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See Terms & Conditions for p&p rates. | |  | Bruckner: The Mature Symphonies (Symphony No. 5)
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 | 
| | | Scheduled for release on 3 June 2013. Order it now and we will deliver it as soon as it is available. |
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“The greatest mix of colours that ever existed” was Gustav Mahler’s description of the third movement of his Fourth Symphony. Riccardo Chailly, one of the most adept interpreters of Mahler of our time, and the Gewandhaus Orchestra transformed the entire Fourth Symphony into this kaleidoscope of sound. The unmistakable timbre of the orchestra has become synonymous with late Romantic repertoire and Mahler-esque style – it was described by Der Tagesspiegel as “uncommonly present, even in the thread-fine pianissimo, compact, concentrated, satin”. Once more, the connection between Chailly, the Gewandhaus Orchestra and Mahler proved to be exceptional: The way Chailly “moulded the music, which is so familiar to him, with loving gestures, confidently alluding to a thousand subtle details, allowing the orchestra to rise and fall – that is perfect.” BONUS TRACKS 1. The Welte-Mignon Piano Player Device 2. Mahler plays Mahler – Symphony No. 4, 4th movement 3. Riccardo Chailly on interpreting Mahler's 4th Symphony with the Gewandhaus Orchestra Picture Format BD: NTSC 16:9 FULL HD Sound Formats BD: PCM Stereo, DTS HD Master Audio Region Code: 0 (worldwide) Running Time: 61:14 min Running Time Bonus: approx. 16 min Disc Format: BD 25 Subtitles: German, English, French, Japanese Subtitles Bonus: German, English “abundant virtues...a sense of naturally flowing tempi, an ear for inner parts within the whole, a vitality that captures the pristine glow of this most innocent of all Mahler symphonies. Chailly is not a narcissistic Mahlerian: there’s no self-indulgent milking of the music for effect.” Financial Times, 4th May 2013 **** |
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| |  | Bruckner: The Mature Symphonies (Symphony No. 4)
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 “a reading entirely without frills or artificial drama: as well as its innate Romanticism Barenboim allows the underlying elemental nature of the music to emerge, and at times seems almost to let it play itself. He himself seems to radiate an inner stillness out of which the Symphony can grow...A moving and deeply satisfying performance to watch” BBC Music Magazine, May 2013 ***** “[Barenboim is] theatrical rather than devotional...The chief glory of the evening is surely the mellow thunderousness of an orchestra that has come into its own with Barenboim at the helm, as much a standard-bearer for older Austro-German norms as the maestro himself...String tone is dark and full, woodwind timbre strong, The horns, so important in this score, are on excellent form.” Gramophone Magazine, April 2013 “I found Barenboim’s conducting extraordinarily convincing. He moulds phrases with great care, though never obsessively, still less in any narcissistic way. Instead, what comes through in the way he shapes the music is his determination to present it in the best possible light...The camera-work on this DVD is conventional in the best sense in that the director presents a straightforward film of the concert” MusicWeb International, 18th April 2013  BBC Music Magazine
DVD/Blu-ray Choice - May 2013 |
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| |  | John Cage: Journeys in Sound
A documentary by Oscar winning director Allan Miller and Paul Smaczny to mark the composer’s centenary A sonic innovator or an expert on chance? A writer or an anarchist? A specialist in mushrooms or a performance artist? A Zen master or a cook? John Cage was all of these things. On the occasion of his centenary in Autumn 2012, this documentary by Oscar-winner Allan Miller and Emmy-winner Paul Smaczny pays tribute to the most fascinating American avant-garde composer John Cage. Shot in America, Germany and Japan, the program premieres rare archival footage; presenting concert excerpts and a set of short episodes, featuring associates of Cage and contemporary artists, playfully delineating different aspects of John Cage. The documentary features interviews with Yoko Ono, David Tudor, Christian Wolff, Steffen Schleiermacher, Irvine Arditti, Toshio Hosokawa, Mayumi Miyata, Calvin Tomkins and many others. 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: 60:35 min Bonus: 49:25 min Disc Format: BD 25 Subtitles: German, English, French, Japanese, Korean “'I think our aim should be to have more and more access to the enjoyment of life', says John Cage in this lucid and eminently watchable DVD which is packed with people and history and some wonderful performances of Cage's music....This DVD certainly contributes to the enjoyment of life...and to the enjoyment of John Cage.” BBC Music Magazine, January 2013 ***** “This fascinating, eloquent DVD draws on archive footage of the composer at work and interviews with surviving collaborators” Financial Times, 6th October 2012 | | | In stock - usually despatched within 1 working day. |
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The renowned St. Thomas Boys Choir of Leipzig, which boasts J. S. Bach as a former cantor, celebrates its 800th anniversary with an extraordinary interpretation of the St. Matthew Passion. The Guardian praised how “the harmonic lines interwove with a transcendence that can only be achieved through living, eating and working together”. This Accentus Music production is the only audio-visual release of Bach’s St. Matthew Passion, performed by the choir for which it was written, in St. Thomas Church, Leipzig, where the composer worked and is buried. 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: 163:58 min Disc Format: BD 50 Subtitles: German, English, French, Korean | | | In stock - usually despatched within 1 working day. |
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| |  | Die ThomanerA Year in the Life of the St. Thomas Boys Choir Leipzig
A Film by Paul Smaczny & Günter Atteln. Founded in 1212 the St. Thomas Choir Leipzig is one of the most famous and prestigious boys' choirs in the world. This documentary accompanies “Die Thomaner”, aged between 9 and 18 years old, over a period of one year. Their unique world, from motets to boarding school and the football pitch, is distinguished by success, pressure to perform, doubt, pride, homesickness, and friendship. The film charts the breadth of the boys' experience from the classroom to traveling on tour to South America. BONUS Two tracks from Johann Sebastian Bach’s “St. Matthew Passion” performed by the choir for which it was written - St. Thomas Boys Choir - in St. Thomas Church, Leipzig, where the composer worked and is buried. Nr. 1 Chor: »Kommt, ihr Töchter, helft mir klagen« Nr. 39 Arie (Alt): »Erbarme dich« 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: 113:35 min Running Time Bonus: approx. 14 min Disc Format: BD50 Language: spoken in German Subtitles: English, French, Spanish, Korean, Japanese | | | Usually despatched in 2 - 3 working days. |
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| |  | Nowak edition
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 “This performance curtails the silences in the interests of the Italian conductor Claudio Abbado’s linear approach...This is Bruckner sunny side up, lending a molto espressivo bloom to the string cantilenas in the opening movement and a con amore sparkle to the brass chorales. The orchestra, combining old friends and young talents, radiates a fabulously chamber-musical quality.” Financial Times, 2nd June 2012 **** | | | In stock - usually despatched within 1 working day. |
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| |  | Daniel Barenboim plays Liszt Piano ConcertosOn the Occasion of Franz Liszt's 200th Birthday
For the very first time Daniel Barenboim tackled Franz Liszt's two highly virtuosic piano concertos in a single concert. With Pierre Boulez, his friend and esteemed colleague of many years, conducting Barenboim’s own orchestra, the Staatskapelle Berlin, they were showered with praise on their tour across Europe. For both musicians, Liszt was one of the most important pioneers of modern music, as composer, conductor and pianist. He influenced revolutionary contemporaries such as Robert Schumann and Richard Wagner. Two examples of the latter's magnificent orchestral work round off this concert programme celebrating Liszt’s bicentenary. Picture Format Blu-ray: FULL HD Sound Formats Blu-ray: DTS HD Master Audio, PCM Stereo Region Code: 0 (worldwide) Running Time: 90:35 min Disc Format Blu-ray: BD 25 FSK: 0 | | | Usually despatched in 2 - 3 working days. |
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| |  | A Concert for New YorkIn Remembrance and Renewal - The Tenth Anniversary of 9/11
The New York Philharmonic - America’s preeminent symphony orchestra - gave “A Concert for New York” to mark the tenth anniversary of the events of 9/11. What work could be better suited to the occasion than Mahler’s “Resurrection” Symphony with its “evocation of every aspect of life” and “its profound sense of hope”, as the Philharmonic’s Music Director Alan Gilbert put it? This concert became an unforgettable event, a “consistently impressive” performance with “gripping playing”, “magnificent” soloists and an “excellent” chorus (New York Times). BONUS (tbc): Alan Gilbert & Zubin Mehta about “A Concert for New York” Picture Format Blu-ray: Full HD Sound Formats Blu-ray: DTS HD Master Audio, PCM Stereo Region Code: 0 (worldwide) Running Time: approx. 96 min (tbc) Running Time Bonus: approx. 15 min (tbc) Disc Format: BD 25 FSK: 0 “Alan Gilbert has the right sense of momentum and expectation” BBC Music Magazine, January 2012 *** “Mahler’s extravagance must be appealing to DVD producers. With this music there’s a wide dynamic range and huge forces to watch...it’s predictably an emotive occasion. And Alan Gilbert’s performance is pretty sound, even if you crave a little more recklessness and excess. The recorded sound is a little raw, and you do get a feel for the sheer terror which this symphony can evoke” The Arts Desk, 14th December 2011 | | | Usually despatched in 2 - 3 working days. |
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| |  | The PhilharmonicsWaltzes By Johann Strauss. Arranged by Schoenberg, Berg & Webern
The Philharmonics, the ensemble founded by members of the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra, fill the Café Sperl with some of the most authentically Viennese sounds imaginable – the Strauss waltzes that Schoenberg, Berg and Webern arranged and performed in May 1921 to raise funds for their pioneering “Society for Private Musical Performances”. This is music the players have in their blood, and they maintain the echt atmosphere with Godowsky’s tribute to the city, “Alt-Wien” and a clutch of Kreisler gems, rounding the programme off with a new piece by the ensemble’s leader Tibor Kováč, based on traditional Jewish melodies and Mahler themes, “Yiddische Mame”. BONUS: How Schoenberg came to arrange waltzes by Strauss Picture Format Blu-ray: Full HD Sound Formats Blu-ray: DTS HD Master Audio, PCM Stereo Region Code: 0 (worldwide) Running Time: 64:20 min Running Time Bonus: 10:05 min Disc Format: BD 25 FSK: 0 “the DVD itself is a colourful evocation of old Vienna that admirably demonstrates the power of DVD to add positively to what one merely hears on CD...The five Strauss waltzes are proficiently played and idiomatically phrased...the whole represents an altogether admirable demonstration of how DVD can combine enlightenment and pleasure to joyous effect.” Gramophone Magazine, April 2012 | | | Usually despatched in 2 - 3 working days. |
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Gramophone Awards 2012