DVD Videos

Recorded live at Philharmonie Berlin on 21 June 2010.

The Süddeutsche Zeitung summed up this highly acclaimed performance of Bruckner's monumental Fifth Symphony by saying: “Both Bruckner’s belief in God, as it majestically wells up out of the chorale of the Fifth, and his deeply tragic world view, collide with one another in Barenboim’s interpretation”. The operatic experience of the conductor was almost tangible, revealing the “sheer dramatic instrumental battle between Bruckner’s God and the Devil – between heaven and hell – without betraying Bruckner’s unerring sense of striking proportions.” The release of this “contrapuntal masterpiece” (as Bruckner, not without pride, referred to this work) is part of Daniel Barenboim’s Bruckner cycle with the renowned Staatskapelle Berlin.

Picture Format DVD: NTSC 16:9

Sound Formats DVD: PCM Stereo

Dolby Digital 5.1

DTS 5.1

Region Code: 0 (worldwide)

Running Time: 76:49 min

Disc Format DVD: DVD-9

The Dresden Staatskapelle has a living Bruckner tradition, stretching back a century and more, which is lovingly curated by its new music director, Christian Thielemann, who is himself a powerful advocate for the composer’s symphonies as the pinnacle of the Austro-German tradition; and in particular for the Wagnerian resonances of the Seventh, whose Adagio was shaped by news of Wagner’s death in Venice. Hugo Wolf was also deeply affected by that news; his songs, like Bruckner’s symphonies, can be seen as oblique reflections on the influence of Wagner, especially when sung, as they are here by Renée Fleming, with the utmost delicacy and intimacy.

Christian Thielemann’s first concert as Principal Conductor of the Staatskapelle Dresden.

Both Thielemann and Fleming are renowned interpreters of Romantic repertoire.

Bruckner’s 7th Symphony premiered in 1884 to universal acclaim & established him as a serious composer of symphonic music, Wolf’s Songs were composed four years later.

Wolf was a great admirer of Bruckner and both idolized Wagner, whose influence is felt in the 7th Symphony.

Running time: 106 minutes

Subtitles N/A

Sound format: 2.0LPCM + 5.1(5.0) DTS

When it comes to shaping a musical event for the ears and the eyes, the monumental majesty of Anton Bruckner’s (1824–1896) symphonies and the exhilarating vibrancy of St. Florian’s monastery in Austria are a perfect match – especially when they are captured on film so thrillingly by such an eminent director as Brian Large.

The Fourth Symphony marks a major milestone in Bruckner’s attempt to establish a symphonic design suitable to sustain his innovative musical thought. Not surprisingly, the score was subjected to extensive revisions. The Fourth, in fact, represents the most convoluted revision history of all his symphonies – and this for a composer for whom variant editions of a work, often involving substantial changes, became the norm. The result is that the identification of the “authentic” final score that should be performed is a matter of ongoing debate for many of his symphonies – in particular the Fourth.

Franz Welser-Möst, the Music Director of The Cleveland Orchestra and General Music Director of the Vienna State Opera, is an acknowledged Bruckner specialist who has developed a passion for the composer’s Fourth Symphony – called the “Romantic” by its creator – in its infrequently played first edition (1888/89).

The Cleveland Orchestra, called the most European of America’s prestige formations, has been setting new standards in Bruckner interpretation for several years now through the “expertise” of Franz Welser-Möst, who “elicits a grandiose interpretation from his technically unsurpassable ensemble … It was an excellent concert … as anticipated.” (Austria’s leading daily, Die Presse).

Sound Format: PCM Stereo, DD 5.0

Picture Format: 16:9

Format: DVD 9 / NTSC

Running Time: 74 mins

FSK: 0

Recorded live at Philharmonie Berlin on 20 June 2010.

Daniel Barenboim is an expert in exploiting the impact of cyclical performances of composers’ works: In this series he focuses his sharp intellect on all six of Anton Bruckner’s mature symphonies. Der Tagesspiegel described Barenboim's performance of the works with the Staatskapelle Berlin on six nearly consecutive evenings in June 2010 as a “superhuman” accomplishment and went on to praise how: “His Bruckner is conceived and performed very theatrically, like an opera without words.”

Bruckner’s famous “Romantic” Symphony No. 4 forms the prelude to a spectacular DVD series from Accentus Music and Unitel Classica, exploring Bruckner’s symphonic cosmos.

Picture Format DVD: NTSC 16:9

Sound Formats DVD: PCM Stereo

Dolby Digital 5.1

DTS 5.1

Region Code: 0 (worldwide)

Running Time: 69:36 min

Disc Format DVD: DVD-9

FSK: 0

EuroArts is proud to present the only available concert video recording with the Berliner Philharmoniker on DVD.

Classified as EuroArts "Recorded Excellence", with high historical value.

A new release from the series of Metropolitan Munich programs of Sergiu Celibidache (11. July 1912 – 14. August 1996) for his 100th Anniversary.

For the first time after 37 years, in 1992, Maestro Celibidache returned to the podium of the Berliner Philharmoniker for a reconciliatory concert. This was to be his last concert with the Berliner Philharmoniker.

To maximise the artistic impact of this momentous occasion, the video assets have been restored and upscaled from 4:3 to 16:9.

The DVD Disc includes the Documentary ‘The Triumphant Return’ directed by Wolfgang Becker: The film documents the maestro Celibidache’s reunion with the Berliner Philharmoniker after 38 years, and includes extensive footage from the rehearsals of Bruckner’s Symphony No. 7 and interviews with former orchestra members.

Picture format DVD: NTSC 16:9

Sound formats DVD: PCM Stereo

Region code: all

Booklet notes: English, German, French

Runnning time: 144 mins (90 mins Concert + 54 mins Documentary)

The Romanian conductor Sergiu Celibidache (1912-96) was one of the most adamant personalities in the music world. He rehearsed three times as much as other conductors and avoided making recordings because he believed they were a false representation his musical intentions. This concert from the Herkulessaal in Munich captures one of the rare occasions on which he consented to a recording being made. He conducts the Munich Philharmonic Orchestra with Anton Bruckner’s “Romantic” Symphony No. 4 in E flat major.

SPECIAL FEATURE: Interview with Sergiu Celibidache about conducting Bruckner’s Symphony No. 4.

Sound Formats: PCM Stereo, D D 5.1

Picture Format: 4:3

DVD Format: DVD 9, NTSC

Languages (bonus): FR (Original Version), GB, DE

Running Time: 82 mins + 40 mins (bonus)

FSK: 0

Maestro Sergiu Celibidache (1912–1996) was one of the most uncompromising figures in the music world, demanding three times as much rehearsal time as other conductors and with an ardent dislike of making recordings because he feared they misrepresented his musical intentions. He agreed to set aside his long-held antipathy to recordings of his work to enable the cameras to capture this concert from the Philharmonie in Munich, in which he conducts the Munich Philharmonic Orchestra.

“Sergiu Celibidache demands unheard-of amounts of orchestral rehearsal time and obviously knows what he wants to do with it. He has an extraordinary ear for orchestral detail. He has a highly developed ... technique for maintaining spacious tempos. He understands, as Herbert von Karajan and Carlos Kleiber and a few other conductors do, that it is advantageous to play softly a lot of the time if you want a wide palette of expression and tonal beauty. He has a charismatic hold over his orchestra and his admirers.” The New York Times

Sound Format: PCM Stereo, Dolby Digital 5.1

Picture Format: 4:3

DVD Format: DVD 9, NTSC

Running Time: 90 mins

FSK: 0

at LUCERNE FESTIVAL in Summer 2011

“Abbado’s approach to the music of Bruckner is soft and songlike, at times tense and urgent, but constantly filled with warmth of feeling” – not only the Neue Zürcher Zeitung is full of praise when Claudio Abbado and the Lucerne Festival Orchestra play Bruckner.

Their interpretation of his awe-inspiring Fifth Symphony reflects the composer’s burgeoning powers and exquisite compositional artistry. As The Guardian poetically states: “The composer himself, one suspects, might have leapt to embrace Abbado as an ideal interpreter.”

Picture Format DVD: NTSC 16:9

Sound Formats DVD: Dolby Digital 5.1, DTS 5.1, PCM Stereo

Region Code: 0 (worldwide)

Running Time: 80:33 min

Disc Format: DVD-9

FSK: 0

This series of DVDs will make the publicly broadcast BSO concerts from this era available for the first time since they were broadcast. This rare material represents some of the earliest televised concerts with the Boston Symphony Orchestra and William Steinberg, and has been restored using the greatest care and state-of-the-art techniques. It is of exceptional musical interest and historic value.

The BSO’s Music Director for just three seasons, Steinberg spent a great deal of time in the USA, having left Europe following Music Director positions in Cologne, Prague and Frankfurt. He also co-founded the Palestine Orchestra, later the Israel Philharmonic. His time with the BSO came at the end of his career following his position as the Music Director of Pittsburgh Symphony, which he held for over 20 years. Steinberg recorded a great deal of material with the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra to great acclaim, but only a small selection of recordings with the BSO for DG. His recording of Holst’s The Planets became a bestseller thanks to the calibre of Steinberg’s interpretation and virtuosic playing from the BSO.

A live recording of Bruckner 8 with Steinberg and the BSO, from 1972, was issued as part of the orchestra’s Centennial Celebration set, and has been described as a ‘good, well paced and powerful reading, well played by the Bostonians’.

Steinberg’s CD release of Mahler’s Second Symphony on ICA Classics has received excellent reviews – Gramophone described it as ‘a startlingly direct statement of a score that is too often treated to extremes of mood and tempo’ – and Classics Today as having ‘moments that set a new standard in this music’.

Steinberg leads this Bruckner 8 performance from memory and with great subtlety and distinction in a sympathetic interpretation that provoked a rapturous response from the Boston audience. Richard Dyer in his booklet note describes the performance as compelling.

Two of ICA’s BSO DVDs featuring Charles Munch as conductor have been awarded the Diapason d’Or in France’s Diapason magazine.

Sound format: Enhanced Mono

DVD format: NTSC

Picture format: 4:3

Running time: 61’

Subtitles: n/a

Menu languages: English

Booklet languages: E/F/G

Region code: 0

Territory Restrictions: None

This series of DVDs will make the publicly broadcast BSO concerts from this era available for the first time since they were broadcast.

This rare material represents some of the earliest concert footage that exists of Klaus Tennstedt from this key chapter in his career and has been restored using the greatest care and state-of-the-art techniques. It is of exceptional musical interest and historic value.

This concert took place just 3 years after Tennstedt made his dramatic US debut with the BSO performing Bruckner 8 – a newspaper headline the following day described the experience as ‘once in a lifetime’.

Tennstedt formed a very special relationship with the BSO, conducting it regularly for 10 years. They covered a great deal of the core Austro-German repertoire that suited Tennstedt so well.

This DVD is only the second instance of a performance featuring Tennstedt with the BSO having been made available to the public and represents some of the earliest concert footage with this great conductor.

The Gramophone Classical Music Guide describes Tennstedt’s live recording of Bruckner 4 with the LPO as a performance sufficient unto itself, and his recording of Bruckner 8 with the LPO as comparable with Barbirolli, Furtwängler, Karajan and Klemperer.

ICA Classics’ recent DVD release of Tennstedt with the LPO performing Mahler 5 was described in BBC Music Magazine as epitomising ‘the combination of immensely detailed precision and overwhelming expressive intensity that Tennstedt’s many admirers found so special’.

Two of ICA’s BSO DVDs featuring Charles Munch as conductor have been awarded the Diapason d’Or in France’s Diapason magazine.

Picture format: 4:3

Running time: 66’

Subtitles: n/a

Menu languages: English

Booklet languages: E/F/G

Region code: 0

Territory Restrictions: None