DVD Videos

Music by Grieg

The Places

The tour of Norway takes us to the countryside, with its mountains, lakes, fjords, rivers and waterfalls. We see Edvard Grieg’s house at Troldhaugen, and then Bergen, Grieg’s birthplace, with its colourful traditional houses.

The Music

The music chosen for this tour of Norway is by the Norwegian composer Edvard Grieg, and includes his popular Piano Concerto in A minor, as well as his Two Elegiac Melodies, with other pieces.

Video Format • NTSC / Colour / 4:3

Audio Format • DTS 5.1 / Dolby Digital 5.1 / PCM Stereo 2.0

Region Coding • No Region Coding

Music by Grieg

This volume of the NAXOS MUSICAL JOURNEY takes you on a magical European holiday tour swept up by the sounds of such holiday favorites as "Jingle Bells," "Silent Night," "The First Noel," "God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen," "O Tannenbaum" and many more. These eternal favorites are performed in the baroque style of Bach, Handel and Vivaldi - the sound of music as timeless as Christmas itself.

In August 2007, Anne-Sophie Mutter performed the world premiere of Sofia Gubaidulina‘s 2nd violin concerto in Lucerne with conductor Simon Rattle and the Berlin Philharmonic. This piece by the Russian composer (born in 1931) was an important event in many respects. Sofia Gubaidulina is one of the world‘s leading contemporary composers. Her international breakthrough came in 1980 with her first violin concerto, Offertorium, which she wrote for Gidon Kremer. To this day, it remains her most often performed piece. In spite of all the other pieces she has written in the meantime, it is her second violin concerto that violinists, conductors and orchestras around the world have eagerly been awaiting, especially since she was commissioned to write it in 1992 by Paul Sacher, the Basel conductor and patron of the arts. It was his wish that Gubaidulina‘s new violin concerto first be performed by Anne-Sophie Mutter. Fifteen years later, that dream finally came true.

The film focuses on the piece - from its inception, through the many stages of the creative process to its world premiere but also features the many great expectations of the music world and the resulting pressure on Gubaidulina. It’s not the usual portrait of the composer but concentrates on the work in progress and documents the collaboration between Anne-Sophie Mutter, Simon Rattle and the Berlin Philharmonic.

"First I hear the end of the piece. I hear it all at once, all mixed up and hard to recognize. As if everything were tied in a knot. It‘s too complicated. I can‘t write that moment down. I have to make it clearer to eventually get back to what I originally heard." Sofia Gubaidulina

"The most beautiful music film I have ever seen." Joachim Kaiser

Award at the Columbus International Film Festival 2008, nominated for Prix Italia

Sound Format: PCM Stereo

Picture Format: 16:9

DVD Format: DVD 5, NTSC

Subtitle Languages: DE, IT, GB, FR, ES, JP

Running Time: 60 mins

FSK: 0

The fifth release in ‘L’Opéra Français Collection’ series of DVDs, covering the diverse repertoire of French Opera. This DVD, with a duration of 140 mins, comes in glowing 5.1 surround sound plus English subtitles.

Maria Malibran, like Pauline Viardot, was a daughter of the influential vocal pedagogue, Manuel García. In Halévy’s obscure Clari, composed for Malibran in 1828, Cecilia Bartoli, in whose vocal “footprint” she follows like a third Garcia sister born into another time, revives a work that dazzles like she does

This first recording may resurrect Clari onto the stages of the world, since this captivating tragicomedy’s beauties are floral, but unfading, in their allure. The story – an innocent suspected of infidelity by her fiancé – is familiar, but the score is wondrous treasure.

Bartoli’s Zürich Clari won unanimous hosannas. “We must bow down to la Ceci for locating this morsel . . . it requires a mezzo of superhuman abilities and three good octaves.” (Intermezzo).

Zürich Opera’s period instrument band La Scintilla contributes stylish support under Adam Fischer.

Classification: Exempt

Region: 0

This one act opera by the Spanish composer Halffter was first performed in May 2008 and is based on the story of Lazarus after the arrest of Jesus..

English Subtitles.

This program is a visual and musical hymn of praise to what Andrés Segovia describes as "the pride, strength, and reverence of the Spanish soul." That soul is exhibited through the remarkable music of Spanish composers: Issac Albéniz, Manuel de Falla, Enrique Granados, and Federico Moreno Torroba; and a gifted group of painters: El Greco, Goya, and Velásquez. Filmed at Madrid's El Prado featuring performances by Andrés Segovia, Victoria de los Angeles and Alicia de Larrocha.