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See Terms & Conditions for p&p rates. | |  | Aldo Ciccolini: Rachmaninoff, Satie, Debussy, Ravel
Two Radio-Canada television performances from 1956 and 1979 provide an overview of the artistry of the acclaimed pianist Aldo Ciccolini. 52 minutes, color/black & white. “The earliest telecast is of the first movement only of Rachmaninov's Third Concerto… The most valuable feature is the unusual close camera angle above Ciccolini's right shoulder: for students of fingering, phrasing and touch, it' useful footage. …Ciccolini coaxes a lovely singing tone from the Baldwin with minimal pedal effects. How good he is at the deadpan humour of the two Satie suits which, in 'd'Edriophthalma' includes some amusing Chopin plagiarisms.” Gramophone Magazine, December 2005 | | | Usually despatched in 4 - 5 working days. |
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Caterina Novak, Carlo Putelli, Bruna Tredicine, Anna Carbonera, Cristina Cappellini Romabarocca Ensemble, Lorenzo Tozzi Recorded live at the Auditorio di San Francesco, Bolsena in August 2007 | | | Usually despatched in 8 - 10 working days. |
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| |  | Alfredo Kraus: The 1996 Tokyo RecitalCelebrating 40 years of career
Alfredo Kraus (tenor) with Emiko Suga (soprano), Edelmiro Arnaltes (piano) & Asier Polo (cello) Recorded at Tokyo Bunkamura Orchard Hall, 15th June 1996 World première recording. This 1996 Tokyo recital is a celebration of the distinguished Spanish tenor Alfredo Kraus’s 40 year career. After warming his voice with two classical arias transcribed by Parisotti, Kraus launches into an anthology of music from the French, Spanish and Italian repertoires. The recital includes a duet from the first act of Lucia di Lammermoor and the famous aria "Pourquoi me réveiller?" from Massenet's Werther, an opera in which Kraus was considered an outstanding interpreter of the title role. Each and every piece is managed with extreme elegance, noble aplomb and ease, qualities that he attained through a formidable technique and a careful career pacing. At sixty nine Kraus sings without any apparent effort and with that aristocratic nonchalance that was one of the most charming aspects of his style. Picture Format: 4:3 Sound Format: LPCM 2.0 Region Code: 0 – All regions Running Time: 55 Min Notes: ITA - ENG - GER - FRE Subtitles: ITA - ENG - GER - FRE – SPA Available Worldwide | | | Usually despatched in 2 - 3 working days. |
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| |  | Horowitz in Moscow
“In 1986 Horowitz returned to his native Russia for the first time in more than half a century. He's seen here performing, being interviewed and chatting with old family members. Touching and with some extraordinary playing.” BBC Music Magazine, July 2006 **** “The return to his homeland in 1986 by the world's most famous living instrumentalist after an absence of 61 years caught the public imagination. …the 83-year old Horowitz's arrival in Moscow prompted the kind of reception reserved usually for pop stars. Brian Large's Emmy Award-winning film captures all this well... Few have conjured from a piano such a palette of tonal colours with such convincing imagery and musical imagination as Horowitz does in this recital. The audience listens with rapt concentration. A man sits motionless with tears streaming down his face in Träumerei. Unforgettable.” Gramophone Magazine, February 2006 | | | In stock - usually despatched within 1 working day. |
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| |  | Recorded live at The National Theatre, Prague Summer 2011
Lenka Máciková (Marquise Clarice, widow), Aleš Briscein (Count Orazio), Katerina Knežíková (Vespetta), Jaroslav Brezina (Patrizio), Bohumil Klepl (Servant) & Tatána Kupcová (Marquise) Schwarzenberg Court Orchestra, Vojtech Spurný (conductor) & Ondrej Havelka (director) Rebellious servants, capricious lovers, cross-dressing farce and a happy ending: the fast paced action of this comic Baroque opera had all the ingredients to please the self-confessed ‘low-brow taste’ of an Austro-German prince, who commissioned Giuseppe Scarlatti for a piece to celebrate his son’s wedding. This is the opera’s first revival in modern times, and it takes place in the very same Baroque theatre, impeccably restored to its original glory, which hosted the first performance. With a cast of young singers drawn from Prague’s National Theatre and a stylish period-instrument ensemble, this vivid reconstruction will delight audiences as much today as it did the aristocratic guests at Ceský Krumlov in 1768. Composer Giuseppe Scarlatti (1723-1777), was related to Alessandro and Domenico Scarlatti. Comic opera performed in the Cesky Krumlov Theatre, where it was premiered in 1768. Theatre is a fully restored Baroque theatre, complete with authentic stage machinery, props and scenery. Performed by candlelight. ‘WINNER OF THE HAVEL FOUNDATION AWARD 2012’ – the top artistic prize in the Czech Republic. Extra feautures include: A Jewel of the Baroque - The story of the Castle Theatre in Ceský Krumlov. Running time: 138 minutes Subtitles: EN/FR/DE/JP/KR Sound format: 2.0LPCM + 5.1(5.0) DTS | 
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| |  | Garth Knox & Brian O'Reilly: Spectral Strands
Garth Knox (viola & viola d’amore), Brian O’Reilly (visuals) & Götz Dipper, Michael Edwards, Joachim Goßmann (electronics) Spectral Strands, with works for viola, both with and without electronics, interpreted by the most outstanding contemporary viola player, combines with the literally brilliant video material, a unique conjunction of sound, space and images. Garth Knox’s collaboration with video artist Brian O’Reilly has resulted in an audiovisual programme where the audible and visible correspondences of light, shadow, texture and colour and their fragmentation offer new ways of perception. Although the rainbow is a familiar object, the discovery that ordinary white light can be split into a spectacular spectrum of bands of light remains a source of wonder. With the advent of spectral music the same process was applied to sound, and the no less spectacular sound spectrums obtained with the help of the computer excited a whole generation of composers. The music, with its abstract but particularly emotional qualities and the video, in its play with barely recognisable forms and objects which dissolve into patterns, coloured surfaces and rhythms establish in the selected works consistent references to each other. It is precisely in this special relationship that hearing extends itself into seeing and vice versa. NTSC, Dolby Digital AC 3, 5.0 or Stereo Country code: 0 , Languages: German/English Running time: 56:44 minutes | | | Usually despatched in 3 - 4 working days. |
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| |  | Virtuoso! Music for Organ
Daniel Moult performs virtuosic twentieth-century music on the organ of Bridlington Priory. The twentieth-century saw some of the most audacious works ever composed for the organ. In this film with accompanying CD, acclaimed British organist Daniel Moult performs some of the most exciting and virtuosic of these pieces. From Schmidt to Messiaen he leads us through a bold selection of French, Austrian, Dutch and Australian repertoire. By presenting the art of the organ virtuoso in close-up detail and with full surround sound, this DVD makes this music both exhilarating and accessible. The organ in Bridlington Priory, UK (1889 Anneessens / 2006 Nicholson), with its great power and array of beautiful colours, is the perfect vehicle for such a programme. DVD | PAL & NTSC DVD-10 | Region Free | 16:9 | Dolby Digital 4.0 Surround DVD with accompanying CD “Daniel Moult holds nothing back in his programme of 20th-century tours de force, the video camera giving the best possible vantage point of the console...Dupré's Trois Préludes et Fugues are rattled off with the lightest of touches...One of this disc's great virtues is that nothing outlasts its welcome.” Gramophone Magazine, September 2010 “Ultimately this disc is a real winner ... A stylish and captivating player to watch ... Daniel Moult's playing is, from the outset, dazzling, and does much to demonstrate the versatility of the superb organ at Bridlington Priory.” The Organ, May/July 2010 | | | Usually despatched in 8 - 10 working days. |
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| |  | Live Recording from The Opéra National De Paris, 2004
Aurélie Dupont (La Sylphide), Mathieu Ganio (James), Mélanie Hurel (Effie), Jean-Marie Didière (La Sorcière) & Isabelle Ciaravola, Gil Isoart (Pas De Deux Des Ecossais) Le Corps De Ballet And Opéra National De Paris, Ermanno Florio Choreography by Pierre Lacotte after Filippo Taglioni Set Design by Marie-Claire Musson Costume Design by Michel Fresnay Costume Design by Yelena Merkurova Arthaus presents Pierre Lacotte’s landmark reconstruction of the Romantic Ballet La Sylphide, long regarded as a classic in its own right. The original choreography by Philippe Taglioni had changed ballet forever. It introduced constitutional features of Romantic Ballet as we know it. These include dance en pointe and the tutu, which most certainly owe their omnipresence in ballet to the success of the 1832 staging of La Sylphide in Paris. Everything about the event combined to transform the ballet into a magical spectacle: the libretto, inspired by romantic literature, the bucolic exoticism of the village wedding festivities, the dramatic realism of the Sylvan forest, the eerie halo of the gas lights, the aerial flights of the dancers, the long diaphanous tulle costumes, and the ballerina’s variations en pointes. Through this work, ballet master Philippe Taglioni managed to achieve a magical fusion between mime and artistic dance in a light and flowing style that gave birth to the first “white” act in the history of ballet. Pierre Lacotte’s 1972 reconstruction returned to the very roots of Taglioni’s work. Whilst writing a book on romantic ballet in 1968, he had discovered documents about Philippe Taglioni‘s 1832 La Sylphide, which enabled him to reconstruct the work. Bonus: “La Sylphide” rediscovered Sound Format: PCM Stereo, DD 5.1, DTS 5.1 Picture Format: 16:9 DVD Format: DVD 9, NTSC Subtitle Languages: GB, DE, ES, IT (Bonus) Running Time: 108 mins + 19 mins Bonus FSK: 0 | | | Usually despatched in 2 - 3 working days. |
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| |  | Giuseppe Sinopoli and the Dresden StaatskapelleThe Two Eyes of Horus & Dreampaths of Music. A musical journey - combining western music with the ancient Egyptian culture.
Recording Date: 1996
Running Time: 90+86 min
Picture Format: 4:3
Sound Format: PCM Stereo
Language: GB
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| |  | Sung in German. Live Recording from the Vienna State Opera 2006, Co-production with the Teatro Real, Madrid
Recording Date: 2006
Place of recording: Live Recording from the Vienna State Opera
Running Time: 110 min. + interview 24 min
Picture Format: 16:9
Sound Format: PCM Stereo, Dolby Digital 5.1, DTS 5.1
Menu Languages NTSC: D, F, GB, SP
Subtitle Languages NTSC: D, F, GB, I, SP
“Musically, the performance is first-rate, with Franz Grundheber commanding in the Sprechstimme role of Moses, and Thomas Moser coping valiantly with the Aaron's taxing tenor writing. …with Daniele Gatti at the helm this unremittingly intense opera leaves a strong impression.” BBC Music Magazine, July 2007 **** “A student recently asked Milton Babbitt what he made of the plot of Moses und Aron. 'Oh I don't know, I'm not really a plot person,' he replied.
'Boy meets Girl, Moses meets Aron…' Of course, there's more than a grain of truth to Babbitt's quip.
The bonus to this appearance of Schoenberg's 'opera fragment' on DVD is a discussion which does not attempt to explain what the piece is 'about' (dread phrase) but throws up some arresting images along the way, not least the suggestion that Moses is a 'Führer des Jüdischen Volks'. It certainly accords with the director Reto Nickler's conception of the work as 'a highly topical psychodrama that represents the thorny path between theory and practice'.
Indeed, Schoenberg's absurdly unrealisable stage directions make the last scene of Les Troyens pale into insignificance.
Nickler takes an effectively practical tack, abstract but straightforward. Three-dimensional video conjures the miracles of the First Act, staff into serpent and so forth, while in Act 2 it becomes the focus of consumer materialism.
Aron dons a natty gold jacket while the chorus wave hankies of the same material, economically symbolising the banality of their demands and theology. The Golden Calf is revealed as a set of letters spelling out ICH BIN GOTT, the counterpart of Moses's tablets of stone.
Such intelligent, dramatic pragmatism lends equal lustre to the musical values. It's good to hear a conductor who is steeped in verismo conveying the underestimated sweep of these Biblical declamations, even if it is inevitably at the expense of many of the notes. Both Grundheber and Moser seize every cue for lyrical expression, and the super-size chorus is every bit the collective hero/anti-hero of the piece. The prologue to Act 2 is typically stark and precise, with harsh lighting and tenebrous murk reflecting the sotto voce polyphony of abandonment as the Jewish people sit motionless. Their grim suitcases, their raised clenched fists and mob behaviour, all allude to fresher horrors in Jewish history, until they whip out gold party-frocks and dinner- jackets for the orgy. The Ephraimites become Scaramangas, murdering the true believers to a backdrop of clicking cameraphones and rolling TV coverage – then Z-list celebs totter on as alter egos of the Four Naked Virgins, copulating with the God-letters while Buñuel-esque images of cruelty dominate the giant TV screens. No wonder the Viennese loved it.” Gramophone Classical Music Guide, 2010 “Nickler takes an effectively practical tack, abstract but straightforward. Three-dimensional video conjures the miracles of the first act, staff into serpent and so fourth, whilst in Act 2 it becomes the focus of consumer materialism. The Golden Calf is revealed as a set of letters spelling out ICH BIN GOTT, the counterpart of Moses's tablets of stone. Such intelligent, dramatic pragmatism lends equal lustre to the musical values. It's good to hear a conductor who is steeped in verismo conveying the underestimated sweep of these Biblical declamations... Both Grundheber and Moser seize every cue for lyrical expression, and the super-size chorus is every bit the collective hero/anti-hero of the piece.” Gramophone Magazine, August 2007 “Despite the flood of brilliant music that evokes God, Moses, Aron, Israelites, an orgy, and everyone and everything else, the music is essentially only a messenger. And that is the radical, reflexive idea here: that even this opera itself is probably inadequate to convey the basic unknowability of a higher power. That Schoenberg even attempted to address all of this -- using a multiplicity of techniques in the same piece -- is a bit formidable. He tackles a project with dimensions and implications that are far beyond what most of us can even conceive.” MusicWeb International | | | Usually despatched in 2 - 3 working days. |
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