Product Details

• Actors: The Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra, Anne Sofie Von Otter, Claudio Abbado, Bryn Terfel, Roberto Alagna
• Directors: Hans Hulscher
• Format: Classical, Color, DVD, NTSC
• Language: English, French, Spanish
• Region: Region 1 (U.S. and Canada only. Read more about DVD formats.)
  
• Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1
• Number of discs: 1
• Rated: NR (Not Rated)
• Studio: Arthaus Musik
• DVD Release Date: October 3, 2000
• Run Time: 85 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B00004UEE1
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #174,269 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars This Gala has a hidden gem, November 19, 2002

By 

R. Nicholson - See all my reviews
(TOP 1000 REVIEWER)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Berlin Philharmonic's New Year's Gala 1997: A Tribute to Carmen (DVD)

I bought this New Year's Gala DVD because I liked the themes associated with Bizet's Carmen, which were prominently featured in the program. Also, well known names like Bryn Terfel, Claudio Abbado, Anne Sophie von Otter and Robert Alagna added to the luster of the evening's performance. The concert was very nice: great orchestra with a world renowned conductor, wonderful singers and then.....there was Gil Shaham

I remember as a teen buying an album for a particular song and every so often (rarely) you would find a hidden gem that was unexpected and quite often better than the piece you had originally purchased the album for. Such is the case here: Gil Shaham is a violin virtuoso extraordinaire! His performance of Pablo de Sarasate's Carmen Fantasy op 25 it simply breath taking. The piece is full of joyous energy, technical skill and shows a man that is one with his instrument. An unbelievable performance of a beautiful piece of music that must have been thrilling to have witnessed live.

The rest to the disk is very good but this one piece is worth the price of the entire DVD.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Wow... I love this !!, March 9, 2002

By 

Young Seok Park "yspak" (Seoul, Korea) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Berlin Philharmonic's New Year's Gala 1997: A Tribute to Carmen (DVD)

The concert in the DVD is full of variety and features world's famous musicians. Otter is really amazing with Carmen. So is Bryn Terfel. Carmen fantasy by Gil Shaham is also my favotite part of the concert. He did wonderful performance with it. Of course, Pletnev's Rachmaninoff is fabulous too. The technical quality of both sound and vision is superb.

All in all, this is the best classical music concert DVD I have ever seen and you must own.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Just Wonderful!, March 4, 2006

By 

R. Houck (USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Berlin Philharmonic's New Year's Gala 1997: A Tribute to Carmen (DVD)

Let me start by saying that Amazon's reviewer has made some terrible mistakes in describing the picture. It IS NOT 16:9. It is 4:3 as clearly stated on the dvd's back cover. So, there is no problem with the image being distorted. Also, even though I played this dvd on a cheap player without progressive scan, there was absolutely no graininess, no out of focus pictures. In fact the picture was extremely sharp and clear.

Performance - Claudio Abbado & Berlin Philharmonic - top of the line.

Two soloists really stood out. Anne Sophie Von Otter's voice was warm and rich, and Gil Shaham's virtuosity on violin was breathtaking.

Other reviewers have remarked that this is as good any performance dvd of classical music they've ever seen and I eagerly agree.