DVD Videos

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?

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.

In 1937 Russia, at the height of Stalin’s purges, the Communist Party strongly denounced Dmitri Shostakovich’s most recent works. Fearing for his life, the young composer wrote a symphony ending with a rousing march. But to many, the triumph rang hollow. Even today, people wonder just what Shostakovich was trying to say. Was the symphony meant to celebrate Stalin’s regime? Or did it contain hidden messages protesting the very system it seemed to support?

This recording commemorates the 50th anniversary of Joaquín Achúcarro’s debut with the London Symphony Orchestra after winning the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic International Competition in 1959. Recorded at Jerwood Hall, St Luke’s, London, with Britain’s eminent conductor Colin Davis at the helm, Achúcarro delivers a consummate performance that brilliantly expresses his delicate and passionate style. Extra features include a substantial documentary about Achúcarro’s career and performances of solo piano pieces by Brahms, Chopin, Scriabin and Albéniz filmed in the beautiful setting of the Prado museum, Madrid.

“Achúcarro’s approach is unorthodox in today’s stick-to-theletter-of-the-score, mechanically perfect musical world. His rubati seem excessive to some; to others, like a throwback to a Golden Age. For all of his reverence for the great composers whose music he plays, he maintains a healthy sense of their humanity as well. “Our duty is first of all to understand what composer does and wants, and then to try to deliver it the best we can, but also to serve the music,” he says. “And maybe sometimes the composer is wrong.” He adds, “People say you must follow the text. But if you follow the text, perhaps the music is not totally served.” … And he views what he does as a performer as an act of creation in its own right.” The Washington Post

Extra features:

Joaquín Achúcarro: 50 years on

Documentary including interviews with Plácido Domingo, Simon Rattle and Zubin Mehta.

Running time 131 mins

Region code All regions

Picture format 16:9

Anamorphic Sound format 2.0 PCM & 5.1 DTS

Menu language EN

Subtitles EN/FR/DE/ES/IT

The extraordinary atmosphere of this Open Air venue is the imagination of this production. More than 20,000 people attended the yearly Open Air Concert of the Berliner Philharmoniker at the Waldbühne in Berlin. The atmosphere is as unique as the Night of the Proms Concert.

This is a full programme of musical showpieces and some of the most popular pieces of classical music like Tchaikovsky The Nutcracker, Mascagni Intermezzo, Paganini Il carnevale die Venezia and Sibelius Valse triste.

The famous violinist Vadim Repin is clearly happy to indulge, performing here with all the appropriate showmanship and artistry alongside the first-class Berliner Philharmoniker and Mariss Jansons. This isn´t only a production for core classical lovers – this is a night for a wide audience.

“Repin’s playing of the Paganini has to be watched to be believed, and the audience, quite justifiably, go wild at the end, causing him to repeat the piece, this time modified for even greater effect, enchanting all present including orchestra and conductor. " John Phillips, MusicWeb International

Picture format DVD: NTSC 16:9

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

Region code: 0

Booklet notes: English, German, French

Running time: 116 mins

Audience: all

This festive gala concert was held to mark the city’s 300th anniversary, bringing together some of the greatest Russian artists: young soprano Anna Netrebko, baritone Dmitri Hvorostovsky, such great instrumentalists as cellist Mischa Maisky and violinist Viktor Tretyakov.

World-famous St. Petersburg Philharmonic under Yuri Temirkanov in a repertoire of fascinating variety.

An extraordinary evening with a lot of highlights from the most loved classical masterpieces.

Re-release of our very successful DVD and Blu-ray.

“Anna Netrebko has become one of the most admired of young lyric sopranos the world over" The Gramophone Magazine

Picture format DVD: NTSC 16:9

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

Region code: 0

Booklet notes: English, German, French

Running time: 112 mins

Audience: all

The Places

A city built on an archipelago of 117 islets, Venice is remarkable in many ways. Unsullied by modern traffic, its buildings retain much of their historic character and something of the magic of the place is reflected in our tour which visits a number of the principal sites and reflects the changing light, which casts a spell of its own.

The Music

Violinist, priest and most prolific composer, Antonio Vivaldi was born in Venice in 1678 and spent most of his life there, associated for much of the time with the Ospedale della Pietà, a charitable institution for girls, with a strong musical tradition. The music for the tour is taken from his collection of twelve concertos, Il Cimento dell'Armonia e dell'Inventione (The Contest of Harmony and Invention), published in Paris in 1725.

The Places

The places visited range from the icy slopes of the Jungfraujoch, approached by the highest railway in Europe, to the tranquility of Lake Thun, the imposing waterfalls of Trümmelbach and the distinctive French, German, Italian and Romansch regions of the country.

The Music

The music for this tour of Switzerland is by Franz Schubert, a composer who spent his life largely in his native Vienna. His famous Unfinished Symphony, the two movements of which were written in 1822, were not performed until 37 years after Schubert's death, when the manuscripts were discovered at the home of Schubert's friend Anselm Hüttenbrenner. The music continues with Schubert's Fifth Symphony, written in the space of a few weeks in 1816, when the composer was nineteen.

The Places

The tour of Paris starts with the Eiffel Tower and includes the famous landmarks of the French capital, the Churches of Notre-Dame and the Sacré Coeur, the Opéra Garnier and the great river, the Seine, that runs through the city. The tour ends with a nocturnal view of Paris and an excursion to Chartres, with its magnificent cathedral.

The Music

Music for the tour is by Beethoven, who at one time seemed to hope for employment in Paris. His Eroica Symphony was at first intended as a celebration of his one-time hero, Napoleon, but reflected, in the end, his disillusion when Napoleon had himself crowned as Emperor. The music used also includes Beethoven's Coriolanus Overture, written, not for Shakespeare's play, but for a contemporary drama by Heinrich von Collin.

The annual New Year’s Concert from Vienna, seen by millions on TV worldwide, is the best-known classical concert in the world.

Georges Prêtre returns to Vienna’s illustrious Musikverein to conduct a compelling programme that combines adored classics with no less than four intriguing premieres. Idolized in Vienna, the legendary French maestro, Georges Prêtre (who first came to eminence for his recordings with the great Maria Callas) is a leading expert on and interpreter of the music of the Strauss family.