Lakmé

Delibes Lakmé opera to a libretto by Edmond Gondinet and Philippe Gille. Directed by Roger Hodgman, based on a production by Adam Cook. Stars Emma Matthews, Aldo Di Toro, Stephen Bennett, Dominica Matthews, Edmond Choo, Luke Gabbedy, Roxane Hislop, Jane Parkin, Angela Brun, Benjamin Rasheed, Nara Lee, and Adrian Tamburini. Emmanuel Joel-Hornak conducts the Austalia Opera and Ballet Orchestra (Leader Huy-Nguyen Bui) and the Opera Australia Chorus (Acting Chorus Master Anthony Hunt). Set and costume design by Mark Thompson; lighting design by Nigel Levings; assistant direction by Naomi Edwards; TV direction by Cameron Kirkpatrick. Released 2012, disc has 5.1 dts Master Audio sound. Grade: Help!

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Elektra

Richard Strauss Elektra opera to libretto by Hugo von Hofmannsthal. Directed 2005 by Martin Kušej at Opernhaus Zürich. Stars Eva Johansson, Marjana Lipovšek, Melanie Diener, Rudolf Schasching, Aldred Muff, Reinhard Mayr, Cassandra McConnell, Christine Zoller, Andreas Winkler, Morgan Moody, Margaret Chalker, Kismara Pessatti, Katharina Peetz, Irène Friedli, Liuba Chuchrova, Sen Guo, Martina Weingärtner, Thomas Bäuml, Gerhard Hänfling, and Baila Brasil Show. Christoph von Dohnányi conducts the Orchestra of the Zurich Opera House, the Chorus of the Zurich Opera House (Chorus Master: Ernst Raffelsberger), and the Zurich Opera House Extras Association. Sets by Rolf Glittenberg; costumes by Heidi Hackl; lighting by Jürgen Hoffmann; dramaturgy by Regula Rapp and Ronny Dietrich; directed for TV by Feliz Breisach.  Released 2009, disc has 7.1 dts-HD Master Audio sound.  Grade: C+

NB: This is a re-release of a title originally produced by TDK. Here is the review from the TDK version:

This is a Martin Kušej psycho/whacko version of Elektra.  Kušej stars off by building a stage within the stage, expressing, I think, the psychological repressions and constrictions explored in the Orestes myth. The decadence that has fallen on the House of Agamemnon is expressed in a goofy lumpy floor (which was a serious obstacle course for everyone onstage), numerous actors (especially girls) running around in various stages of undress, and props like handcuffs and whips.  The constant frantic actions and distractions interfere with the drama and singing. Something causes the recording of the singers to be strangely muffled (maybe echoes caused by the stage within the stage); and the voices are too often drowned out by the orchestra.

Poor Eva Johansson as Electra appears as a bleached blond in with dark hair roots showing. She's directed to ceaselessly move about overacting. At one point she almost falls down on the wicked terrain. No wonder her diction starts to collapse about half way through this this baptism of fire. She makes silly faces; and when she curses Chrysothemis ("Sei verflucht!" ) she is forced to stare cross-eyed into the camera. She bravely soldiers on. Finally, her aria "Orest" (Track 20) proves how movingly she can sing when allowed to do so. The other cast members are pretty much  overshadowed by the chaos of the production.

Kušej's last surprise is his happy ending. He follows the libretto by including a dance of celebration. Of course, the dancers are not ancient Greeks, but Vegas-style exhibitionists in full show-girl plumage. Alas, they have no idea what they are doing, at least not on that floor,  and Strauss did not know how to write samba. Once the dancers stumble off stage, you wait for Elektra's death. But Kušej keeps her alive. This contradicts the libretto, but is probably closer  to the Greek myth than the death Hofmannsthal writes for Elektra. At curtain call, Christoph von Dohnányi seems embarrassed to come on stage, but tries to be a good sport. Well, I'm sure there are folks who prefer the Kušej approach; but to be fair to all our readers, I give  this show the grade of "C+."  We will welcome comments supporting this title.

Requiem

Fauré Requiem. Performed at the Salle Pleyel. Features the following pieces:

1. Pavane

2. Élégie in C minor (with cellist Éric Picard)

2. Super flumina Babylonis (for mixed choir and orchestra)

3. Cantique de Jean Racine

4. Requiem (with soprano Chen Reiss, baritone Matthias Goerne, and violinist Phillipe Aïche.

Paavo Järvi conducts the Orchestra de Paris and the Choir of the Orchestra de Paris. Released 2012, disc has 5.1 dts-HD Master Audio sound. Grade: Help!

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Medea in Corinto

Giovanni Simone Mayr Medea in Corinto opera to libretto by Giuseppe Felice Romani. Directed 2010 at the Nationaltheater München by Hans Neuenfels. Stars Nadja Michael, Ramón Vargas, Elena Tsallagova, Alek Shrader, Alastair Miles, Kenneth Roberson, Francesco Petrozzi, Laura Nicorescu, Julia Dausacker (stage violin), and Joy Smith (stage harp). Ivor Bolton conducts the Bayerisches Staatsorchester, Chor der Bayerischen Staatsoper, and the Supernumeries and Children Supernumeries of the Bayerische Staatsoper (Chorus Master Andrés Máspero). Set design by Anna Viebrock; costume design by Elina Schnizler; lighting design by Michael Bauer; assistant direction by Wolfgang Nägele, Sarah Peters, and Dominik Wagner; dramatic advisory by Rainer Karlitschek; video direction by Thomas Grimm; director of photography was Werner Schwanninger. Released 2011, disc has 5.0 dts-HD Master Audio sound. Grade: C+

I just finished watching this twice, and I'm sorely conflicted. Mayr was once a popular composer who merged Germanic classicism and Italian opera music to become, per Rossini, the "father of bel canto." Medea in Corinto was his best of Mayr's 60 operas. It premiered in 1813, and  Mayr died in 1845. His music then fell out of favor, and it was only recently rediscovered. Subject title is the only video ever made of Medea in Corinto. This is in many ways a thrilling disc that does full justice to a opera that should not have been neglected for 160 years. But, alas, the Han Neuenfels Regietheater stage direction ruins this for anyone not a hard-core Eurothrash masochist.

First the bel. This show belongs to Nadja Michael, who brilliantly played the role of a another killer in the HDVD Salome. Nadja is an athlete and dancer who can act and, by the way, sing opera. As tough as she is, she has the acting skill to effectively project tender love for her children just before she kills them. When she takes a bow, she locks her legs and puts her head between her knees. How many opera sopranos can do that?  All the other singers are excellent. Vargas actually manages to look mature and serious. Elena Tsallagova is comely. Alex Shrader looks as if he's supposed to be playing young Beethoven somewhere. The set and lighting is adequate. The costumes are time-and-place neutral, which is OK in a production of this timeless story. All this is captured by Thomas Grimm in images of fantastic realism and beauty.

The orchestra performance is strikingly beautiful from the first to the last bar, and the sound recording is close to audiophile quality. There are two stage musicians. One is a female violin soloist who is (I think) an alter ego of Medea in what I'll call an "aria on an instrument." The other is a harpist who gets to dress up as a goddess (I think) and delivers a heaping serving of musical ambrosia.

Now the mal: the Regietheater treatment. I got down my yellow paperback of Euripides and read Medea. There's no trash in that play. Every word in the original Medea is there for a clear reason. It's a straightforward drama about a woman who is so hurt she will kill her children to get revenge on their father. The play is not editorializing about anything.

The core opera is about as true to Euripides as you can be while singing. But Neuenfels insists on adding a tasteless overlay of extensive irrational atrocities that pop up like sick jokes throughout the story. (He's trying to say that all societies are criminal and corrupt---got it?)  I don't mind brutal updating. (As proof of that, I'll cite the "A"  I gave the Salome mentioned above.) Nor do I object to overlays that show how an ancient story is grimly relevant today. (See the "A" grade I gave Rusalka where Martin Kušej turns the water spirits of ancient lore into raped girls held captive in dank basements.) But Neuenfel's directing here is trite (the iconoclast cuts up an icon), pointless, and only tends to trivialize the horror of Medea's conflict.  So I think this production is a flop. The typical grade I give in this situation is "C+." This means the damnation of faint praise, but with this recognition: if you like Eurotrash, you might love this recording. The audience in Munich seems to love it at curtain call time. Or was that canned applause?

David Shengold reviewed this in the March 2012 Opera News at page 64. He generally praised the singing. But he was dismayed by the staging which he found to be "violent to the point of perversity." Shengold reviewed the DVD version; he was apparently not aware there is a Blu-ray version. This is just another example of how technophobic art critics tend to be.

Chopin Piano Concertos 1 & 2

Chopin Piano Concertos.  Daniel Barenboim performs Chopin Piano Concertos 1 & 2 at the 2010 Ruhr Piano Festival with the Staatskapelle Berlin conducted by Andris Nelsons. Barenboim plays as encore the Chopin Valse brillante in A Minor. Also includes a performance of the Haydn Symphony in E minor ("Mourning") by the Staatskapelle Berlin and Nelsons.  Video direction by Enrique Sánchez Lansch; director of photography was Nyika Jancsó; produced by Paul Smaczny. Released 2011, disc has 5.1 dts-HD Master Audio sound. Grade: D+

PQ is poor throughout this disc due to poor resolution. It seems there was plenty of light, but even close-up shots of soloists aren't sharp. Waist shots of Nelsons are a bit fuzzy as are the notes on the sheet music. But the lack of resolution really shows up at 3:34, where we see a 100% full-orchestra view. This image is quite dull.

The SQ is similar to the Demidenko/Kissin recording of the Chopin concertos, i.e., better than CDs but not audiophile quality either. In the concertos, the balance between the orchestra and the piano soloists seems be off with the orchestra sometimes hard to hear during the piano passages.

Haydn "Mourning" Symphony

This was a warm up with reduced chamber-orchestra forces.

Surely with this small formation we should get plenty of the whole-orchestra shots that are a hallmark of a good HDVD of a symphony. Well, hold your breath.

Preliminary shots of the players at :35 and :55 don't count. They are too short or too long-range to show us how the orchestra is organized and what players are on the stage. Presently Nelsons starts, and mini-disaster strikes immediately. Jancsó has managed to put his rear camera on the exact spot where any shot of Nelsons will also have an out-of-focus snout of bassoon sticking up "in front" of Nelsons.  (By the end of this short symphony, the bassoon will be at rest. Later, positions will change and the bassoon will be out of the way.) There then follows, as is typical of a DVD, a bunch of quick cuts from the conductor to various individual players.  Finally (still holding your breath?), at 3:34 we arrive at the single whole-orchestra shot we get in this symphony. Now the truth hits home.  The resolution of the cameras is too weak to comfortably show all of even a chamber orchestra. This video is closer to a DVD than an HDVD.

There are a number of decent part-orchestra shots during the symphony. That's the best the camera crew could do. And I saw one shot I liked at 15:00 of two oboes and two horns. But that's about all to praise. The rest is an exhausting string of rapid cuts between the conductor, single players, and small groups that too often have no obvious relation to the music. There is also a lot of DVD-style panning around in a sea of strings.

All this hyper-action is a senseless waste of energy when you consider the simplicity and serenity of this Haydn symphony. All the video director needs to do (if he can come up with a real HD picture) is to languidly rotate among 3 or 4 whole-orchestra or large-part-of-orchestra shots and let the viewer look around at this leisure. The TV director would also sharply limit shots of Nelsons, who was born making faces and will never stop. I'm not giving a grade on the Alphalist for this part of the recording---but if I did, it would have to be a "D."

Chopin Concerto No. 2 (played first)

It's astonishing all the works that Barenboim can play as soloist while also serving as conductor in multiple houses in different countries. Still, you would not expert him to fully competitive with artists like Demikenko and Kissen who only play the piano and specialize in Chopin to boot. So for Barenboim to sell HDVDs of Chopin concertos, everything else about the disc has got to be really good.

Now the whole orchestra is on the stage. Since, as we already saw, poor video resolution will not allow a whole-orchestra shot of a chamber orchestra, there can obviously be no whole-orchestra shot during the concerto. At 24:12 there is an audience shot (taking up 80% of the frame) which also shows tiny images of the orchestra players on the stage (filling the remaining 20% of the frame.) This view is repeated at least 4 times. This doesn't count as a whole-orchestra shot because you can't tell anything about who the players are or that they are doing. There is a marginal part-orchestra shot at 30:49 (repeated several time), but it doesn't show the 1st violins.

There are 194 video cuts in this short concerto. More than half belong, of course, to Barenboim. Nelsons gets 36 shots of which 12 are made over the backs of players. There are about 15 decent part-orchestra shots. The rest of the video consists of DVD-like quick cuts from the conductor to various individual players or small groups.

Barenboim plays with his trademark percussive vigor. At 30:49 there is an example of poor balance in the sound when the orchestra can barely be heard. Barenboim sounds rough to me at times, especially between 33:35 and about 35:17. 

Chopin Concerto No. 1

The video of Concerto No. 1 is similar to what is described above. During this segment I also noted focus and field-of-focus issues (that I may have confused with weak resolution in Concerto No. 1). See 1:04:14 for one of many frames where the cameraman has difficulty keeping focus on the pianist's hands at the keyboard. Sometimes nothing seems in focus; often maybe 3 keys can clearly be seen. Note the name "Steinway &  Sons" on the keyboard dust cover just above the player's hands. The famous name is mostly blurred, and sometimes you can see twitching in the image as the cameraman tries to get focus under control.

Barenboim's percussive performance style here contrasts sharply with the Demidenko "poetic" performance of this work. Towards the end, Barenboim seems to tire, and I think I hear raggedness in his runs. For sure, I don't hear Barenboim on that other planet with Chopin. I hear him as all too mired on planet earth, doggedly driving through heady traffic trying to get home without smacking a fender.

What grade does this title deserve? Although the audience applauded Barenboim warmly, I think his live performance would deserve an "A-" at best. Then the grade must be reduced for poor resolution, weak video content as to the orchestra, focus issues, the bassoon snout in the Hadyn, Nelson's faces, and unexceptional SQ. I keep in mind also that there are competing HDVDs on the market now of these concertos. This leads me to the grade of "D" standing for "don't buy this unless you have a really good reason." But solely out of respect for Barenboim, I'll nudge the grade up to "D+".

Brahms Symphony No. 1 and Elgar Cello Concert in E Minor

Brahms Symphony No. 1 and Elgar Cello Concert in E Minor concert. Also includes the Prelude to Act III of Wagner's Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg. Played and recorded in Oxford at the Sheldonian Theatre in 2010. This was the traditional Europa-Konzert performed on May 1 each year by the Berliner Philharmoniker in a different European city. Daniel Barenboim conducts. Alisa Weilerstein plays cello. Directed by Rhodri Huw; director of photography was Bernie Davis; edited by Geraint Pari Huws. Released in 2010, disc has 5.1 dts-HD Master Audio surround sound. For the Elgar concerto Grade: B+ For the Brahms Symphony No. 1 Grade: C+

Under a guest conductor, the Berlin Philharmonic flew to Oxford to rehearse one day (with an American soloist they had never met before) and then play a May Day concert at 10 a.m. the next day. The tiny Sheldonian Theatre, drowned with light from bare windows and echoes from bare walls, was packed with an audience sitting 8 feet away from the band. This was a beautiful occasion, and there is no faking how delighted the audience was.

But excessive light was a huge problem for the cameras. The video is over-exposed throughout, which results in odd color balance, poor color saturation, and a slightly bleached look. This is a deficiency in PQ which can't be escaped, but the recording crews deserve praise for dealing with the light problem as well as they did. SQ is pretty good by CD and DVD standards and maybe admirably good considering the circumstances.  The February 2011 Gramophone, on page 115, calls this a "glorious disc" in its "Super Audio Corner." That might be overdoing it. We have compared subject Oxford disc to the Brahms title from NHK, which was recorded in the Saito Kinen Orchestra home venue using the best of everything including 96kHz/24 bit sound sampling. The NHK SQ is substantial better than subject Oxford recording made away from home in a cramped venue under provisional circumstances. 

Wagner Meistersinger Prelude to Act III

Surely the Berlin Philharmonic can play Wagner as well as anyone, and the performance of this warm-up seemed fine to me. We have already discussed PQ and SQ. So now lets turn our attention to video content.

This is the first number on the program, so the first thing the video director and editor should do is give us several long 100% shots of the orchestra filling the whole frame. This is to help us get oriented to how the orchestra is organized and let us look for our favorite players. In other words, it gives us a chance to become part of the audience at the venue.  Alas, this doesn't happen. There is a great 100% shot available to the director. But we are not allowed to see it until 7:45, almost the end of this 8:30 piece.  Up to then we get a confusing succession of quick cuts from the conductor (12 cuts including 4 showing the backs of the players) to part sections of the band followed by lots of too-clever panning and zooming. Along the way we see the back of the concert-masters head and only 2 shots of complete sections. One suspects  the video director maybe never saw the score of the Prelude to Act III.

There are, however,  a couple of  relapses into good video, maybe by accident. At 1:54 we see the 7 violas in a beautiful, well-organized frame as they jump into the lead. At 6:16 there is a good multi-section shot of the trumpets, bones, tuba, and bassoons. We will not grade this short piece; let's just say this disc is off to a bad start.

Elgar Cello Concerto

A surprise at this concert was an unforgettable performance of the Elgar cello concerto with Alisa Weilerstein as soloist.

Barenboim was, of course, the husband of Jacqueline du Pré, herself born in Oxford, whose rendition of the Elgar concerto is among the most successful classical records of all time. So this was doubtless a momentous occasion for Alisa. Showing herself worthy of the challenge, Alisa provided a performance that might be, if such a thing be possible, today's HDVD successor to the du Pré recordings.

Although du Pré was British, she became in the United States an icon of the women's liberation movement. Films of du Pré show why this happened. When she played the Elgar, du Pré, a wiry, farm-girl type, didn't seemed to be thinking about the soldiers who died in World War I. No, she seemed to be thinking this: "OK all you guys who think it takes a man to play the cello, watch me kick butt and take away your jobs!" Alisa, soft, sensitive, heavy (diabetes), and vulnerable, does seem with her Elgar to have in mind all those missing privates, squads, platoons, companies, divisions, and armies. She's playing for them, not for us. In her refulgent red gown (which flatters her colors and figure), she looks at her most expressive like a women in one of those grandmaster paintings who, having refused to flee or recant, delivers herself to some sort of horrible martyrdom. The emotional impact of her performance is magnified by the startling beauty of the the Sheldonian itself, a jewelbox turned inside-out that is both Spartan and opulent.

With a performer as arresting as Alisa on the stand, it would be hard for the video director to ruin the whole segment. We get 89 cuts of Alisa, many long enough for us to take in all in and enjoy it. We also get 6 decent whole-orchestra shots (see 29:32 for the best one) and 10 fairly pleasant part-orchestra shots. There are 17 close-up shots of Barenboim. Normally,  this is more than enough conductor shots, but it is especially interesting to see Barenboim here because of his connection to du Pré and this concerto.

But the rest of the news is bad. In addition to the 17 good shots of Barenboim, there are no fewer than 20 shots of him made over the backs of the orchestra. As one who has attended many live performances and has purchased every classical music HDVD published so far, I make this observation: I am not interested in seeing video of the backs of performers. Nor do I much like long-distance shots showing tiny images of the fronts of conductors. Finally, there is almost no attention given in this video to the contribution of small and large sections of the orchestra. For example, see the shot of 4 violas at 10:51. Why not show all 7 violas? And once the frame is set up, why does the camera zoom in, when it should (if it's going to zoom at all) move out to let us see more? For more of this, see also 10:59 where we get a shot of 4 of the 8 cellos (followed by zooming in).

Now for a grade. Even with the PQ, SQ, and video content weaknesses noted, this Elgar recording is still an example of how a classical music performance in HDVD can better the mere experience of hearing it on CD or SACD. The best grade I can give this under our standards is a "B+." But the generosity of the orchestra, Alisa's personal beauty and enchanting performance, and the elegance of the Seldonian Theatre contribute to make this one of my favorite videos.

Brahms Symphony No. 1

In this piece there are many loud passages from most or all of the orchestra. These loud parts tend to sound a bit harsh. I also noticed that the pizzicato playing at 1:10:23 doesn't sound good. My guess is that the sound engineers had to sacrifice accuracy of recording soft passages to avoid too much distortion in the loud parts.

As to video content, this recording suffers from a split personality. It has some of the qualities of a real HDVD. But it's also partly a DVD pretending to be an HDVD.

See our standards for a symphony orchestra recording in HDVD. Briefly, the low resolution of a DVD forces the cameraman shooting a symphony to use close-up shots of the conductor and small groups of players, usually in a frantic road-runner race of rapid video cuts. But with the power of HDVD cameras, you can shoot the whole orchestra and the larger sections of the band in a way that closely represents what is really happening on the stage.

First let's mention the ways in which this video meets our standards for an HDVD. I count 26 decent whole-orchestra shots, 24 part-orchestra shots, and 17 multiple-section shots. This is the sort of video we like to see with a symphony recording. For examples, see 52:10, 54:31, and 1:04:38 (great whole-orchestra shots) and 1:02:28 (part-orchestra view shown several times).

But this is a long symphony with a lot of video cuts. So there's also plenty of opportunity to mess this up, which Huw, Davis, and Huws fail not to do. It's hard to believe, but there are 64 shots of the conductor over the backs of the players. The worst of the worst of these is (1:26:04) the grand conclusion of the symphony in fff tutti --- the orchestra almost blowing out the windows---showing only the backs of the players. Then there are 56 close ups of Barenboim from the front, which is too many even if he is one of the more interesting conductors to watch. There are 14 boring instrument-only shots. There is also a huge number of solo and partial-section clips playing ping-pond with Barenboim in all those conductor shots. Finally, something missing are shots of large sections as a whole, of which I count only 5 (for examples see  57:11 for a neat video of the violas taking the lead and 1:22:06 of the 12 first violins).

Now to a grade: all  the deficiencies in PQ, SQ, and video content noted would easily knock the grade for this segment to "C-." But thanks to the substantial number of whole and part-orchestra shots provided, I'll move the grade up to "C+."

 

Liszt Piano Concertos

Liszt Piano Concertos concert disc contains (in order they appear on the disc):

1. Wagner A Faust Overture  

2. Liszt Piano Concerto No. 2 

3. Wagner Siegfried Idyll 

4. Liszt Piano Concerto No. 1 

5. Liszt Consolation No. 3 

6. Liszt Valse oubliée No. 1

This was performed 2011,  as part of the Klavier-Festival Ruhr,  at the Philharmonie Hall in Essen. Daniel Barenboim is the pianist. Pierre Boulez conducts the Staatskapelle Berlin. Directed for TV by Enrique Sánchez Lansch; Director of Photography was Nyika Jancsó, Audio Producer was Georg Obermeyer; edited by Steffen Herrmann; produced by Paul Smaczny. Released in 2012, disc has 5.1 dts-HD Master Audio sound. Grade: C-

A Faust Overture

The first number on this program is A Faust Overture for orchestra. The conducting, playing, PQ, and SQ are fine to excellent.  But the picture/video content is a miserable disappointment, because this number has a bad case of DVDitis. The video shown would maybe be appropriate for a DVD with its low resolution. But it is unacceptable for an HDVD.

For complete information, see our standards for a symphony orchestra recording in HDVD. But briefly, the low resolution of a DVD forces the cameraman shooting a symphony to use close-up shots of the conductor and small groups of players, usually in a frantic road-runner race of rapid video cuts. But with the power of HDVD cameras, you can shoot the whole orchestra and the larger sections of the band in a way that closely represents what is really happening on the stage. With an HDVD, you should start off with long-range shots and move in only when the score calls for it.

Well, this video of A Faust Overture from Lansch and Jancsó does not have a single whole-orchestra shot even thought it is the first number on the program. (By whole-orchestra shot, I mean a shot that shows every player in a frame that takes up 100% of the TV screen; i.e., as close as you can get and still see it all. In this video we do get, before the concert starts, a shot from the back of the hall in which the players take up about 40% or the screen. This doesn't count. At that range, even the HDVD image doesn't have good resolution, and you can't tell much (if anything) about any individual,  almost ant-sized player on the stage.)

The next step down from a whole-orchestra shot would be a large-part-of-orchestra shot. This A Faust Overture video has exactly one of these, and you have to wait 10 and 1/2 minutes to get it (see 10:38). This is about an 85% shot, is quite nice, and proves that 100% shots were easily available to the director here.

One step further down would be a whole-large-section shot. This video has 5 of these, mostly the 4 bass fiddles. Then we note 6 shots of entire smaller sections. We never get even one clear shot of all the violins, the violas, or the cellos.

So if we are not going to get to see the orchestra, what do we get for our money? Well, we get 48 shots of the conductor. 24 of these are OK close up shots of Boulez that show you what he's doing (which at his age is as little as possible). The other 24 shots are made over the backs of at least 7 players and in some cases over the backs of something like 40% of the players. These "back" shots are a usually a waste of time as far as seeing the conductor. They are positively insulting to the players, who are the only folks on the stage making any noise.

Next comes 29 part-section shots, many of which involve confusing panning and zooming amidst a sea of heads and string instruments. There are also 21 solo shots, another DVD favorite because it's so easy to get the focus right with one object in the frame.

To be fair, there are some good shots embedded in this mess. At 9:05 is a neat shot of multiple wind sections. At 10:43 there's a decent shot of the trumpets, bones, and tuba. My favorite shot is a solo at 12:41 of Mathias Baier, the principal bassoon. This image, with its startling PQ and colors, is as arresting as a Van Gogh painting. This may not be fair to Mr. Baier (who did not sign up to be a movie star), but you imagine that he might just be as sweet, brusk, and quirky as the instrument he plays. And let's be thankful for that one 85% shot mentioned before. The TV director would have done a better job for us than he did by simply letting the camera run at that 85% angle for 13+ minutes. But, alas, it only runs about 2 seconds.

Everything is turned upside down in this A Faust Overture from what an HDVD of a symphony should be. This drags down what could have been an "A" grade to a "C" or "D" for the overture.

Liszt Piano Concerto No. 2

It's astonishing to see all that Barenboim is doing these days in HDVD recordings. In this concerto he demonstrates tremendous percussive strength, but I thought he was hitting rough patches in some of his runs and jumps. Still, I would say the conducting, playing, PQ, and SQ are all pretty impressive and enjoyable. Alas, DVDitis in the video content again smells up the room.

The warm-up is over, and this is the main event. But still there is not a single 100% whole orchestra shot in this segment of the program. (Sorry, the long distance shot at 30:46 doesn't count as explained above.) There are no shots of the violins, violas, or cellos as single sections. Granted, in a concerto, there will usually be much less for the larger forces of an orchestra to do than in an overture or symphony. The  instrumental soloist is the center of attention, and the orchestra is often in a quiet supporting role. But when the orchestra does weigh in, you want to a comprehensive view of the performance, not just more single players or small sections.

So what do we see in this video? There are 100 cuts of Barenboim, mostly quite short. In my view, it would be better to have, say, 25 to 50 cuts, each of which lasts longer. True, this is a fast-moving, exciting concerto. But when I see this live, I see it in exactly one cut. Each time the video presents a new angle, there is mental overhead as I have to figure out what is happening. I find doing this 100 times in a 23 minute piece more than a little tiring. If the director would simplify the video, it would be easier for me to enjoy what Liszt is trying to tell me.

Next, following the DVD pattern of road-runner race, we are treated to 22 shots of the conductor, of which 9 show mostly the backs of players. Then there are about 55 shots of individuals or part sections, which are often marred by confusing panning around.

But  I do note one improvement in this video over the opening A Faust Overture. For this concerto, we do get about 8 solid 85% part-orchestra shots (for examples, see 19:18 and 36:16). These are always the same and always too short. But they do provide some counterbalance to the high fragmentation of the rest of this piece.

And there is some good stuff to brag about. I liked the shot at 18:36 where the camera shows how extremely powerful bass notes can be played by the right hand. Barenboim reaches over, rotates his hand 90% to the keyboard, and strikes notes with three fingers on one key. You can't pick up something like this from a CD.  Starting at 23:18 it's time for a cello solo. You see Barenboim in focus and Andeas Greger, the principal cello, out-of-focus in the background. (With a telephoto camera in this situation, the field of focus will normally be shallow.) At exactly the right moment, the camera shifts focus to Greger, who then begins his famous mellow passage. It's touching to see how the visual as well as the aural center of attention shifts to Greger until his solo is over at 23:46. And at 35:18, we get to see most of the violins and cello together in a beautiful shot that is sadly too brief.

In summary then: the recording  for the Concerto No. 2 is better than what we saw before, but a "C" is all I could give under our standards.

Wagner Siegfried Idyll

The Siegfried Idyll was originally scored for 13 players to be played in a private home. In modern concerts, 26 or more players are typically used. But this is still intimate. HD cameras could easily show the entire band in thrilling detail,  so certainly we should expect plenty of whole orchestra shots in this HDVD presentation. Are you kidding? Lansch and Jancsó seem to be perversely intent on absolutely preventing anyone who buys a Blu-ray from Accentus from ever clearly seeing an entire orchestra---not on their watch! 

Well, there is a shot at 49:57 where I think I count at least some body part of 26 players. And at 50:16 for a moment I think I see parts of 27 players before the camera inexplicable starts to zoom in, reducing what we can see. Maybe both of these shots show all the players (and I'm counting wrong). But I think it's fair to say there is no shot in this Idyll that clearly shows you all the members of the orchestra and lets you confidently count their number.

So what do we see? For starters there are 54 shots of a petrified tree conducting. When you consider that this was written for 13 voices, what does the conductor do other than act as a metronome? And if 37% of the shots in a video are concerned with such a relatively modest task, does this suggest that you are proud of the players?  Next you see what you see in almost all DVDs of classical music: an endless-loop rat-race of cuts from the conductor to a soloist, followed by panning through a few nearby players, and then a cut back to the conductor, etc. This is about all you can do with low-resolution DVD cameras---but it's inane to use HD cameras this way on a chamber orchestra.

Summary for Siegfried Idyll: this is the worst video yet of the 3 numbers reviewed so far. The grade for this should be "F."

Liszt  Piano Concerto No. 1

This mini-review is getting too long! I watched the Piano Concerto No. 1 again without taking notes. The video content is similar to that of the Piano Concerto No. 2 reviewed above.

Summary for Disc

The title of this disc is Liszt Piano Concertos. But it has four works of roughly equal length. I'm going to blend the C grades from the concertos with the lower grades for the other items and give the disc a "C-." This video might make a B+ or A quality DVD. But merely publishing a DVD-style video in Blu-ray form doesn't hack it. HDVD has vastly superior capabilities than DVD. In the case of  symphony music, HDVD makes vastly superior video content possible. To be successful at selling HDVDs of symphony recordings (at the higher price point), Accentus will have to provide superior video content created to take advantage of the strengths of HDVD.

Update on Thursday, April 26, 2012 at 7:42AM by Henry McFadyen Jr.

Jeremy Nicholas reviewed this title on page 81 of the May 2012 Gramophone. He praised the filming and recording, but you can't tell if he saw the Blu-ray version (my guess is he saw the DVD).  Nicholas compares Barenboim's piano playing to old records made by Emil von Sauer, who was a pupil of Liszt and would really know how Liszt should sound. Nicholas concludes that Barenboim and Boulez are too old and staid to do Liszt piano concertos. In our review above, we complained a recording that falls short of what an HDVD should be. Our comments together with the Nicholas spin suggest we should wait for another HDVD of the Liszt concertos.