DVD Videos

The Berlin Philharmonic under Claudio Abbado applauded by an ecstatic Japanese audience, with a programme of Russian favourites.

Mussorgsky together with Nikolay Rimsky-Korsakov, Cesar Cui, Aleksandr Borodin and Mily Balakirev formed the „mighty handful“, later known as „The Five“. This group of Russian composers saw it as their mission to dedicate their creative activity wholly to national Russian music based on folk songs. The present performance by the Berlin Philharmonic conducted by Claudio Abbado of „A Night on the Bare Mountain“ - in the original version by the composer – also exists in a completely reworked version by Rimsky-Korsakov with a more conventional instrumentation.

„The Firebird Suite“ is one of Stravinsky‘s most successful compositions, existing in three versions. The second version, from 1919, to be heard in the present recording, calls for a mid-sized orchestra (including percussion, harp and piano). The suite from 1919, probably the most frequently performed version, contains only seven numbers from the original 19 in the two-act ballet version. The 4th and 5th Symphonies were written ten years apart during a period in which Tchaikovsky found himself at the pinnacle of his popularity but also during a phase of inner development and doubt concerning whether he had come to the point of „composer‘s block“. It took Tchaikovsky about four weeks to sketch his 5th Symphony and another three weeks for the instrumentation. The premiere in Moscow in 1888, which he himself conducted, was only moderately successful. Nowadays, however, the work counts among Tchaikovsky‘s most beloved compositions.

Sound Format: PCM STEREO, DD 5.1, DTS 5.1

Picture Format: 16:9

DVD Format: DVD 9, PAL

Running Time: 97 mins

FSK: 0

After Prague, Madrid and London, in 1994 it was the turn of Meiningen to host the Europe concert which, as in previous years, was held to celebrate the foundation of the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra on 1st May 1882.

The German pianist and conductor, Hans von Bülow (1830-1894) - the centenary of whose death the concert also commemorates - was engaged here, from 1880 until 1885, with the Meininger Hoforchester before being appointed the fi rst Principal Conductor of the Berlin Philharmonic. Meiningen, situated at the centre of a Germany no longer divided by the Iron Curtain, can look back on a great musical past. During the course of the last century, the town developed into a theatre and musical centre, which it has remained to this day.

The concert opens with Beethoven‘s fi fth piano concerto, a majestic, virtuoso work which enthralls. This present recording is impressive for two reasons: on the one hand there is the imperial character of the work itself, and then there are the musicians, Abbado and Barenboim. In their interpretation of this highly imaginative and expressive work, genius and charisma have combined to produce a delicately magical, and at the same time powerfully virtuoso performance of one of music‘s greatest piano concertos. The concert concludes with Brahms second symphony.

Sound Format: PCM Stereo, DD 5.1 , DTS 5.1

Picture Format: 4:3

DVD Format: DVD 9, PAL

Running Time: 86 mins

FSK: 0

Love is the motto of the 1998 New Year‘s Eve Concert. And who wrote better music about love than Mozart and Verdi? Maestro Claudio Abbado has chosen two of the best Mozart interpreters of our day, Christine Schäfer and Simon Keenlyside, for this traditionally meaningful event. Marcelo Álvarez from Argentina, compared by some to a young Domingo, sings highlights of the tenor repertoire, and Italian Primadonna Mirella Freni tops the occasion with a breathtaking performance of the Letter scene of Tchaikovsky‘s Eugene Onegin.

Sound Format: PCM STEREO, DD 5.1

Picture Format: 16:9

DVD Format: DVD 9, PAL

Running Time: 90 mins

FSK: 0

An extraordinary programme for an extraordinary night: The Berliner Philharmoniker celebrates the final day of the 20th Century with Grand Finales in the first part and heralds the leap into the 21st Century with an explosion of sparkling music pieces in the 2nd half of the programme. For the Grand Finales, maestro Abbado conducts masterpieces like Beethoven‘s Finale of the 7th symphony, excerpts from Stravinsky‘s „Firebird“ and the final movement of Mahler‘s 5th Symphony. In the famous Finale of Arnold Schoenberg‘s „Gurre Lieder“, the internationally renowned actor Klaus Maria Brandauer plays a leading role.

Sound Format: PCM STEREO, DD 5.1

Picture Format: 16:9

DVD Format: DVD 9, PAL

Running Time: 113 mins

FSK: 0

Claudio Abbado conducts the Berliner Philharmoniker and soloists Anatoly Kocherga and Kolja Blacher at the Mariinsky Theatre in St Petersburg.

The 1996 concert began in honour of their Russian hosts with popular highlights from Prokofiev’s Romeo and Juliet and the Cavatina from Sergei Rachmaninov’s Aleko. The second part of the concert features Beethoven’s Violin Romances, with Kolja Blacher leading the orchestra to an enthusiastic reception from the audience, and the Seventh Symphony.

Sound Format: PCM STEREO, DD 5.1

Picture Format: 16:9

DVD Format: DVD 9, PAL

Running Time: 90 mins

FSK: 0

Stockholm‘s Vasa Museum harbours an extraordinary historical attraction: a large, fully intact sailing ship from the 17th Century, the “Vasa”. The ship was laid down in 1626. It took some 400 shipyard workers no more than two years to turn a thousand felled oak trees into a proud ship ready for her maiden voyage. Yet before she had even sailed out of port, the “Vasa” capsized and sank. All initial attempts to salvage the wreck remained fruitless, with only fi fty-three of the sixty-four bronze canons being recovered.

It was to be another three hundred years before the “Vasa” was found in 1953, buried at a depth of 32 metres. It was decided the wreck should be salvaged. Years of work ensued to drill tunnels beneath the keel of the ship, steel cables were then strung through the tunnels and the completely undamaged ship was lifted to the light of day. Once exposed to the atmosphere, the ship had to be spraytreated to ensure its future preservation. Nowadays, the huge exhibition hall of the Vasa Museum is home to the ancient ship, which measures 69 metres in length, almost 12 metres in width and weighs 1,210 tonnes. At a keel-to-mast height of some 52 metres, the Vasa‘s masts are forced to protrude from the museum‘s roof. These unusual surroundings formed the venue for the Berliner Philharmoniker‘s 1998 European Concert in Sweden, which was conducted by Claudio Abbado.

Sound Format: PCM STEREO, DD 5.1

Picture Format: 16:9

DVD Format: DVD 9, PAL

Running Time: 100 mins

As one of the most beautiful open-air venues in Europe, the Berlin Waldbühne draws more than twenty thousand people per year to enjoy popular classical music performed by the world-renowned Berlin Philharmonic under the beguiling canopy of a summer night’s sky.

While some of the most famous conductors have already taken the podium at these concerts, repeated performances have most notably been given by the Italian maestro Claudio Abbado.

The programme of Abbado’s 1996 “Italian Night” at the Waldbühne focused on highlights from operas by the Italian composers Giuseppe Verdi, Gioacchino Rossini and the master of bel canto – Vincenzo Bellini.

Claudio Abbado and the Berlin Philharmonic were once again accompanied by outstanding luminaries from the international opera scene: the Romanian soprano Angela Gheorghiu, whose exquisite good looks are surpassed only by the sublime beauty of her voice, the great Russian tenor Sergej Larin and the Welsh bass-baritone Bryn Terfel, one of the most soughtafter opera and oratorio singers in the world.

Sound Format: PCM STEREO, DD 5.1

Picture Format: 4:3

DVD Format: DVD 9, PAL

Running Time: 107 mins

FSK: 0

“Like a cry of Nature”: thus the expression mark that opens Gustav Mahler’s First Symphony – and the programme of the Festival 2009 which takes up Nature as its guiding theme. Mahler, in the First Symphony, shaped the “cry of nature” into a musical vision of an entire human life in four stages – from a spring-like upsurge of feelings through desire and suffering, to the end of earthly existence and the entrance into Paradise.

The opening treats listeners to a spectacular début as the twenty-two-year-old Chinese pianist Yuja Wang plays Sergei Prokofiev's Third Piano Concerto. In her Lucerne appearances she displays the full range of her artistry as Prokofiev’s Third Piano Concerto demands not only lyricism and intimacy but brilliance and virtuosity.

Claudio Abbado has realised a dream with the Lucerne Festival Orchestra. The orchestra consists of an exclusive ensemble of handpicked musicians like Kolja Blacher and Sebastian Breuninger, Natalia Gutman, Clemens Hagen and Jens Peter Maintz.

Claudio Abbado is undeniably a supreme Mahler conductor and his best selling recordings with the Lucerne Festival Orchestra – symphonies No. 2, 3, 5, 6, 7 and 9 have already been released on EuroArts – have set new standards in interpretation of works by Gustav Mahler.

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: 79 mins

FSK: 0

The Berlin Philharmonic annual European Concerts are intended to recall the date on which the orchestra was founded, 1st May 1882, with a performance being given on this day in a different town or city of particular cultural and historical importance. In 2002 it was the turn of the Teatro Massimo in Palermo, one of Europe’s most important opera houses both artistically and architecturally. In a programme of much-loved pieces from the classical repertoire, with the celebrated Gil Shaham as soloist,Abbado once again demonstrated how he upheld the unsurpassed orchestral tradition of the BPO with his profound music-making. Viewers of this concert, broadcast all over Europe, were inspired to see the maestro so relaxed, gesticulating so emphatically.This was the last time in his 12 years as the orchestra’s artistic director that the revered Italian maestro Claudio Abbado conducted a European Concert.

Bonus Film:A Portrait of Palermo

NTSC 16:9, PCM Stereo, DD 5.1, DTS 5.1

Region code: 0,Audience: all

Language: German (Bonus)

Subtitles: English, German, French, Spanish, Italian

Booklet notes: English, German, French

Running time: 112 mins + 20 mins (Bonus)

A film by Phil Grabsky, director of the critically acclaimed In Search of Mozart, narrated by Juliet Stevenson and featuring the world’s greatest musicians and orchestras including: Claudio Abbado, Riccardo Chailly, Paul Lewis, Leipzig Gewandhauss Orchestra, Orchestra of the 18th Century and many more.

He is one of the greatest musicians and composer in history and yet his life-story is shrouded in myth and misunderstanding. So just what is the true story of Ludwig van Beethoven? Let the story unfold….

‘Superb… the film will give those who already know about Beethoven enormous pleasure, but it would also provide any receptive 12 year old with an ideal introduction to the man and his music’ The Telegraph