The Places - the monastery at Ottobeuren was founded in 764 and included buildings from the succeeding centuries, subsequently destroyed by fire. The present buildings date from the beginning of the 18th century, with the church rebuilt under the architect Johann Michael Fischer. It remains a remarkable monument to it's period, and the ornate Abbey Church, with it's frescoes and elaborate rococo decoration is bewildering in it's splendor. The Music - Music accompanying the visit to Ottobeuren consists of choruses from Handel's oratorio Messiah, written in 1741. Of all English oratorios Handel's Messiah has always been the most overwhelmingly popular. It is the least theatrical of all his oratorios and the most purely sacred in it's choice of subject, the Messiah, a compendious version of the coming of Christ, His death and resurrection. The text, by Charles Jennens, drew extensively on the Authorized Version of the Bible, and an additional attraction has always been the large number of choruses included, a larger number than in any other of Handel's oratorios.

The Places - the Puppet Museum in Munich houses a remarkable display of puppets of all kinds, from string and hand puppets to the shadow puppets of China. Nuremberg, famous for it's toys, has a Toy Museum, with exhibits ranging from the earliest times to the more nearly contemporary. From this collection we see a doll's house, accurate in every detail, and some of the museum's mechanical toys, in working order. The Music - the tour is accompanied by a series of popular piano pieces, ranging from Mozart and Beethoven to Saint-Sa++ns and Debussy. Mozart's Turkish March is followed by Beethoven's so-called Rage over a Lost Penny. Included is a Chopin Waltz, a Mendelssohn Song Without Words and Tchaikovsky's Chanson triste. The music ends with Liszt's piano transcription of the Danse macabre of Saint-Saens.

MUSICAL JOURNEY (A) - ITALY: A Musical Tour of South Tyrol (NTSC)

ITALY


The Places
South Tyrol, in Northern Italy, has had a varied history, for many years as part of Austrian territory. The region remains largely German-speaking, although both German and Italian are used. Looming over the territory are the mountains, the Dolomites, with their strange shapes, and the Alps, while the valleys provide fertile ground for the production of wine.

The Music Music for the tour is taken from four Concerti grossi by Handel. Born in Halle in 1685, Handel had his first musical employment there and then in Hamburg, before moving in 1706 to Italy, where he remained until 1710, when he was appointed Kapellmeister to the Elector of Hanover. He travelled almost at once to London, where he had been engaged to compose an Italian opera, and from 1712 until his death in 1759 settled in England, winning fame first as a composer of Italian opera and then as the creator of English oratorio.

Picture format: NTSC 4:3
Sound format: PCM Stereo 2.0 / Dolby Digital 5.1 / DTS 5.1
Region code: 0 (worldwide)
Running time: 56 mins
No. of DVDs: 1

VENICE

The Places
A city built on an archipelago of 117 islets, Venice is remarkable in many ways. Unsullied by modern traffic, its buildings retain much of their historic character and something of the magic of the place is reflected in our tour which starts and ends with the lagoon, after visiting the islands of Burano, Murano, Torcello and San Michele.
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 collection of twelve concertos, L’Estro Armonico (Harmonic Inspiration), published in Amsterdam in 1711.

Picture format: NTSC 4:3
Sound format: PCM Stereo / Dolby Digital 5.1 / DTS 5.1
Region code: 0 (worldwide)
Running time: 57 mins
No. of DVDs: 1 (DVD 9)

R E V I E W:
Of all the tourist traps I have managed to visit, from China’s Great Wall to Paris via Granada, Rome, Florence and many other venues, Venice is the one that really blew me away. As one of the great Italian city-states of the medieval period it could be said to vie with Florence as a major centre of art and culture in the Renaissance with affluent families supporting the arts as well as wars. Now capital of the Veneto region, it is located at the very head of the Adriatic 4 km from the mainland of Italy to which it is joined by a causeway. It comprises more than one hundred small islands traversed by canals, there is no road traffic. Between the city and the Adriatic are the lagoons, expanses of water sheltered from the open sea by sandbanks and by the longer island of the Lido, the beach resort of the city. The lagoons are divided into Laguna Viva and Laguna Morta, alive and dead, the latter only underwater during spring high tides.
 
In the Venice lagoons are found several of the major islands included in this musical journey. The start is in the city itself with views of the Grand Canal at dusk and then seen as a boat looks back at the mighty Campanile of St. Marks. On the island of San Michele is the earliest Renaissance church of Venice, dating from the 15th century. This is the cemetery island where the city buried their dead. For some time demand has exceeded supply of space, and bones are removed. Despite this, elegant marble and colourful floral tributes abound with the sight of snow on the ground to remind the viewer that it is cold around here in winter (CH.1). The booklet reminds us that among the more permanent of the graves are those of the great Russian impresario Sergei Diaghilev, the composer Igor Stravinsky and the American poet Ezra Pound.
 
The music throughout this journey is taken from Vivaldi’s set of twelve concertos known as L'Estro Armonico, first published in 1711. Himself a violinist of ability, his music receives due string sonority and grace of phrasing by the instrumentalists of Capella Istropolitana under Josef Kopelman. There are serious attempts to match changes of tempi in the various movements to change of venue.
 
After the cemetery island the journey continues to the still canal waters of Torcello and the Cathedral Santa Maria Assunta (CH.2). Its elegant interior houses a timeless mosaic of Madonna and Child and also an extensive Last Judgement, both from the late twelfth century but having received restoration. The early twelfth century Church of Santa Fosca is only interesting as regards its octagonal shape
 
The island of Burano (CH.4), the home of the composer Galuppi, has a certain timelessness too, with its visually dated shops, colourful fishing boats and lace-making. However it is the visit to the glass-making factory on Murano, for which the island is famous, that will draw the eye and the stirrings of covetousness (CH.5). To see the production of such things of beauty and intricacy is a delight; to be able to afford to buy one, or even a few of them to adorn one's home would be pleasant indeed.
 
The journey concludes (CH.6) with a return to Venice itself, past the Arsenal (built 1104) and a brief view of the Academia Bridge and the backwater canals and warehouses. Venice is now a city of industry as well as Grand Palaces such as that of Francesco Da Mosta whose series of programmes for the BBC is now available on DVD (BBCDVD2145). The programmes may lack music, but make up for it in informed narrative and superb photography. The latter is normally a strength of this series but, made in winter as indicated by the snow scenes and leafless trees, a little too much depends on the atmosphere of half-light and that of the lagoon directional buoys.
 
-- Robert J Farr, MusicWeb International

The Places - Northern Italy has been variously ruled, over the centuries. South Tyrol, seen here, retains much of it's Austrian past, with some regions predominantly German-speaking and others Italian. Scenes are shown of Brixen (Bressanone), with it's Cathedral and Bishop's Palace, and various historic castles, including Castel Tirolo. The Music - Music for the tour is by Mozart, with two Piano Concertos, one written in Salzburg in 1777 for a visiting French pianist and the other composed during the last year of Mozart's life, at the end of a decade spent in independence in Vienna.

Our tour of Italy starts in the countryside near Orvieto, moves to the Baths of Caracalla in Rome, then to Montalcino and it's ancient abbey. We see the Tuscan landscape around Montepulciano, glimpse Siena, and finally see something of the historic building.

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 Hochosterwitz Castle and from Bavaria Weikersheim Castle, the latter intercut with wild life from the Austrian Assling Nature Park. The tour ends amid the strangely shaped mountains of the Dolomites in Southern Tyrol, a region divided between Austria and Italy. In a remarkable way Mahler, in his symphonies and songs, has seemed to reflect the world of today in all it's bewildering variety and has now won an established place in concert repertoire. Distinguished as a conductor, his fame as a composer has grown over the years since his death. The music included here is Mahler's ymphony No. 1, nick-named Titan, not for it's massive power, but after the book by Jean Paul, a strong influence over earlier romantics and over Mahler at this stage in his career. The symphony breathes the spirit of the Austrian countryside, reflected in Mahler's songs.

NIGHT MUSIC, Vol 1

The Places
Most of the places visited reflect a spirit of calm and tranquility, although the glimpse of Venice dwells briefly on carnival revellers. Other scenes range from the Bavarian Chiemsee and the Swiss Engadin to the marshy tracts of the Camargue in the South of France, with its wild horses.

The Music
The music matches the reflective mood of the scenes shown. Included are movements from Mozart’s Eine kleine Nachtmusik and Symphony No. 40, and from Beethoven’s Moonlight Sonata, with Pachelbel’s ingenious Canon. From Tchaikovsky comes a Mélodie, a composition that formed part of a thank-you letter to his hostess and patron, whom he was never to meet face to face, and from Debussy the popular Clair de lune. The recording ends with Faure’s Sicilienne, familiar in so many forms and transcriptions.

Picture format: NTSC 4:3
Sound format: PCM Stereo / Dolby Digital 5.1 / DTS 5.1
Region code: 0 (worldwide)
Running time: 56 mins
No. of DVDs: 1

A Musical Journey - Norway

The Places
The legendary Norwegian figure Peer Gynt is widely known through Henrik Ibsen’s play that follows Peer’s unscrupulous adventures, a work that enjoys still further fame through the incidental music written for it by Edvard Grieg. Parts of the Norwegian countryside are identified with some of Peer Gynt’s adventures.

The Music
Greig collaborated with the greatest of Norwegian dramatists, Henrik Ibsen, in his music for the play Peer Gynt, from which he drew two orchestral suites. Grieg also worked with Bjørnstjerne Bjørnson, providing incidental music for the historical play Sigurd Jorsalfar.

Picture format: NTSC 4:3
Sound format: PCM Stereo
Region code: 0 (worldwide)
Running time: 54 mins
No. of DVDs: 1

PARIS AND BURGUNDY



 


The Places
This musical tour of France starts in Paris with scenes that reflect the modenisation of the city in the 19th century under Baron Haussmann. From Paris the tour passes to Burgundy, with its vineyards, to Provence, with its Fête des Gardiens in Arles and Roman aqueduct, thence to the Loire, with its great castles and country-houses. The tour ends with a visit to Brittany and Normandy, the northern coasts and the great monastery of Mont Saint-Michel.


 


The Music
Music for the tour is taken from Fryderyk Chopin's two piano concertos. The son of a French émigré and a Polish mother, Chopin left his native Warsaw in 1830, settling in the following year in Paris, where he lived until his death in 1849. His piano concertos were written and first performed in Warsaw in 1830, and seemed a necessary part of his stock-in-trade for a planned career as a virtuoso. In the event Chopin found a more congenial role in Paris as a performer in private society salons and as a fashionable teacher.


 


Picture format: NTSC 4:3
Sound format: Dolby Digital / DTS Surround
Region code: 0 (worldwide)
Running time: 78 mins
No. of DVDs: 1

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.

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.