DVD Videos

This is the only available documentary about Mariss Jansons from his early career until present day. Jansons himself relates the story of his youth and education, historical footage shows the young maestro with his mentor Herbert von Karajan and taking his first steps towards an international career.

Mariss Jansons is one of the leading conductors, performing with all the important orchestras in the world. Film maker Robert Neumüller observes Jansons in rehearsal for the New Year Concert with the Vienna Philharmonic, as well as working with the top orchestras he is currently heading, the Royal Concertgebouw and the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra.

This 2 DVD-set includes a performance of Mahler Symphony No. 2 “Resurrection” with Mariss Jansons conducting the Concertgebouw Orchestra, one of the best orchestra’s in the world.

“Mariss Jansons is one of the best orchestra builders around.” The New York Times

“No conductor has a more extraordinary story to tell than Mariss Jansons.” The Independent

Running Time Total: 147 Minutes

Documentary: 53 Minutes

Concert: 94 Minutes

DVD: DTS 5.1, PCM Stereo

Subtitles Documentary and Symphony: Original language: German, English, French, Spanish, Chinese, Korean subtitles

Not since Paganini had there been such a magician on the violin. We see never-seen-before vintage filmed performance clips and home movies of Jascha Heifetz and learn that he was the first truly modern violin virtuoso, the man about whom Itzhak Perlman said, “When I spoke with him, I thought, ‘I can’t believe I’m talking with God’.”

This film portrays an artist for whom only perfection would do. A musical ‚wunderkind’ who went on to set the standards for nearly a century. We get to know through home movies and personal family photos taken from 1903-1987, a prestigious concert artist so well known in popular culture, his name became shorthand for greatness, for everyone from Jack Benny to The Muppets to Woody Allen. Filmed in Vilna, Lithuania, Saint Petersburg, Russia, and in the Heifetz Studio in Los Angeles, this documentary re-creates a life that spanned the 20th Century, a life that both influenced the period, and was affected by its turbulent times.

We hear from all the great violinists of his generation, and from many of his former students who are still alive, that Heifetz was a legendary but mysterious figure whose story embodies the dual nature of artistic genius: the paradox of how a mortal man lives with immortal gifts – gifts he must honor, but which extract a lifelong price. Is the man and the artist the same person? What is the price each pays? And who was the man behind the music?

Picture format DVD: NTSC 4:3

Sounds formats DVD: PCM Stereo

Region code: 0

Original language: English

Subtitles: German, French, Spanish

Booklet notes: English, German, French

Running time: 88 mins

The Places

On a hill above the ancient town of Kulmbach stands the imposing 12th century Hohenzollern fortress of Plassenburg. Among various collections on display is the remarkable Tin Soldier Museum, with various figures and dioramas that recreate battles and mirror the great castle itself, with a variety of scenes from all periods of human history.

The Music

The March has an inevitable part to play in human history. Marco Polo remarked on the use of music by the armies of China to terrify the enemy before a battle. Military music, however, has a more precise purpose, whatever alarm it may strike into the hearts of those who hear it. Drums and trumpets may serve as useful signals, to advance or retreat, to eat or to sleep. The same instruments and their near relations may serve to keep an army moving together, and may serve to inspire feelings of bravery and patriotism. At the same time a march can provide a suitable accompaniment to an occasion of solemnity, a wedding, a funeral or a state ceremony. The music chosen for this tour offers a series of Marches by different composers, culminating in Mendelssohn’s Wedding March.

Video Format • NTSC / Colour / 4:3

Audio Format • DTS 5.1 / Dolby Digital 5.1 / PCM Stereo 2.0

Region Coding • No Region Coding

The Places

Ludwig II of Bavaria followed family precedent in undertaking an extravagant building programme during his relatively short reign from 1864 to 1886.

The castles constructed on his orders included the romantic Neuschwanstein and the magnificent Schloss Linderhof, with its elaborate formal gardens, grottoes and fountains. The tour ends with a brief glimpse of the mountainous Southern Tyrol in winter snow.

The Music

Richard Wagner’s innovative and immensely influential music dramas were largely based on older German legend, notably on the Nibelungenlied, the basis of his tetralogy The Ring. Ludwig II was fascinated by Wagner and by his operas, on subjects that had long been dear to him. These include the opera Lohengrin, which Ludwig first saw in 1861, the beginning of his preoccupation with Wagner, and the earlier opera Tannhäuser. The music chosen also includes an overture by Heinrich Marschner to an opera based on the old Bohemian legend of Hans Heiling, son of an Earth Spirit.

Video Format • NTSC / Colour / 4:3

Audio Format • DTS 5.1 / Dolby Digital 5.1 / PCM Stereo 2.0

Region Coding • No Region Coding

This re-release — an improved version of Christopher Nupen’s Schubert DVD — contains two of his most famous films: The Trout, which is almost certainly the most frequently broadcast classical music film in the history of television and Franz Peter Schubert: The Greatest Love and the Greatest Sorrow which many people think is his best — perhaps because it was 10 years in the making.

As with most of Christopher Nupen’s DVDs this one contains two films which are entirely different in style and character from one another.

The Trout which was shot in 1969 is an explosion of youthful exuberance that was unlike anything that had ever been seen before. The protagonists were unknown to the general public when the film was shot but have since come to be recognised as being among the most affectionately remembered musicians of our time. Their names: Daniel Barenboim, Itzhak Perlman, Pinchas Zukerman, Jacqueline du Pré and Zubin Mehta.

Franz Peter Schubert: The Greatest Love and the Greatest Sorrow was described by Sir Isaiah Berlin as, “This most poignant of tributes to Schubert.” It is not a film about Schubert’s life. It is a film about his extraordinary achievements in the last 20 months of his life after the death of his god, Beethoven. Schubert himself said, “Who, after Beethoven, may dare to do anything.” The answer was Franz Peter Schubert, who took the language of music forward into new and uncharted territory once he was liberated from his own profound respect for his predecessor. However, unlike Beethoven, he does not sing of the fullness of the earth. Instead, he laments for our mortality and what he has to say, ranks among the greatest achievements in music. The musicians are Vladimir Ashkenazy, Andreas Schmidt, Antje Weithaas and Michael Sanderling.

Nominated at Banff and winner of Czech Crystal at Golden Prague.

Format: NTSC

Region: 0 (all regions)

Picture format: 4:3 and 16:9 letterbox

Sound: Dolby Digital 2.0 stereo

Subtitles: DE/EN/ES/FR/IT

Running time: 182 mins

The Places

The Tuscan city of Siena has a long history and is the site of one of the earliest great Gothic churches of the region, instantly recognisable from the polychrome marble and sculptures of its façade. From Siena our tour goes to Pisa, where, inevitably, the famous leaning tower and its adjacent buildings are the centre of our attention. The tour ends with a visit to Nervi, a resort that is now part of the city of Genoa, and the Villa Luxoro, with its collections of objets d’art.

The Music

Music for the tour is by Beethoven, with his Piano Concerto No. 1, completed in 1795, and his first numbered Piano Sonata, one of a set of three, published in 1796 and dedicated to his teacher, Joseph Haydn.

Video Format • NTSC / Colour / 4:3

Audio Format • DTS 5.1 / Dolby Digital 5.1 / PCM Stereo 2.0

Region Coding • No Region Coding

AT WORK

Sylvie Guillem joined the corps de ballet of the Paris Opera when she was just fifteen and earned the distinction of Prima Ballerina within a mere four years. At the age of nineteen, she became an étoile in Nureyev‘s “Swan Lake”. It shows her dedication to perfection, but also reveals that her meteoric rise to the pinnacle of her profession has left her refreshingly unspoilt. This film shows the prima ballerina in her daily round of classes, rehearsals and performances, revealing her dedication to perfection. Guillem’s preparation for Nureyev’s “Raymonda”, her first performances in Rudi van Dantzig’s “Four Last Songs” and William Forsythe’s “In the Middle, Somewhat Elevated”, and her appearance at a gala, dancing Béjart’s “La Luna”, are all recorded for posterity in this film.

PORTRAIT

Sylvie Guillem is a dance superstar whose breathtaking technique ranks her beside the likes of Nureyev and Baryshnikov. She rarely agrees to interviews but co-operated fully with director Nigel Wattis for this profile. The programme centres on film of Guillem rehearsing and performing a range of pieces, both contemporary and classical, which display her astonishing virtuosity. Guillem talks about her work with some of the world’s most interesting and acclaimed choreographers. Her sharp intelligence and intimate knowledge of their work, as well as her insights into the world of dance, are fascinating and informative.

Maurice Béjart, Mats Ek, Anthony Dowell and critics John Percival and Clement Crisp are among the contributors who discuss Ms Guillem’s remarkable talent, career and personality.

“On stage, she is spectacular: as powerfully sensual as she is graceful and vulnerable. To dance like Guillem takes more than long legs and flawless technique. She is an artist who brings her own interpretation to a choreographer’s work.” The Independent

This is a film about the rehearsing of Molière's 'Tartuffe' in 1995. Working handheld or with a stand for up to 12 hours a day, cameraman Eric Darmon became so much part of the landscape that he had a totally free hand in documenting the play's gestation, complete with director Ariane Mnouchkine's instructions, urgings and moments of uncertainty. Every action, decision, and all the tensions, elation, gaffes and bouts of craziness were filmed as they happened. And then along came editor Catherine Vilpoux, faced with 580 hours of rushes and a titanic exercise in viewing, sorting, selecting and assembling.

Gradually the film took shape – a shape that reflects the Théâtre du Soleil's commitment to finding the right theatrical form. Ultimately, is this a film about stage directing? About a troupe of actors? About the way actors work? About how an actor is born? About the learning process? The teaching process? The theatre? Life? Probably all of that. And an unparalleled work of its kind.

A coproduction of AGAT Films & Cie, le Théâtre du Soleil, La Sept ARTE.

On this DVD WERGO presents the extraordinary documentary ‘The Sound of Shadows’ together with a performance of Peter Vogel’s ‘Sound Wall’.

Peter Vogel’s works fuse art and science in a unique way. His sound walls are six-metre-long wire sculptures that have been affixed horizontally to a wall at eye level. Equipped with dozens of sensors which respond to sound, light or movement, the sound walls become play objects: the observer himself creates or improvises a composition, based on predefined sound material, through his movements. It is only through this interplay between observer and sound wall that the work is completed. Correspondingly, Peter Vogel describes the idea of his sound wall as interactive ‘environment’.

"The environment represents a place of the audience's activity … The observer's scope of action consists in the activation or non-activation of the environment …, in the speed of his movements, his responsiveness, in the rhythm of his movements – in short, in his individual ability to structure motion in time and respond to musical structures."

This documentary by Jean Martin and Conall Gleeson features Peter Vogel during an exhibition in Paris as well as in his Freiburg studio. Here he talks about the aesthetic approach to his art, presents sound objects and explains circuitry. In addition, the documentary includes statements of David Toop (curator and writer, London), Matthias Osterwold (artistic director of the MaerzMusik Festival, Berlin) and Helga de la Motte (musicologist) about Vogel's art. In addition to the video, the DVD contains pdf files of all texts of the booklet as well as an essay by Nye Parry.

Documentary by Peter Rosen

Combining interviews with rare archival footage, Shadows in Paradise portrays the vibrant atmosphere of the Los Angeles German-speaking exile community during the 1930s and 1940s, revealing their struggles, frustrations and accomplishments.

By 1939, 30,000 intellectuals and radicals were exiled from Europe; eighty percent of which were Jewish. The events of WWII forced many of the greatest minds of the 20th century into exile in the United States.

The scores of émigrés who settled in Southern California, such as composers Arnold Schoenberg, Erich Wolfgang Korngold, Ernst Krenek, Erich Zeisl, and Walter Arlen, writers Thomas Mann and Bertolt Brecht, and director Fritz Lang, briefly transformed the area into one of the capitals of world culture, and profoundly altered the horizons of American music, literature, and the arts.

Picture format DVD: NTSC 16:9

Sounds formats DVD: PCM Stereo

Region code: 0

Booklet notes: English, German, French

Original Language: English

Subtitles: German, French

Running time: 55 mins