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Classical Music Home > DVDs with Previews
DVDs with Previews
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The City
2.110231
Made for the 1939 New York World’s Fair (“The World of Tomorrow”), The City is a seminal documentary film distinguished for the organic integration of narration (scripted by city planner Lewis Mumford), cinematography (Ralph Steiner and Willard Van Dyke), and music (Aaron Copland).
The score, arguably Copland’s highest achievement in film, was also his ticket to Hollywood; it has been called “an astonishing missing link not only in the genesis of Copland’s Americana style but in American music and cinema” (Mark Swed, The Los Angeles Times ). As the film contains no dialogue, it is possible to create a fresh soundtrack and discover musical riches inaudible on the original monaural recording. As Copland created no suite from The City , the present DVD at the same time marks the WORLD PREMIÈRE RECORDING of this music in its entirety.
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MASCAGNI, P.: Amica (Festival della Valle d'Itria, 2007) (NTSC)
2.110262
Pietro Mascagni explored many different musical styles, from the verismo of his ever-popular Cavalleria rusticana to the sentimental lyricism of Lodoletta.
Amica was composed at breakneck speed, reaching completion only a month before its Monte Carlo première in 1905 conducted by the composer, and combined a return to ‘realism’ with a more sophisticated style of writing. Its extravagant scenic and vocal demands contributed to the opera’s neglect until recent times.
Set in the Savoy mountains around 1900, Amica is a ‘dramatic poem in two acts’ involving two brothers, Giorgio and Rinaldo, whose love for the same woman, Amica, culminates in tragedy. While today numbering among his least performed works, Amica was initially a triumph, praised for its ‘passionate accent’ and ‘impulsive sincerity’ by a contemporary critic, and deemed ‘most worthy of re-evaluation’ according to the composer’s biographer Roger Flury.
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BERLIOZ, H.: Benvenuto Cellini (Salzburg Festival, 2007) (NTSC)
2.110271
Pietro Mascagni explored many different musical styles, from the verismo of his ever-popular Cavalleria rusticana to the sentimental lyricism of Lodoletta.
Amica was composed at breakneck speed, reaching completion only a month before its Monte Carlo première in 1905 conducted by the composer, and combined a return to ‘realism’ with a more sophisticated style of writing. Its extravagant scenic and vocal demands contributed to the opera’s neglect until recent times.
Set in the Savoy mountains around 1900, Amica is a ‘dramatic poem in two acts’ involving two brothers, Giorgio and Rinaldo, whose love for the same woman, Amica, culminates in tragedy. While today numbering among his least performed works, Amica was initially a triumph, praised for its ‘passionate accent’ and ‘impulsive sincerity’ by a contemporary critic, and deemed ‘most worthy of re-evaluation’ according to the composer’s biographer Roger Flury.
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MUSICAL JOURNEY (A) - LONDON: A Musical Tour of London and Oxford (NTSC)
2.110501
Scenes from London include major sights, from Big Ben to Nelson's Column in Trafalgar Square, with glimpses of St Paul's Cathedral, Piccadilly and memorials to Wellington and Queen Victoria. From Oxford comes a panorama of the city, and visits to Christ Church and to Blenheim Palace.
The music here included ranges from Byrd to Elgar, by way of Handel, with excerpts from Haydn's London Symphony, Beethoven's Wellington's Victory, Verdi's Macbeth and Mendelssohn's music for A Midsummer Night's Dream.
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MUSICAL JOURNEY (A) - VIENNA: A Musical Tour of the City's Past and Present (NTSC)
2.110502
Scenes from Vienna include historical and modern buildings, monuments from the glorious past and the modern present, from the Emperor's Palace of Schànbrunn to the colourful buildings of the controversial artist Hundertwasser.
The music here included is all closely associated with Vienna, where Mozart spent the last ten years of his life, where Schubert was born in 1797, and where Beethoven, from 1792 until his death in 1827, was a dominant musical figure.
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MUSICAL JOURNEY (A) - ROME: A Musical Tour of the City's Past and Present (NTSC)
2.110504
Scenes are shown of the glory that was Rome in monuments of the great Empire that ruled Europe and the Near East in its heyday. There are also glimpses of St Peter's and of the modern city.
The music here included is all associated in one way or another with Rome and its traditions. It ranges from the overture to Mozart's Roman opera La clemenza di Tito to Wagner's Tannhâuser, whose hero seeks pardon for his sins in the Eternal City, from Puccini's opera Tosca, set in Rome dominated by a corrupt chief of police, to Berlioz's evocation of the city in the age of Benvenuto Cellini, his Roman Carnival Overture.
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MUSICAL JOURNEY (A) - VENICE: A Musical Tour of the City's Past and Present (NTSC)
2.110505
Venice is one of the most famous of all cities, its buildings reflecting its former commercial importance and wealth. Its canals and its position at the head of the Adriatic have given it a unique character that has continued to attract visitors.
The music here included is either associated directly with Venice or familiar there in the heyday of the Serenissima. It includes music by the Venetian composers Vivaldi and Marcello, and by Domenico Scarlatti, Neapolitan by birth, who was sent to study there by his father.
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MUSICAL JOURNEY (A) - PARIS: A Musical Tour of Paris, Chantilly, Versailles and Chartres (NTSC)
2.110506
In addition to characteristic scenes from Paris, its buildings and its people, there is a glimpse of the ChÇteau at Chantilly, the magnificent palace of Versailles, and the Cathedral at Chartres.
The music here included is largely associated with Paris, although not all by French composers. It includes a movement from a symphony that Mozart wrote in Paris in 1778 and excerpts from Verdi's opera La Traviata, set principally in the city. Other music ranges from that of the seventeenth-century French viol-player Marais to works by Debussy and the eccentric Erik Satie.
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