DVD Videos

One of a series edited by François Manceaux & Olivier Bernager in partnership with Arte & France Musique, uncovering great musicians of our time.

Approx 1 hour running time.

One of a series edited by François Manceaux & Olivier Bernager in partnership with Arte & France Musique, uncovering great musicians of our time.

Approx 1 hour running time.

Video director: Andreas Morell & Christoph Engel

Performed as a complete cycle in Berlin, Vienna and New York, the concerts were a tremendous success. The Financial Times even wrote “New York is going Mahler mad.”

A fascinating 22 minutes Documentary on the musical world of Mahler as seen by Barenboim and Boulez.

2011 is the 100th anniversary of the death of Gustav Mahler.

“Barenboim´s reading seethes with subtly controlled passion.” New York Times

“A milestone for the Staatskappelle Berlin.” New York Times

Running Time Total: 101 minutes

Symphony: 79 minutes

Documentary: 22 minutes

Picture 16:9, color

Sound PCM Stereo, DTS 5.1

(Bonus: PCM Stereo)

Subtitles Documentary: English

Packaging NTSC: Amaray 1 DVD

Booklet English, German, French

Sticker Yes

In August 2007, Anne-Sophie Mutter performed the world premiere of Sofia Gubaidulina‘s 2nd violin concerto in Lucerne with conductor Simon Rattle and the Berlin Philharmonic. This piece by the Russian composer (born in 1931) was an important event in many respects. Sofia Gubaidulina is one of the world‘s leading contemporary composers. Her international breakthrough came in 1980 with her first violin concerto, Offertorium, which she wrote for Gidon Kremer. To this day, it remains her most often performed piece. In spite of all the other pieces she has written in the meantime, it is her second violin concerto that violinists, conductors and orchestras around the world have eagerly been awaiting, especially since she was commissioned to write it in 1992 by Paul Sacher, the Basel conductor and patron of the arts. It was his wish that Gubaidulina‘s new violin concerto first be performed by Anne-Sophie Mutter. Fifteen years later, that dream finally came true.

The film focuses on the piece - from its inception, through the many stages of the creative process to its world premiere but also features the many great expectations of the music world and the resulting pressure on Gubaidulina. It’s not the usual portrait of the composer but concentrates on the work in progress and documents the collaboration between Anne-Sophie Mutter, Simon Rattle and the Berlin Philharmonic.

"First I hear the end of the piece. I hear it all at once, all mixed up and hard to recognize. As if everything were tied in a knot. It‘s too complicated. I can‘t write that moment down. I have to make it clearer to eventually get back to what I originally heard." Sofia Gubaidulina

"The most beautiful music film I have ever seen." Joachim Kaiser

Award at the Columbus International Film Festival 2008, nominated for Prix Italia

Sound Format: PCM Stereo

Picture Format: 16:9

DVD Format: DVD 5, NTSC

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

Running Time: 60 mins

FSK: 0

One of the world's finest and most-respected conductors, seventy-year-old Claudio Abbado is legendary in stature, having held the post of musical director with La Scala in Milan from 1968 to 1986, with the Vienna Opera from 1986 to 1991, and the Berlin Philharmonic from 1989 to 2002. A strong advocate of the development of young musical talent, he was instrumental in the foundation of the Chamber Orchestra of Europe, the European Union Youth Orchestra and the Gustav Mahler Youth Orchestra. After a serious illness, he is beginning a new phase of his career: founding the new Lucerne Festival Orchestra. Filmmaker Paul Smaczny has followed his career over the years, regularly filming and interviewing him. In this profile Abbado talks about his life and work, his conception of music, his favourite compositions. Never-before-seen interviews are combined with images of the conductor in rehearsal and in concert, interviews with friends and colleagues, and archival material. The resulting portrait presents this "silent thinker" under a new and unexpected light.

Picture format DVD: NTSC 16:9

Sounds formats DVD: PCM Stereo

Region code: 0

Subtitles: English, German, French

Booklet notes: English, Deutsch, French, Español, Italiano

Running time: 67 mins

FSK: 0

In her book and DVD project “Using Technique and Imagination to achieve Artistic Expression”, Quintessence in 3 parts, the famous cellist Maria Kliegel opens up a new avenue that is intended to help advanced cellists over these obstacles. Using numerous examples from the cello repertoire, the book is a distillation of her experience.

The 2 DVDs provide a demonstration of the cello techniques, for the bow and for the left-hand, described in the book. Maria Kliegel also plays and analyzes the ”infamous” passages from the Cello Concertos by Haydn (D) and Schumann and from Tchaikovsky’s Rococo Variations.

“… I strongly recommend her book and demonstration DVDs to all.” Janos Starker

“… She is talented not only in interpreting but also in analysis of the technical cello elements …” Mstislav Rostropovich

“… Having read and studied Maria Kliegel‘s treatise on the cello I have only words of gratitude …” Bernhard Greenhouse, Beaux Arts Trio

Total Running Time: DVD 1 - 260 mins DVD 2 – 240 mins

NTSC: No Region Coding

Aspect Ratio: 16:9

Dual Layer Disc • Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo •

Dolby Surround 5.0

Worldwide Available

Recorded in 2008

At the age of seventeen, Irina Chistyakova looks back at an international concert career spanning ten years. Irina is the youngest of the four protagonists of the film „Russia's Wonder Children“ made in 2000. By now seventeen years old, she is going through a drama that many prodigies experience: while they were children, they were able to stun audiences with the contrast of their delicate appearances and precocious talents. Now, only perfectly accomplished performances matter. In consequence they have become COMPETITORS in the merciless music industry. They all want to get right to the top – but it is tough scaling the dizzy heights to the top of the piano-players' olympus. There's only space for a handful of piano virtuosos.

Like Irina, Nikita Mndoyants (18), Dmitry Krutogolovy (19), and Elena Kolesnichenko (25), are still showered with praise and distinction. But what price did they have to pay for it? Did a barely experienced childhood leave its marks on their psyche? Irina has already had her share of backache, tendonitis and neuritis. Is the constant physical exertion by endless daily practice sessions really justifiable? If they want to become concert pianists, it is inevitable.

The pain – both physical and psychological – is a daily companion and must be overcome somehow. And it is incredibly difficult to add something new, refreshing, something of one's own to the international reservoir of piano ideas.

The film COMPETITORS tells a universal tale of success and failure in the world of classical music. Approaching the four protagonists very closely and combined with moving flashbacks from the film "Russia's Wonder Children", it will become a poetical study with a deeply human touch of four young people growing up under the severe pressure of a just about inhumane competitive strife.

Picture format DVD: NTSC 16:9

Sounds formats DVD: PCM Stereo, DD 5.1, DTS 5.1

Region code: 0

Original Language: Russian

Subtitles: English, German, French

Booklet notes: English, German, French

Running time: 98 mins

FSK: 0

The acclaimed actor and writer Simon Callow returns for a second grand tour as host and narrator of Classical Destinations. This unique TV series combines travel to some of the most amazing cities in Europe with their history, the composers' great stories and their music.

Join Simon as he discovers the great composers by exploring beautiful cities and regions of Europe that inspired them to write the music that has endured for years. Featuring Vienna, Salzburg, Venice, Prague, St Petersburg and Helsinki to name but a few of our destinations.

The scenery, all shot in High Definition, provides a vivid backdrop to the stories of their lives and unfolds a strong connection between the creative mind and its surroundings. The combination of these familiar sights and sounds will never seem the same again.

This first series has now been broadcast globally and has been hailed as an enthralling new approach to the presentation of music, history and travel.

Host & narrator: Simon Callow

Artist in Residence: Niki Vasalakis

Producer & Director: Peter Beveridge

Bonus Features: Additional 20 minutes of extras, including trailers, music clips, bonus material not seen in the series and the much loved TV theme.

DVD 9: Dual Layer Single Sided Disc

Dolby Digital 2.0

Dolby Digital 5.1

All regions

PAL

16:9 Widescreen

Running Time: 5 hours 25mins

The Places

The tour of Norway takes us from the countryside between Gaupne and Sogndal to Bergen, the birthplace of Edvard Grieg, and its surrounding countryside. Trolls make their presence known, and there are views of traditional farm buildings and stave churches from the open-air museum at Maihaugen.

The Music

The music chosen for this tour of Norway is by Norwegian composers, of whom the best known is Edvard Grieg. His Holberg Suite, Norwegian Dances and Erotikon from his Lyric Pieces are heard on this video. Other composers featured are Christian Sinding, composer of the famous Rustle of Spring, and Johan Svendsen.

The Places

The tour starts at the great Augustinian foundation, Kloster Neustift (Novacella), at Brixen (Bressanone) in Southern Tyrol, with its rococo church interior and collection of late medieval paintings. This is followed by a visit to Innsbruck, the capital of the Tyrol, with its famous Goldenes Dachl (Golden Roof) and rococo Wilten Basilica and Collegiate Church.

The Music

The music chosen for this tour of Brixen and Innsbruck is by Mozart and includes two symphonies, with other works. Symphony No. 40 is the second of the group of three final symphonies, written in Vienna in 1787, and Symphony No. 28 was written in Salzburg in 1773 or 1774. Other works included are overtures to the early opera Il rè pastore, to The Abduction from the Seraglio, Mozart’s first operatic success in Vienna, and the overture to La clemenza di Tito, written in 1791, a few months before his death.