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“He was out to create something ‘unheard-of’,” observed conductor Nikolaus Harnoncourt beforehand. And true to form: What the conductor had to offer as he commenced his Mozart/Da Ponte cycle in the Theater an der Wien was something we “had never before heard like this” (Kurier). Nikolaus Harnoncourt, “master” of period performance practice, realized a project that had long been one of his dearest wishes: for the first time, he and his “original-sound orchestra” Concentus Musicus and his personal choice of singers were presenting the complete Mozart/Da Ponte cycle and harvesting the fruits of his Mozart research – an “enthusiastically acclaimed cycle!” (news.at). PART I - Le nozze di Figaro + Documentary: Nikolaus Harnoncourt - Between Obsession and Perfection (Le nozze di Figaro)

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Countess Almaviva: Dorothea Röschmann
Marcellina: Graciela Araya
Barbarina: Ana James
Cherubino: Rinat Shaham

The Royal Opera Chorus
The Orchestra of the Royal Opera House
Conductor: Antonio Pappano
Stage Director: David McVicar

Recorded live at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, London on 10th, 13th and 17th February 2006.

Plus
The Magic of Mozart: Interviews with Antonio Pappano, David McVicar and principal cast.
Cast gallery and illustrated synopsis.

Reviews ‘This sexy, raunchy, romp of an opera is a triumph. Director David McVicar has searched for the essence of the composer and found it; fun filled, sensitive, romantic and serious by turns, all reflected in this production.This is a 'Must See' opera! ...You'll regret it if you don't!’ Musical Opinion

Awards & Accolades:
'BEST OF THE YEAR' 2008 - Opera News (January 2009)
BEST DVD OF THE YEAR The Metropolitan Opera (January 2009)DVD OF THE YEAR 2008 Classic FM Gramophone Awards (September 2008)

REGIONS: All Regions
PICTURE FORMAT: 1080i
LENGTH: 202 Mins
SOUND: 2.0 & 5.0 PCM
SUBTITLES: ENGLISH/FRENCH/GERMAN/SPANISH/ITALIAN
NO OF DISCS: 2



MOZART Le nozze di Figaro & • Antonio Pappano, cond; Erwin Schrott ( Figaro ); Miah Persson ( Susanna ); Gerald Finley ( Count Almaviva ); Dorothea Röschmann ( Countess Almaviva ); Rinat Shaham ( Cherubino ); Jonathan Veira ( Dr. Bartolo ); Graciela Araya ( Marcellina ); Philip Langridge ( Don Basilio ); Jeremy White ( Antonio ); Francis Egerton ( Don Curzio ); Ana James ( Barbarina ); Royal Op House Covent Garden O & Ch • OPUS ARTE 7033 (2 Blu-ray Discs: 202:00) Live: London 2/10,13,17/2006


& “The Magic of Mozart”: interviews with performers and director. Cast gallery and synopsis


Reviewing the DVD version of this performance, Lynn René Bayley called it “fabulous,” and claimed that “if not definitive, [it is] at least a touchstone against which all future performances can be judged” (32:1). In his companion review in the same issue, Barry Brenesal was slightly less giddy, pointing to a number of flaws but nonetheless concluding with high praise: while “not everything works,” he said, “more than enough does to invest this Le nozze with a distinctive energy and a level of interaction beyond most DVD versions.” I’m more in Brenesal’s camp here—this is an exceptional release, but it doesn’t quite erase the very considerable competition.


Virtues first. While this cast may not quite knock out Böhm’s all-star assemblage (Freni, Te Kanawa, Ewing, Prey, and Fischer-Dieskau), it’s as solid, from top to bottom, as any group of singers you’re realistically likely to assemble today. Miah Persson, whose radiant Zerlina was a highpoint in Mackerras’s Don Giovanni (33:2), is even more impressive here, where her voice is equally lustrous and dexterous, and where there’s even more opportunity to demonstrate psychological nuance. As but one example, try her act III duet with the Count, where she just manages to hide (from him, although not from us) her palpable disgust (especially when he kisses her) under a veneer of flirtation. Until now, my favorite modern Susanna has been Alison Hagley, but Persson is just as winning.


Finley is a magnificent foil. From the beginning, he seems a more intellectual Count than most, a man of learning driven less by animal lust than by a kind of intellectual challenge and love of life. At first, I wondered: was I listening to this Figaro through the experience of Finley as Figaro (on the Haitink DVD) and as Robert Oppenheimer in Adams’s Doctor Atomic (33:2)? Perhaps I was. But the opening of act III—where the Count, in glasses, studies a mechanical contraption that screams out Enlightenment and Scientific Progress—shows that stage director David McVicar, too, was thinking of Almaviva in similar terms. He’s a surprisingly sympathetic character, one who seems truly transformed (although for how long?) in the final minutes.


Brenesal found Röschmann a bit too uncontrolled as the Countess, but I rather like the variety of moods she expresses: less youthful, perhaps, than Annette Dash on Jacobs’ DVD, she nonetheless does remind us (as the regal Te Kanawa, for all her virtues, does not) that Rosina is not yet the Marschallin, but is rather an inexperienced post-teen still learning how to become a great lady. Schrott’s Figaro is immensely attractive, and Shaham is a bundle of nerves as Cherubino; the minor singers are first-rate, too. Brenesal complained that the old guard folks were treated as caricatures—I, in contrast, found them less slapsticky and more vocally attractive than is usually the case. Figaro depends, of course, more on ensembles than on arias—and the voices fit together exceptionally well, whether in the blend of Susanna and the Countess toward the end of act III or in the balance of the largest scenes.


The staging is generally first-rate. Yes, having two doors into Susanna and Figaro’s bedroom makes hash of the plot complications in act I; and—like so many other directors—McVicar has to abandon his impressively detailed realism (down to cracks in the plaster) in act IV, where, even so, it’s just as hard as usual to figure out why neither Figaro nor the Count can see what’s going on. (Generally speaking, the more abstract the production, the less silly the final act seems.) The performers are all skilled actors—and McVicar has drawn the best from them.


So what keeps this Figaro from first place? Well, perhaps I’ve been swayed by the period-performance crowd, but Pappano’s conducting—“witty,” “spry,” and “sensitive to his singers” as Brenesal rightly claims it is—still seems just a bit too deliberate to me. It’s not really a matter of tempo by the clock (although Gardiner’s DVD is generally quicker); but the string-dominated sonority, the lack of acid in the winds, the slightly burnished articulation, and the sweetness of the phrasing all serve to suck up energy, particularly in the last act—where the inclusion of both Marcellina’s and Bartolo’s arias only adds to the sense that this Figaro is simply taking too long to wind up.


So my first choices remain: Jacobs’ SACD for an audio Figaro , Gardiner’s DVD (with Terfel, Hagley, and Gilfrey in excellent form) for a video version, and Böhm’s DVD as a supplement. Still, those who opt for this version will have little to complain about—especially on Blu-ray, where technical matters are, quite simply, spectacular.


FANFARE: Peter J. Rabinowitz

Recorded at the Théâtre des Champs-Elysées in June 2004, this Le nozze di Figaro was unanimously acclaimed by public and critics alike as a Mozart opera landmark. Director Jean-Louis Martinoty brings an elegantly intelligent narrative sense to an interpretation in which the protagonists, against a backdrop of magnificent canvases of 18th-century inspiration, are dressed by Sylvie de Segonzac in a palette in which every shade is perfect. Hans Schavernoch’s set suggests an elitist society that is coming apart at the seams. René Jacobs’s conducting of Concerto Köln is meticulous and perfectly balanced, offering a ravishing use of tonal colour and orchestral dynamics. A veteran Almaviva, the excellent Pitero Spagnoli plays opposite Annette Dasch’s beauteous Countess. As Figaro and Susanna, Luca Pisaroni and Rosemary Joshua are a truly sparkling couple, while mezzo Angelika Kirchschlager embodies the most divinely troubling of Cherubino. The exceptional quality of this production, and the great success encountered by its first edition, inevitably led to the remastering in high-definition of this program, now and for the first time also available on Blu-ray.

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Perhaps no opera is closely and affectionately associated with a single house as Le nozze di Figaro is with Glyndebourne. Effortlessly witty yet shot through with pain and sadness, this deeply ambivalent life in the day of masters and servants as they scheme and outwit one another was Glyndebourne’s opening production in 1934. Michael Grandage’s staging is the seventh, set in a louche Sixties ambience. Marshalled by the ‘ideal pacing’ of Robin Ticciati, a youthful cast of principals has ‘no weak link’ and ‘looks gorgeous’ (The Sunday Times) in a production that continues Glyndebourne’s rewarding history of engagement with Mozart’s and da Ponte’s ‘day of madness’.

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
LE NOZZE DI FIGARO

(Blu-ray Disc Version)
Countess Almaviva – Sally Matthews
Figaro – Vito Priante
Count Almaviva – Audun Iversen
Susanna – Lydia Teuscher
Cherubino – Isabel Leonard
Bartolo – Andrew Shore
Marcellina – Ann Murray
Don Basilio – Alan Oke
Antonio – Nicholas Folwell
Don Curzio – Colin Judson
Barbarina – Sarah Shafer
First Bridesmaid – Ellie Laugharne
Second Bridesmaid – Katie Bray

Glyndebourne Chorus
Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment
Robin Ticciati, conductor

Michael Grandage, stage director

Recorded live at Glyndebourne Festival, June 2012

Bonus:
- The Greatest Opera Ever Written
- From page to stage

Picture format: 1080i High Definition
Sound format: LPCM 2.0 / DTS 5.1
Region code: 0 (worldwide)
Subtitles: English, French, German, Japanese, Korean
Running time: 180 mins
No. of Discs: 1


REVIEWS

Despite some qualification, Glyndebourne’s new Figaro (summer 2012) is a delight. The curtain opens during the overture on the outside of a Spanish mansion—just what we might expect from an opera set on the outskirts of Seville—with shiny tiles, Moorish arches, and handsome latticework, and townsfolk bustling back and forth. It’s startling to see a circa late-1960s red sports car pull up and have the Almavivas get out: they’re coming home from somewhere or settling into their summer getaway. The Count is the very picture of not-such-great-taste, sporting a page-boy haircut and costumed in a velvet suit with bell-bottomed pants and a wide-lapelled, multi-colored shirt. He obviously is quite a swinging dude, and director Michael Grandage and his wonderful designer Christopher Oram have placed the opera in the decade of the flower children. Will this work?

We meet Figaro and Susanna, dressed more moderately (she would appear to be pregnant in a black outfit with white collar, but it’s never mentioned) and nicely familiar. She is spunky and he seems like a nice guy, and he certainly doesn’t like the fact that his boss wants to sleep with his fiancée, although she seems able to take care of herself. And why should Figaro like it? This is the 1960s or ’70s, and despite the fact that Franco is still in power, the Count’s request is not a feudal right; it’s nothing but bullying. And so Beaumarchais’ and da Ponte’s satire on class war no longer exists, and that tends to be the crux of the opera in its original setting.

Instead, we get the never-ending battle of the sexes, a look at an unhappy marriage, and a rather nasty, wealthy guy with a sense of entitlement along with a pretty good comedy peopled by what seem like real people. During “Non piu andrai”, which Figaro sings while the Count is present, the two men hang out like chums, Figaro leaning with an arm on the Count’s shoulder. Susanna never curtsies and she seems genuinely concerned with cheering up the Countess. If you’re willing to forego the pre-Revolutionary subtext, you’ll have a fine time, especially watching the cast do the twist at the wedding and during the finale. The absolutely natural stage action eschews slapstick and vulgarity and the singers seem more than happy to adapt. Vito Priante’s Figaro, shorn of class anger, is a bit mild, but his stage presence and singing are extraordinary. Rhythmically precise throughout, he eats up “Aprite un po’…” in the last act and is superb in ensembles. Lydia Teuscher’s Susanna is a rich-voiced, non-soubrette, observant Countess-in-the-making; and of course, within this context she might some day have the same social standing. Sally Matthews, if she had a trill for the end of “Dov’e sono”, would be a perfect Countess: her predicament is very clear, and you sense that she wishes she were more lighthearted, more able to adjust to the swinging attitudes going on around her. The voice itself is a gorgeous, full lyric. Audun Iversen’s Count is a sloppy, privileged tyrant, all the more frustrated because no one will pay any attention to his nastiness. His singing is the least neat of all, but he’s a powerful presence. Isabel Leonard’s Cherubino is perfect—boyish and sassy and nimble.

Class acts Ann Murray and Andrew Shore, both a bit vocally worn, are nonetheless a terrific Marzellina and Bartolo, and Alan Oke’s Basilio is snidely right-on. (Neither he nor Marzellina get their last-act arias.) Sarah Shafer is a fine Barbarina, looking to be about 14 years old. And as mentioned, Oram’s luxurious sets add to the special feel of the production. I’m somewhat stumped by Robin Ticciati’s conducting of the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment. The instruments are period but the approach is mid-20th century—not slow or heavy, really, but somehow lacking the zip we expect these days. The finale of Act 2 is wonderfully clear but lacks the “accidental” mania it should have. There are plenty of laughs from the Glyndebourne audience, but the whole affair is not the insane day Mozart envisioned. The preferred DVD versions are Pappano’s from Covent Garden (Opus Arte) and Jacobs’ (on BelAir); nonetheless, this new one is fresh and charming and a good bet.

-- Robert Levine, ClassicsToday.com

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MOZART Le nozze di Figaro & • Robin Ticciati, cond; Vito Priante (Figaro); Lydia Teuscher (Susanna); Audun Iversen (Almaviva); Sally Matthews (Countess); Isabel Leonard (Cherubino); Ann Murray (Marcellina); Andrew Shore (Bartolo); Sarah Shafer (Barbarina); Alan Oke (Don Basilio); O of the Age of Enlightenment; Glyndebourne Ch • OPUS ARTE 7118 (Blu-ray: 154:00+14:00) Live: Glyndebourne 2012

& Le Nozze di Figaro: The Greatest Opera Ever Written? Le Nozze di Figaro: From Page to Stage

What do we have here? A Marriage of Figaro where the noble couple arrive home in a snazzy Austin-Healey convertible; where the Susanna sports a 1950s-style maternity top and an obvious baby bump in her wedding dress; where the Count wears a velour-trousered leisure suit with bell bottoms, and shares a hand-rolled joint with his maid while trying to grope her; where the peasants at the festivities (along with the Count) dance the Twist and the Frug; where several of the characters look like they were outfitted on London’s Carnaby Street in the 1960s. We get all of that, along with some lavish Moorish-style sets and a historically informed pit band, in this 2012 Blu-ray video from the Glyndebourne Festival. Helped along by some excellent singing, it all proves quite satisfactory and highly entertaining.

I’m not sure a pregnant Susanna makes much more sense than a pregnant Juliet; after all, the Count is supposed to be trying to amorously seduce her, and is asked to attest to her virginal status prior to the wedding. But when a pregnant lead soprano turns up for work, I suppose the show must go on. The soprano in question, young German lyric Lydia Teuscher, does, in truth, look quite attractive and well worth seducing even in maternity garb, and the fine singing she brings to Susanna more than compensates for the slight loss in verity to Da Ponte’s libretto. In fact, all of the singing is quite excellent, down to the luxury casting of noted mezzo-soprano Ann Murray in the role of Marcellina. (Unfortunately, her act IV aria, along with Don Basilio’s, is cut.) Young Italian bass-baritone Vito Priante brings a rich and accurate instrument to Mozart’s title character, and his rather hyperkinetic acting has been toned down a bit by director Michael Grandage to more properly fit the production concept (and the close-up cameras). Aside from Murray, the best-known singer in the cast is probably British soprano Sally Matthews, who here is a quite lovely and enjoyable Countess and provides finely sung versions of “Porgi amor” and “Dove sono.” She also combines beautifully with Teuscher to sing a consummate “Sull’ aria,” one of my favorite duets in all opera. The Count with his 60s-style Mod haircut, mustache, and hippie style clothes, comes off as a bit ridiculous, robbing the character of any real menace, but baritone Audun Iversen also has a fine, rich voice, and brings a rather comedic swagger to the part. He also brings much avid physical contact to his enthusiastic pursuit of Susanna. (One might wonder why in the Act IV Garden Scene he fails to notice the lady he is embracing is minus the belly). Isabel Leonard continues her rapid climb to the top ranks with this lively and endearing portrayal of boy Cherubino; some say she steals the show here. Oh, and she can really sing, a joy to listen to. As usual for Glyndebourne, the smaller roles are finely cast as well. The Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment provides a properly light touch in Mozart’s score, just as this wonderful little light comedy demands.

There are over 20 versions of this opera out on video, several fine ones among them. In Blu-ray format the field is much smaller. Perhaps the Covent Garden production from 2006 with Erwin Schrott in the title role is the equal to this one, I haven’t seen it, but it has gotten good reviews. As with nearly all Glyndebourne productions I have seen, they provide full value here with elegant sets, fine singers, and a well-rehearsed cast in a charming staging. Le Nozze is a bit of a special opera for the Festival, as it inaugurated the series back in 1934 with a cast including the owner’s wife, Audrey Mildmay. The Glyndebourne forces have done the opera full justice in this new production, and this entertaining Blu-ray set deserves to be highly recommended.

FANFARE: Bill White

Mozart was not yet seventeen when Lucio Silla was created in Milan one December evening of 1772, yet we can still distinguish in this youthful composition some of the elements that established the exceptionally-gifted child musician as the greatest composer of all times. Indeed, with Lucio Silla, although a neoclassical "opera seria" in every way, it seems that Mozart was already learning to deconstruct and to free the traditional forms of musical drama from archaic conventions. We can also identify in this work an aesthetic premise that Mozart didn't formulate until ten years later: it falls to music only to express and to reveal the psychological depths of the characters; and the poetry in the libretto should only be it's "obedient daughter". The opera is centered around the love Roman dictator Lucio Silla bears for his enemy's daughter Giunia, who favors the exiled senator Cecilio as the object of her affection. After many twists and turns, the lovers are united in marriage and Silla renounces his crown. Tenor Kurt Streit is Lucio Silla, and soprano Patricia Petibon is Giunia for the last time, after having gained international recognition thanks to her numerous performances in this role, while mezzo-soprano Silvia Tro Santafe is the ardent Cecilio. In this monumental production, Claus Guth finds a way to respect both the classical setting and the formal innovations that make the opera so interesting. Ivor Bolton conducts the Orchestra and Chorus of the Teatro Real.

The Staatsoper Berlin presents a new production of Mozart's early masterpiece Mitridate, re di Ponto. This captivating tale of love, power and betrayal revolves around a king and his two sons who vie for the love of the same woman. Under the baton of Marc Minkowski, Les Musiciens du Louvre bring fresh energy and nuance to Mozart's intricate opera seria, while the all-star cast shines with an impressive vocal range. In a staging where different worlds converge, director Satoshi Miyagi and his Japanese production team have created an atmosphere that is nothing short of magical. "Marc Minkowski and his brilliant orchestra Les Musiciens du Louvre [...] a real coup." (Tagesspiegel) "Singing feats of brilliance!" (Berliner Zeitung)

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The Austrian piano virtuoso Rudolf Buchbinder, a known expert of Mozart plays and conducts three of Mozart’s most beloved piano concertos together with the Staatskapelle Dresden, where he was the first pianist to hold the title of “Capell-Virtous”. In advance to an extensive tour to Germany, Europe and Asia the concert was recorded in Dresden in an unique setting, being the first ultra-high definition recording of this work: especially for this purpose a stage was set up right inside the Gläserne Manufaktur, a luxury car manufacturer in the heart of the city of Dresden.

No. of Discs: 1
Run time: 93 minutes
Disc Format: BD 50
Picture: 16:9, HD
Audio: PCM Stereo, PCM 5.1
Region Code: 0 (worldwide)

Mozart’s Requiem may have been written under strange circumstances in the final months of the composer’s life, but the work itself is timeless. Mariss Jansons and the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra and Chorus give a powerful and poignant performance of Mozart’s masterpiece with an impressive group of solo singers, in a concert recorded live in Munich in May 2017. Even its composer’s death could not halt the success of Mozart’s Requiem. Although left incomplete on his death in December 1791, having been anonymously commissioned, the Requiem was completed by a pupil of Mozart’s, Franz Xaver Süssmayr. By the time it was premiered in 1793, it was already a famous work, shrouded in mystery. But even more mysterious than the story behind it is the magisterial quality of Mozart’s writing, from the ferocity of the Dies irae to the otherworldly grace of the Lacrimosa. Genia Kühmeier, Elisabeth Kulman, Mark Padmore and Adam Plachetka are the world-class soloists joining Jansons and his orchestra and chorus. Padmore was Artist in Residence with the orchestra for the 2016/17 season and his rapport with the orchestra is evident. His ringing, distinctive tenor voice is well matched, too, to Jansons’s eloquent and subtle interpretation. “For him it is not about rhetoric, but more about transcendence,” wrote Süddeutsche Zeitung of Jansons’s conducting – suggesting a transcendent faith in humanity, even in the face of death.

MOZART Serenade in Bb, K 361 “Gran Partita”. Fantasia in f, K 608 • Stuttgart Winds • TACET 209 (Blu-ray audio: 57:20)

This Blu-ray disc comes in surround sound, so I’ll confess that I listened to it using my HD television with its sound bar rather than on my high-end stereo system. It’s a remarkable performance of a favorite work, which I and many others first heard on an old LP conducted by Otto Klemperer. Some readers might also remember the critic B. H. Haggin’s surprise that anything conducted by Klemperer, whom he usually disliked, could be so graceful. Haggin attributed it to the band. Perhaps it is a piece that in professional hands can’t go too wrong. Here everything seems right, including the recorded sound in stereo. There is grace abounding, and beautifully etched phrases and balance among the players, each of whom is profiled in the ample notes. The fetching opening with its prominent clarinet and oboe parts couldn’t be more touching, and the energy of the whole performance is equally appealing. I have a stack of recordings of this work, including those conducted by Mackerras, and others played by groups such as the Sixth Floor Orchestra. I’d recommend this delightful new disc, though, to anyone, especially to those with surround sound systems.

FANFARE: Michael Ullman

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The festive series of concerts to celebrate the inauguration of Andris Nelsons and the 275th anniversary of the Gewandhausorchester concluded with a riveting performance of two of music history’s great symphonic works. Mozart’s Symphony No. 40 is one of only two that Mozart wrote in a minor key, which only adds to its singular reception in his canon of symphonies. Tchaikovsky was an admirer of Mozart’s music and paired the premiere of his Sixth Symphony, which he himself conducted, with dances from Mozart’s “Idomeneo”. The “Pathétique” would become his legacy as Tchaikovsky died only a few days after its premiere. Andris Nelsons is Music Director of the Boston Symphony Orchestra and is Gewandhauskapellmeister of the Gewandhausorchester Leipzig. With these positions, and in leading a pioneering alliance between two such esteemed institutions, Grammy Award-winning Nelsons is firmly underlined as one of the most renowned and innovative conductors on the international scene today.

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The Indomitable Bow is a unique portrait of Mstislav Rostropovich, a formidable personality as well as a complex, deeply political musician constantly engaged in a whirlwind of activities. Including unreleased documents, archive films, interviews and concert performances from this key figure of the 20th century, The Indomitable Bow is a remarkable testimony of the life and work of the legendary ‘Slava’. Mstislav Rostropovich remains one of the greatest cellists of the twentieth century. In addition to his lauded interpretations and impeccable technique, he was well known for inspiring and commissioning new works, which grew the cello repertoire more than any other cellist before or since. In fact, he inspired and premiered more than one hundred pieces, and formed long-standing partnerships with composers including Shostakovich, Prokofiev, Messiaen, Penderecki, Bernstein, and Britten, to name a few.

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REVIEW:

“Your Indomitable Bow” is a phrase addressed to Mstislav Rostropovich by Alexander Solzhenitysn, in reference to the help and shelter given in dark times to the writer, at some risk, by the musician. It is a reminder that Rostropovich – or Slava as he was affectionately known – had public and political roles during the cold war, and that he used his eminence in Soviet artistic life for selfless aims, which led to his eventual expulsion. Bruno Monsaingeon’s outstanding film deals with this theme alongside the remarkable musical career. It is thus a comprehensive portrait of Rostropovich, whose large and generous personality comes across in each of his many roles – cellist, piano accompanist, conductor, teacher, and collaborator with the great composers of his era. He emerges as a key cultural figure of the 20th century.

The research behind this production was doubtless exemplary, but it also benefitted from some good fortune, as we learn from the filmmaker’s booklet notes. Bruno Monsaingeon knew the cellist, who in 2000 gave him “a whole trunkful of film material about him…containing a number of treasures”. From that and other sources, such as unreleased documents, archive films, new interviews, and filmed concert performances, a compelling narrative has been put together. One element of almost any documentary though is completely absent. There is no commentary or narration by the director or anyone else. Every scene throughout the film is simply left to speak for itself, but so skilful is the editing that we do not miss the customary unseen narrator. Perhaps a viewer who barely knew who the subject would get a bit lost at points, but that is hardly a typical viewer of such a film. The voice of an unseen Sviatoslav Richter contributes a couple of sentences about his (ambiguous) relationship to the cellist, but it is clear that that is just a small part of building the picture.

The composers we see and hear, and from whom Rostropovich inspired or commissioned major works, are mainly Prokofiev, Shostakovich and Dutilleux. Britten, though seen conducting a couple of times, does not get much of a look-in despite the five substantial works he wrote for the cellist, which made England Rostropovich’s most productive foreign destination musically, and the main omission from the story line in the film. But there is so much here to be grateful for. Solzhenitsyn’s widow, and the next generation, Solzhenitysn’s son and Rostropovich’s daughters, offer important insights in interview – and there is a 40-minute extra film, which expands on their recollections of the experiences of those two giant artists. There is also some gripping detail about life under the regime.

Rostropovich’s wife, Galina Vishnevskaya, is seen in archive interviews and in filmed recitals, with Rostropovich accompanying. She is the butt of one of Slava’s better jokes. When asked what voice type his wife’s soprano is, lyric or dramatic, he replies, “In the theatre, lyric; at home, dramatic.” She in turn is no shrinking violet and has some amusing things to say about their domestic and musical arguments. Whether quarrelling at home, or taking on the Soviet state, it is the artist himself who comes across as indomitable as much as his bow. There is always the famous charm and wit. The overwhelming impression is of a great musician who was also a great man.

Apart from the marvellous film itself, there are those very valuable extras. In addition to the bonus of family recollections mainly concerning Solzhenitsyn, we have films of three previously unreleased performances. Rostropovich plays the Sarabande from Bach’s 2nd Suite, and the closing variations and coda of Tchaikovsky’s Rococo Variations with the Boston Symphony and Ozawa. Yet perhaps the best of all is the film of a 1974 UNESCO Paris concert of Beethoven’s Archduke Trio in which the cellist is joined by Yehudi Menuhin and Wilhelm Kempff. Three elder statesmen of their instruments from three countries playing one of the greatest of piano trios live - that is quite some “extra”.

It was a couple of years later that I met him. I was a hanger-on at an LSO rehearsal that he was conducting. I took the chance to offer him to sign my much-loved recording of him in the Britten cello suites 1 and 2 and he did. Emboldened, I asked him, “when will you record the Third Suite, maestro?” “Not now, later,” he said, and disappeared. (Bruno Monsaingeon’s research has not discovered this important cultural exchange so I mention it here.) Rostropovich did never record the Third Suite, alas. Not long before this episode, he had taken the arm of Peter Pears at Britten’s funeral. That Third Suite is based on the Kontakion, the Russian Hymn for the Departed. Perhaps he could never quite face it and did not need insensitive hangers-on with their LPs coming up to him after a rehearsal.

Discussing his dual role of conductor and cellist with Herbert von Karajan on the film Rostropovich says, “when I conduct I am happy, but the audience is not; when I play the audience is happy, but I am not.” Karajan replies, “so you must play and conduct, so that everyone is happy”. I can’t imagine anyone being less than happy after watching this highly recommended, indeed already prize-winning, film. It is one of the best films about a musician that even Bruno Monsaingeon has ever given us.

– MusicWeb International (Roy Westbrook)

A dangerous concert experience with the Danish National Symphony Orchestra. Murder at the Symphony is next in line in their conceptual series, with another exciting concert full of mystery, thrill and popular film music. The Danish National Symphony Orchestra manages to merge the boundaries between classical music and film music like hardly any other orchestra. Discover soundtracks from blood dripping movies and TV series such as Psycho, Vertigo, The Silence of the Lambs, Twin Peaks and Babylon Berlin. It includes an extraordinary interpretation of the hit single Where the Wild Roses Grow, the most successful single release by Nick Cave and The Bad Seeds feat. Kylie Minogue. It also features the theme song Open Spaces from movie drama There will be Blood scored by Radiohead's lead guitarist and keyboardist Johnny Greenwood. The concert includes soundtracks from hit composers such as Leonard Cohen, Hans Zimmer, Bernard Herrmann and Nino Rota.

A dangerous concert experience with the Danish National Symphony Orchestra. Murder at the Symphony is next in line in their conceptual series, with another exciting concert full of mystery, thrill and popular film music. The Danish National Symphony Orchestra manages to merge the boundaries between classical music and film music like hardly any other orchestra. Discover soundtracks from blood dripping movies and TV series such as Psycho, Vertigo, The Silence of the Lambs, Twin Peaks and Babylon Berlin. It includes an extraordinary interpretation of the hit single Where the Wild Roses Grow, the most successful single release by Nick Cave and The Bad Seeds feat. Kylie Minogue. It also features the theme song Open Spaces from movie drama There will be Blood scored by Radiohead's lead guitarist and keyboardist Johnny Greenwood. The concert includes soundtracks from hit composers such as Leonard Cohen, Hans Zimmer, Bernard Herrmann and Nino Rota.

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oris Godunov is the story not only of a troubled leader but of an entire nation, and its history is as eventful as that of Mother Russia herself. In this new production, the legendary director Andrei Konchalovsky presents a personal vision of the opera that takes Mussorgsky’s bare and monumental first version as its basis, while adding the final scene from the composer’s revision, in which not only the Tsar but the people themselves reveal their fatal flaws.

Orlin Anastassov stars in the title role, conducted by Gianandrea Noseda.

‘’Orchestrally and vocally outstanding’’ -- The Opera Critic

Modest Mussorgsky
BORIS GODUNOV
production based on the original 1869 version, with final scene of revised 1872 version
(Blu-ray Disc Version)

Boris – Orlin Anastassov
Xenia – Alessandra Marianelli
Fyodor – Pavel Zubov
Grigory – Ian Storey
Pimen – Vladimir Vaneev
Prince Shuisky – Peter Bronder
Andrey Shchelkalov – Vasily Ladyuk
Varlaam – Vladimir Matorin
Missail – Luca Casalin
Innkeeper – Nadezhda Serdyuk
Holy Fool – Evgeny Akimov
Nurse – Elena Sommer
Nikitich – John Paul Huckle
Mityukha – Oliviero Giorgiutti
Boyar-in-attendance – Matthias Stier
Khrushchyov – Andrei Konchalovsky

Torino Teatro Regio Chorus and Orchestra
Gianandrea Noseda, conductor

Andrei Konchalovsky, stage director

Recorded live from the Teatro Regio, Turin, 7–13 October 2010.

Bonus:
- Cast Gallery
- Interviews with Andrei Konchalovsky and Gianandrea Noseda

Picture format: 1080i High Definition
Sound format: LPCM Stereo 2.0 / DTS 5.1
Region code: 0 (worldwide)
Menu language: English
Subtitles: English, French, German, Spanish
Running time: 164 mins
No. of Discs: 1 (Blu-ray)

Few concerts in the world are awaited with as much excitement as the New Year's Concert from Vienna. Under the direction of Riccardo Muti, the Vienna Philharmonic ushers in the New Year with a concert in the magnificent Golden Hall of the Vienna Musikverein. Marking his seventh time conducting this prestigious event, Riccardo Muti leads the orchestra in a program that celebrates the 200th birthday of Johann Strauss II, exploring new perspectives on the musical world of the Strauss family. Riccardo Muti has played an exceptional role in the history of the Vienna Philharmonic for over 50 years. The artistic collaboration with Maestro Muti began in 1971. Since then, he has conducted over 500 concerts with the orchestra, including six New Year's concerts, Philharmonic subscription concerts, memorial concerts, annual orchestral concerts at the Salzburg Festival, guest performances and tours, and numerous opera productions. He has been an honorary member of the Vienna Philharmonic since 2011. The annual New Year's Day Concert in Vienna has been a major event for more than eight decades, since 1939, being broadcasted on TV and radio, and reaching millions of viewers in over 90 countries across the globe. The concert has previously been conducted by world-famous maestros such as Herbert von Karajan, Lorin Maazel, Claudio Abbado, Carlos Kleiber, Zubin Mehta, Nikolaus Harnoncourt, Seiji Ozawa, Mariss Jansons, Franz Welser-M�st, Gustavo Dudamel and others. The Vienna Philharmonic, as musical ambassadors of Austria, send people all over the world a New Year's greeting in the spirit of hope, friendship and peace with the lively and light-hearted and at the same time nostalgic and profound music from the vast repertoire of the family of Johann Strauss and it's contemporaries.

Masterworks Wiener Philharmoniker & Yannick N�zet-S�guin Neujahrskonzert 2026 / New Year'S Concert 2026 / Concert Du Nouvel An 2026. For the first time, Yannick N�zet-S�guin will take the podium at the Vienna Philharmonic's New Year's Concert. The Canadian conductor, who has long been associated with the orchestra, is the Music Director of the Metropolitan Opera in New York and the Philadelphia Orchestra. In the Golden Hall of the Vienna Musikverein, he will present, alongside popular pieces such as "Roses from the South" and the "Fledermaus Quadrille", five new works being performed there for the first time - including compositions by the American Florence Price (1887-1953) and Josephine Weinlich (1848-1887), who founded Europe's first women's orchestra. The New Year's Concert is one of the biggest events in classical music; it is broadcast to over 150 countries and reaches more than 150 million viewers.

ELLINGTON, DUKE / NEW ORLEANS SUITE (QUADIO) Blu-ray audio edition. Quadraphonic sound, or 4. 0 surround sound, utilizes four audio channels connected to four speakers positioned at the corners of a listening space. The multi-tracked audio is mixed dimensional, immersing the listener in an expansive soundscape. Duke Ellington was commissioned to create the NEW ORLEANS SUITE for the 1970 New Orleans Jazz Festival, marking his final recording with saxophonist Johnny Hodges. The record is regarded as one of Ellington's greatest works, incorporating Creole influences. He won the 1970 GRAMMY� Award for Best Jazz Performance by a Big Band and received a nomination for Best Instrumental Composition.

The Teatro La Fenice opened in 1792 and is one of the most renowned and most beautiful theaters in the world. "Amid mirrors, flowers and confetti, New Year's Eve at La Fenice is a ritual" (MusicPaper). The Teatro Fenice's Concerto di Capodanno - one of the world's most celebrated New Year's concerts - welcomes Daniel Harding back to the podium. After the monumental opening with Beethoven's Fifth, soloists Mariangela Sicilia and Francesco Demuro perform beloved arias by Rossini, Leoncavallo, Puccini, Wolf-Ferrari, Bizet, Gounod and Verdi. Interwoven with the concert are scenes of Aterballetto dancers, choreographed by Marcos Morau, performing in Venice's most iconic locations. The soloists' "perfect vocal blend" in Libiamo ne' lieti calici truly stands out (MusicPaper).

Nicci Gilbert was the lead vocalist for the all female group “Brownstone” back in the 1990’s. The music was recorded in REAL HD-Audio at 96 kHz/24-bit PCM. Users can select from 3 different audio mixes. BD-ROM section contains pre-ripped audio files at 96/24 stereo, 320 kbps MP3 and 48 kHz/24-bit Headphones[xi]™ . Bonus material included.

Nielsen's "Maskarade" is regarded as Denmark's national opera. It combines folk-song character, Mozartean elegance and virtuoso surprises to create what conductor Titus Engel describes as 'musical comedy that's both witty and of the highest calibre'. Based on an 18th-century play by Ludvig Holberg, the story revolves around Leander and Leonora who meet at a masquerade ball, swear undying love, and then have to deal with the complicated consequences of their situation, all accompanied by Nielsen's irresistibly sparkling score. This acclaimed contemporary staging from Oper Frankfurt is sung in a new German translation and directed by Tobias Kratzer.

Laufey / NIGHT AT THE SYMPHONY

Jeff Goldblum & the Mildred Snitzer Orchestra / Night Blooms[Blu-ray] - JEFF IS BACK!! And as ever, he's bringing even more friends along for the ride! Night Blooms follows the 2025 album, Still Blooming, and contains 6 new tracks with features from Charlie Puth, Melody Gardot, Cynthia Erivo and Dodie. The album also contains new 'Late Night Sessions' of tracks from Still Blooming alongside "Tattoo" and "Lover" previously released with Haley Reinhart.

NINTH SYMPHONY BY MAURICE BEJART - ON SCHILLER'S

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THE NOBEL PRIZE CONCERT 2010
(Blu-ray Disc Version) Ludwig van Beethoven: Leonore Overture No. 3 in C major, Op. 72b
Pyotr Il'yich Tchaikovsky: Violin Concerto in D major, Op. 35
Jean Sibelius: Symphony No. 5 in E flat major, Op. 82

Joshua Bell, violin
Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra
Sakari Oramo, conductor

Bonus:
- Interviews featuring Joshua Bell, Sakari Oramo, and Mario Vargas Llosa, the 2010 Nobel Laureate in Literature.

Picture format:1080i Full-HD
Sound format: PCM Stereo / DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 Region code: 0 (worldwide)
Running time: 91 mins
No. of Blu-rays: 1 (BD 25)

R E V I E W:



TCHAIKOVSKY Violin Concerto 1. BEETHOVEN Leonore Overture No. 3. SIBELIUS Symphony No. 5 • Sakari Oramo, cond; Royal Stockholm PO; 1 Joshua Bell (vn) • ACCENTUS 10215 (Blu-ray: 91:25)

& Interviews with Joshua Bell, Sakari Oramo, and Mario Vargas Llosa (25: 18)

Accentus’s release commemorates the December 2010 Nobel Prize concert given in the Stockholm Concert Hall with Sakari Oramo conducting the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra and featuring Joshua Bell (who receives top billing on the Blu-ray’s case) as violin soloist. The concert opens with a thundering performance of Ludwig van Beethoven’s Leonore Overture No. 3. The widescreen high-definition visual clarity, like the crisp and full-range audio (DTS HD or PCM), enhances the drama, making the hushed opening particularly atmospheric and reproducing the sudden outbursts and moving bass lines with startling realism. The climaxes rumble at the end. Oramo and the orchestra seem to revel in these sudden outbursts and enhance their effect with a boost in voltage.

Throughout the concert, the camera crew takes an approach similar to that in the old music scores for symphonic works that indicated active parts with arrows; in this case, the camera focuses on any woodwind or brass instrument (or percussion, of course) that might have been honored with an arrow in older times. Perhaps that’s not so distracting the first time you watch, but what about the second, third, or fourth? If you attend the dress rehearsal of a concert, then the performance, sitting in a seat in the hall from which you can view the entire stage, would you always train your attention on whatever seemed to be most prominent aurally, or might you allow your attention to wander freely? Perhaps it’s most telling that at the climaxes in Beethoven’s work, the camera pulls back for a shot that embraces the whole orchestra. I remember such a shot from the concert at the opening of Lincoln Center, when the cameras pulled back for the climax of the Polka and Fugue from Schwanda by Jaromir Weinberger. I’d like to watch the whole concert from this point of view, though I doubt most viewers would share this preference; in any case, perhaps a programmable choice of camera angles might be offered with Blu-ray’s greater storage capacity (such a choice seemed to be promised as features even in early DVDs).

Joshua Bell’s stage manner has always been characterized by what Jascha Heifetz, in a master class, once called “funny business”—swaying and grimacing even if the playing itself, heard without its visual analog, sounded a bit pallid. After finishing watching Bell’s performance of Tchaikovsky’s Violin Concerto, I reviewed movements of the concerto played on various DVDs by the warm-hearted David Oistrakh, the coolly elegant Nathan Milstein, the brilliant Michael Rabin, and the macho Ruggiero Ricci. And I’ve watched Heifetz’s truncated but electrifying version of the first movement with Fritz Reiner and the New York Philharmonic from the movie Carnegie Hall so many times that I didn’t need to return to it. There’s no funny business in any of these performances. The musical ideas emerge in the audible results rather than in any gyrations, however modest, that produce them.

So what does Bell actually do with the music itself? Well, the opening offers an opportunity for a violinist to write a bold signature, and Mischa Elman always took the opportunity to do so in that passage. So does Bell, though one violinist to whom I showed the passage thought his characterization “grotesque.” In any case, he’s expressive in the first theme, though he allows subsequent running passages to slip momentarily out of control. He enhances the music’s lyricism with portamentos that, however, don’t permit him to surpass in expressivity even the palest of the performances I’ve mentioned (Milstein’s). Nevertheless, he draws forth a pure and crystal-clear tone from the higher registers of the 1713 Gibson-Huberman Stradivari, and builds the passagework to an impressive climax, though his approach to the cadenza doesn’t generate the kind of voltage of Oistrakh’s or Heifetz’s performances. In the cadenza itself, Bell perhaps intentionally takes a lyrical tack; he certainly doesn’t hiss and spit as almost does Václav Hude?ek (on Supraphon 4055). After the cadenza, Bell shows how rich a sound his violin can produce on the G string. In the Canzonetta, the beauty of his tone and his relatively unmannered expressivity contribute to what turns out to be an especially communicative performance, though the middle section doesn’t sound as agitated as does, say, Heifetz’s (in 1957); in the return of the main melody, the recorded sound transmits a great deal of welcome orchestral detail. After an aggressive reading of the transitional cadenza, Bell launches into a performance of the finale that’s commanding not only for its brilliance but for its plaintiveness in the episodes as well. In Bell’s pounding, dance-like reading, the finale provides as robust a flow of adrenaline as does the first movement. Still, the whole concerto sounds more static in his reading than it does in the DVDs I’ve mentioned, or as I remember it from Elman’s performance with John Barbiriolli from 1929 or Milstein’s with Frederick Stock and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra from 1940.

Oramo’s and the orchestra’s performance of Jean Sibelius’s Fifth Symphony, recorded, again, with startling fidelity, conveys a strong sense of the music’s elemental power. And that clarity allows for separation of the layers of sound in the opening. Ideas seem almost to bubble as from a boiling cauldron (even in the dance-like sections in the movement’s second half (or in what some have designated the second movement). In the Andante, the interplay of scalar passages and pizzicatos in the strings, set against woodwind sonorities, rises and falls in what Oramo has built into a series of grand dynamic arches (commentators have unsurprisingly often described various performances of this symphony as “built” in one way or another). The finale’s pervasive ostinatos sizzle in the recorded sound, and mount in the end to a majestic, almost Brucknerian, conclusion. But compare those climaxes to the even more magisterial ones in Leonard Bernstein’s video performance with the Vienna Philharmonic from 1988 (directed by Humphrey Burton), released in 2010 by Unitel. On the whole, while strength and clarity (analogous to that of the recorded sound) may be the hallmark of Oramo’s reading, Bernstein’s sounds more sumptuous—due in no small part, perhaps, to the Vienna Philharmonic’s smooth power—but hardly less idiomatic or insightful.

The concert as a whole creates an impression of visceral power, albeit somewhat diminished during the concerto. And for violinists, the opportunity to observe Bell’s instrument close up and in great detail may add an incentive that might compensate for what some viewers of my generation might take as foppish pirouetting (there, I’ve said it). Strongly recommended overall, in the last analysis.

FANFARE: Robert Maxham

These three facets in the prism of Mozart's operatic genius shine in Glyndebourne's typically thought-provoking productions, featuring skilled singer-actors buoyed by the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment's luminous period sound. Nicholas Hytner's beautiful, 'shockingly traditional' production of Cos� fan tutte frames artful performances teased by Ivan Fischer from an outstanding international cast of convincing young lovers. Michael Grandage's staging of Le nozze di Figaro is Glyndebourne's seventh in a line stretching back to the company's 1934 debut production. Marshalled by the 'ideal pacing' of Robin Ticciati, a youthful cast of principals has 'no weak link' and 'looks gorgeous' (The Sunday Times). David McVicar's Die Entfuhrung aus dem Serail offers a 'mesmerising, sensitive... outstanding' portrayal of Enlightenment-era fascination with the East that is both 'exquisitely acted and sung' (The Guardian), and Ticciati leads the OAE through a restored, authentic rendition of the critical score with 'lovely fizz' and 'poignant gravitas'. (The Independent). "Glorious orchestral playing and magnificent singing under Ivan Fischer" (Cosi fan tutte - BBC Music Magazine) "Finely conducted by Robin Ticciati, McVicar's production of Mozart's Turkish comedy is a vocal and visual treat." (Die Entfuhrung - The Stage) "... this is a Figaro of rare grace, naturalness and charm." (Le Nozze di Figaro - The Daily Telegraph)