Concert
Elgar Cello Concerto concert recital in 2014 at the Festpielhaus Baden-Baden with Sir Simon Rattle conducting the Berliner Philharmoniker. Features celloist Sol Gabetta. Sir Simon Rattle conducts the Berliner Philharmoniker. The concert also includes the following pieces:
Directed for TV by Torben Schmidt Jacobsen. Released 2016, disc has 5.1 dts-HD Master Audio sound. Grade: NA
Read MoreMonteverdi 💓 Vespro della beata vergine (Vespers for the Blessed Virgin). Recorded 2014 at the Versailles Chapelle Royale. Sir John Eliot Gardiner conducts the Monteverdi Choir and The English Baroque Soloists. Olivier Schneebeli conducts the Juvenal Choir of the Versailles Center for Baroque Music. Directed for TV by Stéphan Aubé; produced by Frédérick Allain. Sung in Latin. Released 2015, disc has 5.1 dts-HD Master Audio sound output. Grade: A
Read More💓 Tango! concert of Ástor Piazzolla tango nuevo music performed 2013 by the Isabelle van Keulen Ensemble at the MotorMusic Studios in Mechelen, Belgium. The Isabelle van Keulen Ensemble is a chamber music group formed primarily to play Piazzolla compositions; it consists of van Keulen on violin, Christian Gerber on bandoneón, Ulrike Payer on piano, and Rüdiger Ludwig on double bass. Music director was Felicia Van Boxstael and the recording producer was Steven Maes for Serendipitous. The executive producers were Anne de Jong and Marcel van den Broek. Project coordinators were Jolien Plat and Inge De Pauw. Released 2013, disc has 5.1 dts-HD Master Audio sound. Grade: A+
Read More💓 Bruckner Symphony No. 9 and Schumann Piano Concerto. Bernard Haitink conducts the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra in 2009. Murray Perahia is the piano soloist. The title is the first effort by NHK to produce an HDVD of Western classical music with performers who have no special connection to Japan. The front cover is in English. But the rest of the disc is in Japanese. There are extras with persons speaking in English, but only Japanese subtitles are provided. So this disc is not aimed at the world market, but just for domestic consumption in Japan. Released 2009, the sound on the title was recorded with 96kHz/24-bit sound sampling, and the disc has 5.0 LPCM output. Grade: A+ for both the Schumann Piano Concerto and the Bruckner Symphony No. 9.
Read MoreBeethoven Symphonies 1-9 box set. Rafael Frühbeck de Burgos conducts the Danish National Symphony in all nine Beethoven symphonies. As bonus extras you also get:
Featured performers are Albina Shagimuratova (soprano), Charlotte Hellekant (mezzo-soprano), Scott MacAllister (tenor), Johan Reuter (bass), Pepe Romero (guitar), and the Danish National Concert Choir.
Wow! This box will keep you busy for the weekend! And the price is right. Grade: NA
Read MoreBerlioz Symphonie fantastique and 💓 Mahler Symphony No. 1 ("Titan"). Seiji Ozawa conducts the Saito Kinen Orchestra (Saito Memorial Festival Orchestra). The Berlioz was recorded at the 2007 Festival; the Mahler was recorded in 2008. Released in 2009, this title has 5.0 PCM 96kHz/24 bit sound. About 99% of the printed material with this disc is in Japanese. If you don't know that language, it's a humbling experience to navigate your way through the titles and extras, but you can do it. Grade: A- for Symphonie fantastique Grade: A+ for Mahler Symphony No. 1
Read More💓 Brahms Symphony No. 2 and Shostakovich Symphony No. 5. Seiji Ozawa conducts the Saito Kinen Orchestra. Released 2010, disc has 5.0 PCM 96kHz/24 bit sound for both symphonies and valuable bonus features. It is also one of the titles in the Seiji Ozawa 75th Anniversary Box Set. Grade: for Brahms A+ for Shostakovich B-
Read MoreAll Brahms disc with three major works: Symphony No. 2, Serenade No. 2, and the Alto Rhapsody. Andris Nelsons conducts the Lucerne Festival Orchestra and Bavarian Radio Choir in 2014 at the Lucerne Summer Festival (KKL Concert Hall). Soloist is Sara Mingardo (alto). Gerarld Häussler was Chorus Master; video directed by Michael Beyer; produced by Paul Smaczny. Released 2015, disc has 5.1 dts-HD Master Audio sound. Grade: D- blended grade for the whole disc
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Beethoven Piano Sonatas 1-32 (complete) played by Rudolf Buchbinder in the Mozarteum Großer Saal at the 2014 Salzburg Festival. In the Alphalist I gave this box the name "Beethoven Piano Sonatas Vol. 1-3 so it would appear in the best place. The correct C Major title is Beethoven: The Complete Piano Sonatas. All 32 sonata recordings have been packaged previous by C Major in three separate releases called Volume 1, Volume 2, and Volume 3. In other words, it appears this complete box just sells you the same three discs that were previous published in in separate packages. Grade: D+
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Berlioz Symphonie fantastique performed 2016 by the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra conducted by Daniele Gatti at the Concertgebouw. Concert also includes Wagner's Tannhäuser Overture (Dresden version) and the Liszt Orpheus (Symphonic Poem No. 4). Music recorded with 96kHz/24-bit sound sampling. Video was recorded at 1080p24, which is unusual as most video these days are recorded at 30 frames per second. (You may need to fiddle with equipment settings to get the 24 fps to play nice.) Released 2016, disc has 5.0 dts-HD Master Audio sound. Grade: NA
The recording arm of the Royal Concertgebouw operation is called RCO Live. It appears they have been pretty successful with CDs and other audio formats. But their video publication record is poor due to cutting corners and serious problems with DVDitis. Their Mahler Symphonies 1-10 box was a huge failure that got a D grade from us. Somewhat better was their Beethoven Symphonies 1-9 box that is graded B- here.
This new video of Symphony fantastique is not generous. RCO management is still stuck in the LP/CD rut while offering 85 minutes of music on a disc that can play for 4 hours. Well, if you want to charge $35 for one symphony, the content must be state-of-the-art in every respect. RCO has come through with 96kHz/24-bit sound sampling, which is encouraging.
But I note that this title is also available in DVD, which is discouraging. If the video content on the Blu-ray is the same as that of the DVD, then the Blu-ray version is automatically rendered obsolete as it falls short of today's state-of-the-art in making HD recordings of symphony concerts. (I did see a short video clip from this recording that prepares me to be disappointed.)
If you have this Blu-ray recording, I ask you to consult our Work Worksheet and Wonk Worksheet Instructions. Then I ask you to play this Symphony fantastique while assigning each video clip to the categories on the Wonk Worksheet. This will take some work. But if you do this work and let us publish it, you will instantly become an elite fine-arts critic. That's because the Wonk Worksheet is the only technique ever devised for art criticism that has objective standards that can be peer-reviewed. Have you got the guts to be a Wonk?
TO
Beethoven Symphony No. 9 concert. Herbert Blomstedt conducts the Gewandhausorchester, the MDR Rundfunkchor, the GewandhausChor and the GewandhausKinderchor. Soloists are Simona Šaturová (soprano), Mihoko Fujimura (alto), Christian Elsner (tenor), Christian Gehaher (baritone). Produced by Paul Smaczny and Steffel Keitel. Directed for TV by Ute Feudel. Released in 2016, disc has 5.1 dts-HD Master Audio sound. Grade: NA
Read More2016 Europakonzert: Sir Simon Rattle conducted the Berliner Philharmoniker this year in its "Europakonzert" on May 1 celebrating the founding of the orchestra on May Day. This event traditionally occurs in a different European city in a beautiful venue of historical significance. For 2016, the concert was held at the famous Baroque church in the Norwegian town of Røros. Features the Norwegian violinist Vilde Frang. Directed for TV by Henning Kasten. Here's the program:
Released 2016, disc has 5.0 dts-HD Master Audio sound. Grade: NA
Read MoreBeethoven Symphony No. 9 concert. Christian Thielemann conducts the Wiener Philharmoniker (Chorus Master Johannes Prinz). Soloists are Annette Dasch, Mihoko Fujimura, Piotr Beczala, and Georg Zeppenfeld. Video direction by Agnes Méth. Also comes with a 58-minute Discovering Beethoven documentary with a conversation between Thielemann and music critic Joachim Kaiser. The documentary film was made by Anca-Monica Pandelea & Christoph Engel. Released in 2016, disc has 5.1 dts-HD Master Audio sound. Grade: B
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