Herbert Von Karayan

Herbert von Karajan directed this film of Verdi's Shakespearean masterpiece as well as conducting the Berlin Philharmonic. As the tragic Moor of Venice, arguably his greatest role, Jon Vickers (in the words of critic David Cairns) "commands both the notes and the moral grandeur of the part… And he has the aura of greatness - greatness of heart, of bearing, of musical and dramatic conception". Mirella Freni is a heartbreakingly lovely and fragile Desdemona, while the fine English baritone Peter Glossop plays the villainous Jago.

Herbert von Karajan conducted Brahms's choral masterpiece frequently throughout his long career, but only once on film and with both of these outstanding soloists. This unique document from the 1978 Salzburg Easter Festival was acclaimed by Diapason as "a magical interpretation, prodigiously realized … with a sublime fusion of timbres, a cohesion and, ultimately, a simplicity that are truly unequalled."

Acknowledged to be the finest Karajan recording of this overwhelming sacred masterpiece - "electrifying … with the Italian chorus and orchestra singing and playing their hearts out … a historic document" (Gramophone). This 1967 performance features four of the 20th century's greatest Verdi singers - Price, Cossotto and Ghiaurov were at the peak of their careers, while the young Pavarotti was still comparatively unknown (though not for long).

Recorded live in St. Peter's Basilica in Rome on June 29, 1985 at High Mass celebrated by Pope John Paul II, Herbert von Karajan conducts the Vienna Philharmonic for Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's Coronation Mass. The performance features Agnes Baltsa, Trudeliese Schmidt, Gösta Winbergh, Ferruccio Furlanetto and Wiener Singverein.

Mstislav Rostropovich did more for the advancement of the cello than probably any other artist since Pablo Casals. Even after his sad passing in 2007 at the age of 80, is musical influence is felt not only in the cello community, but among orchestral musicians as well. This Deutsche Grammophon DVD is among the many tributes to Rostropovich that have surfaced over the short time since his passing. It features the Schumann Concerto and Bloch's Schelomo with Leonard Bernstein and the Orchestre National de France and Strauss' Don Quixote with Karajan and the Berlin Philharmonic. All of these performances are given their first DVD release here. Schumann and Bloch are given intense, riveting performances by Rostropovich and orchestra alike. Any other cellist who played with as much force and aggression would be accused of overplaying, but with Rostropovich the intensity and conviction of his playing are what make the entire performance.

Herbert von Karajan made Anton Bruckner’s mammoth 8th Symphony a center of his large repertory, recording it for release four times, in 1944, 1957, 1975 and finally in 1988, shortly before the maestro’s death. Karajan’ s emotional connection with the 8th is obvious and, in comparing the last two of these releases, I’ve been very impressed with how an aging conductor could re-invent his interpretations. As one can tell from these two Karajan performances and those from other musicians, the 8th can support many different approaches, with an almost kaleidoscopic array of musical and emotional elements revealing different colors as its components are played in different ways.

In these priceless documents from the late 1970s, filmed in the Bruckner shrines of Vienna and St Florian, Herbert von Karajan conducts the Vienna Philharmonic in Bruckner's Eighth - the symphony he revered above all others - and Ninth, as well as the towering Te Deum. "Massive, glowing, and infused with cosmic power" (conductor/scholar Denis Stevens on Karajan's Bruckner Eighth filmed with the Vienna Philharmonic).

“this DVD brings compelling accounts of the master at work, visually as well as aurally. There is a powerful intensity to the Beethoven overtures and the opening of William Tell is beautifully done, with glorious playing from the Berliners…There is plenty of fascinating archival material to see; and within the maestro's obviously glamorous, jet-set lifestyle, he emerges as a musical communicator of warmth - and humour too. A most revealing issue.” (The Penguin Guide)

Celebrating one of the most revered conductors of the 20th century, this series was originally released to commemorate Herbert von Karajan’s 100th birthday in 2008. Using innovate technology to recreate the original concert acoustics, the audio for these DVDs has been re-recorded at the Philharmonic Hall in Berlin and the Musikverein in Vienna, Karajan’s two favourite concert venues, to create re-mastered surround-sound versions of these classic performances. With each DVD featuring von Karajan conducting either the Berlin Philharmonic or Vienna Philharmonic orchestras, two of the highest regarded orchestras in the world, this series really does marry the greatest music, the highest calibre performers, and the best possible audio-visual presentation.

Two classic recordings by Karajan while he was in London as the imposed guest of Walter Legge, director of the Philharmonia Orchestra. The two symphonies form a lavish but unusual combination – Symphony no.2, the most popular of the seven created the composer of Valse Triste, and his curious Symphony no.4, a violent, arid, anti- Malherian dissertation infused with doubt and melancholy due to its baleful (augmented fourth) tritone interval, the hitherto spurned diabolus in musica. Two paradoxal masterworks.