DVD Videos

Martin Helmchen, in his 2011 Verbier Festival recital, presents a program of Bach, Liszt and Beethoven.

The adaptability of his technique is on display, as he moves with ease from the incessant rhythm of a Bach dance, through the filigree of Liszt's virtuosic showpieces, to the dense counterpoint so typical of Beethoven's late works.

An artist who ‘connects seriousness and wistfulness with success’, the audience is truly drawn in through his expressive playing and gesture, vividly captured in this DVD recording.

Picture format DVD: NTSC 16:9

Sounds format DVD: PCM Stereo

Region code: 0

Booklet notes: English, German, French

Running time: 83 min

Lars Vogt's performance at the 2011 Verbier Festival, in the mountains of Switzerland, is an exercise in virtuosity.

A challenging program of Janáček, Schubert, Beethoven and Brahms is followed by bonus material including a Mozart concerto and a Chopin nocturne.

The German pianist Vogt proves himself more than up to the task, with an inspiring performance of the rarely performed In the Mists, then striking the subtle balance between the delicacy required of a Brahms Intermezzo and the boisterousness of Beethoven's last piano sonata.

Picture format DVD: NTSC 16:9

Sounds format DVD: PCM Stereo

Region code: 0

Booklet notes: English, German, French

Running time: 75 min

(surround sound with full video)

John Cage’s vision of the future of music was first shaped by an ntense creative period from 1935-1942, when he wrote many of the seminal works of percussion chamber music featured here. When he composed these works, the young Cage was basically the same age as the members of Third Coast Percussion.

This release includes all three of the groundbreaking 'Constructions'. 'First Construction' (in Metal) utilises dozens of metal instruments which are beaten, scraped and shaken, creating an other-worldly mixture of resonant sound unlike any heard before it. 'Second Construction' prominently features one of Cage’s greatest inventions, the prepared piano.

Finally, 'Third Construction' brings the greatest degree of complexity and the widest range of instrumental timbres yet, creating one of the first landmark pieces in the percussion chamber music literature.

-There are very few recordings of the early works 'Quartet' and 'Trio'.

-The surprisingly beautiful sounds of everyday objects come forth in Third Coast Percussion’s recording of 'Living Room Music', recorded onsite at the futuristic Ford House in Aurora, IL, designed by one of America’s most iconoclastic architects, Bruce Goff, in 1947. Third Coast utilizs the house itself as an instrument for the first movement.

All works dynamically directed and filmed by Ross Karre. The DVD features surround and stereo audio. Hailed by the Chicago Reader as “one of the finest new-music ensembles in the country,” Third Coast Percussion's performances have swiftly gained national attention for effortlessly combining the energy of a rock concert with the precision and sophistication of classical chamber music.

This DVD documents the pioneering percussion works from the French school of theatre music, written for and championed by the legendary Parisian group Trio Le Cercle. These are 'French pieces', mostly written by non-French composers whose most important work took place in Paris in the 1970's and 1980's. The cultural friction between immigrant artists and a French culture that embraced them without completely welcoming them is apparent with every note. This is the music of outsiders with a story to tell, where questions of belonging, control, and place are central.

Many of these works are renowned in the percussion repertoire but their combination of theatre (visual, choreographic, architectural), with percussion makes little sense as strictly audio recordings. The visual aspect is essential to their experience. All receive their first commercial video release performed by percussionist Aiyun Huang, who studied with the members of Trio Le Cercle, giving authoritative performances of these works for solo through quartet. Each work is given a unique visual treatment. Liner notes by Steven Schick and Aiyun Huang. Among the highlights:

Vinko Globokar’s '?Corporel' for a percussionist performing on her body as the instrument is visually arresting, and often discomfiting, as we watch the percussionist strike, rub, caress and slap herself.

In Georges Aperghis’s 'Le Corps à Corps', a disjunctive treatment of text soon renders it useless as a vehicle for narrative, but creates instead an extraordinarily rich source of vocal incantations and drones that run parallel to the colourful hand-drumming.

Mauricio Kagel's two works are large pieces of absurd theatre. In an ultimate example of the burning issues of control and anarchy that raced through Paris of the late 1960’s like wild fire, Kagel’s 'Dressur' draws a pointed comparison between the control over horses in the practice of dressage and the control over performers necessary to effect a concert. 'Dressur' asks three percussionists to engage in a series of seemingly pointless and sometimes painful set of tasks.

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

A new release of the EuroArts' sub-label "Recorded Excellence - Historical Value" and series of Metropolitan Munich programs.

For generations, the bitter-sweet Schubert piano works presented here have delighted music lovers with their irresistible mix of regretful tenderness and euphoric innocence. András Schiff’s exquisitely nuanced performances of the much loved Impromptus and Moments musicaux demonstrate to perfection why he is universally regarded as one of today’s finest interpreters of Schubert.

Also available: András Schiff plays Schubert I (DVD Cat. No. 2066798) released in June 2012 features Schubert's, Piano Trio op.99, Piano Trio op. 100, Arpeggione Sonata D.821 in A minor, recorded in 1991.

Picture format DVD: NTSC 16:9

Sound format DVD: PCM Stereo

Region code: 0

Booklet notes: English, German, French

Runnning time: 97 mins

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.

Following the great success of The Goat Rodeo Sessions album (88697891862), The Goat Rodeo Sessions Live on DVD and Blu-Ray brings cellist Yo-Yo Ma, fiddler Stuart Duncan, bassist Edgar Meyer and mandolinist Chris Thile together for a one-night-only concert that was filmed at the House of Blues in Boston in January 2012. The four string virtuosos were joined by guest vocalist, Aoife O’Donovan.

While each musician is a renowned superstar in his own sphere, they have come together now as a unified ensemble on a most remarkable and organic cross-genre project stemming from their friendship, and the title concept. The Goat Rodeo is summed up by Yo-Yo Ma: “In the end, what we’re trying to do is simply make music that transcends whatever roots or categories of backgrounds that it starts from – that just exists as something that we’re trying to express, through our community of values, as a moment in time creating very special music.”