DVD Videos

Booklet Notes: English, German, French

Thunderous applause and loud cries of "bravo" greeted the première of Beethoven's Fidelio at the inaugural performance of the first opera season in Valencia's new Palau de les Arts. With this spectacular production directed by Pierluigi Pier'Alli, Valencia has put itself back on the map of the international opera world. Dominating the activity on stage are two of today's most distinguished German singers,Waltraud Meier and Peter Seiffert, who have left their mark above all on Wagner interpretation, and the great Finnish bass Matti Salminen who stamped his forceful character on his role as the jailer Rocco.

"Everything she does is unforgettable…" The Guardian (Waltraud Meier)

At the Salzburg Mozartwoche in 2000, the Hagen Quartett excelled in Beethoven's very last String Quartet, first performed only after the composer's death, a highly demanding and very complex work. For Mozart's famous Clarinet Quintet, written for his gifted friend Anton Stadler, they joined forces with the phenomenal clarinetist Sabine Meyer, who "enhances the dazzling splendour of the quartet with a warm and graciously noble voice", as an Austrian newspaper wrote. The Hagen Quartett is regarded internationally as one of the foremost string quartets, praised for their unique, finely nuanced timbre and the engaging immediacy of their ensemble playing.

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 DVD: NTSC 16:9

Sounds formats DVD: PCM Stereo

Region code: 0

Booklet notes: English, German, French

Running time: 87 min

FSK: 0

Three of the most important artists of our time here present three of the most important cycles of variation for piano ever composed.

Daniel Barenboim, Yefim Bronfman and András Schiff recorded the monumental works in very personal performances.

Because of its outstanding importance for the history of classical music in Central Europe the German critic of the 19th century called often just these three composers » the three B «.

This is the first release of a series of Metropolitan Munich programs.

Picture format DVD: NTSC 16:9

Sounds formats DVD: PCM Stereo

Region code: 0

Booklet notes: English, German, French

Running time: 170 mins

FSK: 0

In 2008 Gramophone named the present-day Staatskapelle Dresden one of the ten best orchestras in the world. Under its current principal conductor, Fabio Luisi, this venerable ensemble deploys its sumptuous sonorities on Mahler's grandiose First Symphony in a performance fulsomely praised in press reviews. The Austrian pianist Margarita Höhenrieder has enjoyed acclaim as the result of her successes in a whole series of international piano competitions.Among these awards was first prize in the prestigious Busoni Competition in Bolzano.

Bonus Documentary: Margarita Höhenrieder - Portrait of an Artist

The only DVD of Grigory Sokolov, an exceptional artist, famously reclusive, is once again available. In the 40 years since the 16-year-old Sokolov was awarded first prize at the Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow in 1966, the world has been blessed with what one American critic recently called "a kind of pianism, musicianship and artistry one thought had vanished forever". Championed at a young age by Emil Gilels and a prominent figure on the Russian music scene since his early teens, Sokolov has gained an almost mythical status amongst music-lovers and pianophiles throughout the world. Sokolov has amazed everyone again and again with the enormous breadth of his repertoire and his huge, almost physical musical strength. Visa problems have again made Italy-based Russian pianist Grigory Sokolov cancel a London booking. After last year's Barbican concert was called off at short notice came the news that he would not be visiting the Royal Festival Hall on 29th April as planned.

"Sokolov, although a well-kept secret, is for many the greatest pianist alive today. Youthful celebrities with fast fingers, designer gear and slick photos pall beside such gigantic artistry, for Sokolov is a pianistic Dostoyevsky, his music-making vast in scope, visionary and revelatory, squeezing out every last drop of meaning." Jessica Duchen, International Piano Sept/Oct 2006

"There can be few virtuosi with fingers to touch his" The Sunday Times

Region Code: NTSC 0

Picture Format: NTSC 16:9

Sound Format: PCM-STEREO

Disc Format: DVD9

No of Discs: 1

Run Time: 123 mins

Released: 2009-06-01

The historic concert in celebration of the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989: re-issued with new packaging, now available at midprice! Leonard Bernstein spontaneously accepted an invitation to conduct a performance to celebrate freedom.Adding to the symbolism of the event, Bernstein conducted an orchestra and chorus formed of musicians from both East and West plus an illustrious cast of acclaimed singers.

"The absolute climax in the public life of the world citizen Leonard Bernstein." Humphrey Burton

NTSC· 4:3, PCM Stereo, DD5.1, DTS 5.1

Region code: 0

Subtitles: English, French, German, Spanish

Booklet Notes: French, German, English

Running time: 85 mins

Bonus:

Short documentary about the Wihan Quartet filmed and edited by Alice Nellis

Arrangement, text version and script by Walter Felsenstein and Hanns Eisler.

Opera Feature Film (black-and-white), 1956

Artistic Supervisor and Direction Walter Felsenstein

Director of Photography Nicolaus Hayer

Sceneries and Costumes Rochus Gliese, Leo Metzenbauer

Walter Felsenstein (1901–1975), founder and general director of the Komische Oper in Berlin, was one of the twentieth century’s greatest creative theatre directors, who played a hugely important role in the revival of opera as a theatrical art form. A brilliant artist who directed over 190 productions during the course of his career, he was equally committed to the works, their creators, the ensemble and the audience.

When Walter Felsenstein is offered to shoot an adaptation of the story about Fidelio/Leonore in the early fifties, he accepts. Together with Hanns Eisler, he develops a whole new version of the story by changing, cutting out and rearranging parts of the text. The overture is incorporated into the filmic adaptation and tells the prelude of the story. In doing this, Felsenstein uses the medium in a whole new way. The music is not only there to accompany the images; Fidelio is not meant to be an operatic film but a musical film. However, the project is weighed down with diffi culties from the very beginning, as it is temporarily uncertain as to how the project should be financed. Although the finished film provokes some fierce political controversy, it is a success among the public. Looking back sixteen years later, Felsenstein commented: “It is the only music film I have ever made – even though it had its faults. The other films were basically stage performances adapted and arranged for the cinema. They were intended to document Felsenstein productions at the Komische Oper and were modified to make them suitable for filming, but were still based on theatrical productions. My only real music film was Fidelio.”

“Arthaus’s scholarly and imposing ‘Walter Felsenstein Edition’ offers a fascinating glimpse of an important moment in operatic history now vanished.” The New York Times

Sound Format: PCM Stereo

DVD Format: DVD 9, NTSC

Picture Format: 4:3

Running Time: 84 mins

FSK: 0

Menu Language: GB, DE, FR, ES

Subtitle Languages: GB, DE, FR, ES

Region Code: 0

A film by Phil Grabsky, director of the critically acclaimed In Search of Mozart, narrated by Juliet Stevenson and featuring the world’s greatest musicians and orchestras including: Claudio Abbado, Riccardo Chailly, Paul Lewis, Leipzig Gewandhauss Orchestra, Orchestra of the 18th Century and many more.

He is one of the greatest musicians and composer in history and yet his life-story is shrouded in myth and misunderstanding. So just what is the true story of Ludwig van Beethoven? Let the story unfold….

‘Superb… the film will give those who already know about Beethoven enormous pleasure, but it would also provide any receptive 12 year old with an ideal introduction to the man and his music’ The Telegraph