2012 New Year's Concert

2012 New Year's Concert by the Wiener Philharmoniker (Vienna Philharmonic) conducted by guest conductor Mariss Jansons. Recorded January 1, 2012 at the Goldener Saal des Weiner Musikvereins. Here's the program:

1. Johann Strauss II and (brother) Joseph Strauss "Vaterländischer Marsch" ("Fatherland or Patriotic March")

2. Johann Strauss II "Rathausball-Tänzes" (Waltz) ("City Hall Ball Dances")

3. Johann Strauss II "Entweder - oder!" (Fast Polka) ("Either - Or!")

4. Johann Strauss II "Tritsch-Tratsch" (Fast Polka) ("Chit-Chat")

5. Carl Michael Ziehrer "Wiener Bürger" (Waltz) ("Viennese Folk")

6. Johann Strauss II "Albion Polka"

7. Johann Strauss  "Jokey" (Fast Polka) ("Jockey Polka")

Intermission

8. Joseph Hellmesberger, II  "Danse Diabolique" ("Diabolic or Devil's Dance")

9. Josef Strauss  "Künstler-Gruss" (Polka française) ("Artists' Greeting")

10. Johann Strauss II "Freuet euch des Lebens" (Waltz) ("Enjoy Life)"

11. Johann Strauss, I "Sperl-Galopp" ("Sperl Galopp")

12. Hans Christian Lumbye "Copenhagen Eisenbahn-Dampf Gallop" ("Copenhagen Steam Railway Gallop")

13. Joseph Strauss "Feuerfest" (Polka française) ("Fireproof")

14. Eduard Strauss "Carmen-Quadrille"

15. Peter I. Tchaikovsky "Panorama aus Dornröschen" ("Panorama from Sleeping Beauty")

16. Peter I. Tchaikovsky "Waltzer aus Dornröschen" ("Waltz from  Sleeping Beauty")

17. Johann Strauss II and Joseph Strauss "Pizzicato Polka"

18. Johann Strauss II "Persischer Marsch" ("Persian March")

19. Joseph Strauss "Brennende Liebe" (Polka) ("Burning Love")

20. Joseph Strauss "Delirien" (Waltz) ("Delirium")

21. Johann Strauss II "Unter Donner und Blitz" (Fast Polka) ("Thunder and Lightening")

22. Johann Strauss II "Tik-Tak" (Fast Polka) ("Tic-tak")

23. Johann Strauss II "An der schönen, blauen Donau" ("Blue Danue Waltz")

24. Johann Strauss I "Radetzky Marsch" (Radetzky March")

See additional information below kindly provided by confrere Zoltan Glied. (Thank you, Zoltan!)

This title also has three bonus ballet features averaging about 7 minutes each. There is a fourth extra, Musik in der Luft, which has SD video and is a very nice DVD. But to put it on an HDVD disc just amounts to something close to consumer fraud. (I know, the players of the Weiner Phil are experts on music---and not on television.)

All the video (except for Musik in der Luft, which doesn't count) is in HD. The surround sound was apparently recorded using 48kHz/24 bit sampling; the output is 5.0 dts-HD Master Audio. Directed for TV by Karina Fibich. Grade: D+  

In 2009 we gave a "B+" to the NYC disc and suggested improvements that might warrant an "A" grade. But things went down hill after that for this series. We found the technical aspects of the 2011 disc to be about the same as before, but we graded down  (to "C+") for less interesting music and worthless extras.  Now with this 2012 version, the music is as interesting as in 2009 and the sound is slightly better. But the extras are not impressive, and disaster strikes in the areas of both picture quality and video content.

First the good points. This is subjective, but I think the program is substantially freshened with addition of the Vienna Boys Choir for several numbers and the inclusion of the Carmen themes and the short numbers from the Tchaikovsky Sleeping Beauty ballet. After all the bluster of polkas and marches, the softly trembling Panorama is bewitching---like breaking into air after a long swim underwater.  The  orchestra sounds better than in 2009 and 2011. Maybe the acid test of this is the smart rendition of the Pizzicato-Polka. The only better pizzicato passages I know of in HDVD would be those recorded by the Concertgebouw Orchestra in the Bruckner Symphony No. 9 especially at 1:04:35 to 1:05:10 and  01:11:12 to 01:11:49. The Bruckner Symphony No. 9 was recorded with 96kHz/24 bit sound sampling, which probably explains its superior sound.

Now to the soft spots. PQ in this video is grimly inferior to what we are used to now generally in HDVD and what Brian Large provided before in this series. The light level was lowered over the audience and this may have contributed to the weak PQ. But the resolution is soft throughout including shots of the well-lit orchestra only. There are also many situations where bad focus seems to be the problem; see, for example, 24:50, a "conductor" shot showing most of the orchestra from the rear and nothing is in focus. Motion artifacts creep into many shots including the entrance of the conductor onto the stage and many of his  movements on the podium. There is a great deal of panning and zooming in this video. It seems that every panning shot degrades the take noticeably.

But the worse is something new. It seems that during 2011, a new wire was strung up close to the ceiling in the Golden Hall. As you face the stage, this wire runs from the left corner of the hall (behind the stage) diagonally to the right-rear corner of the hall near the front entrance and the upper rear balcony. Hanging on the wire is a  device that runs by remote control along the wire while pointing a TV camera in any direction desired. This kind of "spy-cam" was first used, I think, to fly above the playing field in American football games. It also reminds one of those pilot-less aircraft now being used by the U.S. military and border guards. I wonder if it makes a droning sound as it passes overhead in the Golden Hall.

The spy-cam goes where no one dreamed of going before. There is no escape. Properly equipped, spy-cam could spew down rotten tomatoes on any performer or spectator in the house. At the moment, true, it is only making pictures. But unlike those used by the military, the Golden Hall spy-cam makes lousy pictures. In addition to a light-weight lens, the spy-cam suffers from vibration as it moves. And since Karina Fibich loves moving cameras, the spy-cam moves a lot!

Again and again it swoops back and forth over the orchestra and the audience. As spy-cam speeds over the orchestra on its way to the rear balcony,  sometimes the camera will spin counter-clock wise always pointing at the conductor. When I see this I feel seasick; but if I take a pill, I can still watch the concert. For the absolutely most ridiculous shot ever offered in a fine-arts HDVD, see 1:48:53 to 1:49:10 where the spy-cam moves over the audience on its way to the eagle's nest behind the stage. The camera is pointed straight down at the center of the earth. You see the tops of the heads of most of the audience, and then of the orchestra players, in a DVD-like, slightly blurred picture. It's an astonishing display of technology going berserk.

In discussing the 2009 and 2011 New Year's Concerts, I criticize the video content as suffering from DVDitis. Well, the 2012 disc also has all the symptoms of this affliction. DVDitis generally comes from shooting too close-up (so the pictures will look OK on a DVD). But with spy-cam, we are seeing extremely long-range shots. If they look this bad in a HDVD, they must be unwatchable when used in a DVD.

To be fair, I state  there were some shots in this video that look really good in HDVD presentation. For examples, see 15:32, 15:47, 17:09, 1:06:08, and 1:06:30.

In my heart, I feel this HDVD should not have been released. That would mean an "F" grade. But who am I to give an "F" to a product made by the Wiener Philharmoniker? So out of a sense of general propriety and self-preservation, I nudge the grade up to "D." And because the Wiener Philharmoniker did make some progress with improving the sound, I'll add a "+."

I hope the Wiener Philharmoniker will keep the same sound crew they used in 2012 and give them authority to upgrade to 96kHz/24 bit sampling. They should let the same committee pick the music for next year. Surely they can beef up the bonus extras with some more serious contributions from the ballet. They should also invest in more variety video to spice up the show for the home theater audience, which is a lot bigger than what you can seat in the Golden Hall. Finally, I hope the band will get serious about making a great video designed from the start to be shown in HDVD form (as opposed to DVD). The TV director should follow the standards for symphony orchestra HD recordings posted on this website. And one or two shots from  the spy-cam (please, still shots) would probably be fine. I would like to have a great A+  New Year's Concert to show in my home theater. I hope the Wiener Philharmoniker will eventually make one for me.

Liszt Now

Liszt Now concert performed by Lang Lang. Disc features three main components:

1. Live at the Roundhouse, a 60 minute concert of Liszt, Schubert, and Schumann pieces presented in the style of a rock concert with Lang dressed in metallic jacket and sporting a wild waxed hairdo. He sells out the house of 2000 (I guess) below the age of 30 at the iTunes Festival. The fans alternate standing in the mosh pit with jumping around seeking a better view to record the event on their cellphone cameras. Surrounding all of this is a circle of huge screens constantly showing a video designed to complement the program. The video begins with Leni Riefenstahl cloud shots continued onto the stage with a display of smoke that must have alarmed the fire marshal.

2. The Art of Being a Virtuoso, a 71 minute documentary about the artist's background and current lifestyle. 

3.  A Visual Journey with Franz Liszt. Here we see the video mentioned above on a single screen and hear what I think is a studio recording the same music performed at the Roundhouse.

(This Blu-ray should not be confused with a Lang Lang program out now on a music CD called Liszt: My Piano Hero. The CD includes most of the shorter numbers on the Blu-ray recording plus the Liszt Piano Concerto No. 1.)

Here are the tracks from Live at the Roundhouse and the A Visual Journey with Franz Liszt:

1. "La campanella" in G-Sharp Minor from Grandes Études de Paganini, S 141/3

2. "Un sospiro" in D-Flat Major from Trois Études de Concert, S 144/3

3. "Theme and Variations" in A Minor from Grandes Études de Paganini, S 141/6

4. Romance "O pourquoi donc", S 169

5. Schubert "Ständchen,"  S 560/7

6. "Rakoczy March" from "Hungarian Rhapsody No. 15," S 244/15

7. "Consolation No. 2" in E Major, S 172/2

8. "Hungarian Rhapsody No. 6," S 244/6

9. Schumann "Widmung," S 566

10. Schubert "Ave Maria" S 558/12

All three components on the disc were directed and edited by Thomas Grube. Released 2011, there is no surround sound; all sound is PCM stereo. Grade: X

Because there is no surround sound on this title, we ordinarily would not even report on it on this website. Stereo sound is provided because that's all you can handle with earbuds. Sony is not marketing this to fine-arts lovers. Sony is going after the MP3 crowd who don't know much about music other than what they hear on iPod. There is more than 3 hours of material on this title, and the price $18. Sony is taking a CD and adding a lot of video and other extras for about the same price. I think this will mostly by played on Ipads and similar small-screen devices.

Still, we should take an interest in this in part because Lang Lang has done one serious HDVD for us and figures to do more. But more important than that, Lang Lang is sincerely trying to encourage young people to discover classical music. No matter how silly the proceedings at the roundhouse may seem to us, the crowd does quiet down and actually listen to his program, much of which is soft sensitive music. How else do you get the typical 23-year old to listen to "Ständchen," "Ave Maria," and "Widmung"?  At the end of the Roundhouse event, Lang speaks to the audience saying, "Support classical music. It's passionate and exciting." While the rest of us moan about the dearth or death of fine music, Lang Lang is doing something about it.

I liked the documentary. In China, every couple has only one child and that child becomes everything to mom and dad. Lang's parents bought him a piano before he was born. I'll never forget Lang's mom weeping about how she felt when her son and husband moved to the big city for better piano teachers leaving mom at home to be the sole breadwinner.  It appears that Lang has spend his entire life with at least one parent as constant chaperone. His is definitely not the groupie-infested life of a rock star. He does have one ardent lady fan (who gave him flowers at the Roundhouse), but she is about 75. Even his private jet is pretty modest---I expected a bigger craft with at least a baby grand in a practice room.

I also liked at least the idea behind the video. This one was, I suspect, mostly a matter of editing together a bunch of different video clips that happened to be available in the Sony vaults. And then there is the  paint running down the blank canvas which was surprisingly interesting for at least a few minutes. Why not team up with famous painters with famous composers and musicians? How about "Peter Max Paints Rhapsody in Blue Poster" or "IBM Deep Thought  Illustrates Goldberg Variations"?

Well, the information above should help you decide if you you are interested in this Lang Lang Blu-ray. If there are students in your family who spurn classical music, you might try this title as a transition ploy.

Lang Lang "Liszt, My Piano Hero" Blu-ray Coming

According to an ad I just read in the The New Yorker, the new Lang Lang Liszt, My Piano Hero recording will be released in Blu-ray this December by Sony. Lang Lang plays solos and The Liszt Piano Concerto No. 1 with the Vienna Philharmonic directed by Valery Gergiev.

Lang Lang Live in Vienna

Lang Lang Live in Vienna, a piano recital by Lang Lang with the following works:

1. Beethoven Piano Sonata No. 3

2. Beethoven Piano Sonata No. 23 "Appassionata"

3. Albéniz Iberia, Book I  "Évocation", "El Puerto", and "Fête-Dieu à Sévile"

4. Prokofiev Piano Sonata No. 7

5. Chopin  Étude Op. 25 No. 1

6. Chopin Polonaise No. 6 "Heroic"

7. Chopin Grande Valse brillante No. 2

Performed 2010 at the Musikverein, Großer Saal, Wien. 40 minutes of bonus features give us our first taste of 3D in a fine-art HDVD. Main program directed by Christian Kurt Weisz; 3D program directed by Andreas Morell. Released in 2010, disc has 5.1 dts-HD Master Audio surround sound. Grade: A+

The Chinese imp-angel sold out the Musikverein Großer Saal (Vienna "Golden Hall"); there was no empty space anywhere including the risers around the piano. And if the most experienced concert audience in the world gives this guy a standing ovation, why shouldn't I? After seeing Lang (can you call him that?) play outrageously pimped-up standards in pop venues, I wasn't expecting too much. But his playing here of Beethoven and Chopin is dramatic and remarkably chaste coming from such a showboat. His renditions stack up well when I compare them to LPs and CDs in my closet from folks like Rubinstein and Argerich.

So how does Lang compare to Volodos, whose recent Musikverein recital was published by Sony in HDVD? Well, Volodos is more earnest for sure, and maybe experts would consider his technique more refined than that of Lang. But Lang is more fun. Volodos reminds me of thundering Zeus. Lang reminds me of Hermes, that playful God who would come to earth to show mortals how to find their way. And that's why Lang, I bet, makes 20 times more money in a year than Volodos.

Lang is the first classical artist to have something out in 3D. The 3D pieces were shot, not in Vienna, but at a high-tech nightclub in Berlin that probably has its own substation on the electric power grid. (Could it be that there are more chicks hanging out around the Berghain than at the Großer Saal?) There is a short extra on the disc called The Third Dimension---The Making Of. In this you see huge pieces of 3D gear that look more like scientific instruments than TV cameras. When one of these mounted on a big crane swoops down for a close up of Lang, it looks like the Alien trying to gobble up Sigourney Weaver. So it quite impossible now to shoot 3D on normal locations like the stage at a concert hall.

If you navigate to the 3D tracks on the disc using 2D equipment, you see a normal 2D picture. To get the 3D images, you must have a 3D player and display. I viewed the 3D piano selections (about 30 minutes long) in 3D at John Fort Audio/Visual in Richardson, TX. We were able to make quick transitions between the same material in 2D and 3D images. Even in 2D, high-definition TV allows the brain to perceive an image with some degree of three dimensionality. In close up shots of the lone pianist at the instrument, the real 3D image was only marginally more realistic when seen in 3D than when seen in 2D! An improvement in depth perception mostly became noticeable when, for example, there was a microphone located in the foreground between the camera and the piano. Then in 3D it appeared that the microphone was standing on the floor in Fort's home theater! So 3D works fine. But it's probably not worth the trouble when the subject is a single artist sitting or standing in one place with an instrument. 3D will doubtless be more impressive with groups of artists taking up more space and will be the most beneficial with large ensembles like a ballet or opera.

This disc proves that Lang Lang is a fully-qualified serious classical pianist as well as a cross-over celebrity. At $18, the price of this Sony title is relatively reasonable. So I give this title the grade of "A+." Consider buying it and the Volodos title for a great evening of fantastic piano HDVD at the total cost of about $36.

Volodos in Vienna

Volodos in Vienna is a piano recital performed by Arcadi Volodos in 2009 at the Goldener Saal of the Musikverein Wien. Gramophone magazine rated this performance in its CD version as the best instrumental recording of 2010. The program includes:

1. Scriabin: "Prélude in B flat minor op. 37/1"

2. Scriabin: "Prélude in B flat minor op. 11/16"

3. Scriabin:  "Danse languide in B flat minor op. 51/4"

4. Scriabin:  "Guirlandes in B flat minor op. 73/1"

5. Scriabin: "Feuillet d'album op. 45/1"

6. Scriabin: "Sonata in B flat minor No. 7 op. 64" ("Messe blanche")

7. Ravel Valses nobles et sentimentales (complete)

8. Schumann Waldszenen (Complete)

9. Liszt "Après une Lecture du Dante" from Années de Pèlerinage 2 (Dante Sonata)

10. J.S. Bach "Sicilienne" from D Minor Concerto

11. Tchaikovsky "Lullaby in A Storm" from Children's Songs

Released 2010, disc has 5.1 Dolby Digital sound. Grade A+

In 1997-1999, the 25-year old, lean-and-mean-looking Volodos released several smash hit recital CDs. But after that his career seemed to falter as he got lost in the cloud of numerous gifted pianists. Now, considerably heavier, he's back in the spotlight again with the first piano recital on HDVD. After warming up with some 2-minute préludes, Volodos tackles the Scriabin Messe blanche Sonata. I happen to have a CD of this, recorded by Marc-André Hamelin in 1995, which may be considered one of the definitive recording of Messe blanche in stereo high-fidelity sound. So I compared this to the Volodos version with and without the video picture. I was shocked to hear how limited and restrained my treasured Hamelin version sounds when compared to the Volodos report. I attribute this to three factors. First, surround sound is more full and vivid than the stereo sound. (Once again I'm surprised by much HDVD improves the sound as well as the pictures.) Second, Volodos is admired for both his accurate technique and his ability to wring poetry out every bar. He demonstrates this prowess in his performance of Messe blanche. Last, Volodos is expressive physically (constantly swaying about and making innumerable faces as if talking to himself). I think this makes an impression that supports what you hear even if you later turn off the video picture. Later in the program, Volodos plays another of my favorites, the stupendous Liszt Dante Sonata from Years of Pilgrimage, Vol. 2. Here there's no need to compare the video to any CD. Volodos is in a different orbit as he threatens, with his hulking bulk and huge hands, to to destroy a Steinway grand. Awesome. (Liszt, they say, actually did break up pianos.) There's noting to criticize about the rest of the program, except to note that it lasts only 89 minutes. This would be appropriate for a CD, but I think it's a bit skimpy for a Blu-ray disc that can hold so much more material. I suggest it would have been a good idea to include some studio recordings of other material by Volodos.  I originally give the grade of A- to this disc because the program was so short. But Sony dropped the price and I upped the grade  to A+, which it always deserved.