DVD Videos

"This was one of the most beautiful New Year's Concerts since Karajan and Kleiber. Franz Welser-Möst knows how the music of the Strauss-dynasty, the music of Lanner and Hellmesberger has to sound" Österreich on the 2011 NY Concert

Sony Classical is pleased to announce the release of the recording of one of the world’s most famous classical music events: the New Year’s Concert 2013 with the Vienna Philharmonic under the baton of celebrated conductor, Franz Welser-Möst. He returns to direct the 2013 celebrations after his acclaimed debut in 2011. Maestro Welser-Mőst is the former Music Director of the London Philharmonic Orchestra.

The annual New Year's Day Concert in the stunning Vienna Musikverein has been an exalted tradition for more than seven decades and the resulting recordings with works from the Strauss dynasty and their contemporaries are among the classical market's most important releases.

The concert will be broadcast on TV and radio to over 70 countries around the world with an estimate of more than 40 million viewers.

The programme traditionally revolves around waltzes and polkas by the Strauss family (Johann father and son as well as Josef and Eduard Strauss) whose music has enjoyed recent chart resurgence. The proven formula blends well-known classics with premieres of works that have never been performed before at the New Year´s Concert and the result is invariably both joyful and moving. The programme will remain a closely guarded secret until a few days before the event, but it can already be revealed that in 2013 the concert will include more premieres than ever before and probably some unexpected surprises. As is tradition, the concert will include the famous waltz The Blue Danube and the Radetzky March.

Raymond Briggs' children's story is adapted for the stage, with music composed and conducted by Howard Blake. After building a snowman in his garden, a young boy is taken on a series of magical adventures.

The HD film of the most popular Christmas show of all time, newly narrated by Joanna Lumley. 10th anniversary edition.

Following the great success of The Goat Rodeo Sessions album (88697891862), The Goat Rodeo Sessions Live on DVD and Blu-Ray brings cellist Yo-Yo Ma, fiddler Stuart Duncan, bassist Edgar Meyer and mandolinist Chris Thile together for a one-night-only concert that was filmed at the House of Blues in Boston in January 2012. The four string virtuosos were joined by guest vocalist, Aoife O’Donovan.

While each musician is a renowned superstar in his own sphere, they have come together now as a unified ensemble on a most remarkable and organic cross-genre project stemming from their friendship, and the title concept. The Goat Rodeo is summed up by Yo-Yo Ma: “In the end, what we’re trying to do is simply make music that transcends whatever roots or categories of backgrounds that it starts from – that just exists as something that we’re trying to express, through our community of values, as a moment in time creating very special music.”

Sony Music is proud to announce the DVD release of the highly acclaimed film 32 Short Films About Glenn Gould, which has been unavailable for many years

Internationally renowned pianist Glenn Gould had all the marks of genius – blinding talent, a craving for perfection and absolute bullheadedness. In THIRTY TWO SHORT FILMS ABOUT GLENN GOULD, director François Girard goes directly to the center of Gould’s ideas, his passions and his music. Using thirty-two elegantly constructed vignettes, the film span Gould’s life from the age of four until his untimely death aged fifty.

THIRTY TWO SHORT FILMS ABOUT GLENN GOULD opened in 1993 and won four Genie Awards by the Academy of Canadian Cinema & Television, including Best Picture and Best Director, as well as a special citation at the 1993 Toronto Film Festival. It has not been available on DVD for many years in the UK and is reissued to commemorate the 30th year since he passed, and the 80th year since his birth.

Review and description from Rovi:

The highly acclaimed and famously eccentric classical pianist Glenn Gould is the subject of this idiosyncratic film portrait. As the title suggests, Gould's life is explored through a series of thirty-two self-contained but interrelated vignettes, a structure inspired by Bach's "Goldberg Variations", the compositions that were the basis for one of Gould's most famous recordings. Fictional recreations, many starring an excellent Colm Feore as Gould, follow the musician from his precocious childhood to his early death at the age of fifty. Juicy biographical details like a surprising early retirement from public performance and an addiction to prescription drugs are featured prominently, but equal attention is paid to Gould's challenging theoretical ideas. Director Francois Girard refuses to provide easy explanations for the pianist's quirks, instead using his unconventional structure to provide great insight while suggesting the real Gould remains essentially unknowable. Especially interesting is the film's mix of dramatization and documentary, as it juxtaposes its fictional recreations with actual interviews with Gould's friends and associates.

DVD and Blu-Ray will include a live version of the New Year’s Concert as well as bonus footage: A special tour through Vienna, guided by members of the Vienna Philharmonic plus 3 ballet bonus tracks.

Sony Classical is pleased to announce the release of the recording of one of the world’s most famous classical music events: the 2012 New Year’s Concert with the Vienna Philharmonic. Latvian conductor Mariss Jansons returns to direct the 2012 celebrations after his acclaimed debut in 2006. The live recording encompasses releases on CD, DVD and Blu-ray.

The annual New Year's Day Concert in the stunning Vienna Musikverein has been an exalted tradition for more than seven decades, and the resulting recordings with works from the Strauss dynasty and their contemporaries are among the classical market's most important releases. The concert will be broadcast on TV and radio to over 70 countries around the world with an estimate of more than 40 million viewers.

The programme traditionally revolves around waltzes and polkas by the Strauss family (Johann father and son as well as Josef and Eduard Strauss) whose music has enjoyed a recent resurgence due to the success of André Rieu and his Johann Strauss Orchestra. In 2012 the programme is once again a skilful blend of well-known classics and six New Year’s Concert premieres. As always the concert is bound to end with two traditional encores – the famous waltz The Blue Danube and the Radetzky March.

“It is something quite special: a wonderful opportunity to listen to this music and get to know it. This atmosphere, the Vienna Philharmonic, the Golden Hall of the Musikverein – all that adds up to a long and wonderful tradition resulting in fantastic, very specific music.” Mariss Jansons

Sony Classical is proud to announce the release of the DVD and Blu-ray Lang Lang - Liszt Now, the companion video component to the star pianist’s latest recording project Liszt: My Piano Hero, which has stormed the world’s classical and pop album charts.

The content is split into two main components:

LIVE AT THE ROUNDHOUSE – 60-minute live concert from iTunes Festival

THE ART OF BEING A VIRTUOSO – 71-minute documentary following Lang Lang’s global celebrations of Franz Liszt’s anniversary

Also included is a 55-minute bonus feature - a musical and visual journey based on the projections used at the iTunes Festival concert

Liszt Now presents the stunning 60-minute live concert from London’s Roundhouse, recorded at the iTunes festival in May 2011. Dynamically filmed with twelve HD cameras with specially created video projections on LED screens, the concert offers a spectacular multimedia experience, featuring ten of Franz Liszt’s finest solo piano pieces.

In addition to the film of the concert, Live at the Roundhouse, the product also includes a 71-minute documentary, The Art of Being a Virtuoso. Captured over a period of five months, the film offers a unique insight into the life and mind of a modern virtuoso, following Lang Lang closely through Asia, the USA and Europe. THE ART OF BEING A VIRTUOSO links Lang Lang and his hero, Franz Liszt, painting a portrait of two exceptional men who made their childhood dreams come true and ascended to the ranks of the greatest musicians the world has ever known. An imaginative encounter between the virtuosos LANG LANG and his piano hero FRANZ LISZT, two remarkable musical prodigies and classical music’s biggest stars.

Recorded live in 1978

Directed by Julie Taymor

Recorded live on 20th December 1980