DVD Videos

The Requiem of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart opens a new series of DVDs released by the Fryderyk Chopin Institute presenting outstanding artistic events.

The first disc in the series is a recording of a solemn mass celebrated on 17 October 2010 at the Basilica of the Holy Cross in Warsaw, where traditionally on the anniversary of Fryderyk Chopin’s death, in front of his heart, a recreated funeral service is combined with Mozart’s Requiem, which in accordance with the composer’s wishes was performed at his funeral in Paris. During Chopin Year, this event gained a special dimension: the Requiem was treated to a masterful rendition by the Orchestre des Champs-Élysées, the Collegium Vocale Gent and Accademia Chigiana Siena choirs, and the soloists Christina Landshamer, Ingeborg Danz, Robert Getchell and Matthew Brook, under the direction of Philippe Herreweghe, recorded for the first time ever in its liturgical version, and in its original period sound.

Produced in HD film technology, preserving the highest possible sound quality, it conveys in a sophisticated way the unique atmosphere of both the ceremony and the venue.

This release also inaugurates the cycle ‘Romantic Requiem’, comprising recordings of funeral masses by nineteenth century composers to be performed in front of Chopin’s heart at Warsaw’s Holy Cross Basilica. The Institute will shortly be issuing Johannes Brahms’s Ein deutsches Requiem, also under the baton of Philippe Herreweghe.

This DVD includes Brahms outstanding Trio in A minor for clarinet, cello and piano as well as the Trios Nos. 1, 2 and 3 for piano performed by the well–acclaimed pianist Elena Baschkirova, who established in 1988 the International Jerusalem Chamber Music Festival. Wenzel Fuchs (clarinet), Maxim Vengerov (violin),

Boris Pergamenschikow (cello) and Dietmar Schwalke (cello) complete this extraordinary ensemble.

New Release on Euroarts's sub-label: Recorded Excellence – Historical Value. The aim of the new series is to make accessible to music lovers and collectors top-quality recordings documenting extra-special concert performances that were hitherto unreleased or were no longer available, either for the first time or as re-releases on DVD.

Brahms is famous for his blend of Classicism in form with a Romantic harmonic idiom. There is a singular beauty in the music Brahms wrote towards the end of his life, compositions of an autumnal melancholy to which the Trio for clarinet is particularly well suited.

Picture format DVD: NTSC 4:3

Sounds format DVD: PCM Stereo

Region code: 0 (worldwide)

Booklet notes: English, German, French

Running time: 117 mins

Every year the Berliner Philharmoniker invites artists for the orchestra’s traditional birthday concert on May 1st.

In 2012, the guests were Gustavo Dudamel, conducting, and Gautier Capuçon (cello) and was performed at the Spanische Hofreitschule in Vienna - A spectacular and unique setting for a thrilling and historic music event.

The Spanish Riding School has, to this day, a long standing relationship with music: The famous “Musikverein” was founded here in 1812. Furthermore, Haydn’s musical career started in its back garden!

“Solti’s energy, bordering on the electric, provided the dynamic force necessary to galvanise an orchestra and a city into realising its rightful place as a stellar international centre of commerce, industry and art. That was Solti’s gift to Chicago” (Gramophone).

Internationally renowned for his opera conducting as musical director of the Royal Opera House in Covent Garden, particularly his interpretation of Wagner’s Ring cycle, Hungarian-born Sir Georg Solti was also a celebrated symphonic conductor.

Taking up the post as director of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra in 1969, Solti remembered his early performances with the CSO as “an absolute joy” and would remain with them for 22 years, leading them in their debut European tour – of which the concert on this recording was the first fixture.

Recorded in 1971, the film on this DVD is taken from the CSO’s appearance at the Edinburgh Festival in the same year: their first ever concert outside America. In a first filmed edition of this performance, Solti conducts the orchestra in Mendelssohn’s Midsummer Night’s Dream Overture and Brahms’s Symphony No.1. His subsequent performances of the Brahms have been praised for their “dignity, energy and splendour”.

With his sometimes Samurai-like gestures, Solti summons tremendous power, elegance and clarity from the Orchestra, which includes such legendary instrumentalists as Dale Clevenger, Adolph ‘Bud’ Herseth and Frank Miller, and which led critic William Mann to write: “I am tempted to describe it as the United States” most completely accomplished orchestra’. Of his relationship with the CSO, Solti remarked: “It’s a marvellous thing to be musically happily married. I am, and I know.”

This is the first release of this material on DVD and is the first in a series of Solti/CSO releases to come from ICA Classics to celebrate Solti’s centenary.

Sound format: Enhanced Mono

DVD format: NTSC

Picture format: 4:3

Running time: 67’

Subtitles: French/German

Menu languages: English

Booklet languages: E/F/G

Region code: 0

Territory Restrictions: None

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

In German with English subtitles.

Zakhar Bron is known the world over as one of the greatest of all violin teachers and an inspiring performer. Among his students were some of the best known violinists of today like Vadim Repin and Maxim Vengerov. Professor Bron has taught at the Royal Academy in London, the Conservatory of Rotterdam, the Musikhochschule Lübeck and the Escuela Superior de Musica "Reina Sofia" in Madrid where he still teaches.

In this masterclass he works on the first two movements of Brahms' Violin Concerto.

2 hours 41 minutes

Lars Vogt's performance at the 2011 Verbier Festival, in the mountains of Switzerland, is an exercise in virtuosity.

A challenging program of Janáček, Schubert, Beethoven and Brahms is followed by bonus material including a Mozart concerto and a Chopin nocturne.

The German pianist Vogt proves himself more than up to the task, with an inspiring performance of the rarely performed In the Mists, then striking the subtle balance between the delicacy required of a Brahms Intermezzo and the boisterousness of Beethoven's last piano sonata.

Picture format DVD: NTSC 16:9

Sounds format DVD: PCM Stereo

Region code: 0

Booklet notes: English, German, French

Running time: 75 min

These are four great symphonies that have all played a special role in the close collaboration between the Danish National Symphony Orchestra and conductor Thomas Dausgaard. The symphonies are recorded in the beautiful Koncerthuset in Copenhagen. The Danish National Symphony Orchestra is specialized in Scandinavian repertoire.

Bonus material: In a series of interviews, Thomas Dausgaard explains his close collaboration with the orchestra, the concerts and the four great yet altogether very different masterpieces by Brahms, Dvorak, Sibelius and Nielsen.

Running Time Total: 168 minutes

Picture 16:9, HD

DVD: DTS 5.1, PCM Stereo

Subtitles Bonus: English, French, German, Spanish, Korean, Chinese, Japanese, Italian

This amazing set gathers together the 3 collaborations between film director Chantal Akerman and cellist Sonia Wieder-Atherton.

As an interpreter of an extremely broad repertory that reflects her imaginative world, a designer of projects, and a musician sought after by many contemporary composers, Sonia Wieder-Atherton occupies a place apart on today’s musical scene. She has played as soloist with the Orchestre de Paris, the Orchestre National de France, the Belgian National Orchestra, the Liege Philharmonic, the Israel Philharmonic, the Lisbon Gul-benkian Orchestra, the Luxemburg Philharmonic, the Hanover NDR Orchestra . . .Pascal Dusapin, George Aperghis and others have written numerous works for her.

She has been invited by many festivals to perform the musical projects that she conceives and stages, in venues such as the Cité de la Musique, the Théâtre de la Ville, the Strasbourg Musica, the Bath Music Festival, Cheltenham, Houston Opera and Dortmund Opera. She has recently signed an exclusive contract with the record company Naïve.

2 DVDs and CD:

DVD1 - Avec Sonia Wieder-Atherton

DVD 2 - A l'Est avec Sonia Wieder-Atherton

Bonus CD - Extracts from the soundtrack of Chantal Akerman's film 'A Couch in New York'