Classical music / opera / ballet DVDs with DTS audio

[cm-9]

While searching for something else I came across a few classical music DVDs with DTS audio, so I thought I'd make a list. It includes:

Concerts by well-known orchestras:
Night in Berlin: London Philharmonic Orchestra
Night in Paris: London Philharmonic Orchestra
Music Triennial 1 (CSO: Stravinsky's Firebird etc)
Music Triennial 2
Vienna New Year's Concert 2002
Gala from Berlin: Invitation to the Dance (BPO/Barenboim)
European Concert 1991 (BPO/Abbado)
European Concert 1992 (BPO/Barenboim)
European Concert 1993 (BPO/Haitink)
Berliner Philarmoniker in Japan 1994
European Concert 2001 (BPO/Jansons)
Gewandhaus Orchestra Leipzig (Kurt Masur)
Beethoven Symphonies 3 and 9 (BPO/Abbado)

Other concerts:
Placido Domingo: Spanish Night
Gloria in Excelsis Deo (documentary of St Thomas' boys choir in Leipzig + concert)
Glorious Bach (Magnificat and other sacred music for Christmas)
Mozart Piano Quartets K478 and K493 (Zimmerman)

Opera:
Romeo et Juliette - Gounod (Covent Garden)
The Barber of Seville (from Zurich opera house)
The Marriage of Figaro (Zurich opera house)
Linda Di Chamounix - Donizetti (Zurich opera house)
Salome (Covent Garden)
La Belle Helene
L'Orfeo (Barcelona)
Jerusalem - Verdi
Katya Kabanova - Janacek (Czech PO recorded in Salzburg)
and a couple of lesser-known Mozart operas:
Die Entfuhrung Aus Dem Serail (Florence)
Mitridate, Re di Ponto (Covent Garden)

Ballet:
Don Quichotte - Paris Opera
Mayerling - Royal Ballet with Viviana Durante and Darcey Bussell
Cinderella - Royal Ballet (from 1964)
Coppelia - Paris Opera

There are probably others that I have missed...

So, does anybody have any of these? Any views on performances and on technical sound quality? I have been put off buying them because most are so expensive and it is hard to find reviews, but some look likely to be excellent.

[SimonI]

Here's another one - I don't have it but it won the GRAMOPHONE AWARD 2002 for DVD releases: John Adams: El Niño (http://www.arthaus-musik.de/catalogue_detail.php?id=21) on ArtHaus Musik

The most recent composition by American minimalist composer John Adams is his take on the “Christmas Oratorio”: a large-scale music theatre work entitled El niòo. How does one actually celebrate Christ’s birth in a land where palm trees and race conflicts flourish – in sunny California? Perhaps the way composer John Adams and director Peter Sellars portray it at the beginning of El Nino(La Nativité), which was first performed nine days before Christmas 2000 at the Parisian Théâtre du Châtelet: with a tree and festoons of lights. This symbol projected on the stage as a hazily poetic yet realistically blurred video is telling in more ways than one. This fourth joint stage work by Adams and Sellars – which unlike the two operas Nixon in China (1987) and The death of Klinghoffer (1991) turns to a Biblical rather than a contemporary theme – uses musical elements we are already familiar with from these two artists’ three “worldly” pieces. An extended documentary on the making of this piece contains many interviews with Adams, Sellars and Dawn Upshaw. The DVD was recorded in outstanding DTS sound. A good place for online classical reviews is Gramophone (www.gramophone.co.uk) - they've recently revamped their database; not sure if includes DVDs though.

Edit: Yes, it does include DVDs. You need to register (it's free) first.

[cm-9]

Thanks SimonI, I've now registered with Gramophone.

I still can't find reviews of most of these, so I've taken the plunge and ordered a handful to see what they are like for myself.

[crofter]

Dabbled here myself! If you like opera try Puccini's Tosca on the Euro Arts label. Recorded live from La Scala Milan. DTS soundtrack - as good as any mainstream movie boasting same IMHO - optional subs, great anamorphic picture. Spectacular sets and performances. An essential purchase to kick off a collection such as you describe.:thumbs:

[SimonI]

I have these classical DVDs (none with DTS, alas):

Carmen - the Francesco Rossi film (Columbia R2): good PQ and sound; excellent natural setting of a great opera, with the peerless Domingo to boot. A good place to start if you're not familiar with opera.

Orfee et Eurydice - ArtHaus disk of the Gluck opera; DD 2.0 or PCM, 16:9 pic, slightly soft but great pic otherwise, wonderful performance, minimalist sets but they work well.

Seven Gates of Jerusalem - another ArtHaus disk, of the choral seventh symphony by Polish composer Penderecki; this is notable for two excellent subtitle streams - one a commentary by the composer, the other of the full score. Has DD 5.1 sound as well as PCM.

I have some others on ArtHaus (The Magic Flute and Damnation of Faust but haven't watched them yet...

[cm-9]

Thanks crofter, I'll look for that one - any more you would recommend?

The first of the DVDs that I ordered has arrived: Beethoven Symphonies 3 and 9 conducted by Claudio Abbado - it's two different 1-hour concert extracts combined into one 2-hour DVD. The 9th Symphony was the 'European Concert 2000' performance, and the whole of that concert is also available as a DVD in the European Concert series although I don't know whether that has dts audio - the other item in the concert was Beethoven's 2nd Piano Concerto with soloist Mikhail Pletnev so it is up to you which of the two DVDs represents better value.

I've listened to the Beethoven DVD with the screen switched off so far. The performances of both symphonies are superb, far better and livelier than either of the standard Deutsche Grammophon Herbert von Karajan recordings from recent years. As you might expect, the recording quality of the dts track on the DVD is simply stunning - certainly for the 9th Symphony it has noticeably greater presence, clarity and dynamic range than any CD I've ever heard, and it's superbly recorded and mixed too. The 3rd Symphony is not quite so amazing in terms of recording quality, I don't know whether it's the acoustics of the venue, the equipment used, or the guy on the mixing disk, but it sounds as good as a very good CD, that is all.

I'm bowled over by this disk - the quality is superb, with as much realism or more than the very best CDs in my collection. The price is also very good, at £14.99 for what would normally come on two full-priced CDs. I warmly recommend this DVD to anybody with the slightest interest in classical music - you can't go wrong with two of Beethoven's greatest symphonies presented like this.

Personally I don't find it very interesting to actually watch a concert on TV, I prefer to just listen, and this is something that has put me off buying music DVDs in the past. My recommendation is based on treating this as if was a CD or SACD, playing it through your stereo system (or surround sound system) with the display switched off. To be honest, you only really need the three front speakers as the surrounds and subwoofer are little used except to create 'ambience' - apart from that the main use of the surrounds is for the audience applause. If you do want to have something to watch while you listen, the video is as you might expect a series of shots of the performers and sometimes the audience; the video quality is anamorphic widesceen and good; and there's the option of a conductor-cam which is an interesting novelty and good use of the multi-angle facility that the DVD format offers.

Here's
a glowing review of the Beethoven 3+9 disc (http://www.musicweb.uk.net/classrev/2003/May03/Beethoven39_Abbado.htm)
and a review of the set of all four Beethoven DVDs (http://classicalcdreview.com/MCDVD21.html). The four DVDs are available in a box set with RRP £60.

So, I'm well impressed by the Euro Arts label, and I'll certainly be looking out for more.

[cm-9]

It seems that all of the European Concert disks feature a DTS audio track. They are available from 1991 to 2002, and 2003 seems to be on its way.

[cm-9]

OK, I've had time to listen to a few more.

European Concert 1994, aka Berliner Philharmoniker in Japan 1994, is, to my ears, superb musically but only 8/10 for the recording, and not a great use of the DTS format. I'm not a huge fan of Mussorgsky's Night on Bald Mountain or Stravinsky's Firebird Suite, but it must be one of the best performances of Tchaikovsky's fabulous 5th Symphony.

European Concert 2001 is stunning in both the music, the performances, the venue and the recording quality, quite as good as the Beethoven 9th Symphony DVD mentioned earlier. It's true that I like all three pieces of music: Haydn's Symphony No. 94 'Surprise', Mozart's short Flute Concerto No. 2, and Berlioz's Symphonie Fantastique - the last is a wonderful demo for DTS sound, exhibiting the complete range from the sweet gentle melodies of the flute and the harp in the second movement, to dramatic bass drums, kettledrum rolls and cymbal clashes.

I heartily recommend this series of DVDs to anyone with the slightest interest in orchestral music. I just wish that the same thing was available for chamber music - maybe that will come in due course.

[friedeggbutty]

Just did a quick price check on Kelkoo, having typed <b>Beethoven Symphonies 3 and 9</b> in as the title and it only came up with one hit, DVDplus, but - here's the good bit - the price was £12.87.

http://films.kelkoo.co.uk/shopbot/go.jsp?catId=149201&from=shopbot&merchantId=3249401&pkey=0&orw=true

The 4 & 7 coupling is also £12.87 but the other two discs are £14.87 each.

Must try and resist the temptation - I doubt if I could buy just one.