Classics

Teldec Classics International presents THE ART OF CONDUCTING - GREAT CONDUCTORS OF THE PAST - a unique program featuring sixteen of the great conductors of 20th century in rehearsal and performance. When the first instalment of 'The Art of Conducting', based on a BBC television series, originally appeared it was rightly acclaimed as a revelation. Not surprisingly, it won many prizes, including the 1995 Gramophone Award for Video. A critically acclaimed compilation of orchestral performances, Art of Conducting celebrates excellence in orchestra conducting over the course of the 20th century.

The stenographer Alice Sycamore is in love with her boss Tony Kirby, who is the vice-president of the powerful company owned by his greedy father Anthony P. Kirby. Kirby Sr. is dealing a monopoly in the trade of weapons, and needs to buy one last house in a twelve block area owned by Alice's grandparent Martin Vanderhof. However…

Ellie Andrews has just tied the knot with society aviator King Westley when she is whisked away to her father's yacht and out of King's clutches. Ellie jumps ship and eventually winds up on a bus headed back to her husband. Reluctantly she must accept the help of out-of- work reporter Peter Warne. Actually, Warne doesn't give her any choice…

Commissioned by the military during World War II, this collection of propaganda cartoons has not been seen in over fifty years. Created by the famed animators at Warner Bros. from 1943-1946 and voiced by the legendary Mel Blanc, this disc presents all twenty-eight Private Snafu cartoons ever released.

A powerful setting of Jesus's final days, the St Matthew Passion was responsible for the resurgence of interest in JS Bach's sacred choral music after the composer's death. Bach's Matthaus Passion is an intense journey into suffering, guilt and faith. It reflects on the core mystery of the Christian faith with passion yet, as it were, in slow motion, stressing inner emotions rather than action. The solo arias are personal reckonings, and the listener cannot help confronting his or her own human weaknesses. The chorus comments on the Good Friday events as in a Greek tragedy.

Originally released by Philips Classics on VHS and Laserdisc in 1991, the 13-part Mozart on Tour series chronicles the journeys of the child, adolescent and adult Mozart across Europe, in what was ultimately to prove a futile pursuit of fame and fortune.

At last… the riveting, bloody, and ultra-stylish Lone Wolf and Cub series, together with the classic Shogun Assassin (all based on the perennially popular manga by Kazuo Koike and Goseki Kojima) available together in one boxset, officially licenced from Toho, fully uncut, and freshly remastered. Filled with memorable set pieces, iconic characters and violent action, this series more than lives up to its reputation as a pinnacle of Japanese exploitation cinema whose musings on the meaning of honour in a lawless world still resonate today. In White Heaven In Hell alone, Ogami Itto kills 150 people onscreen, the highest body count for a single character in a single film in cinema history…..

All of Avery's star characters are featured here: Droopy, as a Mountie, a bullfighter and a Western deputy; Spike, as a hibernating bear's weary watchdog; Red, as both Cinderella and a frontier cowgirl; and Screwball Squirrel, as - what else? - an escapee of a lunatic asylum.