Dvd Beethoven

This is a very welcome DVD release of an important series of concerts. Anne-Sophie Mutter, as she explains in the documentary, gave up a year of her life to concentrate solely on playing and recording the Beethoven Violin Sonatas in a series of concerts world wide - a luxury, she admits, afforded to few musicians. These performances come from the Paris cycle and are remarkably fresh. From the Haydnesque early sonatas to the altogether more challenging later sonatas, particularly a magnificent 'Kreutzer', these are performances that hint neither at over-preparedness nor over-familiarity. There is real spontaneity in many of these performances and a real sense of partnership between these superlative artists. Mutter is happy to allow Orkis to take the spotlight (and in the case of the op.23 dictate the development of the work). In every one of these sonatas there is ample proof that Mutter and Orkis are working for Beethoven and not for themselves. (Marc Bridle)

Karajan - Beethoven Symphony N0. 9 - DVD 5/24 - His Legacy For Home Video
Classical | DVD | with scans | 4,16 Gb (DVD5) | DVD´s FULL No compression
All Videos of this collection (except one) are DVD5, yet complete, without taking anything from the original.
Release: December 8, 1998 | Publisher: Sony Classical

The sound and picture on these DVDs are excellent; the sound is truly comparable to a well-recorded CD. The soundtrack is available both in stereo and also an excellent 5.1 Dolby mix. The disks have a set of program notes and a biography of von Karajan.

Abbado's Beethoven cycle will certainly become a milestone for contemporary interpretation and this DVD and the coming releases pay tribute to Abbado’s achievement. The cycle will be released gradually throughout 2007, starting with symphonies 3 and 9. For the popular 9th symphony on this DVD the Berlin Philharmonic were joined by high-ranking singers and choirs. As an additional feature, this DVD offers the “Conductor Camera” in the 3rd Symphony showing the maestro from the perspective of the musician.

Harold C. Schonberg wrote in the New York Times upon his demise: "Musicians can and will argue about Stokowski's artistry, but no one will dispute the fact that he was one of the greatest conductors of all time. He got things from an orchestra that nobody else could equal, and when he got that amazing mixture of colours, that virtuoso projection, even those who objected to what he was doing were bowled over by how he did it."

Karajan - Beethoven Symphonies Nos. 4 & 5 - DVD 3/24 - His Legacy For Home Video
Classical | DVD | with scans | 3,320 Gb (DVD5) | DVD´s FULL No compression
All Videos of this collection (except one) are DVD5, yet complete, without taking anything from the original.
Release: October 1999 | Publisher: Sony Classical

The sound and picture on these DVDs are excellent; the sound is truly comparable to a well-recorded CD. The soundtrack is available both in stereo and also an excellent 5.1 Dolby mix. The disks have a set of program notes and a biography of von Karajan.

EuroArts has released a special edition of all nine Beethoven Symphonies played by the Berlin Philharmonic under former chief conductor Claudio Abbado. Each of the symphonies is a masterpiece in itself - they are all quite different, each representing the composer's musical idiom at a particular stage in his development. This DVD includes symphonies Nos. 2 and 5 and offers a 'Conductor Camera' in the famous Fifth Symphony showing the maestro from the perspective of the musician. The recordings feature interpretations that are the fruit of decades of Claudio Abbado's involvement with Beethoven.

This DVD presents Seiji Ozawa conducting two great choral masterpieces, beloved by audiences around the world. Orff's Carmina Burana, boisterous and lyrical, sets medieval songs in a celebration of life's pleasures. Beethoven's monumental Ninth Symphony, concludes with the uplifting 'Ode to Joy', a timeless plea for universal brotherhood.

Older chamber music fans who lament the demise of the trio formed by pianist Eugene Istomin, violinist Isaac Stern, and cellist Leonard Rose will rejoice to hear of this two-disc EMI DVD set featuring videotaped recordings by the esteemed American trio of Beethoven's complete works in the genre: the three Trios from Opus 1, the two from Opus 70, and the one and only Opus 97, plus the transcription of Opus 11. They will, of course, already have the players' stereo studio recordings of the works released on Columbia in the '60s, but unless they were watching French television in 1970, they probably missed these performances filmed live in the studio in Paris. Istomin, Stern, and Rose here have the same distinctive blend of strong individuality and sympathetic ensemble, of blunt aggression and warm tenderness, of powerful drama and melting lyricism that was the hallmark of the group's studio performances, but with the extra excitement and spontaneity of live performances.