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The Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra, the oldest concert orchestra in the world, and their Music Director Riccardo Chailly have already acquired legendary status – glorious reviews and many awards for their recordings testifying to their continuing success. At Leipzig’s International Mahler Festival, to mark the centenary of Mahler’s death, they performed his monumental Second Symphony in the Gewandhaus – together with two marvellous soloists and choral forces quite beyond compare. About the final movement the composer said: “The increasing tension, working up to the final climax, is so tremendous that I don’t know myself, now that it is over, how I ever came to write it.” Picture Format Blu-ray: Full HD Sound Formats Blu-ray: DTS HD Master Audio, PCM Stereo Region Code: 0 (worldwide) Running Time: 95:42 min Disc Format: BD 25 FSK: 0 “these are red-blooded performances. The Italian conductor has long been a respected Mahlerian, capable of welding the symphonies’ huge structures and quixotic moods into a coherent musical statement...Sarah Connolly deliver[s] a radiant “Urlicht”” Financial Times, 15th October 2011 **** “Chailly's Resurrection is unashamedly mainstream, more straightforward than Bernstein's, sunnier and more muscular than Abbado's, with forthright contributions from harp and percussion...the excellent Sarah Connolly provides a lovely, intimate reading of the 'Urlicht' and there is no lack of tension as the epic finale crashes in...Christane Oelze is outstanding too, at once bright and warm.” Gramophone Magazine, January 2012 “[Chailly] has turned wiry Gewandhaus strings into muscular proponents; the first real moment of magic is when he gives the cor anglais space to etch the Alpine idyll at the heart of the first movement...Chailly's facial expressions rightly express his sheer sense of visceral enjoyment...And Sarah Connolly's part in the proceedings is surprisingly intense” BBC Music Magazine, January 2012 **** “this one is something special. The acoustic of Leipzig's Gewandhaus hall is a star in itself: the offstage horn and trumpet fanfares sound as thrilling as the orchestra's playing, itself near-fabulous from start to finish...[Chailly's] conducting charts a wonderfully sure path through Mahler's epic conception. And in the 'Urlicht' movement Sarah Connolly's singing, like the orchestra's playing, is as moving and beautiful as it's possible to imagine.” Classic FM Magazine, February 2012 ***** | | | Usually despatched in 2 - 3 working days. |
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Mahler’s Eighth Symphony is arguably the grandest and most ambitious piece of symphonic music ever written. The composer himself regarded it as his opus summum, and an incredible number of participants at the hugely successful Munich première in 1910 earned it the nickname “Symphony of a Thousand”. At Leipzig’s International Mahler Festival 2011, Riccardo Chailly commanded almost 500 musicians, and the overwhelming result of their joint effort inspired the Leipzig-based and internationally renowned artist Neo Rauch to the painting for the cover of this Blu-ray. Picture Format Blu-ray: Full HD Sound Formats Blu-ray: DTS HD Master Audio, PCM Stereo Region Code: 0 (worldwide) Running Time: 92:19 min Disc Format: BD 25 FSK: 0 “these are red-blooded performances. The Italian conductor has long been a respected Mahlerian, capable of welding the symphonies’ huge structures and quixotic moods into a coherent musical statement...They also convey the physical thrill of the “live” experience, with Erika Sunnegardh risking all in the high soprano lines” Financial Times, 15th October 2011 **** “Michael Beyer’s direction on this Accentus DVD is unobtrusive in the best possible way...The clarity and force of the choral sound is remarkable, especially that of the cheerful-looking GewandhausKinderchoir. You’ll reach the end of Part One spiritually transfigured...It’s an overwhelmingly affirmative experience, and Chailly brings out the joy as well as the solemnity.” The Arts Desk, 5th November 2011 “How good to see Riccardo Chailly so radiant at the end of this great event. It's an exhilaration he earns through sheer work as well as injecting the adrenalin at most of the right moments...Chailly holds the attention between movements and makes you realise how many soloists within the orchestra have to sing, too. His leader, the superb Sebastian Breuninger, assists him between blazes...Chailly's rendering leads the field on DVD” BBC Music Magazine, December 2011 **** “In exchanging ceremonial pomp and adrenaline-rush for an unforced, unmannered, surprisingly lyrical approach, Chailly unearths a wealth of rarely heard contrapuntal detail and secures a rare unanimity of response. The solo singers and here purely local choral forces are on the same exalted level as his venerable band whose dark transparency and unique, late-Romantic sound are, he believes, perfect for these scores” Gramophone Magazine, January 2012 | | | Usually despatched in 2 - 3 working days. |
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| |  | Pierre Boulez conducts Mahler
In celebration of the 150th anniversary of Mahler’s birth and just one month short of his own 85th birthday, composer-conductor Pierre Boulez marked his forty-five-year collaboration with the Cleveland Orchestra by directing this very special Mahler-only concert at Ohio’s splendid Severance Hall. Following the Adagio from the unfinished Tenth Symphony, he presented Twelve Songs from Des Knaben Wunderhorn with soloists Magdalena Kožená and Christian Gerhaher, both much-sought-after opera and concert singers on the world’s leading stages. BONUS: Interview with Pierre Boulez Picture Format Blu-ray: FULL HD Sound Formats Blu-ray: DTS HD Master Audio PCM Stereo Region Code: 0 (worldwide) Running Time: 88:06 Disc Format: BD 25 FSK: 0 | | | Usually despatched in 2 - 3 working days. |
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| |  | Martha Argerich & Mischa Maisky
At one of her rare appearances with orchestra, Martha Argerich, the grande dame of the piano, joined forces with world-famous cellist Mischa Maisky and the fabulous Lucerne Symphony Orchestra for the world premiere of a newly commissioned work by Russian composer Rodion Shchedrin – “Romantic Offering”, a double concerto for piano, cello and orchestra dedicated to its very first soloists. “I’ve attempted to depict and highlight the most distinctive individual qualities of these two musicians … Romantic Offering should inspire new thoughts and experiences. Music isn’t only the product of experiment. It should move your soul and touch your heart.” Rodion Shchedrin The programme was rounded off by late-Romantic masterpieces by César Franck, Antonín Dvořák and Dmitri Shostakovich’s Ninth Symphony under the baton of renowned maestro Neeme Järvi. BONUS: Behind the Scenes of a WORLD PREMIERE with Rodion Shchedrin, Martha Argerich and Mischa Maisky. Picture Format Blu-ray: Full HD Sound Formats Blu-ray: DTS HD Master Audio, PCM Stereo Region Code: 0 (worldwide) Running Time: 111:36 min Running Time Bonus: 16:20 min Disc Format: BD 25 FSK: 0 “There's plenty of contrast [in the Shchedrin]: the misalliance of the two soloists, who only really come together in the climbing apotheosis; the cello in extreme registers; the piano's toccata mania; and all of it done with the highest artistry. Argerich is superb in every nuance.” BBC Music Magazine, September 2011 ***** | | | Usually despatched in 2 - 3 working days. |
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| |  | The Nobel Prize Concert 2010
Joshua Bell lights up the stage with this dazzling performance of Tchaikovsky’s Violin Concerto, the centerpiece of the Nobel Prize Concert© in honour of the 2010 Nobel Prize Laureates. Part of the official Nobel Week, this tribute concert opens with music by Beethoven that urgently evokes the spirit of freedom from tyranny. And closing the evening is a glowing account by Sakari Oramo and the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic of Sibelius’s monument to orchestral majesty, the titanic Fifth Symphony. BONUS: Interviews featuring Joshua Bell, Sakari Oramo and Mario Vargas Llosa, 2010’s Nobel Laureate in Literature Picture Format Blu-ray: FULL HD Sound Formats Blu-ray: DTS HD Master Audio PCM Stereo Region Code: 0 (worldwide) Running Time: 91:25 Disc Format: BD 25 FSK: 0 | | | Usually despatched in 2 - 3 working days. |
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| |  | Chopin: The Piano Concertos
To mark the bicentenary of Chopin’s birth, two leading Russian pianists tackle the great Romantic composer’s two piano concertos: Evgeny Kissin plays the F minor Concerto op. 21, a key work in Chopin’s output, while Nikolai Demidenko performs the E minor Concerto op. 11, a virtuoso display vehicle of the first rank. They are accompanied by the Warsaw Philharmonic under the direction of Antoni Wit. Enthusiastically acclaimed by the audience at Warsaw’s Philharmonic Hall on 27 February 2010, this memorable concert has been captured in first-class sound and picture quality. Picture Format Blu-ray: HDCAM 1080/59,94 Sound Formats Blu-ray: DTS HD Master Audio PCM Stereo Region Code: 0 (worldwide) Running Time: 96:54 min Disc Format: BD 25 FSK: 0 “Anyone who (like me) has found themselves resistant to Kissin's toy-soldier showmanship...needs to hear his brilliant account of the Concerto in F minor...In pianism of bel canto beauty, Kissin uncovers all the yearning of the slow movement, and delivers a crisp finale notable for its elastic buoyancy and perfectly judged rubatos” BBC Music Magazine, January 2011 ***** | | | In stock - usually despatched within 1 working day. |
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Claudio Abbado and his hand-picked players of the Lucerne Festival Orchestra take their acclaimed Mahler cycle to a new level with this performance of the most complex and compelling of the symphonies, the intense, searching Ninth. Abbado brings all his renowned clarity of vision and the experience of a lifetime to this contradictory music – half valedictory, half life-affirming – and his “orchestra of soloists”, including some of the leading instrumentalists of our time, revels in the transparent textures and virtuosity of Mahler’s last completed symphony. “A rendition ... of astonishing depth and subtlety” (Daily Telegraph). “The listener is rendered speechless at the thrilling depth and perfection of the symbiosis achieved here between artistic wisdom and undimmed joy in making music at the highest level.” Christian Wildhagen, Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, August 24, 1010 “[...]sensitizing feelings, penetrating into the depths of perception like a kind of perfectly-tuned ear on the world, to yield the most beautiful results in the music.” Claus Spahn, ZEIT Online. Musik, August 12, 2010 Bonus: Multi-Angle Feature Conductor Camera Picture Format Blu-Ray: HDCAM 1080/59,94 Sound Formats Blu-Ray: DTS HD Master Audio PCM Stereo Region Code: 0 (worldwide) Running Time: 94:56 Disc Format: BD 25 FSK: 0 “This is a mind-blowing experience - a Mahler Ninth as great as any I've heard...There are no idiosyncracies in Abbado's approach, but instead there is an unerring sense of musical trajectory...the playing has a richness and expressive depth all the more telling for Abbado's wonderful sense of flexibility - really letting his orchestra play - and the vibrant transparency of the sound..the playing has an eloquence, intensity and utter beauty is simply overwhelming” International Record Review, April 2011 “This captures much of the peerless tone-colour, shape, drive and above all those hushed dynamics of [the] performance, awarded what feels like an infinite silence at the end...Abbado's pacing is unrivalled...the mixture of close-ups and wide shots in the final rituals is superb as ever from this team. Finest concert DVD ever? I think so.” BBC Music Magazine, June 2011 ***** “This, his first commercial recording of the work, is even more luminous, elegant and subtly integrated than its predecessors...An interpretation that might seem too cool is in fact superbly gauged to provide maximal catharsis by the close...When the music finally ends and, as in any truly great account of this highly affecting score, one feels that life itself is ebbing away, all present are held in awed silence.” Gramophone Magazine, June 2011 “This really is something special, and one of the few classical orchestral DVDs which I’ve watched repeatedly. Abbado’s performance is remarkable. It’s not just the pin-sharp orchestral playing from the hand-picked orchestra, but the effortless ease with which this piece unfurls.” The Arts Desk, 14th December 2011 | | | Usually despatched in 2 - 3 working days. |
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| |  | Daniel Barenboim: The Warsaw RecitalCelebrating Frédéric Chopin’s 200th birthday. Live from the Warsaw Philharmonic Concert Hall
Chopin: | Piano Sonata No. 2 in B flat minor, Op. 35 'Marche funèbre' Fantasia in F minor, Op. 49 Nocturne No. 8 in D flat major, Op. 27 No. 2 Barcarolle in F sharp major, Op. 60 Waltz No. 2 in A flat major 'Grande Valse Brillante', Op. 34 No. 1 Waltz No. 3 in A minor 'Grande Valse Brillante', Op. 34 No. 2 Waltz No. 7 in C sharp minor, Op. 64 No. 2 Berceuse in D flat major, Op. 57 Polonaise No. 6 in A flat major, Op. 53 'Héroïque' Mazurka No. 7 in F minor, Op. 7 No. 3 Waltz No. 6 in D flat major, Op. 64 No. 1 'Minute Waltz' |
Frédéric Chopin Year 2010 coincides with the 60th anniversary of Daniel Barenboim’s stage début, and as a pianist he has decided to devote this year to the great Romantic master of the keyboard. Chopin was born on 1 March 1810 in a small village near Warsaw, and on the eve of the 200th anniversary of this date Barenboim gave this wildly acclaimed Warsaw recital as part of an extensive European tour. The program comprised some of the composer’s best-known works, including the great B flat minor Sonata with its famous Funeral March, which sounded to many “as the composer may well have imagined it”. While Chopin used to advise his piano scholars to take singing lessons, Barenboim, as an experienced conductor of operas is most familiar with the human voice as well. With his brilliant virtuosity, he lead the audience through a most colorful program, once again proving his talent for this composer. Picture Format Blu-Ray: HDCAM 1080/59,94 Sound Formats Blu-Ray: DTS HD Master Audio PCM Stereo Region Code: 0 (worldwide) Running Time: 90:45 Disc Format: BD 25 FSK: 0 “Not especially celebrated for his Chopin...Barenboim is - it goes without saying - a towering musician who is worth hearing here...Opening with the F minor Fantasia, Barenboim is on magisterial and musically imaginative form. His almost Lisztian approach to the B flat minor Sonata is excitingly turbulent”” BBC Music Magazine, January 2011 **** “The Barcarolle and sequence of three Waltzes are quite beguiling...a magnificent and genuinely impassioned account of the A flat major Polonaise...The neat, unfussy direction makes the film a pleasure to watch.” Gramophone Magazine, February 2011 | | | Usually despatched in 2 - 3 working days. |
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| |  | Claudio Abbado conducts Prokofiev, Berg & TchaikovskyLucerne Festival at Easter 2010
Five years after first conducting the Simón Bolívar Youth Orchestra in their Venezuelan home, Claudio Abbado continues his commitment to this stunning ensemble in this first joint audiovisual concert recording. Prokofiev’s extrovert Scythian Suite is a gift for the boundless energy of these young players, while the intricacy and anguish of Berg’s Lulu-Suite are an Abbado speciality, with soprano Anna Prohaska, in her Lucerne Festival debut, singing the heroine’s dazzling statement of self-justification. The concert ends with an impassioned account of Tchaikovsky’s Pathétique, his final symphony, one of the most moving works in music history. Picture Format Blu-Ray: HDCAM 1080/59,94 Sound Formats Blu-Ray: DTS HD Master Audio PCM Stereo Region Code: 0 (worldwide) Booklet notes: Songtexts in German Running Time: 111:45 Disc Format: BD 25 FSK: 0 “It's amazing the way Abbado brings the melodic writing to the fore in the very different worlds of the Prokofiev and the Berg Lulu Suite, crowned by Anna Prohaska's meaningful characterisation...As for Tchaikovsky's Pathétique, I challenge you to sit unshaken through the way Abbado nurtures string tone, body and vibrato from his Latin players.” BBC Music Magazine, January 2011 **** “Aided by superb camera work, we see him, gaunt but energised, bringing sophistication and élan to Prokofiev’s monster canvas, conjuring magic and fragrance from the Berg and driving the Pathétique to the edge of the abyss.” Financial Times, 14th January 2011 **** | | | Usually despatched in 2 - 3 working days. |
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Gramophone Magazine
BBC Music Magazine Awards 2012