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SIMON RATTLE: MUSIC OF THE 20TH C
Written and presented by Sir Simon Rattle, the foremost British conductor of our day, this series forms a fascinating introduction to, and overview of, the music of the twentieth century.
Filmed concert performance by the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra under Sir Simon Rattle.
Special Features: Biographies of the Composers, additional Audio Tracks, Picture Galleries and a filmed concert performance of Karlheinz Stockhausen’s Gruppen.
Sound Format: PCM Stereo, Picture Format: 4:3
Language Versions: German and English; Subtitles: FR, IT, ES, JP
Running Time: 361 mins (+ Special Features)
Resolution: 1080i High Definition (Upscale)
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£21.17 (£70.58)
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EKMAN:A SWAN LAKE
“I wanted to do something big and wild and different. Something with water!” said choreographer Alexander Ekman and filled the Main Stage at the Oslo Opera House with 5,000 litres of water. In A Swan Lake, his new full-length work created for the Norwegian National Ballet, the dancers are joined on stage by actors, a soprano, musicians and 1,000 rubber ducks. Alexander Ekman is an award-winning choreographer, whose work is internationally acclaimed for its inventiveness, musicality and humour. With a score by Swedish composer Mikael Karlsson and costumes by Danish fashion designer Henrik Vibskov, A Swan Lake takes a fresh and witty look at Tchaikovsky’s ballet of all ballets. “A spectacular show that transcends boundaries”, as the newspaper Aftenposten titled.
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£10.28 (£34.27)
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ADAM:GISELLE
The Elegance Series is a collection of breathtaking Ballet performances from internationally renowned houses with well-loved Dance Stars. They feature productions by the greatest choreographers that we know today and of course the legacy of the legendary Marius Petipa. “My version of Giselle is an attempt at retelling the story. For me Giselle – and this applies to the old ballet as well – is about love. Love, which in the old version conquers death. That differs in mine. But love remains the main thing.” Mats Ek
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£8.49 (£18.86)
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TCHAIKOVSKY:THE NUTCRACKER
Going to see Nutcracker with the whole family has been a tradition in other countries for many years. Now it is a tradition in the Netherlands as well. It became apparent that the Netherlands had also adopted this tradition in 1996, when the Dutch National Ballet presented its own version of the famous fairytale ballet. It is a magical production that has won the hearts of more than 250,000 people to date. Choreographers Toer van Schayk and Wayne Eagling created a Nutcracker for the children and adults of today. It is more dynamic and exciting, and less sweet than usual. They also chose to give a Dutch twist to their interpretation of the story, with skaters on the canals and a living room that transforms into a snowy forest. Unlike the original story, the production by Eagling and Van Schayk (who also designed the delightful sets and costumes) does not take place on Christmas Eve in a German town, but during St. Nicholas celebrations in Amsterdam, around 1810.
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£10.28 (£34.27)
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BLOOD ON THE FIELDS:MARSALIS
Wynton Marsalis, “possibly the best trumpeter of all times” (Maurice André) is the most famous member of a musical family from New Orleans. He started his career as a Wunderkind and had his breakthrough with Art Blakey, however also pursuing a great career in the classical music fi eld. As jazz musician he uses his profound knowledge of his instrument’s tradition in all styles from Oldtime jazz to Postbop and combines it with his virtuosity and fl awless technique. His own compositions enrich the jazz genre greatly, and his work as Artistic Manager of the New York Lincoln Center’s Jazz Department give jazz music a greater public audience. In this beautifully filmed documentary by Susan Shaw from 1996 Marsalis takes the viewer on a journey to New York, to his home town of New Orleans and to his rehearsal studios, where he and his assembled band of musicians record the album Blood on the Fields.
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£8.49 (£18.86)
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MOZART:THE MAGIC FLUTE
Mozart’s masterpiece is presented in a version shortened to 60 minutes for the youngest (from 5 years), young and also adult audiences, thus providing children with their first insight into the fascinating world of opera. Papageno is the presenter, who accompanies the audience through the piece in an easily understandable, cheerful manner, and experiences his adventures with the prince Tamino, who has fallen in love with Pamina, the daughter of the Queen of the Night, and yearns to liberate her from the kingdom of Sarastro, who has abducted her. However, until the happy ending of the piece, there are numerous hindrances to be overcome, such as wild beasts that bar Tamino’s path, or Monostatos, who has also fallen in love with Pamina. And even if Papageno is in no mood for heroic deeds, his yearning for a “girl or young woman” is rewarded – and her name, of course, is Papagena.
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£9.52 (£23.81)
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BEETHOVEN:SYMPHONIES 4-6
Following the excesses of the Eroica, Beethoven’s Fourth Symphony (1806) represents a return to the more modest dimensions of traditional symphonies. If one were to seek a common denominator for Symphonies 4 to 6, then it would perhaps be the fact that the symphonic “ego” is no longer portrayed in terms of the lonely hero but instead is confronted with a range of different realities and “environments” – the classical tradition in the Fourth, a malevolent force in the Fifth, and nature in the Sixth. The Fifth Symphony (1808) is a masterpiece not just of motivic construction and narrative psychology but also in terms of instrumentation. With his Pastoral Symphony (1808) Beethoven fully exploited the possibilities of musical narrative using sounds alone; the symphonies that followed were to take an entirely different route.
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£9.52 (£23.81)
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PROKOFIEV:CINDERELLA
Maguy Marin‘s highly original and magical version of the Cinderella story was an unparalleled success throughout its world tour. Anna Kisselgoff of the New York Times said that Marin‘s “vision reaches back into the universals of everyone‘s childhood - the hurts and joys resonate here with touching depth.“ The characters in her beautifully child-like version of the ballet are live dolls, with real human feelings projected upon them in the way children identify with their real playthings. The story unfolds within a doll‘s house set - The Fairy Godmother resembles a robot, Cinderella goes to the ball in a toy car and the Prince goes in search of his new love on a rocking horse…This performance from the Lyon National Opera stars Françoise Joullié, Dominique Lainé, Jayne Playsted, Danièle Pater and the wonderful Ballet of the Lyon National Opera. Yakov Kreisberg conducts the Lyon National Opera Orchestra.
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£9.52 (£23.81)
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WEBER/HAYDN:MISSA SANCTA 1
Carl Maria von Weber composed the “Missa Sancta No. 1” in ocassion of the name day of King Friedrich August I of Saxony. Weber himself conducted the first performence in the Dresden Hofkirche in 1818. Thanks to the creation at the very same time it is also called “Freischützmesse”. More than 250 years later the rare performed work had a revival in the Basilika Waldsassen. Horst Stein, longtime principal conductor of the Bamberg Symphony Orchestra and famous for his work at Bayreuth Festival, conducted a first class cast with the soloists Krisztina Laki, Marga Schiml, Josef Protschka and Jan-Hendrik Rootering. Founded in 1946, the Bamberg Symphony has become during the last 70 years not only the musical hub of the entire region, it's one of Germany's most-travelled orchestras, the first to tour abroad after the war, notching up more than 6,500 concerts in 500 cities and 60 countries worldwide. Arthaus Musik presents the performance of Haydn’s “Missa Sanctae Ceaciliae” conducted by Rafael Kubelík live from the Basilika Ottobeuren. The work was without doubt one of the highlights of the wonderful Kubelík era. Under his guidance the Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks also became one of the world’s foremost Haydn orchestras. When the orchestra discovered the baroque Basilica of Ottobeuren as the perfect venue for sacred music of the classic-romantic repertoire, their concerts enjoyed huge popularity, leaving a lasting impression on those who experienced them at first hand.
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£9.52 (£23.81)
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SCHUBERT:WINTERREISE
One year before he died Franz Schubert composed the great song cycle “Winterreise” (Winter Journey) after the poems by Wilhelm Müller. Being already very sick he created a masterpiece that – together with “Die schöne Müllerin” – holds the foremost place in the history of this genre. Francisco Araiza’s interpretation of Schubert’s very moving songs was recorded in 1993 at a Romanesque chapel and captures the beauty and tragedy of this work in an absolutely outstanding way. Accompanied by the pianist Jean Lemaire he also gives a superb performance of Robert Schumann’s song-cycle “Dichterliebe”, which has been recorded under studio conditions at the Renaissance Grafenschloss in southern Germany. The internationally-acclaimed Mexican tenor and lied singer Araiza has sung as soloist in leading concert halls and in leading tenor operatic roles in the major opera houses of Europe and North America.
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£9.52 (£23.81)
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NEW YEAR'S CONCERT 2013
In 2013 Sir John Eliot Gardiner made his second appearance as conductor of the traditional “New Year’s Concert” in the tradition-rich “Gran Teatro La Fenice di Venezia” – together with “La Scala” in Milan and “San Carlo” in Naples one of Italy’s most famous opera houses. Traditionally, the popular “Concerti di Capodanno” not only bring in the New Year musically, but also mark the opening of the new opera season which in Venice, contrary to general custom, begins with the calendar year. At the same time they give the opera house’s resident ensemble, the Orchestra e Coro del Teatro La Fenice, a perfect opportunity to show off their musical prowess. On the programme of the 2013 concert, in addition, of course, to brilliant gems from the work of this year’s bicentenarian Giuseppe Verdi, was Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky’s “Second Symphony in C minor”, Opus 17 – a relatively rarely performed piece that is undeservedly overshadowed by the Russian romantic’s last three works in that genre. The fiery “gallop” from Gioachino Rossini’s French opera “Le siège de Corinthe” rounded off the program, in which Italian soprano Desirée Rancatore and Albanian tenor Saimir Pirgu took over the Verdi arias – amongst them Violetta’s “Sempre libera” and of course the brindisi “Libiamo ne‘ lieti calici” from “La Traviata”.
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£9.52 (£23.81)
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PURCELL:THE FAIRY QUEEN
The new production of Purcell’s The Fairy Queen launched in 1995 by the English National Opera (ENO) was received with great enthusiasm by both the public and musical press. Under the musical direction of Nicholas Kok, the English National Orchestra played a baroque music which was as crystal clear as it was expressively infectious. Next to outstanding performers of the dancing roles such as Puck (Simon Rice) and the Indian boy (Arthur Pita), an entire armada of excellent singers was summoned up such as one seldom experiences together on the baroque opera stage. These included Yvonne Kenny as Titania, Thomas Randle as Oberon and Richard Van Allan as King Theseus. Jonathan Best, with his comic portrayal of the drunken poet, was loved by the audience and praised highly by the press, while other singers like Michael Chance, Mary Hegarthy, Janis Kelly, Marc Le Brocq and Christopher Ross all contributed their talents to produce an unusual musical theatre experience, released on Blu-ray for the first time.
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£10.16 (£29.04)
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TCHAIKOVSKY:A NUTCRACKER
Tchaikovsky’s Nutcracker from a different point of view – very refreshing, very unusual, very hip hop. This is what the French choreographer Bouba Landrille Tchouda makes out of E.T.A. Hoffmann’s story “The Nutcracker and the Mouse King” and Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky’s romantic and moving composition. Together with his Compagnie Malka he interprets the classical ballet in a surprisingly modern way, adding music by Yvan Talbot and a lot of Hip Hop. Hip Hop is where Bouba Landrille Tchouda originally comes from and what enables him to create new perspectives on classical works we have never seen like that before.
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£10.16 (£29.04)
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VISION MAHLER
“What a world this is that brings forth such sounds and shapes as its reflected likeness!” Gustav Mahler The musical performance of Gustav Mahler’s 2 nd Symphony is interactively interconnected with the visual interpretation of the piece. The arrangement of the visualization concentrates on what the music expresses and the emotions it brings forth. Thus, Gustav Mahler’s cultural-historical setting and the sources of his own inspiration do not come into play in this visualization. This work is a matter of blending together two interpretations: one expressed musically and the other visuallyEighteen three-dimensional objects constitute a virtual domain that depicts the universe of the 2nd Symphony on an abstract level. Analogously to the music, the objects of the visualization undergo a process of transformation that Mahler lets us experience auditorially in five movements. The thematic junctures and stages of the 2nd Symphony—suffering, romanticism, irony, love, doubt and hope—are correlated to the transformation of these virtual objects. In the first movement, for example, objects assemble, form structures and then break down; in the second movement they dance, radiate and shine; the third movement infuses the forms with irony and distorts them; love is aglow with light in the fourth movement, and is succeeded in the fifth by tremors and destruction; then objects burst, signaling an exodus from the virtual world. Not until the finale does redemption make its appearance—everything shimmers, sails and floats away.
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£10.16 (£29.04)
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BLACK AND WHITE BALLETS
Czech choreographer Jirí Kylián is one of the most innovative and successful ballet masters on the contemporary dance scene. He always uses classical models as the foundation for his free and imaginative modern style, whose novel fi gures and sequences never fail to astonish. The vitality of his works is supported by an especially highly developed feeling for music, which makes it seem as if his dancers and the music they dance to both flow from a common inner impulse. His choreographies always investigate anew the meaning of dance in modern culture and society, and under his direction the Nederlands Dans Theater (NDT) has thus gained international respect and importance. The series of plotless dance pieces titled „Black and White“ offers six examples of the rich inventive gifts of Kylián’s choreographic imagination. They not only span a remarkable spectrum of styles and moods, from metaphysics through black humour to a sensual, even voluptuous corporeality; they also explicitly indicate that the master of neo-classical dance also uses the more extreme techniques of contemporary Modern Dance as a projection screen for his existential questions. The selection of the six programmes, whose marked differences are still put together in a seamless unity, shows what Kylián can set in motion with only twenty dancers and an intelligent choice of music. Kylián’s unusual technique always achieves a functioning connection between classical economy and a release of energy equally sudden and huge.
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£10.28 (£34.27)
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ALVIN AILEY
In this brilliant studio recording, the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, the country's boldest and most exciting dance company, brings its distinctive style home to you - dazzling, brash and dynamic, yet graceful and poetic. Divining was Judith Jamison's first major work as a choreographer for Alvin Ailey. The dance evokes a strong feeling for African tribal ritual and is set to hauntingly rhythmic drum music. Revelations expresses Ailey's intense feelings for his roots in the South. Here you'll see Ailey's vivid ''blood memories'' of the blues, spirituals, gospel music, ragtime and folk songs as well as the hard life of the Southern black during the Depression. Set to Modern Jazz, The Stack-Up takes place in modern-day Harlem. You'll witness the cruel reality of urban street life as a young man is destroyed by drugs. Cry was choreographed by Alvin Ailey in 1971 for Judith Jamison and is one of his most famous pieces. Created as a birthday present for his mother, it is Ailey's tribute to black women. You can't help feeling being moved by the struggle, the anger and most importantly, the celebration.
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£10.28 (£34.27)
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CHOPIN:CHOPIN AT THE OPERA
“The wrist – the breath in the voice.” (Frédéric Chopin) The opera for Chopin was the highest form of art – even though he never entertained the thought of writing for the stage himself. His contemporaries Bellini, Donizetti and Rossini meant more to him than Beethoven, Liszt or Schumann. They influenced the songful lines of his piano music, and their coloraturas are reflected in its flow, its trills and cadences. At the castle of Chopin’s beloved George Sand, in Nohant in France, three singers, a pianist and an actress meet with the most knowledgeable experts on Bel Canto and Chopin of our time. For one whole week in late autumn they delve for Chopin’s opera experiences: his admiration for the great Bel Canto singer Giuditta Pasta, his friendship with Bellini and his relationship with Pauline Viardot, daughter of tenor Manuel Garcia and sister of Malibran, who, as pianist and composer, worked on Chopin’s Mazurkas for voice and piano. These Mazurkas, as well as pure piano compositions – are rehearsed and discussed in Nohant and, by means of mezzo-soprano Katerina Hebelkova and soprano Christiane Libor’s voices, unfold their songful potential.Great Bel Canto artist Vesselina Kasarova complements Chopin’s music with the sources of his inspiration by singing arias by Rossini and Bellini.
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£9.52 (£23.81)
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TCHAIKOVSKY:SWAN LAKE
Natalia Makarova, one of the most important interpreters of the classical ballet repertoire in the twentieth century, has also had great success as a producer. Her staging of Swan Lake is based on the original choreography by Petipa and Ivanov, with additional choreography by the late Sir Frederick Ashton. Evelyn Hart and Peter Schaufuss dance the main roles in this studio recording. Makarova’s innovative interpretation presents the work as a story of perfect and eternal love. The main focus is on Siegfried’s love for Odette, her love for him, his unfaithfulness, for which she ultimately forgives him, and her self-sacrifi ce in going to her death with him in order to break the power of an evil curse. The production is succinct and well paced. The stage design by Günther Schneider-Siemssen does not use scenery to communicate changes of place and mood but back projections, which are extremely effective for creating a mysterious, magical atmosphere.
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£9.52 (£23.81)
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COUSON:ROMEOS & JULIETTES
William Shakespeare’s “Romeo and Juliet” has inspired many choreographers around the world but this version from Sébastien Lefrançois is maybe the most unusual. The French artist tried to find a new and modern perspective on this classical drama and with Hip Hop Dance he found an intoxicating way to express the protagonists’ inner conflicts. Moving, surprising and very emotional – this is what the result was like and what made this production a big success. The dancers concentrated on the psychic aspects of the drama and together with the wonderful music from Laurent Couson this production is an intense and refreshing new version of “Romeo and Juliet”.
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£10.16 (£29.04)
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VON WINTER:DAS LABYRINTH
We are all familiar with Mozart’s “Die Zauberflöte” (“The Magic Flute”) to the libretto by Emanuel Schikaneder (1751–1812). It is not widely known however that Schikaneder wrote a sequel to “The Magic Flute”, which his friend Peter von Winter (1754–1825) set to music. 2012 the Salzburg Festival presented this operatic rarity in the form of a glittering fairy-tale opera full of magical events. The happy couple Pamina and Tamino have to master trials and tribulations, like the separation by Sarastro in order to wander through an underground labyrinth and the continuing machinations of the Queen of the Night. Well-loved Papageno – who reunites with his parents and finally marries his Papagena – helps Tamino and Pamina in their efforts to reach a happy ending. The Salzburg production by young director Alexandra Liedtke features a number of star soloists with Christof Fischesser as Sarastro and Malin Hartelius and Michael Schade as the lovers Pamina and Tamino. Newcomer Thomas Tatzl gives a charming Papageno, who leads us through the story and is always good for an adventure. Ivor Bolton conducts his Salzburg Mozarteum Orchestra energetically, smoothly and elegantly, bringing out the best in Peter von Winter’s charming score with its cleverly interwoven allusions to Mozart. His compositions partly marked the transition between Mozart and Carl Maria von Weber in the development in German opera.
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£10.28 (£34.27)
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HUMPERDINCK:HANSEL UND GRETEL
Hänsel und Gretel is a fairy-tale opera (Märchenspiel) by Engelbert Humperdinck to a libretto by his sister Adelheid Wette. The idea for the opera was proposed to Humperdinck by his sister, who approached him about writing music for songs that she had written for her children for Christmas based on „Hänsel and Gretel.“ After several revisions, the musical sketches and the songs were turned into a full-scale opera. Hänsel und Gretel has been associated with Christmas since its earliest performances, and it is often performed at Christmas time. It is much admired for its folk music-inspired themes, one of the most famous being the prayer from act II. A family classic, it grew out of a set of incidental music and, written between 1890 and 1893, it was first performed on 23 December 1893 under Richard Strauss in Weimar. The form in which the story is used in the opera derives from the collection of Ludwig Bechstein. Gertrud, the desperate mother, sends her hungry children into the wood to pick strawberries, unaware of the danger to which she exposes them until Peter, the broombinder, returns and is shocked at what she has done; both anxious parents immediately set out to find them. The thoroughly happy ending introduces another significant variation to the familiar version of the brothers J. and W. Grimm.
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£10.28 (£34.27)
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NEW YEARS CONCERT 2012
As is now customary, the first part of the 2012 New Year‘s Concert from Teatro La Fenice is exclusively orchestral, with “Symphony No.5” by Pyotr Tchaikovsky. The second part, with soloists Jessica Pratt, Walter Fraccaro and Alex Esposito as well as the choir, is dedicated to melodrama, ending with the traditional chorus “Va pensiero” from “Nabucco” and the toast “Libiam ne lieti calici” from “La Traviata” by Giuseppe Verdi. The twenty-seven year old conductor and violinist Diego Matheuz is a graduate of the internationally known Venezuelan Sistema and is already widely known as one of the most promising developing talents from the Americas. In 2005 he began studying conducting and soon attracted the attention of Sir Simon Rattle and Claudio Abbado, with whom he worked in Caracas, Lucerne and Bologna. In September 2011 he was appointed as Principal Conductor of the Teatro La Fenice.
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£10.28 (£34.27)
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SOUND TRACKER:NEW YORK
“I’m Sami Yaffa and I am a rock’n’rollin’ Globetrotter with an endless curiosity about all things musical. This is my exploration into why music is so important to us all. This is Sound Tracker.” These are the first words of the successful Finnish TV Series “Sound Tracker”. Sami Yaffa is an accomplished musician who has seen all facets of life as a performing artist – he has toured the world in successful rock bands and earned a living as a street busker. Sound Tracker is his expedition to the world of music. Starting in the USA, heading towards Argentina, Turkey, Serbia, India, Indonesia, and many more, Sami gets to know the traditional music by playing with the people around and getting involved in their cultures. The variety of music is endlessly, it’s everywhere and it bounds us together as a basic part of our everyday life. The odyssey begins from his hometown, the capital of the world - NYC!
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£8.57 (£17.14)
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BRAHMS/JANACEK:JANSONS
A “star event” wrote The Guardian about the performance of Johannes Brahms’ “Second Symphony” with the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra under Mariss Jansons. Recalling that this orchestra is now “among the leading ensembles in the world,” The Guardian asserted that “their style is generous, warm and big-hearted, their relationship with Jansons one of mutual adoration.” In 1926 Leoš Janácek wrote his contribution to liturgical settings in a language last spoken about a thousand years ago. With the “Glagolitic Mass” he wanted to emphasize the common bonds between the Slavic nations by writing the text in Old Church Slavonic, which used an alphabet devised by Saints Cyril and Methodius called “Glagolitic”. In this “blistering performance” (The Guardian) filmed at the Lucerne Easter Festival 2012, the Bavarian Radio Chorus complemented the instrumental ensemble of the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra under Mariss Jansons to “give a compelling reading with an enormous breadth of dynamics and an impressive presence, and with the Slovak-Russian quartet guaranteeing idiomatic soli” (Neue Zürcher Zeitung).
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£9.52 (£23.81)
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