically, like an opera without words.”

Bruckner’s famous “Romantic” Symphony No. 4 forms the prelude to a spectacular DVD series from Accentus Music and Unitel Classica, exploring Bruckner’s symphonic cosmos.

Picture Format Blu-ray: NTSC 16:9 Full HD

Sound Formats Blu-ray: DTS HD Master Audio, PCM Stereo

Region Code: 0 (worldwide)

Running Time: 69:36 min

Disc Format: BD 25

FSK: 0

Recorded live at Philharmonie Berlin on 21 June 2010.

The Süddeutsche Zeitung summed up this highly acclaimed performance of Bruckner's monumental Fifth Symphony by saying: “Both Bruckner’s belief in God, as it majestically wells up out of the chorale of the Fifth, and his deeply tragic world view, collide with one another in Barenboim’s interpretation”. The operatic experience of the conductor was almost tangible, revealing the “sheer dramatic instrumental battle between Bruckner’s God and the Devil – between heaven and hell – without betraying Bruckner’s unerring sense of striking proportions.” The release of this “contrapuntal masterpiece” (as Bruckner, not without pride, referred to this work) is part of Daniel Barenboim’s Bruckner cycle with the renowned Staatskapelle Berlin.

Picture Format Blu-ray: NTSC 16:9

Full HD

Sound Formats Blu-ray: DTS HD Master Audio,

PCM Stereo

Region Code: 0 (worldwide)

Running Time: 76:49 min

Disc Format: BD 25

Directed by Klaus Michael Grueber / Ellen Hammer, Set Design by Eduardo Arroyo, Costumes by Eva Dessecker & Lighting by Jürgen Hoffmann.

“Procure me the unconditional fulfi lment of my every wish for the rest of my life, let me embrace the world – the East and the South, which call out to me –, let me understand completely man’s actions and extend them in unheard-of ways; give me genius, and give me also his suffering, so that I may be happy like no other.” (Ferruccio Busoni)

Doktor Faust remained a fragment at the time of the composer’s death. Busoni died in 1924, unable to complete what he himself described as his “state masterpiece” – an opera to which he had a deep personal attachment. The missing scenes from the score – the appearance of Helen and Faust’s closing monologue – were completed by his pupil, Philipp Jarnach, whom Busoni had become acquainted with during his period in exile in Zürich. In this form the opera was given its fi rst performance in Dresden in 1925. Then in the 1980s the conductor Anthony Beaumont came across previously undiscovered sketches by Busoni and produced a new version of Doktor Faust, which was premiered in Bologna in 1985. The current recording uses the Jarnach score.

Special Feature: 43 Min Interview with Thomas Hampson and Philippe Jordan

“[Thomas Hampson possesses] all the physical and vocal energy one could wish for…..flourishes and ornaments leap out of his melodic lines….the gestures [are] also natural, his phrasing and pitch sure. Mr. Hampson, as his career justifi ably grows, has preserved an unmannered charm.” (The New York Times)