DVD Videos

Günter Wand (1912-2002) made an imperative contribution not only to our understanding of Bruckner but also to that of Schubert as a symphonist. Both composers were particularly close to his heart and his international breakthrough came - late in his life - with his highly-acclaimed Bruckner and Schubert recordings.

In the television recording including Schubert’s wonderful “Unfinished” Symphony, Günter Wand and his inimitable style of conducting are brought back to life in a particularly impressive way. The films of his concerts at the Schleswig-Holstein Musik Festival, from 1987 onwards, can truly be regarded as Günter Wand‘s legacy to the NDR Sinfonieorchester, „his“ orchestra for almost 20 years, on which he has left a mark like no other.

Sound Format: PCM STEREO

DVD Format: DVD 5, NTSC

Picture Format: 16:9

FSK: 0

Running Time: 85 mins

At one of her rare appearances with orchestra, Martha Argerich, the grande dame of the piano, joined forces with world-famous cellist Mischa Maisky and the fabulous Lucerne Symphony Orchestra for the world premiere of a newly commissioned work by Russian composer Rodion Shchedrin – “Romantic Offering”, a double concerto for piano, cello and orchestra dedicated to its very first soloists.

“I’ve attempted to depict and highlight the most distinctive individual qualities of these two musicians … Romantic Offering should inspire new thoughts and experiences. Music isn’t only the product of experiment. It should move your soul and touch your heart.” Rodion Shchedrin

The programme was rounded off by late-Romantic masterpieces by César Franck, Antonín Dvořák and Dmitri Shostakovich’s Ninth Symphony under the baton of renowned maestro Neeme Järvi.

BONUS: Behind the Scenes of a WORLD PREMIERE with Rodion Shchedrin, Martha Argerich and Mischa Maisky.

Picture Format DVD: NTSC 16:9

Sound Formats DVD: Dolby Digital 5.1,

DTS 5.1, PCM Stereo

Region Code: 0 (worldwide)

Running Time: 111:36 min

Running Time Bonus: 16:20 min

Disc Format: DVD 9

FSK: 0

Sir Georg Solti (1912–1997) had been the Music Director of the Opera House, Covent Garden for two years by the time this performance the overture to Wagner’s Der fliegende Holländer was filmed. His reputation for recording Wagner was becoming established, having achieved great success with the first complete recording of Das Rheingold in 1958 for Decca.

This studio recording comes just two weeks after he performed orchestral extracts from Götterdämmerung and Tristan und Isolde at the Proms with the ROH Orchestra, a recording released on BBC Legends to great acclaim.

Solti’s studio recordings of Richard Strauss operas were groundbreaking, achieving him a great reputation as a Strauss conductor with high levels of expressiveness, drama and precision.

This performance of Beethoven 5 was filmed during his tenure as Chief Conductor of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, and was the work that reputedly led Solti to decide to become a conductor on hearing a recording with Erich Kleiber. It is clear from this thrilling performance that his sense of drama did not diminish with age.

This DVD benefits from fascinating bonus rehearsal footage of Don Juan and an interview with John Culshaw in which Solti talks about performing the music of Strauss.

Solti’s Complete Wagner Edition on Decca is a Penguin Guide first recommendation.

This is the first DVD release.

Sound format: Enhanced Mono

Picture format: 4:3

Running time: 78’

Subtitles: F/G

Menu languages: English

Booklet languages: E/F/G

Region code: 0

Territory Restrictions: None

This compilation DVD features the best performances of Viennese classics from the BBC television archive, spanning a vintage period in the history of the Viennese Night Proms concerts: 1974 – 1979.

Audiences at the Viennese Nights rival the enthusiasm of Last Night Prom audiences, a tradition that has been part of the Proms concert season since 1947 and which draws concert goers from all over the world.

Classics featured on this DVD include the Blue Danube Waltz, Radetsky March and the Csardas and Laughing Song from Die Fledermaus, performed by Sheila Armstrong, who made her Covent Garden debut four years prior to the performances recorded here.

The characteristic Viennese waltzes, polkas and overtures are performed with exuberance, good humour and panache by these three great conductors. Both Susskind and Loughran recorded Strauss and other Viennese composers for EMI, with Loughran succeeding Sir John Barbirolli at the Hallé where Viennese Nights are still a strong tradition.

These performances, released for the first time on DVD, will appeal to a wide cross section of the public with branding targeted at the large Viennese/Strauss market, currently dominated by André Rieu.

1DVD

Sound format: LPCM stereo/enhanced mono

Picture format: 4:3

Running time: 86’

Subtitles: n/a

Menu languages: English

Booklet languages: E/F/G

Region code: 0

Territory Restrictions: None

Gennadi Rozhdestvensky was the BBC Symphony Orchestra’s Chief Conductor from 1978 – 1981. The three performances on this disc are taken from two concerts during the

1981 Proms season and represent him at the highest point of his relationship with the orchestra.

One of the premier conductors of Russian music, Rozhdestvensky is well known for his interpretations of (and love for) ballet scores, having first conducted the Nutracker at the Bolshoi aged 20.

In this complete performance of The Nutcracker’s second act, Rozhdestvensky’s deep understanding of the music and affinity for it are evident.

The 1979 recording of Tchaikovsky’s Sleeping Beauty with the BBCSO on BBC Legends was a Penguin Rosette winner – Rozhdestvensky is described as giving caring and sensitive direction, loving attention to detail, narrative drama and having light rhythmic touch and delicacy of feeling. He remains even today, one of the great interpreters of Russian music.

This is the first DVD release.

1DVD

Sound format: LPCM stereo/enhanced mono

Picture format: 4:3

Running time: 64’

Subtitles: n/a

Menu languages: English

Booklet languages: E/F/G

Region code: 0

Territory Restrictions: None

Access to the publicly broadcast BSO concerts from this era has been extremely difficult even for researchers. This series of DVDs will make these performances available for the first time since they were broadcast.

Munch launched the BSO into television in 1955. He was an immensely popular conductor and well suited to being filmed. This material represents some of the earliest televised concerts with the Boston Symphony and Charles Munch, and has been restored using the greatest care and state-of-the-art techniques. It is of exceptional musical interest and rare historic value.

Neither of the two works featured on this DVD have been recorded commercially by Munch, although he programmed both works during his tenure at the BSO.

His renderings of the two symphonies are exciting and spontaneous, with the kind of precision and flair we have come to expect from the BSO under Munch’s buoyant direction.

Two Munch/BSO DVDs from ICA Classics’ first set of releases have been awarded the Diapason d’Or in France’s Diapason magazine.

This is the first DVD release.

1DVD

Sound format: Enhanced mono

Picture format: 4:3

Running time: 92’

Subtitles: n/a

Menu languages: English

Booklet languages: E/F/G

Region code: 0

Territory Restrictions: None

Joshua Bell lights up the stage with this dazzling performance of Tchaikovsky’s Violin Concerto, the centerpiece of the Nobel Prize Concert© in honour of the 2010 Nobel Prize Laureates. Part of the official Nobel Week, this tribute concert opens with music by Beethoven that urgently evokes the spirit of freedom from tyranny. And closing the evening is a glowing account by Sakari Oramo and the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic of Sibelius’s monument to orchestral majesty, the titanic Fifth Symphony.

BONUS: Interviews featuring Joshua Bell, Sakari Oramo and Mario Vargas Llosa, 2010’s Nobel Laureate in Literature

Picture Format DVD: NTSC 16:9

Sound Formats DVD: Dolby Digital 5.1, DTS 5.1, PCM Stereo

Region Code: 0 (worldwide)

Running Time: 91:25

Disc Format: DVD 9

FSK: 0

With its majestic themes soaring upwards like gothic pillars and its brilliant chorales and fanfares glowing like stained – glass windows, Anton Bruckner’s Symphony No. 8 is the most monumental of his orchestral works, a cathedral in sound that grows out of pianissimo murmurs. Coming after the triumphs celebrated by the composer’s Seventh Symphony and Te Deum, the Eighth was considered by Bruckner as the artistic climax of his career.

Cleveland‘s Severance Hall is the venue for this performance. This hall, an eclectic yet elegant mix of Art Deco, Art Nouveau, Classicism, Egyptian Revival and Modernism was inaugurated in 1931 and is still hailed today as one of the world‘s most beautiful concert halls. The Cleveland Orchestra, founded in 1918, began its ascent to the upper ranks of the world‘s ensembles after it moved to Severance Hall in 1931.

BONUS: Pre-concert talk with Dee Perry and Franz Welser-Möst

Sound Format: PCM STEREO, DD 5.1, DTS 5.1

Picture Format: 16:9

DVD Format: DVD 9, NTSC

Language: GB (bonus)

Running Time: 95 mins + 17 mins (bonus)

FSK: 0

It is difficult to pin the multi-talented Michel Legrand down into one single category. This amazingly versatile singer, songwriter, composer, arranger, conductor and producer has enjoyed a whirlwind career, excelling in an impressively broad range of domains from film soundtracks and French ‚chanson‘ to jazz and classical music.

An international star, who has won as much respect in the United States as he has in Europe, Legrand is an insatiable musician whose creativity and ambition appear to know no bounds. “Melody is the mistress of music”, he is fond of saying. Accompanied by the Orchestre National d’Île-de-France, Michel Legrand is going to prove it again tonight by giving us the pleasure of rediscovering, in their symphonic dress, his most beautiful film scores. And all of this together with the Quebec star Mario Pelchat and the kind participation of some of the big names in French song: Maurane, Liane Foly, Patrick Fiori and many surprise guests. For the programme for this evening, the composer has compiled a sumptuous panoramic traveling view, spanning over fi fty years of “Legrandish” cinema, as the Americans like to say. Namely, an anthology of vibrant music written for The Umbrellas of Cherbourg, The Young Girls of Rochefort, Yentl and Ice Station Zebra. That’s not all. As the icing on the birthday cake, the maestro will provide us with a bunch of his most famous songs like Summer ‘42, The Windmills of my Heart and How long to die my Youth. A title that looks very much like a profession of faith.

BONUS: Behind the Scenes - A documentary including interviews with Michel Legrand and other performer as well as backstage and rehearsal footage of the concert.

Sound Format: PCM Stereo

Picture Format: 16:9

DVD Format: DVD 9, NTSC

Subtitle Languages: GB, DE, FR

Running Time: 107 mins + 54 mins (bonus)

FSK: 0