DVD Videos

Kirk Browning, Director

Famous violinist Itzhak Perlman and Eugene Ormandy, long-standing conductor of the Philadelphia Orchestra recorded this fantastic Russian program live at the Academy of Music, Philadelphia, in 1978 and 1979 in extraordinary sound quality.

Modest Mussogorsky’s most famous piano composition Pictures at an Exhibition which is deemed to be one of Ormandy’s specialties is orchestrated in the acclaimed Ravel version.

Tchaikovsky’s Violin Concerto, which is considered as one of the best known and technically most challenging works for violin, is performed by Itzhak Perlman - undeniably the reigning virtuoso of the violin – who has also been called “one of the greatest musical talents to emerge since World War II” according to violin expert Tully Potter, New Grove.

The concert is directed by the Peabody Award winner Kirk Browning, who is highly acclaimed for staging classical concerts due to his long-time experience as television director and producer.

Picture format: NTSC, 4:3

Sound formats: PCM-STEREO, DD 5.1, DTS 5.1

Region code: 0

Booklet Notes: German, English, French

Running Time: 89 mins

The Places

The tour starts in Uzbekistan, of which there are later glimpses. There is a visit to the historic Russian town of Suzdal and scenes from St Petersburg as well as from Ukraine. It would be impossible to avoid the Russian winter, which appears in various guises, providing entertainment for some and for others a seemingly enchanted snow-bound landscape.

The Music

The music for the tour is taken from Russian composers who were, by and large, thoroughly imbued with the spirit of their country. This is reflected in Lyadov’s arrangement of a series folk-songs and his translation of Russian legend into music. Other composers represented are Ippolitov-Ivanov, Kabalevsky and Anton Rubinstein, with two well known excerpts from unfinished operas by Mussorgsky.

Video Format • NTSC / Colour / 4:3

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

Region Coding • No Region Coding

This fantastic documentary, from the director of the very successful DVD Carlos Kleiber - I am lost to the world, celebrates the 100th birthday of Sir Georg Solti. He was one of the 20th Century’s most brilliant conductors and a leading figure of musical culture world-wide.

The documentary follows the Hungarian-Jewish conductor’s career: As Toscanini’s assistant at the Salzburg Festival, as Music Director in Munich and Frankfurt after the war, achieving world-wide fame with his legendary recording of Wagner’s Ring cycle. It was as the long-serving Music Director at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, and of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra that Solti became an international start of classical music.

These stops form the central points of the film. Many great musicians like Valery Gergiev and Dohnànyi have great memories to share.

Picture Format: 16:9, HD

Sound Format: PCM Stereo

Running Time: 107 minutes (documentary 52 minutes, bonus 55 minutes)

Booklet: English, German, French

Subtitles: English spoken version, German spoken version, Subtitles: French, Spanish, Korean

AVAILABLE WORLDWIDE

On November 10, 2011, Nobuyuki Tsujii, the blind pianist from Japan who was the winner of the Van Cliburn International Piano Competition Gold Medal in 2009 appeared on the stage of Carnegie Hall.

His dream had come true. Arguably the most important event in the career of any performer, for “Nobu” it was a miracle. With his brilliant technique and beautiful tone, he contrasts familiar warhorses with newer pieces, including one of his own compositions, written in memory of the victims of the Japanese earthquake and tsunami in March 2011. Nobu brought the usually reserved Carnegie Hall audience to its feet.

Interviewed after Nobuyuki Tsujii’s recital, Van Cliburn observed: ‘What a thrill to hear this brilliant, very gifted, fabulous pianist. You feel God’s presence in the room when he plays. His soul is so pure, his music is so wonderful and it goes to infinity, to the highest heaven.’

Picture format: NTSC 16:9

Sound formats: PCM Stereo, HD Master Audio

Region code: 0

Booklet notes: English, German, French

Running time: 97 mins

Gustavo Dudamel, Gramophone magazine’s "Artist of the Year" 2011 and Grammy award winner 2012, leads the classical summer live and TV event of 2012: The Summer Night Concert with the Vienna Philharmonic.

The concert takes place on June 7th in the gardens of Schönbrunn Palace. Last year’s Summer Night Concert was a huge success.

In 2012 a total of 62 countries on five continents will share in the spectacle, including a BBC4 broadcast in the UK.

This year the main theme is Dances and Waves, a programme showcasing symphonic and operatic highlights.

Described as “the great Verdian bass” (Le Figaro) and a “Mefistofele who stood out over all the others” (Der Neue Merker), Carlo Colombara brings some of the most famous bass rôles to life in this wide-ranging programme. Emotions range from the pride of Escamillo in Bizet’s Carmen, through the terrors of Verdi’s Attila, to the tender recollections of Rachmaninov’s Aleko. Mephistopheles strides powerfully through both Gounod and Boito’s operas, and Rossini’s comic wit contrasts with the darkness of Mussorgsky’s Boris Godunov.

In 1986 he won the prize for the best Italian singer in the G. B. Viotti Competition and the following year he won the As.Li.Co competition before making his début at the Teatro dell’Opera in Rome in Ernani. His subsequent career has brought appearances in the most important theatres of the world, in Tokyo, London, Berlin, Vienna, Milan, New York, Zurich, Barcelona, where he now lives, Verona and elsewhere.

Vienna’s musical year shines with two dates that always dazzle: The New Year’s Day concert with the Vienna Philharmonic, and the Vienna Philharmonic’s open-air June concert in the gardens of the palace of Schönbrunn, the Summer Night Concert.

As Oonachrichten last year summed up: for the more than 100,000 people attending the concert, it was “a heavenly summer night with the Vienna Philharmonic”.

Boris Godunov is the story not only of a troubled leader but of an entire nation, and its history is as eventful as that of Mother Russia herself. In this new production, the legendary director Andrei Konchalovsky presents a personal vision of the opera that takes Mussorgsky’s bare and monumental first version as its basis, while adding the final scene from the composer’s revision, in which not only the Tsar but the people themselves reveal their fatal flaws.

Orlin Anastassov stars in the title role, conducted by Gianandrea Noseda.

‘’Orchestrally and vocally outstanding’’ The Opera Critic

Extra features:

Cast gallery

Interviews with Andrei Konchalovsky & Gianandrea Noseda

Running time 164 mins

Region Code All regions

Picture format 16:9 Anamorphic

Sound format 2.0LPCM + 5.1(5.0) DTS

Menu languages EN

Subtitles EN/FR/DE/ES

This fascinating new release is the latest in Priory's series of DVDs and as usual features a full length programme played by John Robinson, the assistant organist and former organ scholar of St. John's College, Cambridge. It also includes a CD of the recital.