DVD Videos

Andris Nelsons is one of the most sought-after young conductors on the international scene today and once again served notice of his extraordinary talent in Summer 2011 when he conducted two concerts with the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra of Amsterdam at the prestigious Lucerne Festival.

This concert, available on DVD and Blu-ray features, amongst a programme of Rimsky-Korsakov, Beethoven and Dvořák, the Grammy Award-winning pianist Yefim Bronfman performing Beethoven’s majestic Fifth Piano Concerto and Chopin’s Etude in F major.

Andris Nelsons is a regular conductor with many of the world’s top orchestras.

Total: 110 minutes

DVD: DTS 5.1, PCM Stereo

16:9, HD

The Places

On a hill above the ancient town of Kulmbach stands the imposing 12th century Hohenzollern fortress of Plassenburg. Among various collections on display is the remarkable Tin Soldier Museum, with various figures and dioramas that recreate battles and mirror the great castle itself, with a variety of scenes from all periods of human history.

The Music

The March has an inevitable part to play in human history. Marco Polo remarked on the use of music by the armies of China to terrify the enemy before a battle. Military music, however, has a more precise purpose, whatever alarm it may strike into the hearts of those who hear it. Drums and trumpets may serve as useful signals, to advance or retreat, to eat or to sleep. The same instruments and their near relations may serve to keep an army moving together, and may serve to inspire feelings of bravery and patriotism. At the same time a march can provide a suitable accompaniment to an occasion of solemnity, a wedding, a funeral or a state ceremony. The music chosen for this tour offers a series of Marches by different composers, culminating in Mendelssohn’s Wedding March.

Video Format • NTSC / Colour / 4:3

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

Region Coding • No Region Coding

The Invisible City of Kitezh, completed in 1905, is a remarkable opera that fuses folklore, mysticism and realism. Its subject is the story of the advancing Mongol army’s entry to Great Kitezh and the city’s subsequent miraculous survival. Rejecting archaisms and the more religiously inclined suggestions of his librettist, Rimsky-Korsakov sought to create an opera that “is contemporary and even fairly advanced”. It is therefore through-composed, hinting at times at Wagnerian procedure, and flooded with the composer’s rich, apt and brilliant orchestral palette, fully supportive of the powerful vocal writing.

Sung in Russian with English subtitles

The Places • The tour visits the Tin Soldier Museum at Kulmbach, the National Army Museum, the Wellington Memorial and St Paul’s Cathedral in London, and the Bavarian Army Museum at Ingolstadt, with its relics of the Thirty Years War and of conflicts with the Ottoman Empire.

The Music • The tour brings Beethoven’s musical celebration of Wellington’s victorious campaign in Spain, Liszt’s Battle of the Huns and a Georgian war march by Ippolitov-Ivanov. The tour ends with two military works by Rimsky-Korsakov, King Dodon on the Battlefield, from his last opera, The Golden Cockerel, and The Massacre at Kerzhenets from The Legend of the Invisible City of Kitezh.

Video Format • NTSC / Colour / 4:3

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

Region Coding • No Region Coding

Staged by ENNOSUKE ICHIKAWA

Stage Design by SETSU ASAKURA

Costumes by TOMIO MOHRI

Rimsky-Korsakov epitomises the fantastic side of the Russian soul. Regarding opera as „essentially the most enchanting and intoxicating of lies,“ he drew on his country’s rich folk heritage to create a fairy-tale world in which the fanciful and commonplace were fused through extravagant orchestral virtuosity and fervently Romantic vocal writing. This Châtelet revival of Le Coq d’or brings to the stage once again the great Kabuki actor Ennosuke III’s striking staging of Rimsky-Korsakov’s opera first mounted in co-production with the San Francisco Opera in 1984.

Born into one of Japan’s most important Kabuki families in 1939, Ennosuke III is a master of his art, who has worked to give this traditional theatre form appeal for modern audiences. As an actor, director and producer his aim has been to bring back the energy and excitement of Edo-period Kabuki. High-tech special effects, dynamic lighting, stunning costumes and minimalist sets have drawn new fans to his ‘Super Kabuki’ shows. He worked on this sumptuous production of Le Coq d’or with an all-Japanese creative team and the result had an Oriental beauty and fascination entirely appropriate to this satirical fantasy opera.

Completed in 1907, Le Coq d’or, based on Pushkin’s 1834 poem, was Rimsky-Korsakov’s last opera. It was also his most provocative. When he completed the score, he was forced to submit it to the censor with the result that it was barred from production. Rimsky-Korsakov died in 1908 without ever having heard the opera performed.

Sound Format: LPCM Stereo, DD 5.0, DTS 5.0

Picture Format: 16:9

DVD Format: DVD 9, NTSC

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

Running Time: 108 mins

FSK: 0

A “double bill” of two Russian operatic masterpieces. Legendary bass Evgeny Nesterenko stars in the title role of Aleko (1892), an early work of Sergei Rachmaninoff (1873-1943), written the composer was still a student at the Moscow Conservatory. Strongly influenced by the Italian verismo school (the plot is a close relation to that of Leoncavallo’s Pagliacci), the score is full of colorful evocations of Gypsy life and passionate emotional outpourings. The cast of this expansive 1986 film version, directed by Victor Okuntsov, includes members of Gypsy folk ensembles, adding to the production’s striking authenticity. The Moscow State Symphony Orchestra and Gosteleradio Chorus are under the direction of Dimitri Kitayenko.

By contrast, Kashchey the Immortal (sometimes called Kashchey the Deathless) is very much a mature work of Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov (1844-1908); it was the composer’s twelfth opera, and premiered in 1902. Moreover, its mythic setting and magical storyline (drawn from the same Russian folk tale that inspired Stravinsky’s ballet The Firebird) are worlds away from Aleko’s gritty realism. This 1987 Russian film version stars the great singing actor Konstantin Pluzhnikov in the title role (Pluzhnikov is also the Kaschey in the acclaimed CD recording conducted by Valery Gergiev). Directed by Oleg Yeryshev, the film goes far beyond what could be achieved in a stage production, adding clarity, depth, and spectacle to this poignant fairy tale.

124 minutes, Color, 4:3, Mono, All regions

Subtitles in English and Russian

Zubin Mehta, born in Bombay in 1936, is one of the greatest conductors on the rostrum. ‚I have been conducting the Berliner Philharmoniker longer than many of its musicians have been members. I began in 1961 and since then have not missed a single season. During all those years I have been able to observe continually that the Berliner Philharmoniker sets standards for outstanding orchestral achievements.‘

The theme of his ‚St. Petersburg Night‘ at the Berlin Waldbühne is, of course, Russian music. The centrepiece is one of Tchaikovsky‘s most frequently played and effective compositions: his Piano Concerto No. 1 in B fl at minor. This work has spread the fame of Russian music all over the world. Its memorable melodies and original rhythms never fail to captivate audiences.

Daniel Barenboim, was the soloist for the Tchaikovsky concerto in Zubin Mehta‘s music night. With this combination of master conductor, master pianist and leading orchestra, success was, of course, assured. The twenty thousand people in the audience at the Berlin Waldbühne, sold out weeks beforehand, expressed their thanks with tumultuous applause.

The other works in the programme were also enthusiastically received, in particular the familiar sounds of Tchaikovsky‘s ‚Swan Lake‘ and Rimsky-Korsakov‘s orchestral scherzo ‚The Flight of the Bumblebee‘ from his opera ‚The Legend of Tsar Saltan‘, which was played with astounding virtuosity.

Sound Format: PCM Stereo, DD 5.1

Picture Format: 4:3

DVD Format: DVD 9, PAL

Running Time: 97 mins

FSK: 0

Subtitles in English, French, Italian, Russian & Spanish