DVD Videos

Access to the publicly broadcast BSO concerts from this era has been extremely difficult even for researchers. This series of DVDs will make these performances available for the first time since they were broadcast.

Munch launched the BSO into television in 1955. He was an immensely popular conductor and well suited to being filmed.

This material represents some of the earliest televised concerts with the Boston Symphony and Charles Munch, and has been restored using the greatest care and state-of-the-art techniques.

It is of exceptional musical interest and rare historic value.

Munch was particularly fond of the Sir Hamilton Harty arrangement of Handel’s Water Music Suite, having performed it 53 times with the Boston Symphony Orchestra and having recorded it with the BSO for RCA in 1950.

His interpretations of the two Mozart symphonies are characteristically lively and exhilarating with the usual committed performances from the BSO.

Never commercially recorded by Munch, both Mozart symphonies are completely new to his discography. The booklet note contains references to an interview the writer conducted with Doriot Anthony Dwyer, the BSO’s principal flautist, who was appointed by Munch and remained in the position for 38 years. It gives a fascinating insight into Munch as a conductor and his interaction and relationship with the orchestra.

Two of ICA’s BSO DVDs featuring Charles Munch as conductor have been awarded the Diapason d’Or in France’s Diapason magazine.

1DVD

Sound format: Enhanced Mono

Picture format: 4:3

Running time: 62’

Subtitles: n/a

Menu languages: English

Booklet languages: E/F/G

Region code: 0

Territory Restrictions: None

Horowitz's standard-setting virtuosity and boundless imagination resonate throughout this remarkable collection of his performances, gathered together for the first time on six DVDs. VLADIMIR HOROWITZ - THE VIDEO COLLECTION includes the first London and Vienna recitals Horowitz gave in decades, along with his celebrated historic return to Moscow in 1986 after a more than sixty year absence. The Last Romantic features Horowitz in his New York home playing and speaking about Liszt, Chopin, Schumann, Scriabin and Rachmaninoff - all composers with whom he had a lifelong affinity. Horowitz Plays Mozart, a behind-the-scenes documentary of Horowitz's only Mozart concerto recording, conveys the veteran pianist's palpable joy and freshness of approach in rediscovering this composer late in life. Vladimir Horowitz - A Reminiscence interweaves rare footage from concerts, interviews and private archives into a loving, insightful portrait narrated on screen by the pianist's widow, Wanda Toscanini Horowitz.

The complete Vladimir Horowitz video catalogue on Sony Classical – fully restored in one edition.

All concerts and documentaries completely remastered.

Includes Horowitz in London – for the first time on DVD.

Each DVD with booklet and liner notes by Jed Distler in English, French and German.

Subtitles in English, French and German.

The Grammy award-winning pianist Daniel Barenboim, long known for his Mozart interpretations, turns his attention to Mozart's last 8 piano concertos.

The music of Mozart has quite literally been an essential driving force of Daniel Barenboim’s entire life. It remains central to his performing career both as a pianist and as a conductor.

These illuminating performances of Mozart’s last eight great piano concertos admirably demonstrate Barenboim’s dictum that even when a true musician has already performed a familiar work hundreds of times, he or she ‘never accepts that the next note will be played the same way as it was played before.’

This production was directed by George Moorse, Jean-Pierre Ponnelle and Klaas Rusticus.

Digitally remastered from 35mm film.

New Release on Euroarts's new sub-label: Recorded Excellence – Historical Value. The aim of the new series is to make accessible to music lovers and collectors top-quality recordings documenting extra-special concert performances that were hitherto unreleased or were no longer available, either for the first time or as re-releases on DVD and Blu-ray Disc. The main focus is on artists and repertoire. The new series will showcase defining concert moments of music history.

Directors: George Moorse, Jean-Pierre Ponnelle, Klaas Rusticus

Picture format DVD: NTSC 16:9

Sound format DVD: PCM Stereo

Region code: 0

Booklet notes: English, German, French

Running time: 264 mins

Stage direction and lighting design: Giorgio Strehler

The legendary production by Giorgio Strehler filmed at the Paris Opera with a cast that unites the finest Mozartians of our time.

A revival of Strehler's 'Marriage of Figaro' is always an event. In 2010, 37 years after its creation, it rose again in triumph at the Opera Bastille with a new generation of performers: Ludovic Tézier (Count Almaviva), Barbara Frittoli (Countess), Ekaterina Siurina (Susanna), Luca Pisaroni (Figaro) and Karine Deshayes (Cherubino).

Conductor, Philippe Jordan directs the Orchestra and Chorus of the Paris Opera.

Also in this bonus edition, there is an interview with Humbert Camerlo who has worked extensively with Giorgio Strehler and achieved this staging for the revival, which continues from September 15 to October 25, 2012 at the Opera Bastille for 14 special performances.

‘The point of Britten’s conducting was never how he looked when doing it; instead it was about the sheer musicality he brought to the task…’

(Paul Kildea). The revelatory films presented on this DVD feature Britten with his favoured English Chamber Orchestra performing at two very different times of his life, with equal value.

Filmed at Christmas 1964, the main programme of Mozart’s Symphony No.40 and Britten’s own Nocturne shows a man in his prime. The Mozart was a particular favourite of Britten’s and his admiration for it certainly comes across in the performance. This DVD release is a major addition to his discography as the symphony was previously only available on LP.

The footage is modern in its approach and captures Britten close-up in a way that had not been seen before.

In the Nocturne, we see and hear Peter Pears in fresh voice, performing one of many pieces that were written for him, and which Britten and Pears had recorded four years previously. With this DVD we are able to see the closeness between composer and performer. An original review of the piece in Gramophone comments:

‘I cannot think of any settings of English words more imaginative than these of Britten’s.’

The bonus is a colour film from mid-1970, with Britten at home in Snape Maltings for a gala re-opening of the concert hall, performing Mendelssohn’s ‘Scottish’ Symphony. The physical difference is clear to see, though all his trademarks are still in evidence and the quality of the music remains undiminished. It is of particular interest as it is the only known recording of this work with Britten.

This is the first release of this material on DVD.

Sound format: Enhanced Mono

DVD format: NTSC

Picture format: 4:3

Running time: 67’

Subtitles: n/a

Menu languages: English

Booklet languages: E/F/G

Region code: 0

Territory Restrictions: None

‘Mozart in Japan’ is Tony Palmer’s film of the triumphant return of the Japanese pianist Mitsuko Uchida to her homeland in 1986, following her ecstatically received European performances of all 27 Mozart Piano Concertos.

In 1986 Mitsuko Uchida burst upon the international scene with an astonishing series of concerts comprising all 27 Mozart Piano Concertos. Conducting the English Chamber Orchestra from the keyboard, her performances received universal praise. Music Week wrote that she had "brought a new understanding to Mozart"; The Guardian said that her "apparently unfussy approach to the most elusive of composers disguised a profound understanding."

Tony Palmer went with her on her triumphant return to her homeland. East met West on a truly memorable occasion to make a prize-winning film, now released on DVD for the first time.

DVD specifications:

Region: 0 (All Regions)

Rating: E (Exempt from Certification)

Duration: 64 mins

Picture Format: NTSC (all regions), 16:9, Colour

Oscar-winning biopic, based on the play by Peter Shaffer, which tells the story of the composer Antonio Salieri (F. Murray Abraham) and his relationship to the man he later claims to have murdered, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (Tom Hulce). Having already gained the confidence of the Emperor, Salieri is frustrated by the arrival of the genius Mozart, a man who quickly usurps his position in the court. His frustration is magnified by both his disapproval of Mozart's vulgar behaviour and by the fact that it is he, more so than anyone else, who can appreciate the true beauty of the young composer's work. When Mozart dies under mysterious circumstances, can it really be Salieri who is to blame?

Subtitles in English and Arabic

‘Georg Solti is the hero of the British archive releases produced by ICA Classics.’ (Diapason)

In October 2012 music-lovers celebrated the centenary year of ‘one of the world’s greatest conductors’ (The Independent). This concert – a rare gem from the BBC archives – shows

Sir Georg Solti at the height of his powers with his favourite orchestra, the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, of which he was music director from 1969 to 1991, in an alliance that was revered among audiences and critics alike.

Released for the first time on DVD, this concert is the last in Sir Georg Solti and his beloved CSO’s European tour in 1985. The Chicago Tribune wrote in January of that year, ‘He (Solti) and the CSO are firmly established as the most leonine team in symphonic music today, and that team has had everyone roaring from Stockholm to Zurich.’ Solti himself wrote: ‘My term as musical director of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra was the happiest time in my professional life.’ The programme on this DVD features Mozart’s Symphony No.39, Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No.4, and an encore of Fêtes from Debussy’s Nocturnes – all performed with the flair, passion and majestic artistry for which Solti was famed.

His interpretation of Mozart has been hailed as arguably one of the greatest in history. ‘There are certain composers on whose work Solti has stamped his mark with a distinction that has never been equalled, nor probably ever will be, so that his conduit of their intentions has become integral to the experience of listening to them.’ (The Observer)

The booklet note for this release is written by Humphrey Burton, who directed the cameras for the BBC at London’s Royal Festival Hall on the 2 February 1985 – the concert from which this DVD is taken. His first-hand, unique insight and behind-the-scenes information provide a fascinating glimpse into the inner workings of the concert, the CSO and the maestro.

Sound format: Enhanced Mono

DVD format: NTSC

Picture format: 4:3

Running time: 83’

Subtitles: n/a

Menu languages: English

Booklet languages: E/F/G

Region code: 0

Territory Restrictions: None

Perhaps no opera is closely and affectionately associated with a single house as Le nozze di Figaro is with Glyndebourne. Effortlessly witty yet shot through with pain and sadness, this deeply ambivalent life in the day of masters and servants as they scheme and outwit one another was Glyndebourne’s opening production in 1934. Michael Grandage’s staging is the seventh, set in a louche Sixties ambience. Marshalled by the ‘ideal pacing’ of Robin Ticciati, a youthful cast of principals has ‘no weak link’ and ‘looks gorgeous’ (The Sunday Times) in a production that continues Glyndebourne’s rewarding history of engagement with Mozart’s and da Ponte’s ‘day of madness’.

Glyndebourne's "signature" work, Le nozze di Figaro was the opening production when the theatre re-opened in 1994.

The production is set the 1960s/70s.

Extra features include: ‘The Greatest Opera Ever Written’ and ‘From page to stage’.

Running time: 180 minutes

Subtitles: EN/FR/DE/JP/KR

Sound format: 2.0LPCM + 5.1(5.0) DTS