Beethoven - Symphonies 4-6 DVD

Advantages: Glorious music interweaved into a magnificent costume drama
Disadvantages: Inaccuracies of historical facts

..., and the original documentary (entitled Beloved Beethoven). All of which will help to give a greater understanding of Beethoven's life and works. The insight into the making of the film is very interesting and explains a number of the scnes. Immortal Beloved is a extravagant production, gloriously scored with the Beethoven's compositions. Any film supposedly a biopic of a historical character will draw criticism and Immortal Beloved certainly did. And yes it was a little foot-loose and fancy-free with a number of the facts - but is was only an interpretation and not intended as a full biography. So my advice is - don't take it too seriously. Sit back and enjoy this moving drama, the wonderful setting and costumes and most of all the music! At the time of writing, the DVD is available from Amazon for £4.98.... Read review

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Advantages: Superb historical performances and fascinating insights
Disadvantages: Only that there are no bonus interviews this time

...- Symphonies No. 4 and 5; Johann Strauss II - "Kuenstlerleben", "Emperor Waltz", "Blue Danube"; Berlioz - Hungarian march from Damnation of Faust and Symphonie Fantastique; Bizet - "L'Arlesienne Suite"; Weber - Oberon Overture; Beethoven - Symphony No. 9 and Egmont Overture; Franck - Symphony in D minor; Debussy - "La Mer"; Ravel - Daphnis et Chloe Suite No. 2; Schostakovich - Symphony No. 5. For me, one of the most fascinating things about watching great conductors at work is having the chance to eavesdrop in their rehearsals and there are unique opportunities to do that with this DVD which shows Celibidache, Munch and Erich Kleiber hard at work to get their own sounds out of the orchestra, 3 very different conductors and 3 very different rehearsal techniques. The differences in personality and musical approach of each conductor are succinctly... Read review

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Advantages: Fascinating insight into a very private conductor
Disadvantages: One always wants more concert clips in DVDs like this...

...and colleagues, and of course from Abbado himself - which is perhaps the most fascinating aspect of the DVD as up to now he has always preferred to talk through his music rather than to journalists. The orchestras featured in the performance extracts are the Berlin Philharmonic, Vienna Philharmonic, Lucerne Festival Orchestra and the Gustav Mahler Youth Orchestra. Performance and rehearsal extracts played during the DVD are by: Luigi Nono - "Prometeo"; Dvorak - Symphony No. 9; Beethoven - Symphonies No. 1, 3 and 9, Egmont Overture; Bruckner - Symphonies No. 1 and 9; Stravinsky - Symphony of Psalms; Brahms - "Ein deutsches Requiem"; Richard Strauss - "Elektra"; Webern - 6 Pieces for Orchestra; Mahler - Symphony No. 2; Debussy - La Mer and Tchaikovsky - Symphony No. 5. Some of the extracts are quite brief, but all are incredibly musically... Read review

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