ROSSINI, G. / BEETHOVEN, L. van / MOZART, W.A. / BIZET, G.:

IN HARMONY WITH CLASSICAL MUSIC - Meditation Moods

Mozart, W.A.: Symphony No. 41, "Jupiter" / Serenata Notturna

MOZART: OPERNARIEN

Mozart, W.A.: Violin Concerto No. 2 / Violin Concerto in E-F

MOZART: KONZERTANTE SINFONIEN

BEETHOVEN, L. van: Romance No. 1 / MOZART, W.A.: Ave verum c

Orchestral Music - ROSSINI, G. / MOZART, W.A. / BERLIOZ, H.

Featuring the world's first Blu-ray 3D disc of chamber music.

Classical Music

Classical Music

This Blu-ray Disc is only playable on Blu-ray Disc players and not compatible with standard DVD players.

Also available on standard DVD
MOZART OPERAS
(5-Blu-ray Disc Box Set)

LE NOZZE DI FIGARO

Figaro - Erwin Schrott
Susanna - Miah Persson
Count Almaviva - Gerald Finley
Countess Almaviva - Dorothea Röschmann
Marcellina - Graciela Araya
Barbarina - Ana James
Cherubino - Rinat Shaham

Royal Opera Chorus
Royal Opera House Orchestra
Antonio Pappano, conductor

David McVicar, stage director

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

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

DON GIOVANNI

Don Giovanni - Simon Keenlyside
Leporello - Kyle Ketelsen
Commendatore - Eric Halfvarson
Donna Anna - Marina Poplavskaya
Donna Elvira - Joyce DiDonato
Don Ottavio - Ramón Vargas
Zerlina - Miah Persson
Masetto - Robert Gleadow

Royal Opera House Chorus and Orchestra
Charles Mackerras, conductor
Francesca Zambello, stage director

Recorded live at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, London, on 8 and 12 September 2008

Bonus:
- Illustrated synopsis and cast gallery
- Into the Royal Opera House
- Backstage Tour

DIE ZAUBERFLÖTE

Tamino - Will Hartmann
Pamina - Dorothea Röschmann
Queenof the Night - Diana Damrau
Sarastro - Franz-Josef Selig
Papageno - Simon Keenlyside
Papagena - Ailish Tynan
Monostatos - Adrian Thompson

Royal Opera Chorus
Orchestra of the Royal Opera House
Colin Davis, conductor

David McVicar, stage director
John F. Macfarlane, set designer
Paule Constable, lighting designer
Leah Hausman, choreographer

Recorded live at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, London, 27 January 2003

Bonus:
- BBC feature looks behind the scenes at this production
- Conductor Sir Colin Davis talks about Die Zauberflöte
- Illustrated synopsis of the operas

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Picture format: 1080i High Definition
Sound format: LPCM 2.0 / DTS 5.1
Region code: 0 (worldwide)
Subtitles: English, Spanish (all), French, German, Italian (Figaro, Don Giovanni)
Running time: 9 hrs 49 mins
No. of Discs: 5

Also available on standard DVD

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

MOZART Symphonies Nos. 1, 4–31, 33–36, 39–41. Symphonies, K 19a, 42a, 45a–b, 73l–n, 73q, 111b • Ádám Fischer, cond; Danish Natl CO • DACAPO 8.201201 (12 CDs: 716:42)

I mentioned in my review of a single disc from this series, which included symphonies Nos. 28–30 (Fanfare 34:4), that I didn’t think that Ádám Fischer’s performances captured “Mozart’s drama as well as they capture his elegance,” but added the caveat that it’s difficult to gauge an entire series of symphonies by one CD. Alas, in later reviewing the disc including symphonies Nos. 31, 33, and 34, I had the opposite feeling, that Fischer was making a “race to the finish line” and playing the symphonies too quickly. Now, as it so happened, I reviewed those two discs about two years apart, and so did not have the first still on hand to compare to the second, or to think about the differences in approach. But now I have the full set of 45 symphonies to review, and my feelings have changed. Now I am inclined to agree with Patrick Rucker, who gave a rave review to the single disc of symphonies Nos. 15–18 in Fanfare 31:1 (a disc reviewed, I believe, before I joined the magazine staff), stating that he was “grasping for superlatives.”

The difference? Listening to the entire series in chronological sequence. By doing so, I noted that, despite an overall theatrical approach to these symphonies (in the liner notes, Fischer admits that he tends to think of orchestral music “operatically,” i.e., finding a dramatic theme or thread in the music that he then tries to bring out), he does make distinctions between the earlier and the later symphonies. Reducing his approach to a few basics, he plays the earlier symphonies with equal drama and electricity but with far fewer changes in dynamics and fewer rubato touches. In addition, I was able to download the scores of four of the symphonies—two of the most famous late works (40 and 41) and two early symphonies (Nos. 5 and 15, chosen pretty much at random)—and although these are not up-to-date, verified, Urtext scores like the ones Fischer worked from, they do include dynamics markings. And, as any number of conductors of the past have mentioned, they do not tell you what to do between the forte here and the piano four or six bars later (or vice versa). You are expected to follow your own good taste in approaching them.

Perhaps another deciding factor for me was in hearing Philippe Herreweghe’s more dynamic performances of symphonies Nos. 39 and 41 and, believe it or not, Bruno Walter’s historic performances of symphonies Nos. 39–41. Despite Walter’s slower tempos (and richer string sound), he actually elicited much more nuance and detail from those symphonies than did Jaap ter Linden, whose set I gave a good review to and suggested at the time that it was a fine historically-informed set of the Mozart symphonies. But, to be honest, what really sold me on Fischer’s approach were his performances of the early, lesser-known, oft-neglected, and unnumbered symphonies. Each and every one of them sounded as if it was just bursting with excitement, yet not too much that it overpowered the music on the printed page.

Moreover, what struck me in the single disc of symphonies 31, 33 and 34 as too fast now, suddenly, made sense in context. And, for the several Toscanini-bashers out there, I found it almost comical to note that Fischer takes the Finale of the “Jupiter” Symphony at virtually the same tempo that they consider “too fast.” The difference, of course, is that musicians of the 1940s and 50s weren’t used to playing Mozart this swiftly, and so they tended to sound pressed, whereas Fischer’s Danish National Chamber Orchestra skips through the music deftly and nimbly, like snow rabbits dashing across the landscape. It’s the comfort level of the executants that makes the difference, then, not the “wrong” tempo.

A good example of Fischer’s approach is CD 3, where he presents no less that four symphonies in a row that are all in the key of D Major (K 73l, m, n, and q). It would have been very easy for him, and the orchestra, to simply slip into an all-purpose style for these works, which of course would make them sound pretty much the same, yet he continually varies his approach from work to work. I do, however, caution the listener to approach this set one CD at a time. That is what I did, listening on consecutive nights to only one CD per evening, and it worked out pretty well. You get a better feel for the magnitude of Fischer’s achievement that way, and you are being fairer to both him and the Danish orchestra, whose players helped prod him on to take chances with the music and do things differently from the norm. After all, this was a seven-year project for them. These symphonies did not just get all rehearsed and recorded within a year or two.

I should also point out the work that went into Symphony No. 15, one of the four I obtained scores of. In the notes, Fischer asserts that if this work had not been by Mozart, who wrote so many symphonies and so many of good quality, it would probably be a much better known work, possibly a repertoire staple. Just reading the score, the music does look promising but certainly not brilliant. The first movement, for instance, is in a quick 3/4 time, featuring a jagged melody with the usual wide-ranging melodic leaps. From the first bar, the dynamics marking is forte, which changes to piano at bar 13, then back to forte at bar 22, piano again at bar 25, forte on the first beat of bar 30 with a sudden fp on the second beat (a half note played by the oboes, trumpets, and first violins, while the second violins play 16ths and the violas, cellos, and basses play eighth notes). It’s all pretty cut-and-dry, you might say, and this is how most conductors play it. Fischer adds a little burst of extra volume at the top of bar 5, when the agitated strings play against long-held notes by oboes and trumpets, and there are all sorts of little gradations of sound in various places, including slight crescendos to emphasize the musical drama. More interestingly, none of this sounds particularly fussy; if you didn’t have the score in front of you, or if you hadn’t heard any number of flat-response historically-informed performances, you’d think that this is simply the way the music goes. Toscanini once said it isn’t the f here or the p there that’s difficult to gauge, but what to do in between. Sadly, Toscanini paid little attention to most of Mozart’s symphonies because, except for the last three, he found most of them boring: “Is always beautiful, but always the same!” In Fischer’s performances, nothing is “always the same.” In the Andante of this Symphony, for instance, there are no dynamics markings at all, yet Fischer plays it at a moderate mp with further gradations down to p or pp and back again. By such means does he create and sustain interest.

The notes also explain the reason why the music sounds so vibrant and alive: His string players all use steel strings, which gives the music a consistently “edgy” quality that reveals, as Fischer put it, Mozart’s “earthily honest side.” The more you think about it, the more this makes sense, since Mozart was strongly influenced by both Haydn and C. P. E. Bach, both of whom exploited an earthy, dramatic quality in their symphonies.

Probably the most difficult aspect of the earlier symphonies to overcome was the monotony of orchestration. Clarinets, horns, and other instruments only begin to appear in Mozart’s symphonies later on; earlier, the composer had to rely on his ingenuity of counter-rhythms and occasional harmonic changes to sustain interest, and unlike Haydn, Mozart almost invariably sought the widest possible popularity for his music (perhaps one of the reasons why Toscanini found it “always the same”). Yet, as the notes also point out, in Mozart’s day no one bothered to listen to music more than three years old as a rule. It was all about what was new, not what had come before. No one gave a hoot back then about “historical performance practice” because they didn’t want it and wouldn’t have listened if you gave it to them.

I still feel that occasional movements, such as the Andantes of the “Paris” Symphony and No. 39, are a shade too fast for my taste, but in the context of Fischer’s overall musical conception what he plays works very well. I can now accept what I hear in those later symphonies because my tolerance was built up through what he did with the numerous early works. In short, I have taken this symphonic journey with Fischer, the only difference being that I did it in 12 nights rather than in seven years.

I have now replaced the Jaap ter Linden set of Mozart symphonies on my shelf with this one. I strongly urge you to give them a listen and see if you don’t agree.

FANFARE: Lynn René Bayley

In David McVicar’s spellbinding production of Le nozze di Figaro the break-down of the relationship between Finley’s suave, dashingly self-absorbed Count and Röschmann’s passionately dignified Countess lies at the heart of the opera. The struggle to rekindle their love contrasts tragic-comically with the sexy ease between a feisty Figaro (Erwin Schrott) and a sassy Susanna (Miah Persson) is starkly absent, and the tenacious spark that remains between Marcellina (Graciela Araya) and Bartolo (Jonathan Veira). Antonio Pappano conducts (and accompanies the recitatives) with invigorating wit and emotional depth, allowing the ensemble to capture the moments of dramatic tension to perfection and engaging fully with the rhythm of an already classic production, captured in High Definition video and surround sound.

R E V I E W S:

"Capturing one of my favourite opera productions of recent years, this new DVD of David McVicar's take on the first of the Mozart-Da Ponte operas is in some ways the ultimate Le nozze di Figaro... this performance seems to get to the heart of arguably Mozart's greatest opera more successfully than almost any other production of the composer's stage works I've seen in the last two or three years. As day turns to night and the characters leave the house to resolve their disputes in Tanya McCallin's verdant garden set, the performance takes on a warm glow; it's just so emotional, so involving, so poignant.
Shot in high definition and in surround sound, this is a luxury package and one that should be purchased and treasured by every opera lover."

-- Dominic McHugh, MusicalCriticism.com

There have been a couple of Figaros on DVD lately where the plot is distorted and the setting more or less absurd. After all this it is a relief to see that David McVicar presents a ‘normal’ version with elegant staterooms and period costumes. And it doesn’t seem in the least old-fashioned! On the contrary the sets, the costumes and the action go hand in hand with the music. The production breathes with Mozart - no artificial respiration is necessary - and we are confronted with real characters of the late 18th century. They are performed with a lightness and a cobweb-free liveliness that make them easily transformable to the present day.

McVicar has read the score closely and reacted to Mozart’s ‘under-story’ – the directions and comments that are in the orchestra, sometimes reinforcing the text, sometimes contrapuntal and even telling a different story. He, the composer, knows more than the characters themselves. In McVicar’s mind the overture is no mere prelude to the evening, where the audience have an opportunity to finish their conversations. This musical masterpiece is a little symphonic poem which, though in no way thematically related to the following play as the overtures to Così fan tutte and Die Zauberflöte are, lends itself to an amusing pantomime. And the high spirits that are evoked continue as an undercurrent all through the opera – even though there are also moments of darkness, even brutality. Count Almaviva, who is presented as a many-faceted human being, is also a hothead. In the second act he actually hits the Countess – maybe a nod in the direction of reality, where physical violence within marriage seems on the increase. Another parallel may be the teenaged Cherubino appearing markedly tipsy in the last act. Closer to the revolutionary ideas of Beaumarchais’s late 18th century is the obvious antagonism between Figaro and the Count. The third act scene with the sextet, when it is revealed that Marcellina and Bartolo are Figaro’s parents, is more straightforward comedy – but far from the slapstick farce it can sometimes be in less sensitive hands. Overall style is the buzzword for this production; inventiveness within a traditional concept. Just one tiny detail: there is no scene-shift between acts 3 and 4, just frozen positions and then over to Barbarina’s aria where she mourns the loss of the pin for which we have been prepared in the previous scene.

Musically it is also a highly attractive performance. Antonio Pappano paces the music excellently, giving the singers a certain freedom to make individual imprints and allowing them to embellish the vocal line. The effect is both stylish and elegant. It is also a musically very complete version where both Marcellina and Don Basilio are allowed their arias in the last act. Both are well sung. It is a particular pleasure to see and hear Philip Langridge in the latter role, vocally seemingly indestructible. He both looks and sings just as splendidly as he did when I last saw him on stage – and that must be close to twenty years ago!

Good singing and acting is moreover the order of the day with not a weak link among the cast. Erwin Schrott is a splendid Figaro, manly, youthful, good looking and a magnificent singer. He has bass notes that elude many a Figaro and generally makes a sensitive and believable valet. Miah Persson is a mercurial and expressive Susanna, definitely in the top flight of lyrical sopranos in the world today. Her facial expressions reveal all her feelings and she sings an exquisite last act aria. Together with her mistress, the Countess, she also performs a lovely Letter Duet in act 3. On her own Dorothea Röschmann excels in the Countess’s two arias, standing out as a truly tragic person but with a will of steel; this comes through in the intensity of her singing. Dove sono in act 3 is more powerful than most readings I have heard – but sensitive. Great singing indeed! Gerald Finley is also a splendid actor combining burnished tone with honeyed suavity when it suits him. Rinat Shaham is truly boyish in the notoriously difficult-to-cast role as Cherubino and sings with nervous passion. She is almost in the Christine Schäfer class, a singer to my mind unsurpassable in the role. Jonathan Veira, another splendid actor, makes the most of Dr Bartolo, even though he is more baritone than bass and lacks the booming bottom notes.

The presentation is exemplary with a detailed tracklist in the booklet which makes it easy to access individual numbers. The sound is splendid and the video direction excellent. There are enough overview pictures to get involved in the settings but the director works a lot with close-ups which pays dividends with so eminent a cast of singing actors. This is one of those DVD operas that requires to be seen again and more than once. Readers who don’t believe in over-fanciful reconstructions or transportations in time can rest assured that this is the real thing – and still up to date.

-- Göran Forsling, MusicWeb International

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
LE NOZZE DI FIGARO

Figaro – Erwin Schrott
Susanna – Miah Persson
Count Almaviva – Gerald Finley
Countess Almaviva – Dorothea Röschmann
Marcellina – Graciela Araya
Barbarina – Ana James
Cherubino – Rinat Shaham

The Royal Opera Chorus
The Royal Opera House Orchestra
Antonio Pappano, conductor

David McVicar, stage director

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

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

Picture format: NTSC 16:9 Anamorphic
Sound format: DTS Surround 5.0 / LPCM Stereo
Region code: 0 (all)
Menu language: English
Subtitles: English, French, German, Spanish, Italian