Blu-ray Sale - Up to 40% off

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

The grand opera Die Hugenotten was one of the greatest operatic successes of the 19th century, and its creator was hailed as the foremost composer of his time. Yet today, he is largely forgotten by the opera-going public and his works lie gathering dust in opera house repertories around the world.

Die Hugenotten was performed at the opening of the new Covent Garden Opera in London in 1858. However, it was a performance at the New York Metropolitan Opera in 1890 which went into the history books. In the German translations by Ignatz Franz Castelli (1837 Vienna) and Charlotte Birch-Pfeiffer (1838 Munich), the conflict between Catholics and Protestants was heavily disguised; a new version was created by Gustaf Gründgens and Julius Kapp in Berlin in 1932.

John Dew’s modern production, conducted by Stefan Soltesz, caused somewhat of a sensation when it was first performed in 1987 at the Deutsche Oper, Berlin. Giving the period and content of the work new reference points, his staging becomes almost oppressively contemporary: he sets the opera in divided Berlin, where the wall is a symbol of the separation of the two German states. Angela Denning, Lucy Peacock, Richard Leech and Martin Blasius fascinate with their wonderful voices and impressive acting.

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

Picture Format: 16:9

Resolution: 1080i FULL HD

Subtitle Languages: GB, FR, ES

Running Time: 156 mins

Blu-ray Disc: 25 GB (Single Layer)

FSK: 0

Leading Chopin interpreter Nelson Freire is the soloist in Chopin’s lyrical and brilliant Second Piano Concerto. On the podium the young French conductor Lionel Bringuier makes his Proms debut conducting the BBC Symphony Orchestra and gives a sizzling performance of Roussel’s Symphony No.3 and of Ravel’s score for the ballet 'Daphnis et Chloé' - Suite No 2.

Chopin wrote his concerto at the age of 19 while crazily in love with an opera singer, but it's the work itself which is the object of adoration for soloist Nelson Freire who describes himself as having something of a 'crush' on the piece after first hearing it as a teenager.

The three other works on the programme chart French music over a century of changing musical tastes, beginning in 1844 with Berlioz's vivid evocation of a swashbuckling pirate adventure in his overture 'Le corsaire'. By 1912 the tides of modernism influenced Ravel's lavishly scored, pastoral ballet Daphnis and Chloë, with its famous opening soundscape of dawn breaking over the forest canopy, and by the 1930s Roussel's Third Symphony reflected the trends of neo-classicism.

"It was around the beginning of the second movement of Albert Roussel's Third Symphony that the playing of the BBC Symphony Orchestra – under the outstanding 23-year-old French conductor Lionel Bringuier, making his Prom debut – moved into top gear. From that point on, the orchestra's awareness of its own sound, collectively and individually, became heightened to an unusually compelling degree. The playing stayed on this exalted level until the end of the concert, which closed with Ravel's second Daphnis and Chloé suite...shaped with a certainty of direction that never compromised the music's inherent sensuousness. It provided a sensational climax to the evening."

George Hall, The Guardian 13/8/2010

Recorded live at the Royal Albert Hall, 08/2010, Running time 95 min.

Booklet: French, German, English

Image 1BD25, Colour 16/9, 1080i Full HD

Sound PCM Stereo, DTS HD Master Audio 5.1

This 2012 recording of the most influential and wide spread oratorio by Johann Sebastian Bach features the Hungarian conductor Iván Fischer, a visionary in his field, with the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra in Amsterdam. The double choir is the essential musical aspect on which Iván Fischer’s interpretation of Bach’s St. Matthew Passion is based. Only by consistently seizing on that duality will all the complementary layers stand out as they should. He describes this essential fundamental aspect as follows: “You can’t do the St. Matthew in an unreligious way. The only approach is from a deep, universally religious feeling.”

The internationally renowned tenor Mark Padmore is brilliant as the Evangelist, Peter Harvey gives a moving interpretation of Christ. Together with Ingeborg Danz, Renate Arends, Maria Espada, Barbara Kozelj, Peter Gijsbertsen and Henk Neven and the Netherlands Radio Choir they carry the audience through an affecting performance of this masterwork.

PCM Stereo, dts-HD Master

Audio 5.0

Running Time: 174 mins

Subtitle Languages: DE (Original Language),

GB, FR, ES, JP

Staged by Denis Krief

C Major’s Tutto Verdi project continues with a production of Luisa Miller.

The opera was based on the play Kabale und Liebe by Friedrich von Schiller and features a Great cast of singers including Marcelo Álvarez, Leo Nucci, Fiorenca Cedolins and Giorgio Surian.

World Première on Blu-Ray

PICTURE: 16:9, HD

BD: DTS-HD MA 5.1, PCM 2.0

RUNNING TIME: Total: 156 minutes (Opera: 146 minutes, Bonus: 10 minutes )

SUBTITLES: Italian (original language), English, German, French, Spanish, Chinese, Korean, Japanese

AVAILABLE WORLDWIDE

With Olimpiade the famous poet Metastasio created one of the most popular librettos of the 18th century. It was set to music by over 60 baroque and classical composers including Vivaldi, Caldara, Hasse, Cimarosa and Donizetti. Pergolesi’s composition from 1735 was one of the earliest adaptations.

In the 2011 Jesi production of L’Olimpiade a large part of the auditorium is taken up by a cross-shaped platform. This is where the characters of the drama are introduced, where they elaborate their plans and express their innermost feelings, their sufferings and hopes, while the supreme ritual of the ancient Greek world, the Olympic Games, is celebrated on a distant stage: that event upon which their lives – and all prospects of happiness or otherwise – depend.

L’Olimpiade stars a superb cast of young singers, especially to be named are the ladies in the leading roles – Lyubov Petrova, Yetzabel Arias Fernández, Jennifer Rivera and Sofi a Soloviy – as well as famous Raúl Giménez in the role of King Clistene.

Alessandro De Marchi has been involved in the interpretation of early music for a long time. His orchestra, specialized on the interpretation of baroque and classical compositions on period instruments, Academia Montis Regalis, was also involved in this project.

“It is hard to imagine a happier or more enthralling presentation of [Pergolesi’s] ‘Olimpiade’ ... more natural in the theater than one would think possible.” La Stampa

Sound Format: PCM Stereo, DD 5.1 (DVD)

PCM Stereo, dts-HD Master

Audio 5.1 (Blu-ray)

Picture Format: 16:9, 1080i FULL HD

Format: DVD 9 & DVD 5 / NTSC, 50 GB (Dual Layer)

Subtitle Languages: IT (Original Language),

GB, DE, FR, ES, JP, Korean

Running Time: 170 mins

Staged by Lamberto Puggelli

C Major presents a production of Il corsaro, performed in 2008 at the Verdi Festival in Parma.

Written in 1848, this three-act opera is based on Lord Byron's poem The Corsair.

Released for the first time on Blu-ray.

Staged by Ruggero Cappuccio

C Major presents a World Première on Blu-ray of Verdi’s opera La Battaglia di Legnano, as part of their Tutto Verdi project.

The opera is based on the play La Bataille de Toulouse by Joseph Méry.

The performance is conducted by Boris Brott, who served as Assistant Conductor to the New York Philharmonic under Leonard Bernstein, and Music Director and Conductor for the Royal Ballet.

BD: DTS-HD MA 5.1, PCM 2.0

RUNNING TIME: Total: 129 minutes (Opera: 119 minutes, Bonus: 10 minutes)

SUBTITLES: Italian (original language), English, German, French, Spanish, Chinese, Korean, Japanese

Designer Carl Friedrich Oberle

Lighting Designer Nigel Levings

Der Rosenkavalier, the most successful opera of Richard Strauss and Hugo von Hofmannsthal’s partnership, is a story of love, lust and human frailty. The story is not complicated but it soars and dips on Strauss’ music with Hofmannsthal’s expressive libretto. With Cheryl Barker in the role of the Marschallin, who can fail to be moved by her poignant portrayal of facing the final loss of youth and her young lover?

Count Octavian, Catherine Carby, has the vibrant voice of a young man who has his life to enjoy with no thought of anything but pleasure and the Marschallin’s company – until he meets the beautiful and innocent Sophie von Faninal, played by Emma Pearson. The boorish Baron Ochs auf Lerchenau is superbly exposed by Manfred Hemm, his Viennese accent lending authenticity.

With all the outstanding artists completing the cast and the Opera Australia and Ballet Orchestra, this production is led by conductor Andrew Litton to create a truly stunning operatic and theatrical experience against the classic staging of Carl Friedrich Oberle.

Audio DVD/2.0 LPCM/5.1 DTS

Picture format NTSC

Audio BD LPCM stereo and 5.0 DTS-HD Master Audio