DVD Videos

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

How many people remain in good shape, both mentally and physically, at the age of 106? The answer is very few but Alice Sommer Herz is among those exceptional few. And how many have the gift of forgiveness? And how many are free of hatred? Gigi Sommer has both of those qualities. She was imprisoned, with her six-year-old son, in the Theresienstadt concentration camp and saw unspeakable atrocities. She lost both her mother and her husband in Nazi death camps but she does not hate her persecutors. That is not because they are anything other than monstrous criminals but because she has the wisdom to know that all hatred hurts the soul of the hater, not the hated and Gigi Sommer’s inspiring soul is among the things which she has kept intact and unblemished through her hundred and six years.

She was a pianist of distinction, played more than 100 concerts in the Theresienstadt camp and is in no doubt that music saved both her sanity and her life and the lives of many others in those unimaginable circumstances.

On this DVD Alice Sommer speaks with her quiet grace and wisdom about her life, her experiences and her beliefs. She also plays music by Schubert, Smetana and Beethoven in a manner that reminds us of her teacher Artur Schnabel and a bygone age in music making.

At the age of 104 she published a best-selling book, written in collaboration with her by two German writers, (A Garden of Eden in Hell), which has already been printed in seven different languages. That, and our film, We Want the Light of which she is the heroine, have made Gigi Sommer an international star.

Film remembers our artists in a way that not one of the other media is quite able to match and Gigi Sommer is an artist worth remembering.

Region: 0 (all regions)

Picture format: 16:9 FHA

Sound: Dolby Digital 2.0 stereo

Subtitles:

GB/DE/ES/FR/IT

Running time: 54 mins

In the past decade, China has entered the big league on pianists with Yundi Li, Lang Lang and more recently Yuja Wang featuring in international concerts

A documentary portrait of Chinese pianist Yundi - formerly called Yundi Li and recently signed by EMI - captures the poetic intensity of this young virtuoso as he works with the great maestro Seiji Ozawa to prepare for his debut with the Berlin Philharmonic. This is interwoven with Yundi on tour in his home country, where we meet his family, gain insight into his upbringing and are exposed to the massive scale of piano culture in China.

Yundi started his career in 2000, when he won the famous Chopin Competition, being only 18 years old, and succeeding Pollini, Argerich and Zimerman amongst others. What immediately delighted was his flawless technique and great poetry.

Includes rich material with countless testimonies, the film is punctuated by the repetition of Yundi and Maestro Seiji Ozawa in the 2nd concerto of Prokofiev with the Berlin Philharmonic, revealing a great complicity between the two artists.

Includes a bonus excerpt from a concert Yundi gave at the Festival de La Roque d'Antheron in 2004 where he performed four Liszt Scherzos magnificently and a haunting version of the Campanella.

16:9, PCM stereo, DD 5.1

Region code: 0

Original language: English

Subtitles: English, German, French

Booklet notes: English, German, French

Running time: 88 mins + 44 mins (Concert)

90 minute film directed by the acclaimed, award-winning director Tony Palmer and starring Warren Mitchell.

“Deconstructing the myth and reconstructing a giant. A brilliant re-evaluation of Brahms, told in a breathtaking series of stunning images of aching tenderness.” Chicago Tribune

Brahms’ first musical experience had been playing an upright piano in the brothels of Hamburg; at the end he lived a bachelor in Vienna having his every need satisfied by the prostitutes of the city whom he always affectionately described as his ‘little singing girls’.

89 minute film directed by the acclaimed, award-winning director Tony Palmer and starring Corin Redgrave.

“I, Hector Louis Berlioz, composer, musician, citizen of France, tell you, in this my Last Will and Testament, that my subject is – and has always been – war.”

So begins an epic journey through the terrible struggles that Berlioz endured to get his great opera The Trojans performed. He never succeeded, and the effort cost him his life.

Sir Brian Young, former Director- General of the IBA, wrote at the time of the first transmission: “Absolutely magnificent. It will win the Prix Italia and every BAFTA award going.”

The Places

The musical tour starts in Zürich and moves to the hill-top village of Regensberg. The farmland of Emmental is seen, with Lake Thun and the waterfalls of Lauterbrunnen. Still more impressive is the great Matterhorn and a tribute to mountaineers who have lost their lives there. Zermatt, a popular ski resort as well as a base for climbers, is also seen in the milder days of summer.

The Music

Music for the tour is taken from the first two of Mozart's Violin Concertos, written in Salzburg in 1773 and in 1775 respectively. Mozart composed his five Violin Concertos either for his own use or for the Italian violinist Antonio Brunetti, who was employed, with Mozart, in the musical establishment of the Prince-Archbishop in Salzburg.

The Places

Bavaria has a place of its own in Germany, both geographically and culturally. The tour stars with the Alpine lake known as Königssee and explores the surrounding landscape, including the Berchtesgaden National Park and the gardens of Ludwig II's answer to Versailles, his grandiose Schloss Herrenchiemsee. The tour ends with the Chiemsee, its islands and its tranquil waters.

The Music

The music for the tour is by Johannes Brahms and his colleague and collaborator, the violinist Joseph Joachim. Brahms' Second Symphony, which accompanies the earlier parts of the tour, was described by some contemporaries as Brahms' Pastoral Symphony and provides, in its generally cheerful serenity, an apt accompaniment to views of the Bavarian countryside. Joachim's Overture In memoriam Heinrich von Kleist, written probably in the same year as Brahms' symphony, 1877, commemorates the centenary of the birth of the great German writer.

The Places

Our tour of Italy stars in Verona, with its reminiscences of Romeo and Juliet. Then to Florence, for some 300 years, from 1434, the seat of the powerful Medici family, whose artistic patronage has left an impressive cultural legacy. The tour ends in the south, with Naples, originally a Greek colony and later a Roman port, and then capital of a kingdom, ruled by Normans and later from Spain. Briefly a Habsburg possession, from 1734 it belonged to the Bourbons, before the unification of Italy in 1860.

The Music

Tchaikovsky stayed in Florence on two occasions in 1878, after the disaster of his marriage, hastily contracted, had led him to seek respite abroad. A visit to Rome in 1880 led to the composition of the Italian Capriccio and his opera The Queen of Spades was written in 1890 in Florence, recalled in the same year in his Souvenir de Florence. The other music heard here is the Fantasy Overture, Romeo and Juliet, written in 1869 and based on Shakespeare's play, set in Verona.

The acclaimed actor and writer Simon Callow returns for a second 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, great stories and classical music in a unique and spectacular format.

Together with their Artistic Director Richard Tognetti, the Australian Chamber Orchestra (ACO) joins 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.

'I believe we’ve put together a remarkable selection of music that represents the best of the composers featured. The ACO performs in every episode of the series with over 100 minutes of new recordings.' Richard Tognetti

Running time: 5hrs 25mins

Special Features: 36mins

16:9 Widescreen

All regions

DVD9: Dual layer

Following the success of the enlightening first series of Keeping Score, MTT and SFS return with three further programmes that combine one-hour documentaries with live concert performances. The new programmes explore the music and stories behind the music.

Each of the three DVDs in Keeping Score Series 2 features a documentary episode - with MTT guiding us through the composers’ perspectives and influences - coupled with a live concert performance of each work. The programmes are designed to engage and entertain viewers of all levels of musical background. With outstanding production values, they are released on DVD and Blu-Ray HD formats, making SFS the first orchestra to distribute its product on Blu-Ray disc.

Was Hector Berlioz writing music to get over his obsession with his distant love, Harriet Smithson? Was this symphony his way of saying goodbye, or even seeking revenge? Or was it instead his impassioned valentine to a woman he could not forget?

In 1827, Berlioz saw Harriet Smithson for the first time, playing Ophelia in a production of Hamlet. Hopelessly smitten, he turned his entire life upside down to meet her. Frantic months turned into years when he suddenly heard rumors about Harriet and another man. Believing himself cured, he wrote a ‘fantastic’ symphony complete with a special theme, the idée fixe, to represent his former obsession.

Following the success of the enlightening first series of Keeping Score, MTT and SFS return with three further programmes that combine one-hour documentaries with live concert performances. The new programmes explore the music and stories behind the music.

Each of the three DVDs in Keeping Score Series 2 features a documentary episode - with MTT guiding us through the composers’ perspectives and influences - coupled with a live concert performance of each work. The programmes are designed to engage and entertain viewers of all levels of musical background. With outstanding production values, they are released on DVD and Blu-Ray HD formats, making SFS the first orchestra to distribute its product on Blu-Ray disc.

Coming of age at the dawn of the twentieth century, Charles Ives saw the halcyon days of his youth fading fast. Not willing to let them go, he invented a striking new musical language to enshrine the feelings and ideals of a simpler time. But many, shocked by passages like the “fireworks” in ‘Fourth of July,’ found his new-fangled methods at odds with the memories he was trying to preserve. Did Ives go too far? Or did he succeed in turning his memories into music?