Jean Pierre Ponnelle

Jean-Pierre Ponnelle’s landmark production of Mozart’s most human comedy provides the perfect setting for this superb cast under James Levine’s ebullient leadership. The philandering and arrogant Count Almaviva (Thomas Allen) is no match for his wily servant Figaro (Ruggero Raimondi), whose soon-to-be-wife Susanna (Kathleen Battle) is as manipulative as she is charming. Add in one beautiful, disillusioned Countess (Carol Vaness) and one irrepressible, testosterone-laden teenage boy (Cherubino, played by Federica von Stade), and it’s no wonder some critics say this is the perfect opera.

This exceptional production, shot in 1988/1989 on 35 mm film and directed by George Moorse, Jean-Pierre Ponnelle and Klaas Rusticus, has been digitally remastered with the greatest care for high-quality audio and video restoration. The music of Mozart has been an essential driving force of Daniel Barenboim’s entire life. It remains central to his performing career both as a pianist and as a conductor. These illuminating performances of Mozart’s last eight great piano concertos admirably demonstrate Barenboim’s dictum that even when a true musician has already performed a familiar work hundreds of times, he or she ‘never accepts that the next note will be played the same way as it was played before’.

This exceptional production, shot in 1988/1989 on 35 mm film and directed by George Moorse, Jean-Pierre Ponnelle and Klaas Rusticus, has been digitally remastered with the greatest care for high-quality audio and video restoration. The music of Mozart has been an essential driving force of Daniel Barenboim’s entire life. It remains central to his performing career both as a pianist and as a conductor. These illuminating performances of Mozart’s last eight great piano concertos admirably demonstrate Barenboim’s dictum that even when a true musician has already performed a familiar work hundreds of times, he or she ‘never accepts that the next note will be played the same way as it was played before’.

The singing is superb, especially from Horne, here giving one of her best DVD performances. The excellent Rossini tenor Douglas Ahlstedt deserves a mention too. As Mustafa, Paolo Montarsolo sometimes finds the part a little challenging vocally (who wouldn't!), but he is hilarious and very well suited to the role. Levine's conducting makes the music simply sparkle. I can't really fault this set.
By Mrs. E. Watts

Jacqueline du Pré In Portrait - Films by Christopher Nupen (2012) [DVD9 NTSC] {Allegro Films}
DVD9 -> 7.04 Gb | All Regions | NTSC 16:9 / 4:3 | English Dolby AC3, 2 ch | ~ 150 m | ISO Image
Full Artwork @ 300 dpi (png) -> 109 Mb | 5% repair rar | subs: German, French, Spanish
© 2012 Allegro Films / Argos Prod. / Christopher Nupen Films | A 14CN D
Classical / Documentary / Сoncerts

This is a re-issue, in an improved version, of Christopher Nupens best-selling DVD previously released through Opus Arte it now appears on the Christopher Nupen Films label for the first time. As usual with Christopher Nupen DVDs, this one contains two films: the famous portrait film of Jacqueline du Prй which includes the complete Elgar cello Concerto in a performance which has become legendary and a performance film, The Ghost (Beethovens Trio Op. 70 No. 1) with Daniel Barenboim and Pinchas Zukerman; described by the French opera and film director Jean-Pierre Ponnelle as the most successful translation of musical performance onto the screen that he had ever seen. And, also as usual with Christopher Nupen films, these are lit, shot and edited in the style of cinema film, not television. The results are visually impressive and totally unlike what usually appears on television screens an important, defining characteristic of this DVD.

Hans Werner Henze - The Complete Deutsche Grammophon Recordings (2013) {Deutsche Grammophon 4791522}
FLAC (tracks) - 16bit/44.1kHz - Official Digital Download -> 4.69 Gb | MP3 @320 -> 2.49 Gb
Full Artwork (jpg+pdf) -> 56 Mb | 5% repair rar
© 2013 Deutsche Grammophon | 4791522
Classical / Contemporary Classical / Modern Classical

The composers who made the most decisive contribution to the development of post-war music in Europe were all born in the 1920s: Stockhausen, Boulez, Nono, Berio and Ligeti, to name but five. Shortly after the end of the Second World War, at a time when half of Europe still lay in ruins, they began to look for the basis of a new kind of music freed from the fatal legacy of the past. But few of them reacted as directly or as sensitively to the catastrophe of the National Socialist period as did Hans Werner Henze. And this was true of him both as an artist and as a human being.

Nikolaus Harnoncourt is one of the few true stars among conductors worldwide. Performances like the New Year’s Concert of the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra enable him to reach an audience of millions, displaying the characteristic passion and fiery intensity that identify him, first and foremost, as a true servant of his art. His first opera production dates from 1971, when he conducted Monteverdi‘s “Il ritorno d‘Ulisse in patria” at the Theater an der Wien, and soon after this he embarked on a fruitful cooperation with Jean-Pierre Ponnelle at the Zurich Opera.

“Horne is the great star focus…She is predictably brilliant in the coloratura passages, with her commanding presence not getting in the way of a sense of fun…The production by Jean-Pierre Ponnelle is brightly attractive, and the direction is at the service of the performance. Levine conducts with characteristic energy.” Penguin Guide