Signature Performance Series

Claudio Arrau has been playing the piano to great international acclaim for almost eighty years. From Tokyo to Berlin to Paris to London to New York, he has won the love and admiration of music-lovers around the world. He has built his career largely without the help of hype or hysteria. Arrau’s repertoire is larger than that of any other pianist of his time. He is known universally as “The Emperor”.

Although he has performed everywhere in the world except China, there is one country that is especially dear to Arrau’s heart: and that is his native Chile. His triumphant return to Chile in 1984 after an absence of 17 years was an event of national importance, ranking with Franz Liszt’s return to Hungary. In this program, we’ll join Maestro Arrau as he returns to the land of his birth. And we’ll also go back and trace the events in the life of this extraordinary artist. And finally, we’ll hear Maestro Arrau perform his signature work, Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 5 in E-Flat Major, the “Emperor” Concerto.

This programme includes a 40-minute documentary tracing Arrau's life and career.

Picture format DVD: NTSC 4:3

Sounds formats DVD: DD 2.0

Region code: 0

Subtitles: English, German, French, Spanish

Booklet notes: English, German, French

Running time: 85 mins

FSK: 0

Fourth part of the successful 4-part Signature Performance Series.

Claudio Arrau, one of the twentieth century’s greatest pianists, offered this concert at New York City’s Avery Fisher Hall in 1983 to celebrate his 80th birthday. To a capacity crowd, Arrau demonstrates how he earned this reputation, and why he still deserves it.

A Herculean performance of two Beethoven sonatas, the ‘Waldstein’ and ‘Appassionata’, is followed by music of Debussy, Liszt and Chopin. In these six works, we see the truth of Arrau’s own words that ‘an interpreter must give his blood to the work interpreted.’

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: 111 mins

Third part of the successful 4-part Signature Performance Series.

Only rarely do musicians win fame as great interpreters of everything they touch. However, the Chilean pianist Claudio Arrau was one such virtuoso. Like his great predecessors Liszt and Busoni, Arrau was renowned for reaching to the stylistic core of every composer he performed.

In this historic recital, filmed during his rapturously received return to Santiago in 1984, Arrau demonstrates profound insights into the music of Beethoven, Schubert, Chopin, Liszt and Debussy, all of whom were dear to him.

Picture format DVD: NTSC 4:3

Sounds formats DVD: DD 2.0

Region code: 0

Original language: English

Subtitles: German, French, Spanish

Booklet notes: English, German, French

Running time: 115 mins

German FSK: 0

Of the world’s greatest pianists, perhaps only Claudio Arrau is as famous for his Brahms as he is for his Beethoven. His versions of the two epic Brahms Piano Concertos, one with Carlo Maria Giulini and the other with Bernard Haitink, are cherished landmark performances in every record collector’s library. As for his interpretation of the monumental Sonata No.3, there the revered master pianist truly outdoes himself. Today, no one else brings to the work the same powerful vision of romantic passion and depth of feeling allied to a transcendent virtuosity.

This historic performance was filmed in May 1984 when Maestro Arrau returned to play in Santiago, Chile, after an absence of 17 years. He was given a reception by his countrymen probably without equal.

Claudio Arrau has been playing the piano to great international acclaim for almost eighty years. From Tokyo to Berlin to Paris to London to New York, he has won the love and admiration of music-lovers around the world. He has built his career largely without the help of hype or hysteria. Arrau’s repertoire is larger than that of any other pianist of his time.

Picture format DVD: NTSC 4:3

Sounds formats DVD: DD 2.0

Region code: 0

Original language: English

Subtitles: German, French, Spanish

Booklet notes: English, German, French

Running time: 110 mins

FSK: 0