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See Terms & Conditions for p&p rates. | |  | Tchaikovsky: Symphonies Nos. 4, 5 & 6Recorded at Salle Pleyel , Paris – 25, 26 & 29 January 2010
Valery Gergiev is widely recognised as the greatest modern interpreter of Tchaikovsky’s music and the Mariinsky holds a peerless reputation in the repertoire. Together they deliver definitive interpretations of Tchaikovsky’s most popular symphonies. These acclaimed performances were filmed at Salle Pleyel in Paris during January 2010, directed by Andy Sommer. The themes of fate and death pervade Tchaikovsky’s final symphonies. The composition of the Fourth Symphony coincided with the breakdown of Tchaikovsky’s marriage and a failed suicide attempt, yet he considered it to be his greatest. In contrast he believed his Fifth to be flawed and uninviting, yet today this heartfelt work is widely regarded as one of his finest. The subject of fate is further instilled in the Sixth Symphony, premiered shortly before Tchaikovsky’s death. It was posthumously entitled ‘Pathétique’ by his brother and is a deeply melancholic work, full of dynamic extremes and an inherent sense of finality. Additional bonus features interview with Valery Gergiev. Tommy Pearson - director. BD 50 ALL REGIONS, 1080i HD 16:9 5.1 DTS HD Master Audio DURATION 150 MIN APPROX “Tchaikovsky's last three symphonies are familiar to the Mariinsky Orchestra and their conductor Valery Gergiev, so one can expect their performances of them to be immaculate. Not a note is out of place, even in the most desperate and hectic passages of these performances...Yet the overall impression is of a paradoxical combination of coolness and hysteria” BBC Music Magazine, December 2011 *** “Gergiev unusually conducts with a baton and creates performances that are both well contoured and emotionally charged. The camera catches all his characteristic poses and photo-frames the pizzicato workings of the Fourth Symphony’s third movement in welcome detail. The Mariinsky musicians have played this repertoire so often that they could probably do it in their sleep, but there’s no sense of routine.” Financial Times, 22nd October 2011 *** | | | Usually despatched in 3 - 4 working days. |
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| |  | Daniel Barenboim and the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra – The Salzburg Concerts
The concerts on this DVD and Blu-ray had been recorded at the 2007 Salzburg Festival, during the orchestras Salzburg residency. The ensemble "proved its status as a first-class orchestra that has no need to shy from comparisons with the philharmonic 'top dogs' from Vienna or Berlin" (Munich's Abendzeitung). The idea of uniting young musicians from Israel, Palestine and various Arab countries into a musical ensemble still seems incredible today. Yet such an orchestra has been flourishing since 1999, when Daniel Barenboim and Edward Said founded the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra. BD: dts-HD MA 5.0, PCM Stereo Total: 122 minutes “captures the sense of music-making on the wing...rarely has the final coda erupted with such overwhelming joy. The same electrifying concentration informs performances of Schoenberg's Variations and Tchaikovsky's Pathetique Symphony, which find Barenboim so emotionally involved that at times he gently coaxes the sounds from the orchestra rather than directing them imperiously.” International Record Review, January 2012 | | | Usually despatched in 2 - 3 working days. |
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| |  | Claudio Abbado conducts Prokofiev, Berg & TchaikovskyLucerne Festival at Easter 2010
Five years after first conducting the Simón Bolívar Youth Orchestra in their Venezuelan home, Claudio Abbado continues his commitment to this stunning ensemble in this first joint audiovisual concert recording. Prokofiev’s extrovert Scythian Suite is a gift for the boundless energy of these young players, while the intricacy and anguish of Berg’s Lulu-Suite are an Abbado speciality, with soprano Anna Prohaska, in her Lucerne Festival debut, singing the heroine’s dazzling statement of self-justification. The concert ends with an impassioned account of Tchaikovsky’s Pathétique, his final symphony, one of the most moving works in music history. Picture Format Blu-Ray: HDCAM 1080/59,94 Sound Formats Blu-Ray: DTS HD Master Audio PCM Stereo Region Code: 0 (worldwide) Booklet notes: Songtexts in German Running Time: 111:45 Disc Format: BD 25 FSK: 0 “Aided by superb camera work, we see him, gaunt but energised, bringing sophistication and élan to Prokofiev’s monster canvas, conjuring magic and fragrance from the Berg and driving the Pathétique to the edge of the abyss.” Financial Times, 14th January 2011 **** “It's amazing the way Abbado brings the melodic writing to the fore in the very different worlds of the Prokofiev and the Berg Lulu Suite, crowned by Anna Prohaska's meaningful characterisation...As for Tchaikovsky's Pathétique, I challenge you to sit unshaken through the way Abbado nurtures string tone, body and vibrato from his Latin players.” BBC Music Magazine, January 2011 **** | | | Usually despatched in 2 - 3 working days. |
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| |  | Karajan Memorial Concert
Karajan's star pupils dedicate this wonderful performance to their teacher as a celebration of his 100th birthday: A "triumph of remembrance," wrote Die Welt following this stirring concert given by the Berliner Philharmoniker under Seiji Ozawa and with Anne-Sophie Mutter as soloist. It left its audience hovering between hushed reverence and deafening exultation.The Golden Hall of Vienna's Musikverein was the dazzling venue for the live recording of this concert celebrating the 100th birthday of Herbert von Karajan. And there Karajan's 'Berliner' never sounded better, evoking "a time which self-confidently sought the private and subjective in music, and believed it could find them in the mirror of the works" (Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung). It is a concert that commemorates Herbert von Karajan for the ages in a supremely moving manner. "For Anne-Sophie Mutter the saying "Make every note count" becomes less a vague cliché and more a matter of fact. Her violin playing has an imagination, a curiosity and a near-endless reserve of psychic energy." The New York Times + BONUS: interviews with Mutter and Ozawa - includes many clips of Karajan's outstanding career. | | | Usually despatched in 2 - 3 working days. |
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