DVD Videos

This DVD release celebrates the life of Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, German lyric baritone and one of the most acclaimed Lieder performers of the late 20th century. Elisabeth Schwarzkopf called him ‘a born god who has it all’. He performed and recorded a great many operatic roles and dominated both the opera and concert platform for over thirty years, being regarded as one of the finest lyrical vocalists of his generation.

In these two concerts from the Opera Theatre of Nuremberg, recorded in 1991 and 1992, Fischer-Dieskau performs beautiful and dramatic Lieder by Franz Schubert and Robert Schumann.

157 MINS • ALL REGIONS • NTSC 4:3 • COLOUR • L-PCM STEREO

One of the most famous classic documentaries about Sviatoslav Richter available on DVD again!

The film is entirely "narrated" by Sviatoslav Richter who we get to know as both musician and pianist, particularly through his reading of extracts from his “musician’s diary”.

An interview with his wife, the singer Nina Dorliac rounds out the narrative.

A particularly painful family history; an unconventional apprenticeship in Odessa; a very particular vantage-point of Stalin´s funeral; forbidden to perform in the West until 1961, the bitterness of a triumphant American tour; a scathing view of the musical milieu and its performing artists.

In the two years preceding his death on August 1st 1997, the Great Russian pianist Sviatoslav Richter agreed to a no-holds-barred conversation about his life and career, which was conducted in the service of music, regardless of all conventions.

Intercut with a great deal of archive footage and rare or unpublished music material, this is the story of a turbulent life and era.

Picture format DVD: NTSC 4:3

Sound format DVD: PCM Stereo

Region code: 0

Original Languages: English

Subtitles: English, German, French

Booklet notes: English, German, French, Japanese

Running time: 154 mins

Performance recorded on 4 November 2002, Paris

Grigory Sokolov, a giant of the piano. Maybe today’s greatest pianist... Sold out concerts a few days only after the putting up for sale of the tickets... A real phenomenon not to be missed...

The only existing DVD with this exceptional artist is once again available.

A dim light picks out the outlines of the hall. Suddenly a massive shadow appears and moves swiftly over to the keyboard. There follows the vaguest of unsmiling acknowledgements in the general direction of the audience, and then the music begins. Throughout the next two hours, this music will keep its listener enthralled with its extraordinary intensity as the audience senses the formidable physical, pianistic, musical and emotional presence of this most secretive of present-day pianists, Grigory Sokolov.

“Cosmic Piano. Since, as for Glenn Gould, but in opposite aesthetics, one might say: ‘There is Sokolov, and there are the pianists’.” Le Figaro, November 2007

Picture format DVD: NTSC 16:9

Sounds formats DVD: PCM Stereo

Region code: 0

Booklet notes: English, French

Running time: 123 mins

FSK: 0

This 1990 programme can best be described as a musical journey through Baroque Europe in the company of Johann Sebastian Bach, as performed by Marie-Claire Alain. The legendary French organist Marie-Claire Alain plays some of the composer’s greatest organ music on the most magnificent and famous organs in Europe. As she plays she also gives a fascinating insight into their history, and shares her deep knowledge and passion for these instruments and the genius of Bach. Bach travelled little during his lifetime, but director Bruno Monsaingeon extends the geographical scope of Bach’s activities by including organs best suited to his music. The instruments featured here, at venues including Haarlem, Groningen, Rötha and Dresden, are ones which Bach himself would have played, or which were built to his specifications.

Approx Duration: 55 mins

Picture format: NTSC 4:3 FF

Colour

Region Code: 2,3,4,5

Audio: L-PCM Stereo

Programme language: French

Subtitles: English, French, German

Bruno Monsaingeon has dedicated a great part of his life to directing movies about the greatest musicians of our times (Gould, Richter, Menuhin, Oïstrakh…), sharing with us his passionate vision of artists. His last movie, which has already won awards in several festivals, is an intimate portrait of the non-conformist pianist Piotr Anderszewski. Somewhere between documentary and fiction, this rail-road-movie's setting is a winter journey through Poland to Budapest, on a train in which the pianist has taken his grand piano with him… In this movie, Piotr Anderszewski gives us his most inner thoughts and doubts about music and this special train ride through the land of his childhood, revealing his true nature, generous but tormented. A brilliant film by Bruno Monsaingeon, utterly poetic and deeply emotional, inviting us to join the journey. Polish-Hungarian pianist Piotr Anderszewski is widely regarded as one of the most exciting pianists of his generation. Since first coming to public attention at the 1990 Leeds Piano Competition, he has become a familiar figure on the international concert platform, recognised for the intensity and originality of his interpretations. His solo engagements in 2009 include recitals at Carnegie Hall, Chicago's Symphony Center, the Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles and the Royal Festival Hall, London.There will be further recitals in Rome, Cologne, St Petersburg and Paris.

Region Code: NTSC 0

Picture Format: NTSC 16:9

Sound Formats: PCM-STEREO

Subtitles: English, French, German, Polish

Disc Format: DVD9

Number of Discs: 1

Run Time: 83 mins

Released: 2009-06-01

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

In 2003, after a career spanning nearly forty years, Julia Varady discreetly retired from the public stage. She now dedicates her time to teaching.While for most great singers the transition from performing to teaching generally follows signs of vocal deterioration, Julia Varady's voice is still dazzling. She sings out in full voice during her classes, with the same intensity and generosity of spirit that made her one of the very finest lyric sopranos of our time. A must for all lovers of the art of singing!

The documentary combines scenes from the master class with personal statements by Julia Varady talking about her life and way of teaching and scenes from a performance of Mozart arias with her husband Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau conducting.

Bonus: Complete master class with Julia Varady (110 mins)

"Julia Varady can lay claim to be the most versatile, committed and technically assured lyric-dramatic soprano of the 20th century's final quarter…" Gramophone

Region Code: NTSC: 0

Picture Format: NTSC: 16:9

Sound Formats: DD 2.1

Subtitles: F, GB, D

Booklet: F, GB, D

Disc Format: DVD 9

No of Discs: 1

Run Time: 56 mins + 110 mins (Bonus)

Released: 2009-05-01

+Bonus Extra 56 mins: A concert filmed by multicameras on 8 April 2001 at The Bouffes du Nord in Paris. Beethoven's Great Fugue was filmed during this concert but is shown in the documentary only.

The Artemis Quartet appeared in a motion picture early in its career, playing in an EMI production in 1996 as guests of the Alban Berg Quartet in Bruno Monsaingeon's feature-length documentary named after Schubert's quartet of the same name – Death and the Maiden. Five years later the Artemis Quartet once again performed in another film by the renowned director. Monsaingeon's 2001 documentary on Beethoven's Grosse Fuge Op.133: Strings Attached is at the same time an impressive portrait of the Artemis Quartet and illustrates how the Quartet live and work together. At the 2008 Gramophone Awards, the Artemis Quartet were awarded the Chamber Award for their recording of the Piano Quintets by Brahms and Schumann with Leif Ove Andsnes.

“Contemporary music used to be a Cinderella at the Wigmore Hall, cropping up only when a particular performer had an enthusiasm for it. But the management now clearly wants to put the Wigmore on the map as a place to hear new music. The boldest initiative so far has been to build a series of five concerts round the music of the young German composer Jörg Widmann, who's barely known in this country. On the evidence of Wednesday night's concert, given by the Artemis Quartet, they've picked a winner…After the interval they returned for Schubert's Death and the Maiden quartet. Some quartets try to capture this piece's tragic quality by being utterly unbending. These players wisely went the other way. By letting the music breathe in the first three movements, they made the grim fateful onrush of the finale seem all the more electrifying.” Rating **** The Daily Telegraph

Region Code: NTSC 0

Subtitles: F, E

Booklet: F, GB, D

Disc Format: 1 DVD 9

No of Discs: 1

Run Time: 56 mins + 56 mins Bonus

Released: 2009-01-01

Alongside Fritz Kreisler, Jascha Heifetz, Nathan Milstein and Yehudi Menuhin, David Oistrakh is universally recognised not only as one of the few truly great violinists of the 20th century and as one of music's most striking personalities. As a result of the political situation of the time, and in particular of Stalinism and the Second World War, Oistrakh's career in the West developed relatively late. It was not until 1953 that he began to make regular appearances in the West, by which time he was already 45 years old, although his legendary reputation had already made him the subject of endless speculation throughout the Western musical world. His first proper international tours instantly confirmed the legend and from then until his death in Amsterdam in 1974 he pursued a varied career both in the concert hall, as soloist and conductor, and as a teacher. His genius as a musician inspired numerous composers to write for him - one thinks of sonatas and concertos by Prokofiev, Khachaturian and Shostakovich, among others, which he not only premiered but continued to perform all over the world. Oistrakh grew up in exceptionally troubled circumstances (he was born in Odessa in 1908) and was largely self-taught as a violinist, yet he became the true founder and undisputed master of the Soviet school of violinplaying, the most prestigious school of our times. Last but not least, Bruno Monsaingeon, the renowned film-maker, brings David Oistrakh's genius to life.

Region Code NTSC: 0

Picture Format: NTSC, 4:3

Subtitles: GB, F

Booklet: GB, D, F

Disc Format: DVD9

No of Discs: 1

Run Time: 75 mins

Released: 2008-10-01

This absorbing 95-minute documentary about the young French pianist David Fray is directed by Bruno Monsaingeon, the distinguished filmmaker whose previous collaborations with Virgin Classics include DVDs with Piotr Anderszewski and Valery Sokolov, and whose past subjects have included David Oistrakh, Sviatoslav Richter, Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, Yehudi Menuhin and Glenn Gould.

This DVD complements Fray’s second CD release on Virgin Classics, a collection of Bach concertos, and it includes Live footage from the audio recording sessions of the concertos BWV 1055,1056 et 1058 (the CD also includes BWV 1052 in D minor). Issues discussed on screen with Fray, an artist of formidable intellectual energy, include his relationship with the music of Bach and his views on directing an orchestra – here the Bremen-based Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie – from the keyboard

The Austro-German repertoire is of great importance to the pianist, whose personal heritage includes Czech, Polish, Spanish, French, Finnish and Jewish strands. He has said that: “If, over my life, I can play all the works of Bach, Mozart, Schubert, Haydn, Brahms and Schumann, then I shall be very happy!” but describes Bach as “a pinnacle; both a beginning and an end”.

2008 has been an important year for Fray, bringing his New York debut and his marriage (in July) to the Italian actress Chiara Muti, daughter of conductor Riccardo Muti. His first CD release on Virgin Classics, a thought-provoking juxtaposition of Bach and Boulez, came in may 2007 and in April 2008 it brought him the Best Newcomer Award from BBC Music Magazine. The recital also prompted Gramophone to speak of his: “unselfregarding mastery and musical maturity and the “intimate, poetic spell” cast by his Bach with its “gorgeous tone and ravishingly shaded trills.” The New York Times found it a “superbly played and thoughtful program … In both Bach and Boulez, Mr. Fray displays an articulate touch, splendid command of shadings and nimble finger work. The youthful freshness of the performances is especially appealing. Mr. Fray is not intimidated by either giant ... He brings a fluid sense of rhythm and much sparkle to Bach's D major Partita … [the] account of Bach's D minor French Suite is also captivating,” while the “playful, crystalline and wondrously delicate account” of Boulez’s 12 Notations” was summarised as “breathtaking”.

‘Fray’s debut is marked by an imaginative collation, Bach and Boulez, played with vibrant imagination. He pushes the boundaries but resists the merely quirky. Impeccable technique allows him to speak from the heart with deceptive ease.’ BBC Music Magazine

Running Time: 133 mins

Format: NTCS 16:9

Sound: PCM Stereo, Dolby Digital 5.1

Original Version: French, English

Subtitles: French, English