DVD Videos

Alongside Fritz Kreisler, Jascha Heifetz, Nathan Milstein and Yehudi Menuhin, David Oistrakh is universally recognised not only as one of the few truly great violinists of the 20th century and as one of music's most striking personalities. As a result of the political situation of the time, and in particular of Stalinism and the Second World War, Oistrakh's career in the West developed relatively late. It was not until 1953 that he began to make regular appearances in the West, by which time he was already 45 years old, although his legendary reputation had already made him the subject of endless speculation throughout the Western musical world. His first proper international tours instantly confirmed the legend and from then until his death in Amsterdam in 1974 he pursued a varied career both in the concert hall, as soloist and conductor, and as a teacher. His genius as a musician inspired numerous composers to write for him - one thinks of sonatas and concertos by Prokofiev, Khachaturian and Shostakovich, among others, which he not only premiered but continued to perform all over the world. Oistrakh grew up in exceptionally troubled circumstances (he was born in Odessa in 1908) and was largely self-taught as a violinist, yet he became the true founder and undisputed master of the Soviet school of violinplaying, the most prestigious school of our times. Last but not least, Bruno Monsaingeon, the renowned film-maker, brings David Oistrakh's genius to life.

Region Code NTSC: 0

Picture Format: NTSC, 4:3

Subtitles: GB, F

Booklet: GB, D, F

Disc Format: DVD9

No of Discs: 1

Run Time: 75 mins

Released: 2008-10-01

This is a dramatic exploration of the life and works of Franz Schubert. Featuring excerpts from many of his compositions, the central narrative occurs during Schubert’s hospitalization for syphilis, the contraction of which was both a consequence of his darker inclinations and a spur to some of his greatest work. As the doctors diagnose Schubert’s symptoms, identify their cause and administer treatment, the composer conducts his own internal imaginative examination, a sometimes delirious and dreamlike evocation of the moments and music from his past life. The characters he recalls are his maverick friend and ‘Svengali’, Franz von Schober, his authoritarian father, his illustrious but conformist patron Michael Vogl and his unfulfilled love Karoline Esterhazy.

Schubert is played by Simon Russell Beale, von Schober by Jason Flemyng, Father Schubert by Freddie Jones, and Karoline Esterhazy by Emilia Fox. The film features baritone Richard Van Allan as Vogl, and the bass Christopher Maltman as The Singer. The film was made in 1997, and is directed by Roy Goodman.

Michael Crawford has starred in some of the biggest box-office hits of all time. From Frank Spencer in Some Mothers Do 'Ave 'Em, to the original Phantom in Phantom of the Opera, both in London's West End and on Broadway; from circus showman in Barnum to EFX, the multi-million extravaganza at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, the biggest hotel in the world, which he dominated for over two years, playing Merlin, Houdini and H.G.Wells, and which broke all existing box office records. He is the only actor to have won an Olivier Award as 'Best Actor' at the same time as 'Best Actor in a Musical'. And then there was Hello Dolly with Barbra Streisand, The Knack, How I Won the War with John Lennon… And all this for a man whose first stage role was in an opera by Benjamin Britten!

This is a behind-the-scenes intimate portrait of one of the funniest and most versatile of actors, whose popularity in the United States outshines any other British entertainer in the last 30 years, and whose television shows in Britain are just repeated and repeated in all English-speaking countries purely by public demand.

There are so many astonishing facts about Maria Callas...

First, she was born not in Greece but in Manhattan and went to school there. Second, considering her colossal influence and in contrast to the pumped-up, preposterous, overpaid pipsqueak divas of today, her actual international career was tiny - 18 years at most. Third, and in spite of her reputation, her cancellation record was the lowest of any great singer of her day. Fourth, she rarely looked at the conductor during an opera, simply because she could not see him - she was very short-sighted, and often appeared (partly as a result) to be in a trance while on stage. Fifth, she was betrayed by most of those intimate with her throughout her life, and eventually abandoned by many of those who should have known better and who claimed to have loved her. Sixth, she died almost penniless - even her grotesquely rich long-time lover, Onassis, whose marriage to Jackie Kennedy she only discovered by watching the 6 o'clock news, had invested her money in half a cargo boat, which sank. Paradoxically, although she died 30 years ago, her records today outsell every other recorded classical artist, and single handedly keep EMI Classics afloat. Last, hers was not the most beautiful voice of her time, as she frequently admitted. Some days it worked; other days it just didn't.

In the end, those who met her in Paris in the seventies agree that she was one of the loneliest, most desperate of women they had ever encountered, slowly drugging herself to death. "Every day, thank God, is one day less", she told Di Stefano. A summons to tea (for half an hour at most) often lasted until the early hours, with the guest or guests pleaded with not to leave.

It was pathetic and horrible, but it was Callas. It was always Callas, and that was the secret and the magic. We witness on stage a broken woman who sings nakedly from her heart, about herself and her life, who acts with such incredible power and unashamed truth that we stagger back before what we know, in our hearts, is all of her. No artifice here; no vulgar posturings to which her absurd imitators - and there are many - aspire. Gheorghiu, Battle, Garrett - they cannot touch her hem. Maria - just a woman, who often spoke of Callas in the third person, in trouble, asking, begging sometimes, for our understanding and our love. She deserves it, because there was no greater singing actress in our time. And she was only 53 when she died.

AN EXCITING HISTORY OF THE UNIQUE INSTRUMENT

The organ is one of the oldest, most complex and most glorious musical instruments known to men. This four part series outlines the history of this magnifi cent instrument, ranging from the beauty of the sound to the wealth of music written for it, and encompassing not only the craftsmanship involved in building such a complicated (and often ornate) structure, but also the wonderful settings in which these instruments now reside.

VOLUME 4

Tracing the organ’s development, from the beginning of the nineteenth century to the present day, this episode visits France and Switzerland. The impact of changes in society, tastes and musical styles, as well as technological advances, are examined and illustrated with music by Gherardeschi, Reger, Franck, Alain and Messiaen.

Made at the request of the Stravinsky Estate to commemorate the 100th anniversary of Stravinsky’s birth, this highly-praised and award-winning film celebrates one of the most important and influential composers of the 20th century. As Paul Griffiths said in The Times, “this is a wholly wonderful film…much of this portrait is a like a miraculous image, filled with the sense of Stravinsky as man and musician, above all as Russian and believer”.’ S

This autobiographical film includes documents, photographs and film never seen publicly before. Stravinsky’s three surviving children talk about their father, and there are contributions from the late Madam Vera Stravinsky, his musical associates Robert Craft, Marie Rambert, Balanchine, Benny Goodman, Serge Lifar, Jean Cocteau, Diaghilev’s secretary, Nijinsky’s daughter, Rimsky Korsakov’s granddaughter, Nadia Boulanger, Georges Auric and many friends and colleagues. Also included in the film are important performances: Les Noces, heard here for the first time in its original scoring, Petrushka, specially recreated for the film by the Bolshoi ballet in its 1911 choreography, The Rite of Spring, the Symphonies, the Violin Concerto, The Rake’s Progress, The Symphony of Psalms…and much else.

Filmed in communist Russia, France, Switzerland, Latvia, New York and Los Angeles, with the London Symphony Orchestra, the London Sinfonietta, Westminster Abbey Choir, the State Choir of Latvia, the National Radio Orchestra of the U.S.S.R., the Royal Ballet……

Finally, there is priceless film of Stravinsky himself, talking, remembering, conducting, at work and at home and in the room in which he actually composed The Rite of Spring, in this altogether unique portrait.

Recorded live from the Herkulessaal Munich, Sir Colin Davis conducts the Bayerischer Rundfunk Symphony Orchestra, with soloist Gidon Kremer, in a performance of Alban Berg‘ s elegiac Violin Concerto. Alban Berg completed this concerto for violin and orchestra in 1935, impelled by the news of the death of Manon Gropius, the beautiful eighteen-year-old daughter of Mahler‘s widow by her second marriage, to the architect Walter Gropius. He dedicated it “to the memory of an angel”.

THE SECRET LIFE OF ALBAN BERG (DOCUMENTARY)

Alban Berg (1885-1935) lived in the mainstream of well-to-do Austrian society. His marriage to the beautiful Hélène was thought to be made in heaven. But how can this doyen of Viennese respectability be reconciled with the composer who wrote the dark operas Wozzeck and Lulu? In this multi-layered film, director Krišs Rusmanis explores the private world behind the composer’s public image and reveals the double life Berg led, despite his moving protestations of fidelity and devotion to his wife. While condemning the moral hypocrisy of society in Lulu, he concealed the existence of his illegitimate daughter, Albine, continued more than one clandestine love affair and frequented the sleazy haunts that flourished in Vienna. This multi-layered film explores Berg‘s double life. Soprano Kristine Ciesinki, who features in specially-staged extracts from Lulu and Wozzeck, travels to Vienna, Prague, the USA and Germany to track down important archive documents and people who can recall the composer‘s presence in their lives.

AN EXCITING HISTORY OF THE UNIQUE INSTRUMENT

The organ is one of the oldest, most complex and most glorious musical instruments known to men. This four part series outlines the history of this magnifi cent instrument, ranging from the beauty of the sound to the wealth of music written for it, and encompassing not only the craftsmanship involved in building such a complicated (and often ornate) structure, but also the wonderful settings in which these instruments now reside.

VOLUME 3

This episode concentrates on the first half of the eighteenth century – the Golden Age of organ music. The French and German schools of organ-making are explained and illustrated, and the works of Marchand, Dandrieu and Johann Sebastian Bach figure prominently.

This DVD contains one of Christopher Nupen’s famously intimate portraits of leading performers plus a montage of excerpts from his composer films with Ashkenazy as conductor where one sees a very different Ashkenazy from the notably undemonstrative pianist.

The DVD also contains a characteristically modest interview with Ashkenazy on the nature and origins of musical talent and a deeply felt performance of Rachmaninov’s last work for the piano, the Corelli Variations, preceded by an extended introduction and analysis by Ashkenazy that is a model of its kind.

Ashkenazy started high by winning the Queen Elizabeth of the Belgians Prize at the age of 18 and later the Tchaikovsky competition but that was only the start, his career has continued to rise steadily from then until now. He is probably the most frequently recorded pianist in history with a discography that runs to 56 pages and he has also become an international conductor of the highest rank.

In the first film on the DVD, Ashkenazy’s boyish charm and the winning good looks of his Icelandic wife gave the film a very appealing quality from its first appearance. In the intervening years it has become also an affectionately remembered historical document with a good deal of associated nostalgia.

The organ is one of the oldest, most complex and most glorious musical instruments known to men. This four part series outlines the history of this magnificent instrument, ranging from the beauty of the sound to the wealth of music written for it, and encompassing not only the craftsmanship involved in building such a complicated (and often ornate) structure, but also the wonderful settings in which these instruments now reside.

VOLUME 2 Focusing on the influence of the great German school of organ builders in Northern Europe, this episode was filmed in The Netherlands and Germany. With the advent of the Lutheran reforms in the church, the organ became an increasingly widespread and important part of religious worship. The development of organ music from Sweelinck, the ‘maker of organists’, through Buxtehude to the golden age, in which the genius of Johann Sebastian Bach is highlighted, is shown.