Claudio Abbado was undeniably the supreme Mahler conductor of our time. With his Lucerne Festival Orchestra he has set new standards in the field of classical music, especially in the interpretation of works by Gustav Mahler. The core of the orchestra is provided by the Mahler Chamber Orchestra, itself an elite body of players. Soloists like violinist Kolja Blacher, clarinettist Sabine Meyer, oboist Albrecht Mayer, violist Wolfram Christ, cellist Natalia Gutman, the Hagen Quartet and members of the Alban Berg Quartet to name just a few, make the Lucerne Festival Orchestra a star-studded ensemble. This 4 Blu-ray Disc Box set is including the Mahler Symphonies Nos. 1-7 with the Lucerne Festival Orchestra and Claudio Abbado. An afficionado must-have! "Has there ever been a suaver, more transparent Mahler performance or one in which everything stays so beautifully in tune?... Abbado's music-making is a celebration of the purest joy." The Gramophone Magazine
Mahler: Symphony No 8 / Wit, Warsaw National Po [blu-ray Audio]
Naxos AudioVisual
Blu-Ray
$21.99Apr 26, 2011
With it's enormous vocal, choral and orchestral forces, Mahler' Eighth Symphony, later to be dubbed 'ymphony of a Thousand', is one of the largest and longest symphonies in the active repertoire. Part One, inspired by the Whitsuntide Vesper hymn.
This Blu-ray Disc is only playable on Blu-ray Disc players and not compatible with standard DVD players.
Also available on standard DVD Gustav Mahler’s Symphony No. 1 is an incomprehensible wonder of music history, rigorously peculiar, disturbingly new, and timelessly modern. “Wie ein Naturlaut” (Like a sound of nature) is indicated above the first notes of the symphony. It is both the prelude and the key to his symphonic cosmos as a whole. Mahler captures this music of the world, transforms it into a symphony in the old, comprehensive sense of the word and uses it to create his masterpiece of harmony. Composed over the course of just a few months at the beginning of 1888 in Leipzig, this symphony is a true musical awakening. Riccardo Chailly and the Gewandhausorchester Leipzig bring Mahler’s sounds of nature to life in a riveting performance. This production was recorded live in January 2015 at the Gewandhaus zu Leipzig. As a bonus, this release also includes an exclusive interview with Riccardo Chailly.
Andris Nelsons conducted the Lucerne Festival Orchestra for the third time in August 2015, the orchestra’s second summer without founder and guiding spirit Claudio Abbado. The first half of his concert was already a highlight: the baritone Matthias Goerne seemed completely at home in a selection of songs from Des Knaben Wunderhorn. His warm, dark voice allows him to capture the somber and tragic atmosphere of this music like no one else. Its shaded timbre is most perfectly suited to the work’s melancholy and nocturnal moods, where one can directly experience how an artist of this caliber can bring music to the edge of the abyss. The Lucerne Festival Orchestra, renowned for its unique Mahler sound, had last played Mahler’s Symphony No. 5 in the summer of 2004 with Abbado – a flowing, transparent, and ethereal interpretation. Nelsons finds a completely different approach to the work. His Mahler is fiery, expansive, and powerful. In spite of the introductory funeral march, his reading is more positive than tragic, radiating an intense vitality. It is breathtaking to observe the orchestra’s response to Nelsons’s energetic, physical, and emotional conducting style. The relationship between orchestra and conductor is one of giving and taking, nothing else.
Picture Format Blu?ray: NTSC 16:9, Full HD
Sound Formats Blu?ray: DTS HD Master Audio, PCM Stereo
Region Code: 0 (worldwide)
Running Time: 123:12 min
Disc Format: BD 25
Subtitles: German (Original), French, English, Japanese, Korean
Gaetano Donizetti's tragic opera Maria Stuarda depicts the merciless rivalry between Elizabeth I and Mary, Queen of Scots, who is seen as a martyr facing up to the illegitimate Queen of England. The opera was a victim of censorship at it's premiere and was beset by problems during rehearsals but is now seen as one of Donizetti's great operatic masterpieces. From the flamboyantly lyrical royal confrontations to the poignant final execution scene, this widely acclaimed production by David McVicar features monumental sets and sumptuous Elizabethan costumes, bringing the majesty and stark brutality of Elizabeth I's reign vividly to life.
With a sublime cast and the revolutionary staging by Ulrich Rasche, this Salzburg Festival production of Donizetti's Maria Stuarda transforms a bel canto masterpiece into an evening of theatre. The conflict between Maria and Elisabetta becomes tangible through contrasting costumes, a constantly shifting space of rotating platforms, and projected images. Lisette Oropesa's Maria showcases 'a truly wonderful display of vocal intelligence, human warmth and a completely effortless, natural tone' (Süddeutsche Zeitung), while Kate Lindsey's Elisabetta conveys the fury and despair of the English monarch with striking intensity. Under the baton of Antonello Manacorda and with the outstanding contribution of the Salzburg Experimental Academy of Dance, this production conquers through rhythm, movement, and physical presence as expressive forces. 'Lisette Oropesa imbues all of this with vocal mastery and emotion. Beyond pure virtuosity, she shapes the inner workings of the character into operatic drama.' (Der Standard)
These live performances from Snape Maltings Concert Hall present some of the most popular classical works for younger audiences. Their perennial appeal is a result of vivid melodies, witty instrumental characterisation, and in three works, the use of spoken texts to illuminate the narrative. Whether composed to amuse, entertain or educate, each possesses marvellous vitality, lyricism and bravura. The performances are conducted and narrated by Marin Alsop, one of the world’s most inspirational musical communicators.
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REVIEW:
The chamber orchestra used for Saint-Saens's Carnival of the Animals, with two solo pianists, is of excellent quality. By far the most frequently played section, The Swan, is beautifully performed by the principal cello of this student ensemble.
The video was made in 2017 and 2018, the young people having had the good fortune of working with the conductor, Marin Alsop. The resulting concerts were filmed with Alsop acting as narrator, that narration becoming more serious as she takes us through The Young Persons Guide to the Orchestra, a searching test for the young players who give a very creditable performance. As one would expect from the Snape Malting's venue, the sound quality is excellent, the result being a highly desirable gift for the children in your life.
At one of her rare appearances with orchestra, Martha Argerich, the grande dame of the piano, joined forces with world-famous cellist Mischa Maisky and the fabulous Lucerne Symphony Orchestra for the world premiere of a newly commissioned work by Russian composer Rodion Shchedrin – “Romantic Offering”, a double concerto for piano, cello and orchestra dedicated to its very first soloists. The programme was rounded off by late-Romantic masterpieces by César Franck, Antonín Dvo?ák and Dmitri Shostakovich’s Ninth Symphony under the baton of renowned maestro Neeme Järvi.
“I’ve attempted to depict and highlight the most distinctive individual qualities of these two musicians … Romantic Offering should inspire new thoughts and experiences. Music isn’t only the product of experiment. It should move your soul and touch your heart.” Rodion Shchedrin
Recorded live at the Concert Hall of the Culture and Convention Center (KKL), Lucerne, 9–10 February 2011.
Bonus: - Behind the Scenes of a world première with Rodion Shchedrin, Martha Argerich and Mischa Maisky.
Picture format: 1080i Full-HD Sound format: PCM Stereo / DTS-HD Master Audio Region code: 0 (worldwide) Running time: 112 mins (concert) + 17 mins (bonus) No. of Discs: 1 (BD 25)
Bohuslav Martinu's opera The Greek Passion, here in the 1961 version, is based on the novel The re-crucified Christ by Nikos Kazantzakis. The opera develops the Christian doctrine of "love thy neighbour" ad absurdum, as a group of refugees are driven out of a little Greek village just as the village is putting on a Passion play for Holy Week. The opera is a pessimistic plea for humanity, made in the awareness that humanity must always wrestle anew with it's own egoism. Director Simon Stone "creates a modern parable, somehow both contemporary and timeless." (The Times) For the last of his 16 operas, Martinu developed a tonal language which combined his early musical experiences with elements of Greek folklore, Greek Orthodox liturgy and dance music. Maxime Pascal, the 2014 winner of the Salzburg Festival's annual Young Conductors Award and at the podium of the Wiener Philharmoniker for the first time, "unfolds a musical and dramatic intensity that makes your hair stand on end, both in the tender outbursts and the violent ones. A maestro of his time." (Le Figaro) "A highlight of this year's Salzburg Festival" The Times The Greek Passion elected "BEST PERFORMANCE OF THE YEAR 2023" OPER! Awards 2024 "This opulence and the playing of the overall grippingly coherent ensemble hits one to the core." Neue Musikzeitung
Award winning director Damiano Michieletto has brought together these two short operas, both of which are set in a poverty-stricken Southern Italy village in the early 1980s where the Mafia has a stranglehold. Music Director of the Royal Opera, Antonio Pappano, conducts this star studded cast which includes charming Dutch soprano Eva-Maria Westbroek, vivacious Italian soprano Carmen Giannattasio, and exhilarating Latvian tenor Aleksandrs Antonenko. These two works are prime examples of verismo opera- a genre of opera which focuses on the everyday struggles of the common man rather than on mythical or historical legends. Extra features included in this set are Introduction to Cavalleria Rusticana, Introduction to Pagliacc, an interview with Antonio Pappano on the music, and a cast gallery.
Mascagni: Cavalleria Rusticana; Leoncavallo: I Pagliacci / Lopez-Cobos, Madrid Teatro Real
Opus Arte
Blu-Ray
$42.99Feb 24, 2009
*** This Blu-ray Disc is only playable on Blu-ray Disc players and not compatible with standard DVD or HD DVD players. ***
Pietro Mascagni CAVALLERIA RUSTICANA
Santuzza – Violeta Urmana Turiddu – Vincenzo La Scola Lola – Dragana Jugovic Mamma Lucia – Viorica Cortez Alfio – Marco di Felice
Ruggero Leoncavallo PAGLIACCI
Canio – Vladimir Galouzine Nedda – María Bayo Tonio – Carlo Guelfi Beppe – Antonio Gandía Silvio – Ángel Ódena
Chorus and Orchestra of the Teatro Real, Madrid Jesús López Cobos, conductor
Giancarlo del Monaco, stage director
Recorded live at the Teatro Real, Madrid, in February and March 2007.
Bonus: - Interviews with Giancarlo del Monaco, Jesús López Cobos, Violeta Urmana, Vincenzo La Scola, Vladimir Galouzine and María Bayo. - Cast gallery.
Picture format: 1080i High Definition, NTSC 16:9 Sound format: PCM 2.0 and 5.0 Region code: 0 (all regions) Subtitles: English, German, French, Spanish, Italian Menu Language: English Running time: 201 mins No. of Discs: 1 (Blu-ray BD50 disc)
Jules Massenet’s fairy-tale opera Cendrillon (‘Cinderella’) was an immediate success at its premiere in 1899 at the Opéra-Comique in Paris. Massenet, then at the height of his powers, creates a magical sound-world full of wit, enchantment and perfumed elegance to match librettist Henri Cain’s coming-of-age adaptation of this classic fairy tale. The colorful fantasy world created by the acclaimed stage director Barbrara Mundel and set designer Olga Motta features the British-Swiss soprano, Kim-Lillian Strebel, in her critically acclaimed title role. Kim-Lillian Strebel has received critical acclaim following a number of high profile debuts. She has acquired an extensive repertoire to include several high-profile roles. She recently made her US concert debut with the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra.
With its combination of enchanting love story and broad, burlesque comedy, Cendrillon is one of the great operatic fairy tales – a Cinderella that looks back to Charles Perrault’s original story in all its richness and ambiguity. Massenet’s sensuous Belle Epoque fairy tale is gilded with lavish orchestral textures and glittering vocal writing, drawing on everything from baroque dances to Wagner-inspired chromaticism to bring its story to colorful life, conjuring a world of infinite musical and emotional variety. Fiona Shaw’s original Tour production makes its Festival debut here, re-directed by Fiona Dunn and conducted by John Wilson, with a cast led by Glyndebourne favorites Danielle de Niese as Cendrillon and Kate Lindsey as her Prince. The Times called this production “a savvy modern-day makeover,” while Classical Source called it “enchanting and thought-provoking.”
Massenet: Manon / Kessels, Royal Opera House Orchestra
Opus Arte
Blu-Ray
$39.99Nov 08, 2024
Torn between her desire of a life of splendour and riches and her devotion to her true love Des Grieux (Reece Clarke), the alluring and capricious Manon (Natalia Osipova) pays the ultimate price. MacMillan's adaptation of Abbe Prevost's novel L'Histoire du Chevalier des Grieux et de Manon Lescaut?embodies his acute insight into human psychology and his mastery of narrative choreography. This is MacMillan at his best; finding full expression in the impassioned duets of the central couple, visceral and urgent in their desire.
Maurice Ravel: La Valse; Ma Mere L'oye; Tzigane; Bolero; Pavane
TACET Musikproduktion
Blu-Ray
$26.99Jan 28, 2014
• Maurice Ravel's music needs no introduction. A sampling of orchestral works, including Valse and the famous Boléro.
• Carlo Rizzi leads the Netherlands Philharmonic Orchestra
• One of the first set of 5 Blu-ray audio discs from TACET.
• The Blu-ray audio disc was mastered in 24 bit / 96 kHz resolution, both in stereo and in TACET Real 5.1 Standard Surround Sound.
• The Blu-ray disc joins the TACET assortment as the fifth sound carrier alongside CD, LP, DVD audio and SACD.
‘My Vienna’ is Jonas Kaufmann’s deeply personal tribute to the world-famous melodies from the birthplace of waltz and operetta and follows up the album release from Fall 2019. The 100-minute film consists of Jonas Kaufmann’s Wiener Konzerthaus concert interspersed with documentary-style segments where Jonas Kaufmann explores the city’s fascinating lighter musical heritage. His concert from the Wiener Konzerthaus includes well-known Viennese songs like “Wien, Wien nur du allein“, “Im Prater blühn wieder die Bäume”, “Sag beim Abschied leise “Servus““. He also sings scenes from famous operettas such as “The Merry Widow”, “Wiener Blut” and “Die Fledermaus” where soprano Rachel Willis-SØrensen joins him on the duets.
L’Empio Punito is the first opera where the character of Don Giovanni (Acrimante) makes his appearance. It was first premiered in Rome on February 17th, 1669 and this release is the recording of the first modern times performance that took place at the historical Teatro di Villa Torlonia in Rome in October 2019, 350 years after its debut. The fundamental dramaturgical lines that characterize the following versions, in particular Mozart’s, are already here: the complicity between Acrimante (Don Giovanni) and Bibi (Leporello); the despair of Atamira (Donna Elvira), abandoned by Acrimante; Acrimante’s attempt to seduce Ipomene (Donna Anna), betrothed to Cloridoro (Don Ottavio); the duel between Acrimante and Tidemo (Commendatore) and the latter’s death at Acrimante’s hand; the graveyard scene, where Acrimante invites Tidemo’s statue to dinner; the eternal damnation of Acrimante and the finale, in which all the main characters appear. As Conductor Alessandro Quarta points out, Acrimante’s seductive power brings chaos and pain in the lives of the other characters but a lot of energy as well. “[Acrimante’s] sentimental and emotional disorder disrupts the personality of the other characters who revolve around him He messes them up, makes them suffer and makes them behave in relation to the turmoil he creates”.
In the Overture and Incidental Music to William Shakespeare’s ‘Midsummer Night’s Dream,’ Felix Mendelssohn brings the illustrious company of elves, lovers’ passions and the solitude of the forest or a moonlit night to musical life. It became a model for other literary reflections in music like Peter Tchaikovsky’s ‘Manfred Symphony.’ It’s four movements- or “images,” as the composer himself named them- capture the world-weariness of George Byron’s ‘Manfred: A Dramatic Poem’ in music. Riccardo Chailly and the Lucerne Festival Orchestra awaken the musical imagery of both works in a colorful, fresh, and enchanting performance. This release was recorded live at the Concert Hall of KKL Luzem, Lucerne Festival in August of 2017.
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