DVD Videos

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!

Bernstein delivered a powerful and now legendary live performance of Beethoven’s String Quartet Op. 135 – transcribed for String Orchestra and performed by the Vienna Philharmonic. For the first time ever this performance is now being released on DVD and Blu-ray.

Another definitive Bernstein performance debuting now on both mediums is the enigmatic maestro’s reading of Haydn’s Missa in tempore belli, filmed live in concert at Ottobeuren in 1984, using to maximum effect the deeply impressive setting of the monastery’s magnificent Baroque basilica.

Running Time Total: 93 minutes

DVD: DTS 5.1, PCM Stereo

Subtitles Haydn: English, German, French, Spanish, Korean, Chinese

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, filmed in colour, 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 twenty years. Steinberg’s precise and minimalist technique belies the intensity with which the orchestra responds to his baton – the performances are lively and full of character.

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

The Haydn is new to Steinberg’s discography.

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: 86’

Subtitles: n/a

Menu languages: English

Booklet languages: E/F/G

Region code: 0

Territory Restrictions: None

Founded in 1947, the Amadeus Quartet dominated the British chamber music scene for over 40 years. The quartet was renowned for its impeccable ensemble playing as well as sensitive interpretation, making over 200 recordings during their four decades together, which ended with Peter Schidlof’s death in 1987 – just four years after the Royal Opera House performance on this DVD.

The quartet’s Wigmore Hall debut in 1948 was sold out with hundreds turned away at the door. Particularly well known for performances of the Viennese Classics, the ensemble’s core repertoire included all three works on this DVD, performed here with great warmth and exuberance.

Norbert Brainin’s standard answer to how the Amadeus Quartet was able to reach such great mastery of interpretation was that they ‘simply listened into the music – again and again’. The Penguin Guide praises the quartet’s DG recording of the later Haydn quartets as ‘bright and truthful’ with a ‘warm acoustic and plenty of presence’ – ‘outstanding’.

All four members were awarded an OBE, the German Great Cross of Merit, and the Austrian Cross of Honour for Arts and Sciences.

This is the first DVD release of this material.

1DVD

Sound format: Enhanced Mono

Picture format: 4:3

Running time: 75’

Subtitles: n/a

Menu languages: English

Booklet languages: E/F/G

Region code: 0

Territory Restrictions: None

A film by Rhodri Huw

Joseph Haydn undertook the composition of The Creation starting at the age of 65, and it took him a year and a half to complete the work. A deeply religious man, he later said, «Never had I been so devout as when I was composing The Creation. Everyday I fell to my knees and prayed to God to give me strength for my work».

The concert provides unique opportunity to experience first-hand the beauty of the church Grote Kerk, where the acoustics are said to make music sound magical.

DVD extras: A 30-minutes documentary including rehearsal sessions with commentary by John Nelson, Audio excerpts from Soli Deo Gloria commissioned works.

Special packaging with Slipcase

Picture format DVD: NTSC 16:9

Sounds formats DVD: PCM Stereo

Region code: 0

Subtitles: German, English, French

Booklet notes: English, German, French

Running time: 172 mins (142 mins Concert + 30 mins Bonus)

German FSK: 0

The Places • The tour visits historic sites in the Czech Republic, Austria, Germany, Switzerland and Belgium. These include the castles of Litomyšl and Konopiště in Bohemia, and the historic town of Mělnik, the Horological Museum at Le Locle in Switzerland, relics of war from the Bavarian Army Museum in Ingolstadt, and a glimpse of the Belgian Château of Gaasbeek.

The Music • The tour brings two of Joseph Haydn’s most famous symphonies, written for a London concert season in 1794, Symphony No. 100, the so-called Military Symphony, and Symphony No. 101, nicknamed The Clock.

Video Format • NTSC / Colour / 4:3

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

Region Coding • No Region Coding

For the 200th anniversary of the birth of Frédéric Chopin, the renowned Ruhr Piano Festival in Essen invited the Staatskapelle Berlin to give a truly special program: the rare combination of Chopin‘s two piano concertos in one concert. For this purpose Daniel Barenboim, the orchestra‘s principal conductor, handed over the reins of „his“ ensemble to up-and-coming young conductor Andris Nelsons, assuming the role of piano soloist instead.

The press raved: „Storms of applause for a dream couple: Daniel Barenboim and Andris Nelsons won over the audience […] with their rousing Chopin interpretations“. While Barenboim fi lls the solo parts with pulsating life and dance-like grace, the exciting young talent Andris Nelsons dazzles with his magnetic physical presence and the broad gestures with which he fires on or pulls back his enthusiastic musicians. Nelsons opens the concert with a rousing account of Joseph Haydn’s Symphony No. 44, the “Mourning” Symphony.

Chopin wrote the two piano concertos when he was only 19 and 20; they were among the last works that he composed in Poland before leaving for France. Filled with youthful fire and freshness, the works showcase the pianist‘s virtuosity, and contain much of interest for the orchestral musicians as well, including poignant solo interludes for clarinet and bassoon.

Sound Format: PCM Stereo, DD 5.1, DTS 5.1

Picture Format: 16:9

DVD Format: DVD 9, NTSC

Running Time: 110 mins

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 rare historic value.

Neither of the two works featured on this DVD have been recorded commercially by Munch, although he programmed both works during his tenure at the BSO.

His renderings of the two symphonies are exciting and spontaneous, with the kind of precision and flair we have come to expect from the BSO under Munch’s buoyant direction.

Two Munch/BSO DVDs from ICA Classics’ first set of releases have been awarded the Diapason d’Or in France’s Diapason magazine.

This is the first DVD release.

1DVD

Sound format: Enhanced mono

Picture format: 4:3

Running time: 92’

Subtitles: n/a

Menu languages: English

Booklet languages: E/F/G

Region code: 0

Territory Restrictions: None

Performance recorded live at the Hagia Eirene, Istanbul, 5 May 2001.

Picture format: NTSC 16:9

Sound format: PCM Stereo / Dolby Digital 5.1 / DTS 5.1

Subtitles: English, German, French, Spanish

Booklet notes: English, German, French

Running time: 27 mins (documentary) + 24 mins (performance)

This March 1982 performance of The Creation took place in the Great Hall of the Old University in Vienna - precisely where, on 27 March 1808, the composer had appeared for the last time in public to attend a gala performance of this work under the direction of Antonio Salieri.

The concert brought together a number of leading artists: the Collegium Aureum is a loose association of German and Austrian soloists and chamber musicians internationally renowned for their performances on period instruments, while the Arnold Schoenberg Choir continues to be regarded as one of the finest choirs in Europe. The parts of Gabriel, Uriel and Raphael are taken by three of the most eminent and supremely well-qualified singers of their day, soprano Arleen Augér, tenor Peter Schreier and bass Walter Berry, while the German baritone Roland Hermann and the Austrian soprano Gabriele Sima are sheer luxury casting in the roles of Adam and Eve. With his lively temperament, the Austrian conductor Gustav Kuhn ensures that the performance is not only true to the spirit of the original but has a tension and a vitality all of its own, guaranteeing that the performance was an overwhelming experience for all who were present on this occasion. Spirit, sound, space and time come together here to create a coherent whole.

Bonus: Documentary on the work and the occasion.

Sound Format: PCM Stereo

Picture Format: 4:3

DVD Format: DVD 9, NTSC

Subtitle Languages: DE, GB, FR, ES, IT

Running Time: 114 mins & 18 mins (Bonus)

FSK: 0