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See Terms & Conditions for p&p rates. | |  | GermanyBavarian Lakes and Schloss Herremchiemsee
The Places Bavaria has a place of its own in Germany, both geographically and culturally. The tour stars with the Alpine lake known as Königssee and explores the surrounding landscape, including the Berchtesgaden National Park and the gardens of Ludwig II's answer to Versailles, his grandiose Schloss Herrenchiemsee. The tour ends with the Chiemsee, its islands and its tranquil waters. The Music The music for the tour is by Johannes Brahms and his colleague and collaborator, the violinist Joseph Joachim. Brahms' Second Symphony, which accompanies the earlier parts of the tour, was described by some contemporaries as Brahms' Pastoral Symphony and provides, in its generally cheerful serenity, an apt accompaniment to views of the Bavarian countryside. Joachim's Overture In memoriam Heinrich von Kleist, written probably in the same year as Brahms' symphony, 1877, commemorates the centenary of the birth of the great German writer. | | | Usually despatched in 2 - 3 working days. |
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| |  | Vassily Primakov plays Brahms, Chopin & ScriabinFilmed in Denmark, 2009
This new DVD marks the film debut of piano virtuoso, Vassily Primakov, performing the three Intermezzos, Op. 117 by Johannes Brahms, the four Ballades by Fryderyk Chopin, and the Sonata No. 4 by Alexandr Scriabin. Vassily Primakov has been hailed as a pianist of world class significance, the New York Times trumpeting his “fiery intensity” and his “bold, expressive phrasing and dramatic commitment that brought the audience to its feet.” The DVD includes the following special features: Vassily Primakov photo gallery, biographical information, Primakov discography and a digital Mp4 file, for easy copying to iPod or personal video devices. Sound Format: 5.1 surround sound DTS / Dolby Digital Running Time: 68 minutes Available worldwide “This video...certainly reveals Primarov as a serious artist with fabulous pianistic skills. His tone quality is velvety, his phrasing unfailingly sensitive...when Primakov loses himself in the music and lets rip, the effect is marvellous: the Chopin Ballades are full of tenderness and elation” BBC Music Magazine, October 2010 **** “Primakov is a master of keyboard colour and he is in his element here throughout, with the ternary structures of each of the Brahms Intermezzos enabling him to find real contrast of mood, aided by a natural rubato and flexibility of pulse...he is a match for any in his tonal finesse, musical maturity and effortless technical prowess” International Record Review, October 2010  BBC Music Magazine
DVD Choice - October 2010 |
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| |  | Van Cliburn in Moscow, Vol. 4
The celebrated pianist Van Cliburn achieved legendary status overnight after winning the First International Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow in 1958. This landmark DVD series marks the first time that Cliburn’s performances on Russian television have been made available to the international public. Volume 4 is the first to present Cliburn in solo recital, featuring three works that figured largely in his repertoire Performances from 1960 and 1972. 86 minutes, black & white, mono, All regions. | | | Usually despatched in 4 - 5 working days. |
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Valery Gergiev chose to perform this work at his final concerts as principal conductor of the Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra. This memorable event – the finale of an era in the life of the conductor as well as in the history of the orchestra – was captured on film, and is now being released on DVD. For the performances, and recording, of this work, in which the choir plays a central role, the orchestra invited the renowned Swedish Radio Choir, as well as the soloists Solveig Kringelborn and Mariusz Kwiecien. Live recording made on 25th May 2008 at de Doelen Concert Hall, Rotterdam, for Valery Gergiev’s final concert as principal conductor of the Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra “This is a very deeply felt account, sung and played and directed by Gergiev with intense conviction...Mariusz Kwiecien is an authoritative baritone, Solveig Kringelborn meltingly maternal in her solo.” BBC Music Magazine, August 2010 **** “this performance is successful through its fundamental seriousness and earnest commitment. The Swedish Radio Choir, on which so much in this piece depends, is splendid. Anyone who has not heard the Polish baritone Mariusz Kwiecien should try to do so at the earliest opportunity. He's a solid musician who sings naturally and effortlessly” International Record Review, September 2010 | | | Usually despatched in 2 - 3 working days. |
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Christian Thielemann has crafted a performance that places him among the best interpreters of this work, such as Maazel, Furtwängler, Karajan, Klemperer... Christian Thielemann is the most gifted German conductor.” Financial Times “Under Christian Thielemann´s guidance, the Munich Philharmonic sounds terrific.” New York Times Running Time 83 minutes Picture 16:9, colour Sound PCM Stereo, DTS 5.1 Packaging NTSC: Amaray 1 DVD Booklet English, German, French “it's a performance of great warmth, dignity and impressive power. Much of the visual interest is provided by the batonless Christian Thielemann, using his eyes and large, eloquent hands, almost literally shaping the music into a truly impressive edifice...[His] tempos are stately but never drag...and he has infused his performers with passion.” BBC Music Magazine, February 2011 ***** BBC Music Magazine DVD Choice - February 2011 |
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| |  | Arrau and Brahms: The Two RomanticsRecorded live at the Teatro Municipal, Santiago, Chile, May 1984
Of the world’s greatest pianists, perhaps only Claudio Arrau is as famous for his Brahms as he is for his Beethoven. His versions of the two epic Brahms Piano Concertos, one with Carlo Maria Giulini and the other with Bernard Haitink, are cherished landmark performances in every record collector’s library. As for his interpretation of the monumental Sonata No.3, there the revered master pianist truly outdoes himself. Today, no one else brings to the work the same powerful vision of romantic passion and depth of feeling allied to a transcendent virtuosity. This historic performance was filmed in May 1984 when Maestro Arrau returned to play in Santiago, Chile, after an absence of 17 years. He was given a reception by his countrymen probably without equal. Claudio Arrau has been playing the piano to great international acclaim for almost eighty years. From Tokyo to Berlin to Paris to London to New York, he has won the love and admiration of music-lovers around the world. He has built his career largely without the help of hype or hysteria. Arrau’s repertoire is larger than that of any other pianist of his time. Picture format DVD: NTSC 4:3 Sounds formats DVD: DD 2.0 Region code: 0 Original language: English Subtitles: German, French, Spanish Booklet notes: English, German, French Running time: 110 mins FSK: 0 | | | Usually despatched in 2 - 3 working days. |
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| |  | Barenboim plays Brahms
Brahms’s two piano concertos are from opposite ends of his creative years... The first work evinces a titanic struggle, while the second is warmer and rounder, but no less passionate, and shows Brahms at his consummate best. Today Daniel Barenboim is internationally recognized and revered as an orchestral and operatic conductor, pianist, and a musical ambassador and also as a humanitarian. Partnering him is the remarkable conductor Sergiu Celibidache. “He was one of the greatest musicians I ever encountered”, says Barenboim. This is a new release of the series of Metropolitan Munich programs. Picture format DVD: NTSC 4:3 Sounds formats DVD: PCM Stereo Region code: 0 Booklet notes: English, German, French Runnning time: 111 mins “These performances were filmed in 1991, when Sergiu Celibidache was in his 80th year and he and Daniel Barenboim interpretatively at the height of their powers...Celibidache and Barenboim produce a very monumental D minor...Great warmth, but also extreme clarity of sound and instrumental balance, distinguishes Barenboim and Celibidache's view of the B flat Concerto” BBC Music Magazine, May 2012 **** | | | Usually despatched in 2 - 3 working days. |
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| |  | Dances & Dreams: Gala from Berlin 2011Recorded live at the Berlin Philharmonic, 31 December 2011
In 2011 the Berliner Philharmoniker and their musical director Sir Simon Rattle welcomed in the New Year with a gala concert programmed with ‘Dances & Dreams’. Spinetingling and inspiring performances of music by Dvořák, Ravel, Richard Strauss, Stravinsky and Brahms are complemented by the extraordinary talent of the multi-awarded Russian pianist Evgeny Kissin. Kissin’s musicality, the depth and poetic quality of his interpretations, and his extraordinary virtuosity have placed him at the forefront of today’s pianists, and his passionate performance of the renowned Piano Concerto in A minor by Edvard Grieg is mesmerizing. Kissin's musicality, the depth and poetic quality of his interpretations, and his extraordinary virtuosity have placed him at the forefront of today's pianists. Picture format: NTSC 16:9 Sound formats: PCM Stereo, DD 5.0, DTS 5.0 Region code: All (worldwide) Booklet notes: English, German, French Running time: 89 mins “It's party time. Everyone, not least the radiantly smiling conductor, is bent on enjoying themselves...This is among the most thoughtful and poetic accounts of the Concerto that I've heard. There's nothing superficial or preconceived...It is this performance which gives the DVD its raison d'etre, one which in half a century will be viewed with the same kind of interest as film of Moiseiwitsch, Cortot et al is viewed today.” Gramophone Magazine, December 2012 “Where Rattle and company radiate love, Kissin gives us duty. Still, nothing else casts a chill. Hearing the orchestra's splendours, observing the smiles and eye contact, you'd never believe the past stories of turbulence between musicians and conductor.” BBC Music Magazine, January 2013 **** | | | Usually despatched in 2 - 3 working days. |
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| |  | Live Recording From The Los Angeles Opera, 2009
Désirée Rancatore (Nightingale), Brandon Jovanovich (Good Hope), James Johnson (Loyal Friend) & Martin Gantner (Hoopoe) Los Angeles Opera Orchestra & Chorus, James Conlon (conductor) & Darko Tresnjak (stage director) World Premiere Recording on DVD Set Design by David P. Gordon A production of the LA Opera House ground-breaking Recovered Voices project, highlighting the works of composers affected by the Holocaust. Walter Braunfels, a strong advocate of neo-Romanticism, made significant contributions to the world of twentieth-century opera. Yet, he lost his rightful places in twentieth-century opera houses. His music inhabits a very different world, both geographically and aesthetically, nurtured far from Vienna’s charged, multi-cultural atmosphere. Deeply rooted in German Classicism and Romanticism, he conceals none of his admiration for the inherited past and sees himself as building on its fundamentals. By almost any standard, he was a conservative. The premiere of Die Vögel in Munich in 1920, under the direction of Bruno Walter (who still lauded the work as late as 1950), was a huge public and critical success. The number of productions and performances in the following years was staggering. However, in the post- World War II years of his “rehabilitation,” Braunfels never regained a foothold. Die Vögel was not produced again until 1971 in Karlsruhe and 1994 in Berlin. "A rare chance to hear Braunfels‘s lighthearted, tenderly spiritual and little-known fable…“ The New York Times "A marvelous performance…the orchestra sounded radiant.“ Los Angeles Times "Conlon conducted with lustrous élan…We should hear more of Braunfels‘ work.” Financial Times, London Sound Format: PCM Stereo, DD 5.1, DTS 5.1 Picture Format: 16:9 DVD Format: DVD 9, NTSC Subtitle Languages: DE, GB, FR, ES, IT, JP Running Time: 132 mins FSK: 0 “Walter Braunfel's Die Vögel is that very rare thing - a neglected work which really is worth reviving...The staging is colourful, with plenty of well-coordinated movement, and James Conlon conducts his Los Angeles forces persuasively, as well as writing helpfully about the opera in the booklet.” BBC Music Magazine, February 2011 **** | | | Usually despatched in 2 - 3 working days. |
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| |  | Filmed at Madrid's new Festival de San Lorenzo de El Escorial. It was based on a successful production originally mounted in 2002 by the Hebbel Theater in Berlin.
First-ever international DVD release of the best-loved jewel in the zarzuela repertoire A DVD premiere - Berton's celebrated zarzuela for the first time on international DVD. Zarzuela is the national music theatre of Spain, enduringly popular across Spain and the Americas. This production is a witty, modern staging, with an all-Spanish cast. Breton's entertaining tale of life, love and revelry set in a busy Spanish apartment block had instantaneous and huge success when first premiered in 1894 and it has since been performed countless times across the Spanish-speaking world. “First performed in Madrid in 1894… the libretto by Ricardo de la Vega tells of… amorous complications involving a couple of sisters, their aunt, and their suitors, one rich, one poor. Marina Bollain's production updated the action to the present day, from a city square to a block of flats... Despite my initial doubts concerning the all-out updating - not to mention the casting of a baritone, Federico Gallar, as the aunt - I found myself completely won over by the end, and eager to watch it all over again.” Gramophone Magazine, November 2008 | | | Usually despatched in 2 - 3 working days. |
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