Also available on Blu-ray

This scintillating opera gala offers you the chance to experience the Odeonsplatz Concert 2013 with Rolando Villazón, Thomas Hampson and Yannick Nézet-Séguin in all its glory, featuring opera arias, duets, overtures and choruses by Verdi and Wagner.

THE ODEONSPLATZ CONCERT – Verdi and Wagner
Klassik am Odeonsplatz

Giuseppe Verdi:
Les vêpres siciliennes (I vesperi siciliani): Overture
Don Carlos: Autodafé / Dio, che nell’alma infondere
L’esule (arr. L. Berio)
Il trovatore, Act II: Vedi, le fosche notturne, “Anvil Chorus”
Il corsaro, Act III: Alfin questo corsaro … Cento leddiadre vergini
Oberto, conte di San Bonifacio, Act II: Ciel, che feci!
Nabucco, Act III: Vá pensiero, “Chorus of the Hebrew Slaves”

Jules Massenet:
Hérodiade, Act II: Ce breuvage pourrait … Vision fugitive
Le Cid, Act III: Ah! tout est bien fini … Ô souverain, ô juge, ô pere
Maurice Ravel: La valse (version for orchestra)

Richard Wagner:
Lohengrin: Preludes to Acts I & III
Tannhäuser: O du mein holder Abendstern / Entry of the Guests on the Wartburg

Rolando Villazón, tenor
Thomas Hampson, baritone

Bavarian Radio Symphony Chorus
Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra
Yannick Nézet-Séguin, conductor

Recorded live at Odeonsplatz, Munich, 2013

Picture format: NTSC 16:9
Sound format: PCM Stereo / DTS 5.1
Region code: 0 (worldwide)
Subtitles: English, German, French, Spanish, Korean, Chinese, Japanese
Booklet notes: English, German, French
Running time: 111 mins
No. of DVDs: 1 (DVD 9)

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

Also available on standard DVD

Still reeling from the previous night’s concert I was eager to hear Nelsons and the Concertgebouw in this mix of Classical and Romantic pieces. They are joined by the Israeli-American pianist Yefim Bronfman, who I’ve not heard in a very long time. I tend to associate him with the Russians – notably Rachmaninov, Prokofiev and Shostakovich – but he has recorded a fine version of the Beethoven concerto with David Zinman and his Zurich band (Arte Nova). As for the Rimsky, it’s one of those showpieces that seldom fails to please; and if the sonics of that earlier Blu-ray are anything to go by it should be a knock-out.
 
The Ruins of Athens, written to accompany August von Kotzebue’s play of the same name, is hardly a Beethovenian staple, but when it’s played with such affection it’s hard to understand why. Right from those opening figures on the double basses it’s clear this is going to be a performance of spontaneity and spirit, the camera cutting to key players when they get the chance to shine. And shine they do, the Concertgebouw as animated as they were the night before. On the podium Nelsons is equally alert, his boyish grin a sign that he’s having fun.
 
And who wouldn’t, with such thoroughbreds between the shafts? As for the concerto, a warhorse that seldom gets the performance it deserves, it’s played with tremendous brio. Bronfman fingerwork is clear and unmannered, and the orchestra responds with alacrity to Nelsons’ firm tug of the reins. Balances are generally fine, although the brass and woodwinds tend to leap out in the tuttis – some unnecessary knob-twiddling, perhaps – and the bass is not as firm as I’d like. Otherwise the Allegro is both passionate and elegant, and tempi are well judged; there’s plenty of thrust too, although at times momentum does flag.
 
Such lapses are rare though, Nelsons’ whipping his wayward steeds into line quickly enough. That said, the Adagio and Rondo-Allegro are more problematic. In the former the flute passage before the piano’s first entry is absurdly out of proportion – more intervention, perhaps – and Nelsons moulds the music far too much for my tastes. Yes it is beautiful, but it’s cloying and comes close to limpidity overload; as for Bronfman, his phrasing at the start of the Rondo is less easeful than usual. Even more distracting is the fitful progress, the music lacking the cumulative weight and growing tension one hears in other – more compelling – performances. It seems the audience have no such qualms though, demanding an encore. Bronfman duly obliges with a coruscating rendition of Chopin’s Etude in F major.
 
I so wanted to wallow in this concerto but alas I’m not likely to return to it in a hurry. At least there’s a consolation prize in the form of Scheherazade, whose terrifying start nearly blew me out of my seat. Having set the volume to a comfortable level for the Beethoven I was not prepared for such an assault on my senses; goodness, this really is Rimsky for the IMAX age, the brass- and timp-drenched climaxes simply crushing. The quieter moments are just as arresting, the Sultana’s beguiling narrative superbly evoked by the violin and harp.
 
As for ‘The Story of the Kalender Prince’ it’s packed with incident and colour, the many close-ups a reminder of just how virtuosic this piece is, and how exposed players are at times. There’s firm. characterful playing from the woodwinds, and the formidable battery of trombones sounds especially baleful. The big, bold recording handles these dynamic swings with aplomb, although anyone of a nervous disposition – or with unsympathetic neighbours – might want to reduce the volume by a couple of notches. As always, Nelsons is engrossed in the music, and it’s impossible not to succumb to his obvious and infectious enthusiasm.
 
That’s one of the unexpected joys of this concert; everyone is clearly having fun. What a change from those stiff-backed performers, stern of countenance, we see all too often. The tender music of ‘The Young Prince and the Young Princess’ is most eloquently done, and Nelsons shapes the dance-like episodes very persuasively. It’s the final movement, with its festival and shipwreck, that will take your breath away. The intimidating roar of this orchestra in full spate really confirms the sonic potential of Blu-ray; indeed, I’ve never heard that dash of spray, crack of sail and final cataclysm as powerfully realised as it is here. Those final, sinuous bars – as if enclosing these tales in parentheses – are simply overwhelming in their simplicity and charm.
 
Not surprisingly the audience demands – and gets – an encore in the shape of one of the Slavonic Dances from Dvor(ák’s Op. 46. It’s a polka, now winsome now trenchant, its storming conclusion a thrilling coda to an exhilarating concert. That said, Nelsons still looks as fresh as a daisy, and his players don’t seem to have wilted either. Despite the rather disappointing concerto I’m very impressed by this multi-talented Latvian; he can certainly batter one’s ear drums – the Rimsky is indeed a knock-out – but as the previous night’s Shostakovich Eighth and his 50th anniversary War Requiem so eloquently demonstrate, he can batter one’s heart as well.
 
A delightful overture, a competent concerto, and a Scheherazade to die for.
 
-- Dan Morgan, MusicWeb International

GERMANY: A Musical Tour of Baroque Churches in Bavaria

The Places
The tour visits four notable baroque churches in Bavaria, the Monastic Church of the Assumption at Rohr, the Benedictine Abbey Church of Ottobeuren, the Alte Kapelle in Regensburg and the Monastic Church of St George and St Martin at Weltenburg near Kelheim.

The Music
Music for the tour is by Johann Sebastian Bach and is taken from the works Bach wrote for the organ. He had been familiar with the instrument from childhood, and apart from a short period from 1717 to 1723 as Court Kapellmeister to Prince Leopold of Anhalt-Cöthen, remained a respected performer on the instrument, a composer of organ music and an expert on the construction of the instrument.

Picture format: NTSC 4:3
Sound format: PCM Stereo 2.0 / Dolby Digital 5.1 / DTS 5.1
Region code: 0 (worldwide)
Running time: 58 mins
No. of DVDs: 1

BAVARIA

The Places
Bavaria, in south Germany, in earlier times ruled by an Elector, whose capital was Munich, is a region of the greatest variety. The places seen here start with the Bavarian Forest and its traditional craft of glass-blowing. Other scenes are of the great palace of the Thurn und Taxis Princes at Regensburg and the fine baroque monastery church of St George and St Martin at Weltenburg.

The Music
Music for the tour is by Telemann, a friend and contemporary of Johann Sebastian Bach, founder of the Leipzig Collegium Musicum later directed by Bach, godfather to Bach’s second son and for many years in charge of music in Hamburg, where he was later succeeded by his godson. The music here includes a Suite for recorder and strings, and two concertos from his Tafelmusik, one for three violins and the other for two horns.

Picture format: NTSC 4:3
Sound format: Dolby Digital 5.1/ DTS 5.1/PCM Stereo 2.0
Region code: 0 (worldwide)
Running time: 53 mins
No. of DVDs: 1

R E V I E W:

Bavaria, in south Germany, has a convoluted history. Conquered by the Romans, it was taken by Charlemagne and incorporated into his empire before becoming one of the great Duchies of the Holy Roman Empire. The Duchy joined the German Empire in 1871, whilst remaining a kingdom until 1918. It was an early base for Hitler and became a state of the Federal Republic of Germany in 1949.
 
Bavaria is renowned for the beauty of its rolling landscape and the charm of its villages, neither being the focus of this issue which starts with a visit to a glass factory in Frauenau. The sequence (CHs. 1-8), each with a one-line description in the booklet, is accompanied by extracts from Telemann’s recorder Suite in A minor played by Capella Istropolitana. The baroque music comes over as an ideal accompaniment to the glass-blowing and engraving skills on show which now benefit from modern technology but which date back nearly seven hundred years in this region. The technique of blowing molten glass takes power in the cheeks and lungs akin to a brass instrument; the beer belly is, however, not a pre-requisite.
 
The second visit (CHs.9-11) takes the viewer to Schloss Thurn and Taxis, Regensburg. This became the family home of the former postmaster to the Empress who established the first postal system in Europe and was given the old Abbey of St Emmerman as a reward. Views of the spectacular staircase and gentle ceiling décor are accompanied by more baroque music by Telemann. This takes the form of his Concerto for three violins, which, together with that for three violins is taken from his Tafelmusik.
 
The final visit is to the Abbey of St George and St. Martin, Weltenberg, near Kelheim. German and Celtic monks founded the Abbey in the seventh century. Its location, on a peninsula of the Danube, permits some views of the countryside as the building is approached along the river. It’s a dull day that does not do justice to the colours of the trees or surrounding countryside. The views of the façade are accompanied by Telemann’s Concerto for Two Horns whose haunting tone contrasts interestingly with both the simplicity of the exterior and the showy ornaments of the interior.
 
The playing time is somewhat shorter than the more usual hour. A little of the Bavarian countryside, in its usual summer sun would not have gone amiss. There is some repetition of photographs in the glass-blowing factory.
 
-- Robert J Farr, MusicWeb International

Donizetti: Don Gregorio, L'elisir D'amore / Bordogna, Trucco, Valerio, Benetta, Hernandez, Donizetti / Valerio, Composer: Gaetano Donizetti, Performer: Giorgio Valerio, Livio Scarpellini, Elizaveta Martirosyan, Paolo Bordogna, Conductor: Stefano Montanari, Alessandro de Marchi, Orchestra/Ensemble: Bergamo Musica Festival Orchestra, Bergamo Musica Festival Chorus, Number of Discs: 4. A double-bill of Donizetti operas recorded at the Bergamo Music Festival in 2007. Director Roberto Recchia sets 'Don Gregorio' in the 1920s, a time which mirrors in many ways the political and social conditions prevailing when the piece was originally written. Spoken dialogues in the Neapolitan dialect are used in place of the recitatives, but Donizetti's music remains unchanged. The characters in this comic opera are inspired by the Italian Commedia dell'Arte. In 'L'elisir d'amore', conductor Alessandro de Marchi allows the comedic aspects of the work to be exploited fully by the cast, which includes Silvia Dalla Benetta, Raul Hernandez and Alex Esposito.

Also available on Blu-ray

Francesco Cavalli was the most successful Venetian opera composer of the mid-seventeenth century. In the wake of Monteverdi, opera was enjoying a real boom, and this spread to the rest of Europe because the ruling classes often met up at the Venice carnival. Giasone displays Cavalli’s sense of drama and musical lightness, as well as a grotesque humour typical of the great Italian baroque operas.

This new production is orchestrated and conducted by the internationally reputed baroque specialist Federico Maria Sardelli. It is directed by the young Frenchwoman Mariame Clément, who is currently making a name for herself with her infectious directing in German and French opera houses. The title role is sung by the promising countertenor Christophe Dumaux.

Francesco Cavalli
IL GIASONE
Federico Maria Sardelli, conductor
Symfonisch Orkest van de Vlaamse Opera
Mariame Clément, stage director
Julia Hansen, scenes & costume designer
Giasone: Christophe Dumaux
Medea: Katarina Bradic
Isifile: Robin Johannsen
Giove/Besso: Josef Wagner
Demo: Filippo Adami
Delfa/Eolo: Yaniv d’Or
Amore/Alinda: Angélique Noldus
Ercole/Oreste: Andrew Ashwin
Vlaamse Opera, Antwerpen, 2010

Sound Format: LPCM 2.0, Dolby digital 5.1
Picture Format: 16:9
Running Time: 198 minutes & 5 minutes (interview)
Language: Italian
Subtitles: English, German, French, Italian, Spanish, Korean
Booklet Notes: English, German, French, Italian

OXFORD

The Places
Our tour takes us to Oxford, site of the oldest university in England, with scenes of the city and some of the colleges.

The Music
The music chosen to accompany our tour is by Joseph Haydn, whose Oxford Symphony was performed there to celebrate the award of a doctorate by the university. His Surprise Symphony was written for performance in London in 1791.

Picture format: NTSC 4:3
Sound format: PCM Stereo 2.0
Region code: 0 (worldwide)
Running time: 52 mins
No. of DVDs: 1

The All-Star Orchestra gives you a front row seat to the world's greatest music, performed by top players chosen from over 30 great American orchestras, and conducted by Gerard Schwarz. The programs feature complete performances of popular masterpieces and world premieres of new works by leading American composers. Filmed in High-Definition with 19 cameras during a once-a-year 'summit' in New York's historic Grand Ballroom at Manhattan Center, the All-Star Orchestra celebrates the symphonic experience in the 21st century. Program #1 Music for the Theatre (Igor Stravinsky: Suite from the Firebird; Maurice Ravel: Daphnis and Chloe Suite No. 2; Bright Sheng: Prelude to Black Swan) the legendary impresario Serge Diaghilev of Les Ballet Russes commissioned from Stravinsky and Ravel some of the greatest music for the ballet. His influence stretched from St. Petersburg to Paris to the New York City Ballet founded by Diaghilev's collaborator Georges Balanchine. Former NYCB Composer in Residence Bright Sheng captures the beauty of the dance with his Prelude to Black Swan. Program #2 What Makes a Masterpiece? This program is an exploration of the creative process, tracing the genesis of Beethoven's iconic symphony, and the development of a new work by a modern master. Introductory features will demonstrate how short rhythmic and melodic motives evolve into vast symphonic organisms. Interviews include leading Beethoven scholars and the All-Star musicians.

The All-Star Orchestra gives you a front row seat to the world's greatest music, performed by top players chosen from over 30 great American orchestras. The programs feature complete performances of popular masterpieces and world premieres of new works by leading American composers. Filmed in High-Definition with 19 cameras during a once-a-year 'summit' in New York's historic Grand Ballroom at Manhattan Center, the All-Star Orchestra celebrates the symphonic experience in the 21st century. Program #7 Music's Emotional Impact This program delves into Tchaikovsky's dramatic personal life, his brief marriage, and his intense correspondence with his patroness Nadezhda von Meck whom he never met, and to whom he dedicated his 4th Symphony. The dramatic brass fanfares that for Tchaikovsky symbolized Fate find a modern echo in David Stock's Blast! Program #8 Mahler: Love, Sorrow and Transcendence Mahler's turbulent passions are expressed through his music. His settings of poems by Friedrich Rueckert explore themes of love, nature, and otherworldliness. Mahler was haunted throughout his life by the premonition of his own death. The first movement of his 2nd Symphony, which Mahler called 'Totenfeier' ('Funerary Rites'), draws stark contrasts between the composer's premonition of doom, and his vision of life. Modern reflections on these themes can be found in 'Adieu' by Bernard Rands and 'Of Paradise and Light' by Augusta Read Thomas.

The Opera Comique in Paris has a long tradition of giving stylish performances dating back to the 18th century. Five imaginative and critically acclaimed productions are featured in this collection of French operatic masterpieces. Bizet's 'Carmen', which received it's premiere at the Opera Comique in 1875, is performed on period instruments conducted by Sir John Eliot Gardiner. Ambroise Thomas's 'Hamlet' features the stellar French baritone Stephane Degout in the title role. Messager exemplifies the spirit of La Belle epoch in 'Fortunio'; Gounod fuses Romanticism with the supernatural in 'La Nonne sanglante'; and the outstanding French soprano Sabine Devieilhe takes the lead role in Delibes's tragic tale of passion and loyalty, 'Lakme' - one of the jewels of the Opera Comique.

The Subscription Concert Series of the Wiener Philharmoniker from the Golden Hall of the famous Musikverein are special concerts reserved for subscribers. Due to the exceptional quality of the concerts and the limited offer, the average waiting time for subscribers is more than 10 years. With this series, these very special concerts are made available for the first time audiovisually to a wider audience worldwide. Mahler's unusually expansive five-movement Symphony No. 7 is among the composer's most ambiguous and enigmatic works, often regarded as his most challenging to perform. Andris Nelsons leads the orchestra in a new chapter of their Mahler cycle, reaffirming his stature as "one of the most celebrated conductors of our time" (Salzburger Nachrichten). Under his baton, the Seventh becomes "magic in the Golden Hall. [...] Rarely has one heard this work so finely chiselled, so dynamically balanced. An event." (Kurier). "Andris Nelsons and the Vienna Philharmonic bring total coherence to Mahler's Seventh Symphony." (Seen and Heard International)

The Subscription Concert Series of the Wiener Philharmoniker from the Golden Hall of the famous Musikverein are special concerts reserved for subscribers. Due to the exceptional quality of the concerts and the limited offer, the average waiting time for subscribers is more than 10 years. With this series, these very special concerts are made available for the first time audiovisually to a wider audience worldwide. Mahler's unusually expansive five-movement Symphony No. 7 is among the composer's most ambiguous and enigmatic works, often regarded as his most challenging to perform. Andris Nelsons leads the orchestra in a new chapter of their Mahler cycle, reaffirming his stature as "one of the most celebrated conductors of our time" (Salzburger Nachrichten). Under his baton, the Seventh becomes "magic in the Golden Hall. [...] Rarely has one heard this work so finely chiselled, so dynamically balanced. An event." (Kurier). "Andris Nelsons and the Vienna Philharmonic bring total coherence to Mahler's Seventh Symphony." (Seen and Heard International)

The Royal Ballet's perfect pairing of Marianela Nunez and Vadim Muntagirov takes centre stage in this collection of four fairytale favourites. Royal Ballet founding choreographer Frederick Ashton's Cinderella was brought back to Covent Garden in 2023 to celebrate it's 75th Anniversary with a creative team steeped in the magic of theatre, film and dance bringing new atmosphere to Cinderella's ethereal world of fairy godmothers and pumpkin carriages, handsome princes and finding true love. Ninette de Valois' charming and funny Coppelia is a classic of The Royal Ballet repertory - a story of love, mischief and mechanical dolls. The intricate choreography is set to Delibes' delightful score and shows off the technical precision and comedic timing of the whole company. Osbert Lancaster's designs bring a colourful storybook world to life in this entertaining and joyful ballet. Marius Petipa's The Sleeping Beauty holds a special place in The Royal Ballet's repertory, with it's vibrant sets and glittering costumes and featuring such iconic moments as the Rose Adage, the Vision Pas de Deux, the exuberant wedding celebration and the charming fairy-tale guests, all danced to Tchaikovsky's richly layered music - one of the most beloved ballet scores of all time. Swan Lake is perhaps the best-loved of all the classical ballets. This production by Liam Scarlett features additional choreography while remaining faithful to Petipa and Ivanov's classic. John Macfarlane's opulent designs provide an atmospheric, period setting for this enthralling love story, illuminated by Tchaikovsky's sublime score.

The first collaboration between John Cage and Scottish traditional music group The Whistlebinkies occured in Edinburgh in 1984. Cage was fascinated by their instrumentation of Lowland pipes, clarsach, fiddle, wooden flute, concertina, drum and voice. This led on to the commissioning of Scottish Circus for the ensemble in 1990, a way of performing traditional Scottish music as individuals of an ensemble together. The September 1990 premiere in Glasgow, in Cage's presence, also included his newly devised version of 4'33" (which lasted 10 minutes!). These recordings showcase Edinburgh's historic Inverleith House as not only the recording venue, but the acoustic of the house as a performer in it's own right. This DVD presents two first recordings of Scottish Circus, demonstrating how no two performances of the piece are the same. Also included are both outdoor and indoor performances of 4'33". Additional features: - Scottish Circus films presented with 5.1 Surround and Dolby Stereo options - Scottish Circus studio version (PCM 24-bit stereo, no video) - John Cage, Scottish Circus and The Whistlebinkies: McGuire and Eydmann in conversation - John Cage in Conversation, Edinburgh 1984 (mono, no video) Includes a 24-page booklet of photos with essays by Eddie McGuire, James Pritchett, Prof. Bjorn Heile and Brian Brandt. Plus interviews with John Cage by Steve Sweeny-Turner and Stuart Eydmann by Neill Martin.

The Royal Ballet's perfect pairing of Marianela Nunez and Vadim Muntagirov takes centre stage in this collection of four fairytale favourites. Royal Ballet founding choreographer Frederick Ashton's Cinderella was brought back to Covent Garden in 2023 to celebrate it's 75th Anniversary with a creative team steeped in the magic of theatre, film and dance bringing new atmosphere to Cinderella's ethereal world of fairy godmothers and pumpkin carriages, handsome princes and finding true love. Ninette de Valois' charming and funny Coppelia is a classic of The Royal Ballet repertory - a story of love, mischief and mechanical dolls. The intricate choreography is set to Delibes' delightful score and shows off the technical precision and comedic timing of the whole company. Osbert Lancaster's designs bring a colourful storybook world to life in this entertaining and joyful ballet. Marius Petipa's The Sleeping Beauty holds a special place in The Royal Ballet's repertory, with it's vibrant sets and glittering costumes and featuring such iconic moments as the Rose Adage, the Vision Pas de Deux, the exuberant wedding celebration and the charming fairy-tale guests, all danced to Tchaikovsky's richly layered music - one of the most beloved ballet scores of all time. Swan Lake is perhaps the best-loved of all the classical ballets. This production by Liam Scarlett features additional choreography while remaining faithful to Petipa and Ivanov's classic. John Macfarlane's opulent designs provide an atmospheric, period setting for this enthralling love story, illuminated by Tchaikovsky's sublime score.

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

Also available on standard DVD

Claudio Abbado conducts the Simon Bolivar Youth Orchestra of Venezuela with Anna Prohaska in works by Prokofiev, Berg, Mozart, and Tchaikovsky.

Also available on Blu-ray

All are equal before the work, before the mysteries of a score; this was Claudio Abbado’s heart-felt conviction. For him, the willingness to be open to one another and to the independent life of musical processes was the only prerequisite for making music. In the live performances documented here for the first time on DVD/Blu-ray, Abbado could be sure of the devotion of these world-class artists: the Lucerne Festival Orchestra, the sopranos Christine Schäfer and Juliane Banse, as well as the actor Bruno Ganz. They shared his credo of “listening togetherness” (Die ZEIT) that made possible those precious moments of musical truth toward which this great conductor strove throughout his life.

CLAUDIO ABBADO CONDUCTS MOZART AND BEETHOVEN

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart:
Misera, dove son!, K. 369
Ah, lo previdi, K. 272
Vorrei spiegarvi, oh Dio, K. 418
Symphony No. 35 in D Major, K. 385, “Haffner”

Ludwig van Beethoven: Egmont, Op. 84

Christine Schäfer, soprano
Juliane Banse, soprano
Bruno Ganz, narrator

Lucerne Festival Orchestra
Claudio Abbado, conductor

Recorded live at the Concert Hall of KKL Luzern, 19–20 August 2011 (Mozart) and 8–10 August 2012 (Beethoven)

Picture format: 1080i Full-HD
Sound format: PCM Stereo / DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1
Region code: 0 (worldwide)
Subtitles: Italian, German, English, Japanese, Korean
Running time: 89 mins
No. of DVDs: 1

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

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Also available on standard DVD

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

MAHLER Symphony No. 6 & • Riccardo Chailly, cond; Gewandhaus O • ACCENTUS 20268 (DVD: 86:25 + 18:28)

& Panel discussion with Riccardo Chailly and Reinhold Kubik

A Mahler Sixth in which the Andante movement comes second? And where the last movement has two hammer blows, not the three that Mahler himself included at the premiere)? Well, yes, and those are just two of the things that make Riccardo Chailly’s interpretation of this over-familiar work sound new. Another is the incredibly swift, truly scherzo-like tempo with which Chailly takes the (now) third movement, not at a pace mimicking the first, as usually happens when it comes second.

Some of the mystery is explained in the 18-minute conversation that Chailly holds in the bonus feature. The “wrong” order of the movements (Allegro energico, Andante moderato, Scherzo, and Finale: Sostenuto) is how they appeared in the conductor’s score that was actually published in March 1906. By the time a second score was published in November of the same year, the Scherzo now came second, and this is how it was premiered. In addition, the premiere had three hammer blows in the last movement, not the traditional two; that came later, too. Early in the interview Chailly admitted that he had copiously studied the scores owned by conductor Willem Mengelberg, who had known Mahler and who wrote down all sorts of things, including metronome markings (usually not in Mahler’s symphonies), that he slavishly followed for years. “But now,” Chailly says, “I am no longer such a slave to tradition.” Musicologist Reinhold Kubik of the Mahler Society mentions that when Mengelberg wrote to Alma Mahler about the order of the movements, she said that the Andante came second—and she stuck by that judgment even as late as 1957. Was she wrong? She did mention that he had conducted it that way in a city where he never played this work, but memory is a tricky thing, and the fact that she emphatically insisted that the Andante came second in letters written some 40 years apart should count for something.

Whatever your judgment of these decisions, there is no question that Chailly’s Sixth is simply mind-boggling. The first movement itself is taken at an Allegro that is certainly more energico than I’ve ever heard it before in my life. In a certain sense, this new, brisker tempo rather eliminates the feeling of jackboots marching that most other conductors bring out in it; rather, it sounds like the blind rush of a madman, interrupted by the calmer middle section.

But there is much more to Chailly’s Mahler than just faster tempos. There is a much stronger feeling of organic unity and structure in the music, a more songful legato line in each and every movement, and the playing of the Gewandhaus Orchestra is staggeringly beautiful and dramatically effective. Chailly seats the orchestra the way Mahler himself wanted it: first and second violins split left and right, cellos in the middle right behind them, other instruments spaced out so as to create the balances Mahler so carefully constructed. (Michael Gielen seated his orchestra the same way when he conducted Mahler in Cincinnati during the 1980s.) The “traditional” seating used by most orchestras, Kubik tells us, originated from that used by Leopold Stokowski when he conducted Mahler in America in the early-to-mid 20th century. And in the last movement, which runs 34 minutes, Chailly creates a world-within-a-world. His hammer blows are not just some bangy little hammer on an anvil, but a HUGE wooden mallet that looks like it needed Thor to handle it.

On the podium, Chailly presents the image of an excited schoolboy, jumping up and down, raising his arms and slicing his baton through the air like the drop of a guillotine. Perhaps it is a bit overdone, especially if you are accustomed (as I am) to watching such conductors as Kempe, Böhm, Toscanini, Gielen, and Ormandy conduct, but it doesn’t really seem like an affectation, either. Most of what he does is either in response to the music or in anticipation of how he wants the next attack or the next phrase to go. He is simply emotionally involved in each and every bar of the score, and he wants it just so. Considering the great results he gets, I can’t really find much fault with that. After all, he does ask all the principal wind players to stand up and take a bow at the end.

So often, for me, watching a conductor perform an orchestral concert is a bit like watching paint dry, unless you are a really big fan of conductor X and you want to study the way he moves on the podium, but in this case I found myself completely caught up in watching Chailly and the orchestra because they’re so deeply into what they are doing. In the trailer on this disc for his video of the Fourth Symphony, Chailly mentions that both he and the Gewandhaus Orchestra musicians have come to an understanding of how to best play Mahler: They get involved but always remain in control. “If you let Mahler control you,” he warns, “you’re heading for trouble.” In addition to all this, the high-resolution digital sound is as spectacular as Chailly’s interpretation, capturing the slightest rustle of harp strings and the sound of stays on the oboe with astounding clarity.

Looking at the trailers, there are also DVDs out of Chailly conducting the Second, Fourth, and Eighth Symphonies. The snippets I’ve heard of all of them sound amazing. I recommend looking for all of them, and also awaiting the rest of the series.

FANFARE: Lynn René Bayley

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

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Also available on standard DVD

Pierre Boulez and the Cleveland Orchestra
Soloists: Magdalena Kožená and Christian Gerhaher

Gustav Mahler: Adagio from Symphony No. 10
Twelve Songs from "Des Knaben Wunderhorn"

“Boulez’s Mahler has surely gained a degree of intensity over the years. Rather than sacrificing his legendary intellectual rigor, he has wedded it to a profound visceral understanding of this music.” -- WCLV classical FM

In celebration of the 150th anniversary of Mahler’s birth and just one month short of his own 85th birthday, composer-conductor Pierre Boulez marked his forty-five-year collaboration with the Cleveland Orchestra by directing this very special Mahler-only concert at Ohio’s splendid Severance Hall. Following the Adagio from the unfinished Tenth Symphony, he presented Twelve Songs from Des Knaben Wunderhorn with soloists Magdalena Kožená and Christian Gerhaher, both much-sought-after opera and concert singers on the world’s leading stages.

Bonus:
- Interview with Pierre Boulez

Picture format: 1080i Full-HD
Sound format: PCM Stereo / DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1
Region code: 0 (worldwide)
Running time: 88 mins
No. of Discs: 1 (BD 25)

R E V I E W:

The performances heard on this video are identical to the program released on CD by DG and reviewed by me in Fanfare 34:4. It therefore behooves me to suggest that the only reason to acquire the video is the dramatic difference in the respective sound productions.

The beautiful interior of Severance Hall, with its Art Deco accents, makes a very pleasant backdrop indeed. In contrast to the CD, the program starts with the Adagio from the 10th Symphony. The performance, a very good one, is greatly improved in its surround-sound version, especially on Blu-ray. It must be said, though, that watching Boulez with his minimal gestures and dour expression is not terribly exciting.

The occasional clever use of split screen provides a discrete frame each for the singer’s and conductor’s faces, though in this case the contrast between the animated vocalists and the stone face of the conductor is somewhat unnerving. As I wrote in my review of the CD, this is not my ideal version of this program, though Magdalena Kožená can hold her own with the best of the competition. Christian Gerhaher is a fine baritone but is not as dramatically convincing and lacks the heft of Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau or Thomas Hampson, two of my preferences for the male voice. Of the two singers, Kožená is more fun to watch, too, as her facial expressions bring character to her songs.

The bonus interview program provides Boulez’s thoughts on Mahler’s music and the specific program performed in Cleveland, his observations on the orchestra and its hall, the future of classical music, and some personal observations. The questions appear written on the screen (typos and all), and then Boulez is shown answering. The interview can be heard in English, German, and French. Also included (from the Severance Hall stage) is a short tribute to the conductor on his 85 birthday with Franz Welser-Möst and the management of the Cleveland Orchesta, which includes an audience-particapatory sing-along.

FANFARE: Christopher Abbot

She crosses boundaries and loves to explore new territory. Barbara Hannigan is one of the most fascinating and multi-facetted artistic personalities of our time. She sets new standards as a singer, conductor, and performance artist. The intimate portrait “I’m a creative animal” takes the viewer into the world of an exceptional musician – a world of both passion and discipline. Her performances possess a breathtaking intensity because of her exquisite vocal technique and virtuosity, musical and theatrical expressivity, and uncompromising engagement. In this concert with the Mahler Chamber Orchestra, Hannigan both sings and conducts to effortlessly build bridges linking different musical epochs. With a phenomenal performance of Ligeti’s Mysteries of the Macabre, a work for which she is famous, she once again confirms her reputation as the performer of contemporary music – “The audience went wild.” (Neue Zürcher Zeitung)

“She is one of the best musicians out there.”
(Simon Rattle in The New York Times)

DOCUMENTARY
I’m a creative animal –Barbara Hannigan
A film by Barbara Seiler

CONCERT
Mahler Chamber Orchestra
Barbara Hannigan (soprano/conductor)
Concert Hall of KKL Luzern, August 2014

Gioachino Rossini
Overture to La scala di seta

Wolfgang A. Mozart
Vado, ma dove? O Dei!
Un moto di gioia
Misera, dove son?
György Ligeti
Concert Românesc
Mysteries of the Macabre

Gabriel Fauré
Pelléas et Mélisande, op. 80

Languages: English, Italian
Subtitles: English, Italian
Bonus: documentary I’m a creative animal – Barbara Hannigan
Bonus Running time: 51:17 min
Bonus Languages: English
Bonus Subtitles: German, French
Disc Formats: DVD-9
Number of Discs: 1 (DVD)
Picture Formats DVD: 16:9 NTSC
Sound Formats DVD: PCM Stereo, Dolby Digital 5.1, DTS 5.1
Running time: 71:38 min

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

Also available on standard DVD

Recorded live at the Gewandhaus zu Leipzig, 6, 7 and 9 September 2012

Bonus:
- My Sixth will propound riddles – A panel discussion with Riccardo Chailly and Reinhold Kubik

Picture format: 1080i Full-HD
Sound format: PCM Stereo / DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1
Region code: 0 (worldwide)
Subtitles (bonus): German, English, French
Running time: 86 mins (concert) + 18 mins (bonus)
No. of Discs: 1 (BD 25)

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

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Also available on standard DVD

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)