DVD Videos

Based on the amphitheatre in the ancient Greek city of Epidaurus, and nestled in a natural valley, the Waldbühne theatre seats 22,000 in leafy comfort and remains one of Berlin‘s favourite open air concert venues, with magnificent views of the stage. World class conductors lead the Berlin Philharmonic in evening concerts of popular favourites.

At the Waldbühnen concert in 1994, the Berlin Philharmonic put a programme together under the heading ‚A Night of Dances and Rhapsodies‘, which presented the works of central European composers. The dance and folk pieces of music from the 19th century, which the orchestra performed under the baton of Mariss Jansons, emphasised the different styles and trends from this musically significant era.

Sound Format: PCM STEREO, DD 5.1, DTS 5.1

Picture Format: 4:3

DVD Format: DVD 9, PAL

Running Time: 101 mins

FSK: 0

Region Code: 0

Worldwide available excluding USA/CA, Japan

On this DVD Cyprien Katsaris performs works by Liszt, Wagner, Guang, Halévy, Schubert, Bach, Chopin, Gottschalk and Carrasco.

Total playing time: 135 mins.

System: NTSC 16:9

DVD format: DVD-9

Region 0 (worldwide)

Booklet in English, French, German, Italian

Choreographer: Kenneth MacMillan

Edward Watson takes the role of Crown Prince Rudolf in Kenneth MacMillan's compelling ballet which lives out the final eight years of Rudolf’s life with its relentless downward spiral of political intrigue, drugs and murder. It culminates with the suicide pact at the hunting lodge - known as Mayerling - between Rudolf and his 17-year-old mistress, Mary Vetsera (Mara Galeazzi). Filmed in high definition and recorded in true surround sound.

“…while Mara Galeazzi as Mary Vetsera nearly stole the show with her natural conviction, exuberance and authoritative technique, the evening belonged to Watson as Rudolf, one of the most challenging male roles ever created.” Sunday Express

Extra features:

Illustrated synopsis

Cast gallery

Principles in rehearsal with Edward Watson & Mara Galeazzi

Short feature on costumes

Running time 157 mins

Region code All regions

Picture format 16:9 Anamorphic

Sound format 2.0 PCM & 5.1 DTS Master Audio

Menu language EN

Subtitles FR/DE/ES (extra features only)

The Places

Starting from the Pantheon and the Colosseum, our tour takes us to the Forum of Augustus and the Forum of Trajan, the Arch of Constantine and the Capitol, with the later city represented by the Piazza di Spagna, the Trevi Fountain, and the great piazza before St Peter's in Vatican City.

The Music

The music chosen for this tour of Rome is by Franz Liszt, who divided the last 25 years of his life between Rome, Hungary and Weimar, after an early career as a travelling virtuoso, one of the greatest pianists of his time, and a period settled in Weimar as Director of Music Extraordinary to the Grand Duchy. In Rome he took minor orders and developed further his interest in the music of the Church.

NTSC · 16:9, DVD: PCM Stereo

Region code: 0, FSK: all audiences

Booklet notes: English

Running time: 79 mins

Nikolai Lugansky is one of the most talented pianists of his generation.The announcement of his concerts always fills the most prestigious venues worldwide. Each year he gives more than 100 concerts in Paris, London, Amsterdam, Vienna, Salzburg, Berlin (the Philharmonic), Brussels, Geneva, New York,Tokyo…His pianistic technique is distinguished, elegant, brilliant, and it is this unequal talent which makes the greatest orchestras call upon him. Nikolai Lugansky is also one of the most renowned specialists of the Russian repertoire, and he offers us here some of those gems in his first recordings for 4 years! This DVD should please his many fans.

Renata Scotto, one of the greatest and most famous sopranos of the post-war period, is here recorded in her full artistic maturity and, through this vast and varied programme, demonstrates her solid technique and absolutely extraordinary musicality.

The performance of this recital ended an eleven-year absence of Scotto from the Japanese stage – a return she clearly relishes as she dedicates the rare musical gems in her performance to the Tokyo audience.

Together with famous arias from renowned operas she performs some rare and neglected works, notably Edgar (Puccini’s first opera) and Sole e Amore (written before the success of La Bohème) as well as Respighi’s songs and five unpublished songs by Verdi.

The DVD also features a two-minute forward by Renata Scotto (sub – E/G/F/Sp) and a thirteen-minute video featuring the madness scene, Lucia di Lammermoor, Tokyo, 1967

Booklet Notes:Tracklisting in English, French, German.

This recital by György Cziffra (1921-94) was made by the BBC in 1962-3 and should probably be re-classified as a class-A drug, so mind-blowing are the pianist's incredible gifts. The improvisation that opens the programme recalls the nights that he spent at the piano in bars in his native Budapest and is inspired in particular by Chopin's Gdzie lubi Op.74 No.5, which Cziffra paraphrases alla zingarese, before tackling the same composer's Étude in C major Op.10 No.1, which he plays at a vertiginous prestissimo. The programme builds to a thrilling climax with a highoctane performance of the Hungarian Rhapsody No.6 by Cziffra's favourite composer, Franz Liszt.

Benno Moïseïwitsch (1890-1963) was famous for his impassivity at the piano even when the technical difficulties seemed insurmountable, encouraging observers to dub him "Pokerface Benno". His virtuosity and musicality were marvellously well suited to the Romantic and post-Romantic repertoire. He is heard here in works by Schumann and Rachmaninov.

Moïseïwitsch was a good friend of Rachmaninov, who regarded him as one of the finest interpreters of his music. Like Cziffra, Jorge Bolet (1914-90) belonged to the Lisztian tradition, having had the privilege of working with Leopold Godowsky while he was still very young. Above all, however, his mentors included two of Liszt's most famous pupils, Moriz Rosenthal and Emil von Sauer. Capable of mastering even the most difficult scores, Bolet never sought virtuosity for its own sake alone, as is clear from his performances of Liszt's Grand galop chromatique, which contrasts sharply with Cziffra's reading of the same piece, and of Chopin's Berceuse.

AVIE is delighted to double welcome American pianist Russell Sherman, this time on DVD, in performances of Liszt masterpieces for the solo piano: the Transcendental Studies.

Written as studies but also following a thematic sequence – bearing in mind the public performance of these pieces – Liszt reaches new heights in the piano repertoire with these works. Liszt is the epitome of the nineteenth-century artist: wildly diversified in his interests, extravagant in both his public manner and private life, and most importantly, willing to explore even the darkest side of the human psyche. Like many artists from many centuries he was able to move into the highest spheres of society not by his personal wealth but by the sheer force of his talent. Inheriting the force of Beethoven and the lyricism of Schumann, Liszt contemplates the new technical challenges of the instrument that was, in the 19th century, becoming the centre of the concert platform, thanks to composers like Chopin, Brahms and of course Liszt himself.

With extras including interviews with conductor Craig Smith and Christopher Lydon, this DVD of Russell Sherman will surely please those interested in exploring the beauty and intensity of a great performance of these wonderful works.

‘first a fierceness of imagination that makes us rethink what we know by heart, and then a physical technique allowing the most difficult music a confident sense of order and repose’ New York Times

”…by any measure one of the truly extraordinary pianists before the public.” The New York Times

“Russell Sherman must be counted among the outstanding contemporary pianists. Sherman is an exceedingly sensitive interpreter and a great story teller at the piano. This pianist is equipped with an enormous, energy-rich breadth and electricity.” Frankfurter Allegemeine Zeitung