Prices shown exclude VAT. (UK tax is not payable for deliveries to United States.)
See Terms & Conditions for p&p rates. | |  | Kinshasa SymphonyThe awarded film about a symphony orchestra in the Congo
Orchestre Symphonique Kimbanguiste, Armand Diangienda The film: Two hundred orchestral musicians are playing Beethoven’s Ninth – “Freude schoener Goetterfunken”. A power cut strikes just a few bars before the last movement. Problems like this are the least of the worries facing the only symphony orchestra in the Congo. In the 15 years of its existence, the musicians have survived two putsches, various crises and a war. But concentration on the music and hopes for a better future keeps them going. Kinshasa Symphony is a study of people in one of the world’s most chaotic cities doing their best to maintain one of the most complex systems of joint human endeavour: a symphony orchestra. The film is about the Congo, the people in Kinshasa and the power of music. Running Time Total: 95 minutes BD: DD 5.1, DD Stereo English, German, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Russian, Korean “it's the 'Ode to Joy' that drives the film forward as singers and musicians sweat to master Beethoven's great clamour. Beyond that, we see the people's lives, their city and their country - a complex social tapestry of poverty, crime, portable TVs, hair extensions, and hope for better times. It's impossible not to be moved...As for the level of music-making, it's the uplifting spirit not the fine detail that matters.” BBC Music Magazine, March 2012 **** | | | Usually despatched in 2 - 3 working days. |
|
|
| |  | Lang Lang: Live In ViennaBlu-ray release includes 25 mins of 3D footage of performances of the repertoire from the album.
Lang Lang’s first recording for Sony, the start of a new exclusive long-term partnership - recorded live at Vienna’s prestigious Musikverein earlier in 2010. Lang Lang: Heralded as the “hottest artist on the classical music planet” by the New York Times, 28- year-old Lang Lang began playing the piano at the age of 3, gave his first public recital aged 5, and won first prize at the Tchaikovsky International Young Musicians Competition at the age of 13. Since then he has become a global phenomenon, playing sold out recitals and concerts in every major city in the world. Testimony to his success, Lang Lang recently appeared in the 2009 Time 100 – Time Magazine's annual list of the 100 Most Influential People in the World. In 2008, over 5 billion people viewed Lang Lang’s performance in Beijing’s opening ceremony for the Olympic Games, and he has inspired over 40 million Chinese children to take up the piano – a phenomenon coined by The Today Show as "the Lang Lang effect." More recently, Lang Lang was chosen as an official worldwide ambassador to the 2010 Shanghai Expo. He has performed at prestigious events including at The White House and The Nobel Peace Prize Ceremony. Continuing his presence on the world stage, Lang Lang was featured at the 2008 Grammy Awards and the 2009 Classical Brit Awards, pairing up with jazz great, Herbie Hancock, for an astounding performance that was broadcast live to 45 million viewers worldwide. Lang Lang has made it his mission to share classical music around the world, with an emphasis on training children and young musicians through education, outreach programs, master classes and financial support. He launched the Lang Lang International Music Foundation in New York with the support of UNICEF. In May 2009, Lang Lang and his three chosen young scholars from the foundation performed together on The Oprah Winfrey Show. In addition to his numerous commitments, Lang Lang holds the title of the first Ambassador of the YouTube Symphony Orchestra. His role in this groundbreaking project created by YouTube and Google reflects his devotion to building new audiences and bringing classical music to young people worldwide. A brand in himself, Lang Lang has become the face of numerous global campaigns. Steinway has created five versions of the “Lang Lang Steinway” designed for early music education - the first time in Steinway’s 150-year history that an artist’s name has been used to produce pianos. He is a global brand ambassador for the entire Sony Corporation, including its Electronics arm, with whom he anticipates achieving innovative and creative possibilities for the future. Lang Lang also holds brand partnerships with Audi Automobiles and Aegon's worldwide financial services, amongst others.Lang Lang’s performance clothes are provided by Versace. In February 2010, Lang Lang joined Sony Music Entertainment as an exclusive recording artist. “The first movement of his Appassionata is gracefully conceived, and he brings a properly Beethovenian authority to the variations of the slow movement, before seguing gracefully into whirlwind finale...But the chief appeal of this CD lies in the fact that it's pulsatingly live...Lang Lang dares, and wins” BBC Music Magazine, September 2010 **** “...let me say at once that the youthful excess and rampant exhibitionism of much of Lang Lang's earliest work is today transformed into playing which for the greater part is as stylish and perceptive as it is brilliant...Clearly everyone is having a ball and, make no mistake, doubting Thomases should take time off to listen to a major talent.” Gramophone Magazine, October 2010 “It's hard to imagine a programme to better display the pianist's prodigious range.” The Independent, 20th August 2010 **** “He is intense and focused in the "Appassionata", sharp and lively in Beethoven's early C major sonata. His Albéniz is thrillingly colourful, his Prokofiev vivid and pungent...the technical command is peerless and the emotional warmth envelops us. He is surely the Horowitz of our generation” The Observer, 12th September 2010 | | | Usually despatched in 8 - 10 working days. |
|
|
| |  | Leonard Bernstein conducts Beethoven & Haydn
Bernstein delivered a powerful and now legendary live performance of Beethoven’s String Quartet Op. 135 – transcribed for String Orchestra and performed by the Vienna Philharmonic. For the first time ever this performance is now being released on DVD and Blu-ray. Another definitive Bernstein performance debuting now on both mediums is the enigmatic maestro’s reading of Haydn’s Missa in tempore belli, filmed live in concert at Ottobeuren in 1984, using to maximum effect the deeply impressive setting of the monastery’s magnificent Baroque basilica. Running Time Total: 93 minutes BD: DTS-HD MA 5.1, PCM Stereo Subtitles Haydn: English, German, French, Spanish, Korean, Chinese | | | Usually despatched in 2 - 3 working days. |
|
|
| |  | Mariss Jansons ConductsLive from The Philharmonie Im Gasteig, Munich, 2011
Beethoven wrote his Piano Concerto No. 3 around 1800, at a time in which the ambitious composer had created his fi rst important works in Vienna, such as the “Pathétique” Sonata and the “Moonlight” Sonata – personal works full of power and passion, with which he distanced himself from his mentor and model, Haydn. This performance of Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 3 with the Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks under the direction of its principal conductor Mariss Jansons stars the distinguished pianist Mitsuko Uchida, who is known the world over for her outstanding interpretations of the piano works of Schubert, Mozart and Beethoven, as well as of 20th-century masters such as Schoenberg, Berg, Webern and Boulez. Richard Strauss wrote his tone poem for large orchestra Ein Heldenleben (A Hero’s Life) in 1898, shortly before he left Munich for the Berlin Court Opera, where he was appointed house conductor. In the imaginary hero whose eventful life is described in the work, the young Strauss apparently envisioned the freelance artist of his time, who was exposed to considerable hostility during the Wilhelminian era, just as Strauss himself in his early Munich period. Picture Format: 16:9, 1080i FULL HD Running Time: 90 mins Blu-ray Disc: 25 GB (Single Layer) FSK: 0 Region Code: Worldwide Worldwide available | 
| | | In stock - usually despatched within 1 working day. |
|
|
| |  | Martha Argerich live at Verbier FestivalRecorded live at during the Verbier Festival, Switzerland, 22 July 2009 (Beethoven, Scarlatti) and 17 July 2010 (Shostakovich, Bizet).
Martha Argerich proves once again her great pianistic technique in a wave of virtuosity, performing emblematic works of the greatest composers ever. Martha Argerich has long been hailed as one of the greatest and most uniquely imaginative pianists. She is most admired for the pure joy of her music-making and her individual approach to each work, each situation and each audience. The Verbier Festival, held each summer in the Swiss Alps, has developed over eighteen years into one of the most important classical music festivals in Europe, bringing together great musical talent and dedicated music lovers alike from across the globe. Martha Argerich celebrates her 70th birthday on the 5 June 2011. Picture format: 1080i Full HD - 16:9 Sounds formats: PCM 2.0 Region code: All Booklet notes: English, German, French Running time: 87 min FSK: 0 “Both directors capture [Argerich's] unique artistry...she sets about the down-to-earth matter of sublime music-making, pulling all her colleagues into her spell...Takacs-Nagy partners Argerich sensitively. Using no baton - just the occasional pencil - he never loses sight of the landscape in a quest for its fruits, and his way of shaping long phrases and building paragraphs is as special as his airy rhythms and attention to inner voices.” BBC Music Magazine, October 2011 ***** | | | Usually despatched in 2 - 3 working days. |
|
|
| |  | Menahem Pressler in RecitalRecorded at the Cité de la Musique, Paris, March 2011
For more than 50 years, Menahem Pressler was the driving force of the legendary Beaux Arts Trio, giving 6.000 performances until the trio stopped concertizing in 2009. Menahem Pressler is now returning to a solo career. During this recital filmed at Paris’ Cité de la Musique 2011, Menahem Pressler plays two of the most imposing works in the piano repertoire: Beethoven’s penultimate sonata and Schubert’s last sonata which both require unusual emotional involvement from the performer. Menahem Pressler is the last representative of a pianistic tradition directly connected with the great German and French piano schools: he studied with several pupils of the illustrious Ferruccio Busoni but also received valuable advice from Robert Casadesus or Paul Loyonnet who opened the world of Ravel and Debussy to him. “Pressler’s ability to give all the voices prominence while simultaneously isolating the melody was amazing. His fingers still retain a youthful facility.” The Washington Post Picture format: 1080i 16:9 Sound formats: PCM Stereo Region code: all (worldwide) Booklet notes: English, German, French Running time: 88 mins “His technique may be somewhat dimmed, but the twinkle of his distinctive sound remains as fresh and beautiful as ever; so, too, his astute pointing of musical structure, and the sheer love with which he communicates these great works...Pierre-Martin Juban's straightforward, well-judged direction provides a fine match between style and subject.” BBC Music Magazine, August 2012 **** | | | In stock - usually despatched within 1 working day. |
|
|
| |  | Nobuyuki Tsujii Live at Carnegie HallRecorded at Carnegie Hall, November 10, 2011
On November 10, 2011, Nobuyuki Tsujii, the blind pianist from Japan who was the winner of the Van Cliburn International Piano Competition Gold Medal in 2009 appeared on the stage of Carnegie Hall. His dream had come true. Arguably the most important event in the career of any performer, for “Nobu” it was a miracle. With his brilliant technique and beautiful tone, he contrasts familiar warhorses with newer pieces, including one of his own compositions, written in memory of the victims of the Japanese earthquake and tsunami in March 2011. Nobu brought the usually reserved Carnegie Hall audience to its feet. Interviewed after Nobuyuki Tsujii’s recital, Van Cliburn observed: ‘What a thrill to hear this brilliant, very gifted, fabulous pianist. You feel God’s presence in the room when he plays. His soul is so pure, his music is so wonderful and it goes to infinity, to the highest heaven.’ | | | Usually despatched in 2 - 3 working days. |
|
|
| |  | Salzburg Opening Concert 2010
The opening concert of the Salzburg Festival, for many regarded as the world’s most renowned music festival, is by tradition a high-profile event. In 2010 the Festival celebrated its 90th anniversary and the 50th anniversary of the Great Festival Hall. Barenboim, in 2010 also celebrated his 60th anniversary onstage, excelled as a soloist and conductor of Beethoven’s lyrical Fourth Piano Concerto. Bruckner´s poignant Te Deum is performed by a quartet of world-class singers. Running Time Total: 90 minutes BD: dts-HD MA 5.1, PCM Stereo Bruckner Te Deum: G, E, F, Sp, Korean, Chinese “there is no doubting the powerful authority that characterizes Barenboim's direction of Beethoven's Fourth Piano Concerto from the keyboard. Perhaps rather unexpectedly, the magic really starts with a reading of Boulez's Notations I-IV and VII (finishing with II), whose intoxicating allure and expressivity is strongly reminiscent of the kind of sound Karajan generated in his classic Second Viennese School recordings of the 1970s.” International Record Review, January 2012 | | | Usually despatched in 2 - 3 working days. |
|
|
| |  | 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. |
|
|
| |
|
Gramophone Magazine