The Places - Potsdam owes it's development as a garrison town to the soldier king of Prussia, Frederick William I. The park and palaces of Sanssouci, however, largely reflect the very different taste of his son, Frederick the Great, who reigned from 1740 to 1786. The park of Sanssouci, established first in 1725, includes later changes in a number of distinct horticultural styles, with lay-out in Dutch, French and English taste. The Music - Bach's set of six concertos known as the Brandenburg Concertos was completed in 1721 at C+¦then, where Bach was director of court music, possibly using some compositions written during earlier years at the court of Weimar. Bach presented the set to the Margrave of Brandenburg, prefaced by a dedication in French, from which it seems that the prince had asked Bach for something of his at a meeting some two years earlier in Berlin. There is no indication that the works were performed, and at the Margrave's death in 1734 the manuscripts were sold, apparently in a lot of 77 concertos 'by different masters'. The fame and wide popularity of the Brandenburg Concertos was to come later. Included here are the first three concertos and a Siciliano.

The tour starts in Northern Italy, in Ravenna, once the capital of the Roman Emperor Honorius, who moved there from Milan with his court in C.E. 402. The place is famous for it's mosaics. The tour also takes US to Faenza, famous for it's majolica ware, known as faience, and to the great Basilica of San Marco in Venice and it's Carnival. The music for this tour of Italy is by Mozart and includes his two Flute Concertos, written for a patron during a visit to Mannheim in 1777-78.

The places visited include St Petersburg, Peter the Great's new westward-looking capital, and the traditional capital, Moscow. In Ukraine we see Odessa with the famous Potemkin Steps and something of the surrounding countryside of a region that for long offered holiday resorts to those living in Moscow or St Petersburg.

UKRAINE AND UZBEKISTAN



The Places
Starting in St Petersburg, once the capital of Russia under Peter the Great, our tour takes us to Ukraine and to Uzbekistan before returning first to Moscow and then to St Petersburg and the famous Marïinsky Theatre, where Tchaikovsky's The Sleeping Beauty and Nutcracker were first performed.


The Music
The Russian composer Tchaikovsky had a mastery of the smaller forms demanded by ballet, with its series of relatively short scenes. Excerpts from his three famous ballet scores, The Sleeping Beauty, Swan Lake and Nutcracker, provide the music to accompany a tour of Russia, Ukraine and Uzbekistan.


Picture format: NTSC 4:3
Sound format: Dolby Digital / DTS Surround
Region code: 0 (worldwide)
Running time: 59 mins
No. of DVDs: 1

The tour takes US first to the carnival celebrations in Basel, with it's elaborate displays. There follows a visit to Vigeland Park in Oslo, with it's characteristic figures, the work of Gustav Vigeland. The music chosen for this tour is by Schumann. His Carnaval accompanies the carnival in Basel, flowers in the countryside are depicted in Blumenstuck and the granite figures in Vigeland Park, in Oslo, are matched with Scenes of Childhood.

SOUTHERN TYROL – TICINO


The Places
Northern Italy has been ruled by various powers over the centuries. The Southern Tyrol, seen here, retains much of its Austrian past, with some regions predominantly German-speaking and others Italian. Scenes are shown of the Dolomites, the strangely shaped rock formations, a typical castle and mountain lakes. There are also views of the neighbouring Swiss-Italian canton of Ticino.


The Music
Music for the tour is by Beethoven, with his Violin Concerto, written and first performed in Vienna, and one of his two Romances for solo violin and orchestra, independent pieces perhaps intended as slow movements for another concerto that was never completed.


Picture format: NTSC 4:3
Sound format: Dolby Digital / DTS Surround
Region code: 0 (worldwide)
Running time: 58 mins
No. of DVDs: 1

The Places: The musical tour of Spain starts at the present capital, Madrid, the principal city of Castile. From Madrid it is not too far to the plains of La Mancha, a region always remembered for it's association with the great hero of Miguel Cervantes, Don Quijote de la Mancha, whose windmills, mistaken by him for giants, form a characteristic element in the landscape. The varied history of Spain is seen in the city of Cordoba, once capital of a Moorish kingdom, and the gardens of the Alcazar of the Christian Kings. The Music: The music chosen for the tour of Spain may be characteristically Spanish in it's rhythms and turns of melody, but is all the work of foreigners, two of the composers, Chabrier and Massenet, French, and two of them, Glinka and Rimsky-Korsakov, Russian. For France, geographically adjacent to Spain, there was an obvious connection with Spain, which continued to exercise a certain fascination over it's neighbor. Russian composers in the 19th century embarked on the creation of a new national music, but at the same time drew on remoter countries for inspiration, whether on the different regions of the vast Russian Empire or still further afield.

The tour starts with views of Catherine the Great's Palace at Tsarskoe Selo and leads eventually to the resort of Pavlovsk, after scenes from Ukraine. The music is taken from two of Rachmaninov's four piano concertos. The Second Concerto is among the most popular in romantic repertoire, while the Third Concerto is among the most challenging.

The journey starts in Switzerland, in the canton of Thurgau, leading from Steckborn and the Bodensee to the Rhine Falls. From Styria, in Austria, comes Hockosterwitz Castle and from Bavaria Weikersheim Castle, the latter intercut with wild life.

The Places - the scenes shown are of the Benedictine Abbey and Church at Einsiedeln, in the Swiss canton of Schwyz. The monastery, in origin dating from the 10th century, was largely rebuilt in the 18th century to designs by Caspar Moosbrugger of Vorarlberg, a former lay brother in the community, and has long been an important centre of pilgrimage to the shrine of the Black Madonna, now in a black marble chapel built in the early 19th century. The impressive interior of the church contains frescos by Cosmas Damian Asam and stucco work by his brother Egid Quirin Asam. The Music - the tour is accompanied by the third and fourth of the four Orchestral Suites by Johann Sebastian Bach and a Concerto for oboe, violin and continuo by Antonio Vivaldi.

TOLEDO AND CÓRDOBA



The Places
Our visit to Spain centres on the old capital of Castile, Toledo, historically famous for its steel and swords, the home of the great painter known as El Greco. There are views of Córdoba, with its relics of Moorish occupation and a brief glimpse of the windmills on the plains of La Mancha, buildings Don Quixote once mistook for giants.


The Music
The music of Spain held an exotic attraction for composers from other countries. The French composer Lalo was of remote Spanish origin himself, and his Symphonie espagnole, written for the great Spanish violinist Pablo Sarasate, evokes the spirit of the country. Sarasate himself is represented here by a gypsy piece, Zigeunerweisen, and the versatile and prolific French composer Saint-Saëns, who also dedicated a number of works to Sarasate, by his Spanish Havanaise.


Picture format: NTSC 4:3
Sound format: Dolby Digital / DTS Surround
Region code: 0 (worldwide)
Running time: 52 mins
No. of DVDs: 1

The Music • Violinist, priest and most prolific composer, Antonio Vivaldi was born in Venice in 1678 and spent most of his life there, associated for much of the time with the Ospedale della Pietà, a charitable institution for girls, with a strong musical tradition. The music for the tour is taken from his concertos for flute.

AUSTRIA

The Places
The places visited include Hohenwerfen Castle, the Weissensee, Styria, Linz, Aggstein, Hallein and Baden.

The Music
The music chosen for this tour of Austria consists of Mozart’s Violin Concertos Nos. 3 and 5, written during his early adulthood in Salzburg.

Picture format: NTSC 4:3
Sound format: PCM Stereo 2.0
Region code: 0 (worldwide)
Running time: 56 mins
No. of DVDs: 1

SALZBURG

The Places
The places visited are associated in one way or another with Mozart. He was born in 1756 in Salzburg, where his father was a leading musician at the court of the ruling Prince-Archbishop, and remained there, with occasional breaks for foreign concert tours, until he was finally able to break free in 1781 and settle in Vienna, where he spent the last ten years of his short life.

The Music
The music chosen for the tour of Salzburg and its surroundings consists of two piano concertos by Mozart, written during his earlier successful years of independence in Vienna for subscription concerts at which he performed as soloist.

Picture format: NTSC 4:3
Sound format: PCM Stereo 2.0
Region code: 0 (worldwide)
Running time: 57 mins
No. of DVDs: 1

AUSTRIA

The Places
The tour starts in Salzburg, with glimpses of the Austrian countryside, often in winter snow. It ends in the district of Salzburg, where it began.

The Music
The music is taken from three serenades by Mozart. The most famous, Eine kleine Nachtmusik, written in 1787 in Vienna, is followed by two serenades written ten years earlier for social occasions in Salzburg.

Picture format: NTSC 4:3
Sound format: PCM Stereo 2.0
Region code: 0 (worldwide)
Running time: 68 mins
No. of DVDs: 1

The Places • The tour begins in the Salzkammergut, most of which lies nowadays in Upper Austria. It includes Hellbrunn Palace and the Residenz in Salzburg and the Styrian city of Graz. The Music • The music for our journey is taken from Mozart's Haffner Serenade, written in honour of a friend in Mozart's native city of Salzburg.