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See Terms & Conditions for p&p rates. | |  | including nine documentaries in a hardcover box
After the very successful release of the single DVDs we now release Christian Thielemann and the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra performing Beethoven Symphonies Nos. 1 – 9 including nine one hour documentaries, one for each film. Maestro Thielemann and Joachim Kaiser (the most famous German music critic) discuss and analyze in an entertaining conversational exchange Thielemann’s interpretation, complemented by excerpts from rehearsals as well as by comparisons of Beethoven cycles with Karajan, Bernstein, Böhm, Järvi etc. This is the Beethoven cycle of the 21st century! 9 DVDs or 3 Blu-rays in a valuable hardcover box with 16 hours of concerts and documentaries. “Thielemann´s reading of the Beethoven symphonies stands heads and shoulders above the countless and mostly undistinguishable versions on offer.” Die Presse “The performances, the Vienna Philharmonic on top form, can't help sounding wonderful...oddly, it is the discussions that are the most enjoyable elements in this ambitious set.” BBC Music Magazine * * */ * “This is growling, mane-shaking Beethoven: a traditional approach to the music with full sound and large forces. Thielemann takes a precise yet lyrical approach to the music, as he discusses and demonstrates in the three hour-long accompanying musicological discussions.” Classic FM Magazine * * * * Total: 956 minutes Symphonies: 446 minutes Documentaries: 510 minutes DVD: DTS 5.0, PCM Stereo Subtitles E, F, Sp, I, Kor., Chin. NTSC: 3 DVD Amaray boxes in a harcover box (containing 9 DVDs) “the hour-long film that accompanies each of the nine masterpieces here...is chock-full of revealing information...the radiant sanity of [Thielemann's] approach shines through every bar...for a set in which the Austro-German invincibility of this extraordinary music is felt gradually mounting through the cycle as a whole, as if in one magnificent sweep, we haven't had a set to compare seriously with this since Karajan's final cycle of the 1980s.” International Record Review, January 2012 | | | In stock - usually despatched within 1 working day. |
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| |  | Charles Munch conducts Beethoven
Access to the publicly broadcast BSO concerts from this era has been extremely difficult even for researchers. This series of DVDs will make these performances available for the first time since they were broadcast. Munch launched the BSO into television in 1955. He was an immensely popular conductor and well suited to being filmed. This material represents some of the earliest televised concerts with the Boston Symphony and Charles Munch, and has been restored using the greatest care and state-of-the-art techniques. It is of exceptional musical interest and historical value. This performance of extracts from The Creatures of Prometheus is a rare one, Munch having only conducted the ballet at the BSO in one season (four performances in total). In addition to the overture, Munch added two further movements from the ballet, which are not performed as frequently. According to Richard Dyer, Munch’s performance of the Fourth Symphony is both fiery and fun, gracious and exhilarating. The fifth symphony perfectly encompasses Munch’s exuberance and panache. 1DVD Sound format: LCPM mono Picture format: 4:3 Running time: 83’ Subtitles: n/a Menu languages: English Booklet languages: E/F/G Region code: 0 Territory Restrictions: None “Some of the most expert playing here comes in the Beethoven Symphonies, in which strings demonstrate effortless synchronisation and winds pass phrases between one another seamlessly....[Munch] seems perpetually engaged and is liable to break into a grin or ecstatic grimace at any moment.” BBC Music Magazine, July 2011 **** | | | In stock - usually despatched within 1 working day. |
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| |  | Bernstein - Beethoven Cycle Part 3
with introductions to the symphonies by Bernstein Recording Place & Date: Musikverein, Vienna, February 1978 (Sinf. 3) Musikverein, Vienna, November 1978 (Sinf. 4) Konzerthaus, Vienna, September 1977 (Sinf. 5) | | | In stock - usually despatched within 1 working day. |
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| |  | Jurowski conducts BeethovenRecorded live at the Théâtre des Champs-Elysées, Paris, 4 February 2010
Vladimir Jurowski conducts Beethoven gathers the lesser known Symphony No. 4 - composed when Beethoven was enjoying one of the most peaceful time of his life - with the celebrated Symphony No. 7 and the Coriolan Overture. For this performance filmed live at the Théâtre des Champs-Elysées in Paris, Vladimir Jurowski chose to collaborate with the musicians of the world famous Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment who perform on period instruments, shedding a radically different light on works that we are so accustomed to hear on modern instruments. As the youngster of today’s classical music scene, Jurowski already gained international stardom in conducting. “Vladimir Jurowski, more medium than conductor, produces ever more faultlessly gorgeous, languid sounds." Robert Thicknesse, The Times 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: 89 mins FSK: 0 “The sound is magnificent...The performances are well-crafted, and the camerawork shows just enough for Jurowski fans of his well-choreographed conducting...it is worth hearing just for the wonderfully rasping horns in the Trio, and the especially beautiful account of Symphony No. 4” BBC Music Magazine, August 2011 **** “how lucky the Parisians were to experience this magnificent concert. It begins with the Coriolan overture, passion offset by delicate, liquid playing from the woodwind...The Seventh Symphony is even better. Jurowski keeps an iron grip on the dancing rhythm of the first-movement Vivace, screwing up the tension with the minor-and-major-second clashes in the development section” Gramophone Magazine, October 2011 “the music making is dramatic, rhythmically alive, often spacious and consistently engaging.” MusicWeb International, January 2012 | | | Usually despatched in 2 - 3 working days. |
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| |  | Beethoven: Symphonies Nos. 1-4
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| |  | Beethoven - Symphonies Nos. 4 & 7
Recorded live at the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia, Rome, February 2001 “The most wonderful symphonic cycle of the past decade!” La Repubblica | | | Usually despatched in 2 - 3 working days. |
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| |  | Beethoven - Symphonies Nos. 4, 5 & 6
Disks also available as part of a box-set | | | Usually despatched in 8 - 10 working days. |
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| |  | Beethoven - Symphonies Nos. 4 & 7
First release on DVD | | | Usually despatched in 8 - 10 working days. |
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| |  | Beethoven - Symphonies Nos. 4, 5 & 6
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When Gielen started confronting orchestras and audiences with Performances of Beethoven that took the composer’s metronome markings literally, he was met with displeasure and incomprehension on all sides. The prevailing opinion was that there was something wrong with Beethoven’s metronome (or else with the conductor who took the figures seriously). But Gielen refuses to see why Fate necessarily has to knock at the door slowly (in the Fifth). “Why can’t it knock rapidly? After all, Fate is impatient.” And a gigantic movement like the Allegro con brio of the “Eroica” is incomprehensible except at the fast tempo Beethoven asks for. The Legendary Recording of Ludwig van Beethoven's symphonies with SWR Sinfonieorchester Baden-Baden und Freiburg. Picture format DVD: NTSC 4:3 Sound formats DVD: PCM Stereo, Dolby Digital 5.1, DTS 5.1 Region code: 0 Subtitles: English, German, French Booklet notes: English, German, French Running time: DVD 1: 110 mins, DVD 2: 114 mins, DVD 3: 141 mins “they are in every way worth hearing. Whilst there is nothing flashy or of novelty for its own sake about these performances they are imaginative, coherent and well considered. Internal balance is superbly well controlled so that the listener is constantly amazed at just how much they have missed in other performances...All in all this is a set impressive for its understanding, honesty and conviction” MusicWeb International, March 2013 | 
| | | This item is currently out of stock at the UK distributor. You may order it now but please be aware that it may be six weeks or more before it can be despatched. |
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