DVD Videos

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.

EuroArts is proud to present the only available concert video recording with the Berliner Philharmoniker on DVD.

Classified as EuroArts "Recorded Excellence", with high historical value.

A new release from the series of Metropolitan Munich programs of Sergiu Celibidache (11. July 1912 – 14. August 1996) for his 100th Anniversary.

For the first time after 37 years, in 1992, Maestro Celibidache returned to the podium of the Berliner Philharmoniker for a reconciliatory concert. This was to be his last concert with the Berliner Philharmoniker.

To maximise the artistic impact of this momentous occasion, the video assets have been restored and upscaled from 4:3 to 16:9.

The DVD Disc includes the Documentary ‘The Triumphant Return’ directed by Wolfgang Becker: The film documents the maestro Celibidache’s reunion with the Berliner Philharmoniker after 38 years, and includes extensive footage from the rehearsals of Bruckner’s Symphony No. 7 and interviews with former orchestra members.

Picture format DVD: NTSC 16:9

Sound formats DVD: PCM Stereo

Region code: all

Booklet notes: English, German, French

Runnning time: 144 mins (90 mins Concert + 54 mins Documentary)

The Romanian conductor Sergiu Celibidache (1912-96) was one of the most adamant personalities in the music world. He rehearsed three times as much as other conductors and avoided making recordings because he believed they were a false representation his musical intentions. This concert from the Herkulessaal in Munich captures one of the rare occasions on which he consented to a recording being made. He conducts the Munich Philharmonic Orchestra with Anton Bruckner’s “Romantic” Symphony No. 4 in E flat major.

SPECIAL FEATURE: Interview with Sergiu Celibidache about conducting Bruckner’s Symphony No. 4.

Sound Formats: PCM Stereo, D D 5.1

Picture Format: 4:3

DVD Format: DVD 9, NTSC

Languages (bonus): FR (Original Version), GB, DE

Running Time: 82 mins + 40 mins (bonus)

FSK: 0

Tony Palmer’s film of Benjamin Britten’s opera Death in Venice, shot on location, is released on DVD for the first time on the director’s own label. Based on Thomas Mann’s masterly novella - also the source for Visconti’s famous movie - it follows the last days of a writer, disillusioned, in despair and nearing death, in disease-ridden Venice. The cast includes Robert Gard as Gustav von Aschenbach, John Shirley-Quirk as The Traveller, James Bowman as The Voice of Apollo, Vincent Redman as Tadzio, the object of Aschenbach’s infatuation, and Deanne Bergsma as Tadzio’s Mother. Steuart Bedford conducts the English Chamber Orchestra, and Peter Pears makes a special appearance.

Death in Venice was to be Britten's last full-length opera, first performed at Snape Concert Hall on 16 June, 1973. The composer was already ill with heart problems, and completing the work at all had clearly been a struggle. But he was determined to write an opera and a leading part specifically for his long-time lover and inspiration, Peter Pears. And it was Pears who gave the triumphant American première in October the following year at his own debut in the Metropolitan Opera House, New York. It was soon after Britten had died, in December 1976, that Pears first asked Tony Palmer to film the entire opera with all the original cast, if possible on location in Venice. After all, apart from Suffolk, Venice was the place which meant most to Britten. Despite a miniscule budget (less than £100,000), Palmer eventually managed to fulfil Pears' ambition in 1980 - but without the tenor himself as Aschenbach. By then, a couple of strokes had effectively ended his singing career, but the Australian tenor Robert Gard frequently looks (and sounds) almost more like Pears than Pears himself.

Director & editor: Tony Palmer

Photography: Nic Knowland

Sound: Brian Saunders

Costumes: Charles Knode

Choreographer: Ian Spink

Production Design: Kenneth E. Carey

DVD specifications:

Region: 0 (All Regions)

Rating: E (Exempt from Certification)

Duration: 131 minutes

Picture Format: NTSC (all regions)

Priory's latest DVD from Salisbury Cathedral is now available. Featuring David Halls playing the famous Willis organ and bonus tracks demonstrating the organ of this historic building, and its chamber organ at the west end. Includes free bonus CD of the recital.

Alessio Corti plays the Eilert-Köhler Organ (1738) of the Kreuzkirche at Suhl, Germany.

Total playing time: 134 mins.

Bonus:

Prof. Alessio Corti interview

System: PAL 16:9

DVD format: DVD-9

Region 0 (worldwide)

Booklet and subtitles in English, French, German, Italian

Recorded live at the Philharmonie Berlin on 11th April 2010

It is no surprise that Sir Simon would one day tackle this most comprehensive of Bach’s compositions in view of his much applauded interpretation of the St. John Passion in 2006. The Berliner Morgenpost wrote at the time: “A performance of this musical calibre renders superfluous all questions about authenticity and historical performance practice. At the Philharmonie Sir Simon Rattle and his orchestra performed the St. John Passion [...] with highly concentrated and flawless beauty devoid of any distorting indulgence.”

German daily Die Welt hailed this performance of the St. Matthew Passion as “Simon Rattle’s Easter miracle,” and The Guardian in the UK wrote: “I challenge you not to be an emotional wreck by the end of it: the singers, especially Mark Padmore as the Evangelist, give the performance of their lives; Sellars sensitively connects the Passion story with the performances and the audience, without distorting Bach’s drama; and Rattle and his players are collectively raised to spooky, spiritual levels of inspiration.”

Both the double-disc DVD and Blu-ray editions contain booklets with introductory texts, biographies and photos. Bonus footage includes a conversation between Peter Sellars and Simon Halsey, conductor of the Rundfunkchor Berlin.

Subtitles: English, German, French, Spanish and Japanese

Running time: 195 mins (concert); 51 mins (bonus feature)

Picture format: NTSC

Audio formats: PCM Stereo

Dolby Digital 5.1

DTS 5.1

Please Note: JAPAN - Due to contractual reasons I'm afraid we are not allowed to sell this product to customers in Japan.

As is now customary, the first part of the 2012 New Year‘s Concert from Teatro La Fenice is exclusively orchestral, with Symphony No.5 by Pyotr Tchaikovsky. The second part, with soloists Jessica Pratt, Walter Fraccaro and Alex Esposito as well as the choir, is dedicated to melodrama, ending with the traditional chorus “Va pensiero” from Nabucco and the toast “Libiam ne lieti calici” from La Traviata by Giuseppe Verdi.

The twenty-seven year old conductor and violinist Diego Matheuz is a graduate of the internationally known Venezuelan Sistema and is already widely known as one of the most promising developing talents from the Americas. In 2005 he began studying conducting and soon attracted the attention of Sir Simon Rattle and Claudio Abbado, with whom he worked in Caracas, Lucerne and Bologna.

In September 2011 he was appointed as Principal Conductor of the Teatro La Fenice.

Sound Format: PCM Stereo, DD 5.1

Picture Format: 16:9, 1080i High Definition

Format: DVD 9, NTSC

Running Time: 108 mins + 27 mins (bonus)

FSK: 0

Region Code: 0 (DVD)

Worldwide available

Vera Nemirova, staging

Vera Nemirova’s challenging production of Berg’s operatic masterpiece Lulu won critical acclaim when first seen at the Salzburg Festival in 2010, and was successfully repeated in 2011, when the production was filmed for DVD.

Supporting Nemirova’s powerful vision of corruption, decadence and death were the highly praised set designs by the young German artist Daniel Richter.

Musically the production was led with style and assurance by the brilliant young German conductor Marc Albrecht, currently director of the Netherlands Opera. Singing Lulu with allure and passion was the lauded French soprano Patricia Petibon, whose charms gripped an outstanding cast of top European singers.

Lulu is a very rarely performed work, which was also left unfinished by the composer. This performance includes the missing 3rd act, which was completed by Friedrich Cerha, winner of the Salzburg Music Award 2010.

Picture format DVD: NTSC 16:9

Sound formats DVD: PCM Stereo, Dolby Digital 5.1, DTS 5.1

Region code: 2,3,4,5,6,8

Subtitles: English, French, German, Italian, Chinese, Japanese, Korean

Booklet notes: English, German, French

Runnning time: 173 mins

These are four great symphonies that have all played a special role in the close collaboration between the Danish National Symphony Orchestra and conductor Thomas Dausgaard. The symphonies are recorded in the beautiful Koncerthuset in Copenhagen. The Danish National Symphony Orchestra is specialized in Scandinavian repertoire.

Bonus material: In a series of interviews, Thomas Dausgaard explains his close collaboration with the orchestra, the concerts and the four great yet altogether very different masterpieces by Brahms, Dvorak, Sibelius and Nielsen.

Running Time Total: 168 minutes

Picture 16:9, HD

DVD: DTS 5.1, PCM Stereo

Subtitles Bonus: English, French, German, Spanish, Korean, Chinese, Japanese, Italian