Debussy Orchestral Works
A clutch of revealing films showing some great conductors in action
View record and artist detailsRecord and Artist Details
Composer or Director: Igor Stravinsky
Genre:
DVD
Label: Video Artists International
Magazine Review Date: 1/2005
Media Format: Digital Versatile Disc
Media Runtime: 50
Mastering:
Mono
ADD
Catalogue Number: VAIDVD4290
Tracks:
Composition | Artist Credit |
---|---|
Symphony of Psalms |
Igor Stravinsky, Composer
CBC Symphony Orchestra Igor Stravinsky, Composer Igor Stravinsky, Conductor |
Composer or Director: Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, Claude Debussy, Johann Sebastian Bach, Ludwig van Beethoven, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Genre:
DVD
Label: Video Artists International
Magazine Review Date: 1/2005
Media Format: Digital Versatile Disc
Media Runtime: 97
Mastering:
Mono
ADD
Catalogue Number: VAIDVD4287
Tracks:
Composition | Artist Credit |
---|---|
Symphony No. 39 |
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Composer
Chicago Symphony Orchestra Fritz Reiner, Conductor Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Composer |
Petite suite |
Claude Debussy, Composer
Chicago Symphony Orchestra Claude Debussy, Composer Fritz Reiner, Conductor |
(The) Nutcracker, Movement: Waltz of the flowers (Valse des fleurs) |
Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, Composer
Chicago Symphony Orchestra Fritz Reiner, Conductor Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, Composer |
(The) Sleeping Beauty, Movement: Valse |
Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, Composer
Chicago Symphony Orchestra Fritz Reiner, Conductor Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, Composer |
Toccata, Adagio and Fugue |
Johann Sebastian Bach, Composer
Chicago Symphony Orchestra Fritz Reiner, Conductor Johann Sebastian Bach, Composer |
Symphony No. 2 |
Ludwig van Beethoven, Composer
Chicago Symphony Orchestra Fritz Reiner, Conductor Ludwig van Beethoven, Composer |
Composer or Director: Claude Debussy
Genre:
DVD
Label: Euroarts
Magazine Review Date: 1/2005
Media Format: Digital Versatile Disc
Media Runtime: 64
Mastering:
Stereo
Catalogue Number: 2053469
Tracks:
Composition | Artist Credit |
---|---|
(La) Mer |
Claude Debussy, Composer
Claude Debussy, Composer Claudio Abbado, Conductor Lucerne Festival Orchestra |
(Le) Martyre de Saint Sébastien |
Claude Debussy, Composer
Claude Debussy, Composer Claudio Abbado, Conductor Eteri Gvazava, Soprano Lucerne Festival Orchestra Rachel Harnisch, Soprano Swiss Chamber Choir |
Composer or Director: Joseph Haydn
Genre:
DVD
Label: Video Artists International
Magazine Review Date: 1/2005
Media Format: Digital Versatile Disc
Media Runtime: 60
Mastering:
Mono
Catalogue Number: VAIDVD4293
Tracks:
Composition | Artist Credit |
---|---|
Concerto for Oboe and Orchestra |
Joseph Haydn, Composer
Evelyn Rothwell, Oboe John Barbirolli, Conductor Joseph Haydn, Composer Vancouver Symphony Orchestra |
Composer or Director: Johannes Brahms, Alban Berg, Ludwig van Beethoven
Genre:
DVD
Label: Video Artists International
Magazine Review Date: 1/2005
Media Format: Digital Versatile Disc
Media Runtime: 55
Mastering:
Mono
ADD
Catalogue Number: VAIDVD4271
Tracks:
Composition | Artist Credit |
---|---|
Concerto for Violin and Orchestra, 'To the memory of an angel' |
Alban Berg, Composer
Alban Berg, Composer Cleveland Orchestra George Szell, Conductor Rafael Druian, Violin |
Academic Festival Overture |
Johannes Brahms, Composer
Cleveland Orchestra George Szell, Conductor Johannes Brahms, Composer |
Symphony No. 5, Movement: Allegro con brio |
Ludwig van Beethoven, Composer
Cleveland Orchestra George Szell, Conductor Ludwig van Beethoven, Composer |
Symphony No. 5, Movement: Andante con moto |
Ludwig van Beethoven, Composer
Cleveland Orchestra George Szell, Conductor Ludwig van Beethoven, Composer |
Symphony No. 5, Movement: Allegro |
Ludwig van Beethoven, Composer
Cleveland Orchestra George Szell, Conductor Ludwig van Beethoven, Composer |
Author: Jeremy Nicholas
Barbirolli was the first conductor of international stature I saw on the podium (as it happens in the same year, 1963, that this programme was made by the CBC). He is filmed in Vancouver rehearsing the Haydn-attributed Oboe Concerto with his wife as soloist who, as in her 1957 recording with the Hallé, plays her own cadenzas. All eyes are on JB (indeed, it is some time before we are aware that the soloist is at the rehearsal at all) but there is one lovely exchange when Rothwell suggests that they start again from the repeat of the second subject. ‘Well, I don’t know what the second subject is,’ retorts her husband. ‘That’s for programme annotators.’
George Szell, who died in the same year as Barbirolli (1970), was, by contrast, an un- popular, despotic Hungarian. The colour film profiles – but does not explore or question – Szell’s extraordinary 24-year relationship with the Cleveland Orchestra. With his lupine smile and fearsome presence, he tries to play the role of regular guy: rehearsal and perform- ance sequences are riveting, with fascinating footage of Szell instructing three young con- ductors (James Levine one of them) on how to kick-start Don Juan and Beethoven’s Fifth.
With the hooded eyes of a falcon and his sour mien, Szell’s fellow Hungarian, Fritz Reiner looks as unpleasant as his reputation conducting the Chicago Symphony in 1953-54 at the start of his celebrated nine-year association with the orchestra. These black-and-white transmissions (sometimes more black than white) of one of the truly great conductors are of immense importance, and include one work (the Bach-Weiner) that Reiner did not record commercially. The DVD preserves Francis Coughlin’s hopelessly unprepared in-vision linking commentary. Every faulting sentence makes you thank God for the invention of the autocue.
The Stravinsky documentary features the famous (and equally toe-curling) encounter between the young Julian Bream and the elderly composer. Just as Stravinsky is about to start recording his Symphony of Psalms, Bream is introduced, sits down and plays a pavane on the lute… all the way through. As a conductor, Stravinsky is an uninspiring, baton-less time-beater, but the exchanges filmed simultaneously in the control room make for an unusually vivid sequence. Most revealing, though, is Stravinsky’s conversation with his friend Nicholas Nabokov, filmed in Hamburg over a glass of whisky. Here, one of music’s geniuses appears touchingly vulnerable and human. VAI may be a no-frills merchant but such treasure needs no fancy packaging. Its priceless contents speak for themselves.
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