DVD Videos

One of a series edited by François Manceaux & Olivier Bernager in partnership with Arte & France Musique, uncovering great musicians of our time.

Approx 1 hour running time.

One of a series edited by François Manceaux & Olivier Bernager in partnership with Arte & France Musique, uncovering great musicians of our time.

Approx 1 hour running time.

One of a series edited by François Manceaux & Olivier Bernager in partnership with Arte & France Musique, uncovering great musicians of our time.

Approx 1 hour running time.

One of a series edited by François Manceaux & Olivier Bernager in partnership with Arte & France Musique, uncovering great musicians of our time.

Approx 1 hour running time.

Arrangements by Craig Hella Johnson.

This DVD captures the exquisite sound of Conspirare's Company of Voices, as heard and seen on national television in the US. In this one-hour concert contemporary music blends seamlessly with classical favourites, taking the viewer on a journey of innovative sound, vibrant images and thought-provoking ideas.The concert was performed and taped live on October 12 at Austin's Long Center for the Performing Arts.

Now in its 17th season, Conspirare is recognised for its emotionally resonant performances and an extraordinary ability to connect with audiences, providing listeners with an evocative and often transformative cultural experience. Under the artistic leadership of Craig Hella Johnson, Conspirare has recorded 3 CDs and received four Grammy nominations. Its inaugural project for harmonia mundi usa, Threshold of Night, was released in September, 2008.

Juan Kruz Diaz de Garaio Esnaola (direction, choreography)

Bonus: presentation by Folkert Uhde, Radialsystem V Producer;

Vivaldi Sonneto dimostrativo read by Folkert Uhde;

Conversation: Juan Kruz Diaz de Garaio Esnaola & Midori Seiler

Following the internationally acclaimed staging of Purcell's opera Dido and Aeneas (2005) and the opening production at Berlin's new arts space, Radialsystem V, 4 Elements - 4 Seasons is the third collaboration between the Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin and the company Sasha Waltz & Guests. 4 Elements- 4 Seasons juxtaposes two almost contemporaneous yet very different works in a choreographic concert, both of which take depictions of nature as their starting point. After sold-out performances in 2007 the production has triumphed in Cologne, Baden-Baden, St. Pölten, Paris, Istanbul, and Bregenz. In the first part, Rebel's Les Éléments, the dancer fashions the process of a creation and the cycle of growth and decay. In the second part, The Four Seasons, the orchestra itself is choreographed. After long avoiding so frequently performed a work as The Four Seasons, the Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin presents an unconventional version of what are the most popular Baroque violin concertos. Clemens-Maria Nuszbaumer has conceived a musical arrangement for two small string orchestras, each with a harpsichord as continuo instrument, which are placed opposite each other on a relatively large expanse of the stage. In the foreground stands or sits a small group of solo violin, cello and lute, occasionally joined by a solo viola. By means of this layout - and a few small interventions in the distribution of parts - it is possible to create attractive contrasts between the intimate solo group in the foreground and the sonorous 'décor' in the background.Thus, for example, the rolling thunder in the storm scene of the second and third movements of 'Summer' can genuinely move to and fro within the orchestra. Juan Kruz Diaz de Garaio Esnaola was born in the Spanish Basque Country. After training as a countertenor, he switched to dance. He has taken part in various internationally acclaimed films as a dancer, actor and choreographer. He has worked with Sasha Waltz since 1996 New Space for the Arts in Berlin: In September 2006 Radialsystem V was opened as a new centre for creative development in Berlin. In a short space of time it has established itself time as a venue for innovative and prestigious concerts, dance and music theatre performances both in Berlin and at a national and international level.The artistic directors and managing partners of Radialsystem V are its two founders, Jochen Sandig and Folkert Uhde.

Included in the documentary - Alfred Deller sings in public.

Back in 1975 Benoit Jacquot, then a very young director met up with Alfred Deller to make this documentary-interview, which offers one of the very few filmed documents of the most famous countertenor of the modern era. The DVD is accompanied by a bonus CD featuring studio recordings of some of the pieces sung in concert in the film.

After the success of Così fan tutte and The Marriage of Figaro, René Jacobs' CD recording of this centrepiece of the Mozart/Da Ponte trilogy offered us his reflections on Classical opera and garnered serious acclaim worldwide. Performed at the Innsbruck festival in August 2006 and filmed in Baden-Baden, this production is nourished by his thoughts on Don Giovanni as taboo-breaker but still respects Mozart's intentions as closely as possible.

In the documentary Looking for Don Giovanni, the director Nayo Titzin follows the creation of this production in the search for musical truth. A blu-ray version will be released later this year.

Here is what is probably Handel's most accomplished opera: the heir to L'incoronazione di Poppea with respect to the villainy of some of its characters, but also the Baroque ancestor of certain Romantic operas!

Scrupulously based on historical characters, this work illustrates many different facets of the human soul, and also boasts perhaps the most sumptuous orchestral textures Handel ever conceived, magnificently brought out by Lars Ulrik Mortensen in this production from the Copenhagen Opera.

Francisco Negrin’s transposition of the opera to the universe of modern war and Anthony Baker’s refined designs place Andreas Scholl (Giulio Cesare) and the other soloists in an unsettling, crepuscular atmosphere that is highly contemporary.