Winning With Honour

Truth in Our Time complements American minimalist’s new symphony with compelling programming including Shostakovich’s Symphony No. 9, Korngold’s Violin Concerto, featuring James Ehnes, and potent contemporary works by Nicole Lizée and Yao.  "The concert was as much a capsule presentation of the orchestra as an institution as well as a performing ensemble. The NACO has a crisp, slightly light sound, sonorous but expressive through articulation, color, and agility rather than mass, and this suited all the pieces," New York Classical Review of the US Premiere at Carnegie Hall, April 2022

Truth in Our Time complements American minimalist’s new symphony with compelling programming including Shostakovich’s Symphony No. 9, Korngold’s Violin Concerto, featuring James Ehnes, and potent contemporary works by Nicole Lizée and Yao.  "The concert was as much a capsule presentation of the orchestra as an institution as well as a performing ensemble. The NACO has a crisp, slightly light sound, sonorous but expressive through articulation, color, and agility rather than mass, and this suited all the pieces," New York Classical Review of the US Premiere at Carnegie Hall, April 2022

Directors Bruno Forzani and Helene Cattet undertake an episodic approach by dividing the material into three thematically linked segments. In the first, a young girl is at home as her grandfather dies and her grandmother begins performing a series of bizarre rituals designed to either bring him back to life or ease his passage to the next world; as this is happening, the girl becomes aware that her parents are making love elsewhere in the house. Years later, a teenage girl goes into town with her mother to run some errands, comes face to face with the power of her sexuality, and learns how she can use her allure to change the behaviour of men. In the final segment, an adult woman returns to the house where she grew up, which has fallen into disrepair – and discovers that she may not be alone.

Arguably the true heir to Satyajit Ray, Adoor Gopalakrishnan is regarded as one of India's most outstanding filmmakers and Rat-Trap was the first film to bring him widespread international acclaim. Remarkable for its focus on characterization and detail, Rat-Trap is set in contemporary Kerala. Its story concerns Unni, the last male-heir of a feudal and decaying joint family. His inability to accept the socio-economic changes of a new society result in his gradual withdrawal into a metaphorical rat-trap sprung from his own isolation and paranoia. The decline is vividly told, with colour and music used as a striking and significant constituent of the film's thematic development. This is the first-ever DVD release of this award-winning and important Indian film.

A Better Tomorrow (Chinese: 英雄本色; Mandarin Pinyin: Yīngxióng běnsè; Jyutping: Jing1 hung4 bun2 sik1; literally "True Colors of a Hero") is a 1986 Hong Kong action film which had a profound influence on the Hong Kong film-making industry, and later on an international scale. Directed by John Woo, it stars Chow Yun-fat, Ti Lung and Leslie Cheung. Although the movie was made with a tight budget and was relatively unknown until it went on screen due to virtually no advertising, it broke Hong Kong's box office record and went on to become a blockbuster in Asian countries. It is highly regarded, ranking at #2 of the Best 100 Chinese Motion Pictures. Its success also ensured the sequel A Better Tomorrow 2, also directed by Woo, and A Better Tomorrow 3: Love & Death in Saigon, a prequel directed by producer Tsui Hark.

Háry János is an opera in four acts by Zoltán Kodály to a Hungarian libretto by Béla Paulini and Zsolt Harsányi, based on the comic epic The Veteran by János Garay. First performance: Royal Hungarian Opera House, Budapest, 1926.

The story is of a veteran hussar in the Austro-Hungarian army who sits in the village inn regaling his listeners with fantastic tales of heroism: his supposed exploits include winning the heart of the Empress Marie Louise, the wife of Napoleon, and then single-handedly defeating Napoleon and his armies. From the music of the opera, Kodály extracted the orchestral Háry János Suite, one of the most popular pieces in the classical repertoire.

Founded in 1998 at Pro Corda, Suffolk, the multi-award-winning Doric String Quartet describes recording Britten’s quartets as a significant milestone: ‘In our recording we have endeavoured to tread a line that brings out the humanity in these works but also recognises the need for distance and fragility. This is very personal and intimate music, yet also world-encompassing and timeless.’ The Quartet continues: ‘Another feature of this recording is that Hélène Clément, our violist, is playing on Benjamin Britten’s own viola. This instrument (on loan from the Britten-Pears Foundation) was made in 1843 in Milan by Francesco Guissani. It was previously owned by the composer Frank Bridge who gave it to Britten, as a departure gift when Britten and Pears set sail for the USA in 1939.’ Hélène Clément writes: ‘To be able to explore the music of Britten with the very sound that the composer had in his ears is the greatest honour and joy I could have imagined.’

Founded in 1998 at Pro Corda, Suffolk, the multi-award-winning Doric String Quartet describes recording Britten’s quartets as a significant milestone: ‘In our recording we have endeavoured to tread a line that brings out the humanity in these works but also recognises the need for distance and fragility. This is very personal and intimate music, yet also world-encompassing and timeless.’ The Quartet continues: ‘Another feature of this recording is that Hélène Clément, our violist, is playing on Benjamin Britten’s own viola. This instrument (on loan from the Britten-Pears Foundation) was made in 1843 in Milan by Francesco Guissani.