DVD Videos

World Premiere Recording on DVD.

Thanks to the new Cherubini Edition, the composer’s unknown comic opera Koukourgi was staged for the first time in celebration of his 250th anniversary 2010.

The premiere production of Luigi Cherubini‘s opera Koukourgi at the Klagenfurt Stadttheater revealed a work that combines a tale from ancient China with the sensibility of the French Revolutionary times of its composition. The three act opera sees a young Chinese man battling for the hand of his sweetheart against the Tartar mandarin Koukourgi, the not unlikeable anti-hero described as a large pumpkin.

The turmoil in Paris led to Cherubini’s librettist Honoré-Nicolas-Marie Duveyrier being imprisoned in the Bastille and fleeing to Denmark. The opera was left with the finale incomplete and has remained unperformed for over two centuries. Koukourgi’s finale was completed by Heiko Cullman and the new performing edition has allowed the opera to reclaim its rightful place on the stage.

Sound Format: PCM Stereo, Dolby Digital 5.1

Picture Format: 16:9

DVD Format: DVD 9, NTSC

Subtitle Languages: FR (Original Language), GB, DE, IT, ES, Korean

Running Time: 115 mins

FSK: 0

Written in 1797, Cherubini's faithful version of Euripides' ancient tragedy is one of the most savage and powerful works of the opera repertoire, relating the cruel vengeance of a wounded woman for whom infanticide seems to be the only solution to her humiliation in love. As a continuation of Gluck's music, Cherubini's work is of boundless emotion, at once a refined, terrifying and desperate portent of a tragic outcome.

Three years after the creation of 'Médée', Krzysztof Warlikowski and Christophe Rousset were reunited at La Monnaie for this memorable production. The spoken dialogue, has been modernised here in the Polish stage director's interpretation: dialogues being rewritten in contemporary French and with contemporary candour. Warlikowski reconstructs Médée as a contemporary, postmodern patchwork in which the 18th century musical numbers are just one element among others in a nearly-new work. As usual with Warlikowski, there are videos: 50s and 60s home videos of happy marriages, happy families, happy schoolkids accompanied by pop songs of the period – Oh Carol, (I am but a fool) being an example. The chorus are the period bourgeoisie, in superbly reproduced 60s costumes and hairstyles. Médée and Jason are strictly contemporary: she, at first as Amy Winehouse: the signature black hair, tattoos, eyeliner, black patent dress),he with long, heavy dreadlocks bunched down the back of his dinner jacket (and tattoos, once he is down to his vest).

The themes are marriage and separation, motherhood and children, the symbols are Médée as a dangerous, unconventional outsider (Amy Winehouse); as the Virgin Mary: as a weary modern mother folding her sons’ bloodstained pyjamas and putting them in a drawer at the end before, in absolute silence, walking off and slamming the metal door behind her.

Krystian Zimerman - the youngest ever winner of the prestigious Chopin Piano Competition in Warsaw at the age of eighteen – giving his Homage to Chopin and Schubert

As a brilliant musician, a renown specialist in Romantic music Krystian Zimerman combines all the prerequisites for an authorative interpretation of Chopin´s works.

Krystian Zimerman’s peerless artistry, filmed in 1987 by director Humphrey Burton.

In 5.1 DTS Surround Sound

Stephen Kovacevich's international reputation as a pianist has been built both on his concert appearances, renowned for their thoughtfulness and creative intensity, and on the highly acclaimed recordings he has made throughout his career. He is considered as one of the most searching interpreters of the core classical repertoire and he has won great admiration for his recordings of Mozart, Beethoven, Brahms, Schubert and Chopin. In this masterclass he works with a student on Chopin's F Minor Fantasy

Magaloff provides three lessons: one focusses on the young Philip Cassard, more disciple than student. Everything is said with charm, simplicity and above all tact + Patricia Pagny, Hiroko Sakagami

These two valuable studio performances comprise rare archive material featuring internationally renowned dancers released for the first time on DVD.

Les Sylphides, introduced by one of the founders of modern British ballet, Tamara Karsavina, is one of the earliest examples of a complete filmed ballet in the BBC archives.

The production boasts a stellar cast, including Alicia Markova, Prima Ballerina Assoluta and Founder and President of English National Ballet.

Markova, invited by Diaghilev to join his Ballet Russes at just fourteen, was the first British dancer to become the principal dancer of a ballet company. Svetlana Beriosova became a prima ballerina at Sadlers Wells in 1955, and Violetta Elvin, one of the Bolshoi’s most promising talents was often seen as Fonteyn’s closest rival.

Giselle, one of the most popular ballets from the Romantic era, features Nadia Nerina in the title role. Renowned as the best technician at Covent Garden in the 1950s and 1960s, Nerina was famous for her acrobatic lifts.

New York Times critic on Nerina: “She is as pretty as a picture, has great charm and can dance like a million dollars.....we shall all be fighting to drink champagne out of her slippers!"

1DVD

Sound format: Ambient Mastering

Picture format: 4:3

Running time: 92’

Subtitles: F/G

Menu languages: English

Booklet languages: E/F/G

Region code: 0

Territory Restrictions: None

For the 200th anniversary of the birth of Frédéric Chopin, the renowned Ruhr Piano Festival in Essen invited the Staatskapelle Berlin to give a truly special program: the rare combination of Chopin‘s two piano concertos in one concert. For this purpose Daniel Barenboim, the orchestra‘s principal conductor, handed over the reins of „his“ ensemble to up-and-coming young conductor Andris Nelsons, assuming the role of piano soloist instead.

The press raved: „Storms of applause for a dream couple: Daniel Barenboim and Andris Nelsons won over the audience […] with their rousing Chopin interpretations“. While Barenboim fi lls the solo parts with pulsating life and dance-like grace, the exciting young talent Andris Nelsons dazzles with his magnetic physical presence and the broad gestures with which he fires on or pulls back his enthusiastic musicians. Nelsons opens the concert with a rousing account of Joseph Haydn’s Symphony No. 44, the “Mourning” Symphony.

Chopin wrote the two piano concertos when he was only 19 and 20; they were among the last works that he composed in Poland before leaving for France. Filled with youthful fire and freshness, the works showcase the pianist‘s virtuosity, and contain much of interest for the orchestral musicians as well, including poignant solo interludes for clarinet and bassoon.

Sound Format: PCM Stereo, DD 5.1, DTS 5.1

Picture Format: 16:9

DVD Format: DVD 9, NTSC

Running Time: 110 mins

FSK: 0

Internationally regarded as one of the great keyboard teachers of our time, Boris Berman is well known to the audiences of nearly fifty countries. Since 1979 he has lived in the U.S. and has taught at Boston University, Brandeis University,Indiana University, and is currently head of the piano department at the Yale School of Music. Among other acclaimed CDs he has recorded the complete piano works of Sergei Prokofiev for the Chandos label. In this masterclass he works on Chopin's first Scherzo