DVD Videos

The Places

Brittany and Normandy, in Northern France, have a character all their own, preserving, as they do, ancient Celtic traditions in a countryside bounded on one side by a rocky coast-line. The great Abbey of Mont St-Michel remains a centre of pilgrimage and secular interest, and in Normandy we catch glimpses of the Bayeux Tapestry, with its near contemporary record of William of Normandy’s successful expedition in 1066 to conquer England.

The Music

The music chosen for this tour of Northern France is the Organ Symphony of Camille Saint-Saëns, a work written in memory of Franz Liszt that takes its name from the use of the organ in its grandiose final movement. The other music to be heard is an orchestral version of the Belgian-born composer César Franck’s Prelude and Chorale, written two years earlier, in 1884, and the Romance in C major, Op. 48, of Saint-Saëns.

Video Format • NTSC / Colour / 4:3

Audio Format • DTS 5.1 / Dolby Digital 5.1 / PCM Stereo 2.0

Region Coding • No Region Coding

At one of her rare appearances with orchestra, Martha Argerich, the grande dame of the piano, joined forces with world-famous cellist Mischa Maisky and the fabulous Lucerne Symphony Orchestra for the world premiere of a newly commissioned work by Russian composer Rodion Shchedrin – “Romantic Offering”, a double concerto for piano, cello and orchestra dedicated to its very first soloists.

“I’ve attempted to depict and highlight the most distinctive individual qualities of these two musicians … Romantic Offering should inspire new thoughts and experiences. Music isn’t only the product of experiment. It should move your soul and touch your heart.” Rodion Shchedrin

The programme was rounded off by late-Romantic masterpieces by César Franck, Antonín Dvořák and Dmitri Shostakovich’s Ninth Symphony under the baton of renowned maestro Neeme Järvi.

BONUS: Behind the Scenes of a WORLD PREMIERE with Rodion Shchedrin, Martha Argerich and Mischa Maisky.

Picture Format DVD: NTSC 16:9

Sound Formats DVD: Dolby Digital 5.1,

DTS 5.1, PCM Stereo

Region Code: 0 (worldwide)

Running Time: 111:36 min

Running Time Bonus: 16:20 min

Disc Format: DVD 9

FSK: 0

Access to the publicly broadcast BSO concerts from this era has been extremely difficult even for researchers. This series of DVDs will make these performances available for the first time since they were broadcast. Munch launched the BSO into television in 1955. He was an immensely popular conductor and well suited to being filmed.

This material represents some of the earliest televised concerts with the Boston Symphony and Charles Munch, and has been restored using the greatest care and state-of-the-art techniques. It is of exceptional musical interest and historical value.

‘Munch handles the Wagner in a masterly, memorable and deeply human manner, with great depth of tone and feeling.’ (Richard Dyer). Fauré’s Pelléas and Mélisande is quintessentially French, repertoire for which Munch was best known – his recordings of French repertoire remain a permanent standard of reference. The Fauré was performed by Munch and the BSO no fewer than 23 times between 1947 and 1966, and according to the announcer, Bill Pierce, proceeds like ‘well-bred discourse’.

1DVD

Sound format: LCPM mono

Picture format: 4:3

Running time: 70’

Subtitles: n/a

Menu languages: English

Booklet languages: E/F/G

Region code: 0

Territory Restrictions: None

This new DVD (with a free bonus CD containing specially recorded performances of some of the works) is a release by Priory of the BBC programmes that were recorded on six famous European Organs by Dame Gillian Weir in the late 1980s: [St Bavo, Haarlem; The Abbey Church, Ottobeuren; St Knud’s, Odense; Ulster Hall, Belfast; Hedvig Eleonora Kyrka, Stockholm; St Ouen, Rouen]. Running for over 150 minutes this unique visual collection of performances by one of the world’s most famous organists is not to be missed.

This DVD issue by Priory, the first since the original broadcast of the series, offers for many the first opportunity to hear the soundtrack in stereo. The programmes contain a glittering array of pictures and sound from these world famous organs: additionally, Dame Gillian talks about the pieces and the instruments. When first broadcast these programmes were watched by up to 2 million people.

This series of TV programmes presents the very best of the 16th Verbier Festival with worldwide renowned artists such as Susan Graham, Martha Argerich, Yuri Temirkanov, Stephen Kovacevich, and Philippe Jaroussky.

Together with Malcolm Martineau on the piano, the Grammy Award-winning mezzo-soprano Susan Graham features a fascinating compilation of well-known French composers.

Both have also toured with the program - comprising nearly two dozen songs by as many composers - to great acclaim. The recital Graham and Martineau gave this past summer at the Verbier Festival in French-speaking Switzerland brought down the house.

Being Musical America’s 2004 Vocalist of the year, Graham is well-known as an expert in French melodies. The genre is known as a very tricky one, but she presents the songs with a fascinating jewel-like clarity and gleaming tone. Martineau is the perfect counter-part who adds some finely judged French seasoning.

Picture format DVD: NTSC 16:9

Sounds formats DVD: PCM Stereo, DD 5.1, DTS 5.1

Region code: 0

Booklet notes: English, German, French

Running time: 60 min

FSK: 0

AN EXCITING HISTORY OF THE UNIQUE INSTRUMENT

The organ is one of the oldest, most complex and most glorious musical instruments known to men. This four part series outlines the history of this magnifi cent instrument, ranging from the beauty of the sound to the wealth of music written for it, and encompassing not only the craftsmanship involved in building such a complicated (and often ornate) structure, but also the wonderful settings in which these instruments now reside.

VOLUME 4

Tracing the organ’s development, from the beginning of the nineteenth century to the present day, this episode visits France and Switzerland. The impact of changes in society, tastes and musical styles, as well as technological advances, are examined and illustrated with music by Gherardeschi, Reger, Franck, Alain and Messiaen.

In 1974, Roland Petit, probably the greatest and certainly one of the most prolific of 20th century French choreographers he was the first person to create a work based on Proust's novel, A la recherche du temps perdu, completed in 1922, the year of his death.The book, better known to Anglo-Saxon readers as In Search of Lost Time, in which the author's homosexuality is latent, was written over the last 14 years of his life. Marcel Proust mingles childhood souvenirs with adolescent memories and is full of nostalgia for places once visited and exhibitions he'd seen. He dwells lengthily on love, passion, and jealousy and inevitably questions one's reason for living.

Proust ou les intermittences du coeur has now happily entered into the repertoire of the Paris Opéra Ballet.It consists of 13 vignettes inspired by the seven lengthy tomes which complete the unabridged work, Petit has chosen to convey the spirit of the novel via a succession of impressionistic tableaux which reflect the changing moods of the writer as he oscillated between periods of intense happiness and deep depression. And although the choreographer paints a merciless portrait of the aristocracy and bourgeoisie during the Belle Epoque, the highlights of the work lie in the series of poetical pas de deux, which at times might have seemed a little disconnected, but at which the French choreographer is past master.

Choreography & stage direction Roland Petit; Designer Luisa Spinatelli; Sets Bernard Michel; Lighting Jean-Michel Désire Palais Garnier, March 2007