DVD Videos

This interpretation of Benjamin Britten’s The Turn of the Screw by Michael Hampe was recorded in 1990 at the Schwetzingen SWR Festival in a co-production with the Royal Opera House Covent Garden, London, and the Opera of Cologne in 1990. The Stuttgart Radio Symphony Orchestra played under the direction of Steuart Bedford, an expert in Britten’s orchestral language.

Based on the novel by Henry James The Turn of the Screw is certainly more than just a beautifully spine-chilling gothic story. In his musical rendering, Britten succeeds in masterfully portraying the fateful relationships of the characters involved. Helen Field, Menai Davies, Machiko Obata and Richard Greager bring the characters in this moving plot to life in a very impressive way and convince the audience with superb voices.

BONUS: Introduction to the opera.

Sound Format: PCM Stereo

Picture Format: 4:3

DVD Format: DVD 9 / NTSC

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

Running Time: 114 mins (Opera) & 8 mins (Bonus)

FSK: 0

The Italian and international press were unanimous in their praise for Peter Grimes at La Scala, which revived the tradition of Britten's operas on the lyric stages of Italy. A strong British cast was marshalled by the baton of Robin Ticciati, who has already won golden opinions for his opera conducting.

Richard Jones's production focuses on the fisherman as the outsider in a brutal society, cut off by mutual suspicion and misunderstanding: an unforgettable production of an opera that never loses its power.

Extra feature: Interviews with cast and crew.

Subtitles: EN/FR/DE/JP/KR

Running time: 168 minutes

When Britten started to work on Owen Wingrave he conceived the opera both for performance on stage and for TV production.

In fact the first TV production of Owen Wingrave was broadcast in 1971, two years before the staged premiere at Covent Garden. This 2001 production, made for Channel 4 television, intriguingly tells the drama of Owen, who refuses to follow a military career like his ancestors. The story, in which pacifism makes up the main theme, was written by Henry James, and the libretto adapted by Myfanwy Piper. The Canadian baritone Gerald Finley stars as Owen with Peter Savidge, Hilton Marlton and Josephine Barstow at his side.

The production was directed by the award winning TV director Margaret Williams. Highly acclaimed conductor Kent Nagano is the musical director of this performance featuring the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin.

“The cast is outstanding: Gerald Finley as Owen, the formidable Dame Josephine Barstow as his terrifying aunt and Martyn Hill as his militaristic grandfather. Who says singers can‘t act? One of the best opera films ever.” The Sunday Times

Sound Format: PCM Stereo

Picture Format: 16:9

DVD Format: DVD 9 / NTSC

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

Running Time: 92 mins

Filmed in 1967 during the audio recording in Orford Church of Benjamin Britten’s ‘The Burning Fiery Furnace’, this 56-minute DVD from director Tony Palmer is the longest single piece of film of Britten at work.

The rare footage features Britten directing a stellar cast - Peter Pears (Nebuchadnezzar), Bryan Drake (The Astrologer), John Shirley-Quirk (Shadrach), Robert Tear (Meshach), Stafford Dean (Abednego) and Peter Lemming (The Herald). Unfortunately it was a year or so before the advent of colour television cameras, but the result, although in black and white, makes compelling viewing.

“(Palmer’s film) not only captures Pears in the lead role, but includes two other of the greatest interpreters of Britten, and two of the greatest voices of the last half-century - John Shirley-Quirk and the late Robert Tear...anyone remotely interested in Britten who does not already have this film should waste no time in obtaining it.” Simon Heffer

Region: 0 (All Regions)

Rating: E (Exempt from Certification)

Duration: 56 mins

Picture Format: NTSC (all regions)

This definitive portrait of the great composer Benjamin Britten from director Tony Palmer has been newly re-mastered in wide-screen stereo. It tells of one of the most profound love affairs of the 20th Century, between Britten and his lover and life-long companion and inspiration, Peter Pears.

At a time when it was illegal to be openly homosexual, Britten and Pears faced up to a hostile world with unflinching dignity, producing a string of masterpieces that, together with the works of Vaughan Williams, established English music as internationally preeminent in the middle years of the 20th century. Among the music featured is extracts from: ‘Peter Grimes’, ‘Billy Budd’, ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream’, ‘ War Requiem’, ‘Curlew River’, ‘Death in Venice’, ‘Nocturne’ and ‘The Young Person’s Guide to the Orchestra’.

“This multi-award winning documentary, made in 1979 at the invitation of Sir Peter Pears, is quite simply the best film that will ever be made about the composer.” Simon Heffer

Region: 0 (All Regions)

Rating: E (Exempt from Certification)

Duration: 101 mins

Picture Format: NTSC (all regions)

“These recordings represent an overview of twenty of the most heady years of Mstislav Rostropovich’s career, during which he made his name in the West, was exiled from his homeland for his support of dissident artists, poets and musicians, and established himself as a major international force for (not just the musical) good.” (Chris de Souza)

Introduced to Britten through Shostakovich, his teacher, Rostropovich formed a close partnership with the British composer – as evident here in their collaborative performances from the opening concert of the new Snape Maltings Concert Hall, which includes rare audiovisual footage of the Maltings before it was destroyed by fire in 1969 and rebuilt.

Rostropovich’s Aldeburgh performance of Variations on a Rococo Theme displays him at the peak of his powers and is a wonderful example of his partnership with Britten, of whom this is rare conducting footage.

The excerpts from Britten’s opera Gloriana (the contemporary poetic name for Elizabeth I), included as the bonus of this DVD, are a highly significant addition to the composer’s discography. While Britten conducted recordings of most of his operas on disc, Gloriana was not one of them, so this is the only hint we have of his approach to any of the score. The well-chosen sections, forming an unusual concert suite, include The Lute Song performed by Peter Pears.

This is the first release of this material on DVD, and is available in time for the Britten centenary in 2013.

Sound format: Enhanced Mono

DVD format: NTSC

Picture format: 4:3

Running time: 68’

Subtitles: n/a

Menu languages: English

Booklet languages: E/F/G

Region code: 0

Territory Restrictions: None

It is indeed ‘a curious story’, as the Prologue says. A remote English country house, an old and faithful housekeeper, two young orphan children and an eager new governess sent down from London to look after them. But all is not quite as it seems in the sheltered world of Bly. Spirits from the past increasingly encroach upon the realm of the living. And one question keeps worming its way into the governess’s mind: what exactly did happen between the children, their former governess and the deceased manservant, Peter Quint? Britten’s brilliantly scored, insidiously compelling adaptation of Henry James’s novella takes its themes of childish innocence and adult corruption, then twists and turns them to disturbing and ultimately devastating effect. Jonathan Kent’s eerily unsettling staging has been recorded at the Glyndebourne Festival conducted by Glyndebourne on Tour’s Music Director, Jakub Hrusa.

“Here is Britten’s supremely crafted operatic masterpiece — not a dud moment or false move — in a shatteringly powerful performance of such musical and theatrical distinction that I scarcely know where to begin apportioning praise. Perhaps the conductor: I already knew the quality of Jonathan Kent’s production from its first outing in 2006, and the cast looked pretty hot on paper too. But what I hadn’t suspected was that the young Czech conductor Jakub Hrusa would offer such a thrillingly visceral, angry and churned-up reading of the score. Galvanising the LPO to playing of scalding brilliance, Hrusa carefully ratcheted up the tension in the early scenes and brought the drama to the boil with an almost daemonic intensity. This wasn’t a nice creepy bedtime story, but something reaching dangerously into the darker reaches of human nature.” Rupert Christiansen, The Telegraph

Ahead of next year’s Britten centenary, Tony Palmer’s 1967 classic film is made available again. It’s a behind-the-scenes look at the Aldeburgh Festival, cofounded by Benjamin Britten along with singer Peter Pears and writer Eric Crozier, and the opening by The Queen of the new concert hall at Snape.

Sean Day-Lewis of The Daily Telegraph raved, "A superb film (which) may well achieve the status of a classic, repeated again and again over the years... the brilliant editing (was) of the highest quality, making a natural partnership of music and picture."

DVD specifications:

Region: 0 (All Regions)

Rating: E (Exempt from Certification)

Duration: 53 mins

Picture Format: NTSC (all regions)

2012 brings the 50th anniversary of the premiere of Britten‘s War Requiem, one of the most powerful pacifist statements in music. The first performance took place in 1962 in the newly consecrated Coventry Cathedral, built alongside the ruins of the old cathedral, left as a sombre reminder of the wartime bombings. On 30 May 2012, 50 years to the day, Britten‘s masterpiece returns to the cathedral, performed as at the premiere by the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra and vocal soloists from three once warring nations.

The anniversary performance is conducted by the CBSO‘s Music Director, Andris Nelsons, featuring the Canadian soprano Erin Wall, English tenor Mark Padmore singing the role written for Peter Pears, and German baritone Hanno Müller-Brachmann. Choral forces are provided by the CBSO Chorus and Youth Chorus. Benjamin Britten (1913-1976) was commissioned to compose a work for the inauguration in 1962 of Coventry’s new cathedral, adjoining the old cathedral that had been bombed and nearly completely destroyed by the German Luftwaffe at the beginning of World War II in November 1940. The commission gave Britten complete freedom to choose the type of music to compose. He conceived of setting the traditional Latin Mass for the Dead interwoven with nine poems by the English poet Wilfred Owen, who had been killed in World War I. It has become one of the defining masterpieces of the twentieth century: a devastating meditation on the pity of war that is every bit as relevant today.

"The light-filled building was used to full effect. The CBSO Youth Chorus was positioned at the high altar beneath Graham Sutherland's Christ in Glory tapestry, all golden section and green resurrection...Padmore sang with visionary intensity. Müller-Brachmann maintained an unadorned simplicity of expression." Fiona Maddocks, The Observer, on the live performance

Sound Format: PCM Stereo, Dolby Digital 5.1

Picture Format: 16:9, 1080i FULL HD

Format: DVD 9, NTSC, 25 GB (Single Layer)

Audio Languages: Sung in Latin and English

Subtitle Languages: GB, DE, FR, ES

Running Time: 97 mins

FSK: 0

‘The point of Britten’s conducting was never how he looked when doing it; instead it was about the sheer musicality he brought to the task…’

(Paul Kildea). The revelatory films presented on this DVD feature Britten with his favoured English Chamber Orchestra performing at two very different times of his life, with equal value.

Filmed at Christmas 1964, the main programme of Mozart’s Symphony No.40 and Britten’s own Nocturne shows a man in his prime. The Mozart was a particular favourite of Britten’s and his admiration for it certainly comes across in the performance. This DVD release is a major addition to his discography as the symphony was previously only available on LP.

The footage is modern in its approach and captures Britten close-up in a way that had not been seen before.

In the Nocturne, we see and hear Peter Pears in fresh voice, performing one of many pieces that were written for him, and which Britten and Pears had recorded four years previously. With this DVD we are able to see the closeness between composer and performer. An original review of the piece in Gramophone comments:

‘I cannot think of any settings of English words more imaginative than these of Britten’s.’

The bonus is a colour film from mid-1970, with Britten at home in Snape Maltings for a gala re-opening of the concert hall, performing Mendelssohn’s ‘Scottish’ Symphony. The physical difference is clear to see, though all his trademarks are still in evidence and the quality of the music remains undiminished. It is of particular interest as it is the only known recording of this work with Britten.

This is the first release of this material on DVD.

Sound format: Enhanced Mono

DVD format: NTSC

Picture format: 4:3

Running time: 67’

Subtitles: n/a

Menu languages: English

Booklet languages: E/F/G

Region code: 0

Territory Restrictions: None