DVD Videos

“Christopher Nupen: King of the music documentary” Gramophone Magazine

and winner of the Documentary DVD of the Year 2005, 2006 and 2008, 2010.

“The master of the music doc.” Norman Lebrecht, The Evening Standard

A Christopher Nupen DVD about Niccolo Paganini: the most charismatic figure in the entire history of Western music — also the most talked about, the most controversial, the most famous and the most successful classical soloist that the world of music has ever known.

The story is astonishing, exciting, wildly unusual and, at the end, deeply touching. It is one of the most extraordinary tales in the history of music and it is told with all the Nupen finesse and commitment that have won him DVD of the Year Award four times in the past six years.

Paganini made use of his astonishing gifts, and the gullibility of the world, to create the most elaborate and enduring legend of all instrumental soloists in Western classical music. But, as so often with legends, the excitement and the chatter obscured the true figure of both the man and the artist.

In the film on this DVD, Christopher Nupen looks at the legend and the strange man who created it with his dazzling combination of technical brilliance, supreme showmanship, Italian melody and unbridled manipulative skill — a man whose extraordinary personality unsettled even the most sophisticated and educated minds and provoked wildly contradictory opinions.

The film presents Paganini’s music, shot and edited in the style developed by Christopher Nupen and his colleagues for their prize winning DVDs about Sibelius, Schubert and Tchaikovsky and combines it with extracts from Paganini's letters and quotations from both his admirers and his many detractors. While being hailed as the greatest performing musician of his time, Paganini was denounced again and again by knowledgeable critics as a charlatan in league with the devil and an avaricious man with scant respect for those who responded so enthusiastically to his unforgettable gift — and contributed so readily to his vast personal fortune.

Paganini exploited it all and used the legends to make himself not only the most famous performer of his time, but also the wealthiest by a long, long way. In time this provoked envy and resentment and, finally, a pitiable isolation.

In 1540 Cosimo de’Medici moved with his family and court into the Palazzo Vecchio in Florence. On 1st May 1995 the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra performed its jubilee concert – conducted on this occasion by Zubin Mehta – in the same building. Since 1991 the orchestra has commemorated its foundation on 1st May 1882 with a concert, each time in a different European musical capital.

Florence is important in the history of music because, like all the royal houses of the time, the Medici liked to surround themselves with the most accomplished composers and players. Yet in the rooms of the palazzo, which are otherwise bursting with art treasures, one fi nds no evidence of this musical past. Apart from one gem; and that is a special room closed to the public which is enough to thrill the heart of every string player. It is a virtual treasure chamber of work by all the great Italian violin-makers. There is a 1662 Nicola Amati violin, a 1736 Guarneri and a violin, viola and cello by Antonio Stradivari. They were all made in Cremona, at the school of violin making, which was founded by the Amati family, and were obviously ordered directly by the Medici, as they all bear their coat of arms.

Sound Format: PCM STEREO, DD 5.1

Picture Format: 4:3

DVD Format: DVD 9, PAL

Running Time: 98 mins

FSK: 0

Since 2004 Venice‘s rebuilt Teatro La Fenice has welcomed each New Year with a celebration of opera and symphonic music. Since that date, the Venetian concert has become a regular and increasingly popular fixture with television audiences, taking over the lead from the Viennese New Year’s Concert with its all-waltzes programme. Venice instead of Vienna that means opera instead of waltzes – a variety of highlights from Rossini, Verdi, Bellini, Paganini and Mascagni too. The choice of performers is made each year from the ranks of great conductors and acclaimed soloists, people who can rouse an audience and touch its emotions in the space of a few moments. As for the repertoire, the pieces chosen – arias, choruses and opera overtures – are almost always short, familiar and well-loved, all of them among the most-requested operatic gems, presented with the intention of keeping the memory of musical theatre, its stories and characters, alive.

Sound Format: PCM Stereo, DD 5.1, DTS 5.1

Picture Format: 4:3

DVD Format: DVD 9, NTSC

Running Time: 95 mins

FSK: 0

The extraordinary atmosphere of this Open Air venue is the imagination of this production. More than 20,000 people attended the yearly Open Air Concert of the Berliner Philharmoniker at the Waldbühne in Berlin. The atmosphere is as unique as the Night of the Proms Concert.

This is a full programme of musical showpieces and some of the most popular pieces of classical music like Tchaikovsky The Nutcracker, Mascagni Intermezzo, Paganini Il carnevale die Venezia and Sibelius Valse triste.

The famous violinist Vadim Repin is clearly happy to indulge, performing here with all the appropriate showmanship and artistry alongside the first-class Berliner Philharmoniker and Mariss Jansons. This isn´t only a production for core classical lovers – this is a night for a wide audience.

“Repin’s playing of the Paganini has to be watched to be believed, and the audience, quite justifiably, go wild at the end, causing him to repeat the piece, this time modified for even greater effect, enchanting all present including orchestra and conductor. " John Phillips, MusicWeb International

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: 116 mins

Audience: all

The music of Spain held an exotic attraction for composers from other lands. The Russians Glinka and Rimsky Korsakov found inspiration here, as did the French composers Lalo, Massenet and Ravel, who claimed Basque descent on his mother's side, and Bizet, whose opera Carmen is imbued with the spirit of the country. Spain provided Verdi with a narrative source, and another Italian, the demon violinist Paganini, was equally a master of the quintessential Spanish instrument, the guitar.