Topic: Concert DVDs

[uffeviking]

Opus Arte issued the 1969 Turin recording of Bruckner No. 9 Symphony conducted by Sergiu Celibidache. It's in black and white but the camera technique very good considering the date of the performance. Nice close-ups of various musicians making this video desirable for fans interested in seeing what goes on, not just hearing, as on CDs. Praiseworthy also is the cameras restraint from making the Maestro's face the main attraction. This is the first time I have seen Celibidache standing while conducting; the others - all too few! - videos are taking of the elderly man perching on his special chair.

To forestall the unavoidable question already forming on your lips, dear fellow members: "How many discs in the case? Four or five?" No, just one! Yes, Celibidache takes is slow but for the best reason I can think of: He gives full attention to Bruckner's genius, letting every note be heard, the way Bruckner wanted it.

[uffeviking]

Got another one! - Oh how I love to talk to myself!  -

This one too is by EuroArts and about Sergiu Celibidache. It is a 1965 recording of the rehearsal and then performance of Richard Strauss's Till Eulenspiegle's lustige Streiche with the Radio-Sinfonieorchester Stuttgart.

Now I have seen the Maestro working with his musicians, bringing out minute details in this and that passage, making them play it again and again and once more until they get it exactly the way he wants them to play. I was surprised by his agility on the podium at age 53, very close to Leonard Bernstein's gymnastics, minus the two foot high leaps of course. An interesting rebuke to a hornist: "Mein Herr, Sie spielen die Noten, aber nicht die Musik!" - "Sir, you are playing the notes but not the music!"

The second feature of on the DVD is a studio performance of Rimsky-Korsakov's Sheherazade with the same orchestra. I have both of those performances on CD, but now that I have seen the Maestro and his musicians working together, creating musical beauty, I understand and enjoy them even more.

[Maciek]

Got another one! - Oh how I love to talk to myself!  -

Go on, go on, Lis. I'm sure absolutely no one is listening. Me? I'm just a little voice in your head...
Go on, go on.

[Brewski]

Lis, both of these sound great.  I have but two or three Celibidache recordings (all Bruckner) and like them, but would be most interested to actually see him in action.  But then, I have a stack of 9 or 10 classical DVDs at home that are begging to be listened to...

It seems that lately many performances from the past are being released -- performances locked up in the vaults for one reason or another.  These Bernstein/NY Phil DVDs from the 1970s are a good example.  And then there are the Mahler cycles from him and Haitink...

--Bruce