Customer Reviews

Birthday Concert for Pope Benedict XVI [DVD Video]

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Being a Hilary Hahn fan, I found this to be an interesting disc to try. I was not disappointed. This is a remarkable concerto. Hilary Hahn gives a wonderful performance of the Mozart Violin Concerto No 3, complete with her own extended cadenzas, which are amazing, and beautiful.

But the real surprising treat here is a fantastic performance of the Dvorak 9th Symphony "From the New World" under the baton of young conductor Gustavo Dudamel. Dudamel and the Stuttgart Radio Symphony Orchestra hold nothing back in the way of power or artistry here. This young conductor has a bright bright future, and I had the feeling I was witnessing some history here. This work, amidst the striking architecture of Pope Paul VI Audience Chamber presents us with an memorable image. This Dvorak 9th is the very best that I have ever heard.

All the great music and the historic occasion of the concert make this disc well worth acquiring.

Though I must confess that I AM a Roman Catholic.
This DVD records His Holiness' 80th birthday Concert in April 2007.
The programme, so it says, was chosen by the Holy Father himself.
The focus rightfully go to the two young musicians, but a considerable share of the camera also goes to the Orchestra itself.
Hilary Hahn, the violin sensation from Curtis Institute who has in recent years yielded classical music's brightest stars (Hahn, Juan Diego Florez and Lang Lang),spends no time here to prove her impeccable virtuoso. Her delivery is clean and precise; her tone full and sumptuous. At times one yearns for a slightly less focused tone colour, especially in the slow second movement. The camera's focus on the predominantly female woodwind section of the Orchestra blends in well with the visual impact on Hahn, tastefully attired in a silk embroidered gown. The cadenzas are all Hahn's, showing her great respect for the occasion and love for the Pontiff. They are all rather long, but show off her virtuosity to great advantage. The star conductor, Venezuela sensation Gustavo Dudamel had a job competently done by giving the necessary orchestral backing in a way no more and no less.
The showtime for the conductor comes in the second half. Dvorak's New World Symphony is passionately rendered, with the piece suiting the young star's conducting style to a T.
The audience's elation is obvious, and the Concert ends in a high point with the Gabrieli's brass composition.

On 2000, we visited The Vatican in Italy and we were enchanted by the peace provided by the visit. Every 25 years, 4 times per century, the holy doors are opened and those who get to walk through them have a special blessing. At the time, Pope John Paul was still alive and we heard his voice as he addressed a congregation of over 350,000 faithful followers visiting to get his blessing.

When we saw this DVD become available, filmed at the Vatican on April 16, 2007, we knew we would love to relive the experience of seeing such a magnificent place. The concert is in celebration of Pope Benedict XVI's 80th-birthday celebration and it incorporates words from our Holy Father saying thanks to all.

Violinist Hilary Hahn and conductor Gustavo Dudamel of Venezuela delight us through great music, and we find that anyone watching this DVD will enjoy the superb rendition of classical music. A must see!

This concert was so great that I wish I was in the audience, but the Pope didn't look too pleased to be there. As the camera cut to him during the performance of Mozart's 3rd Violin Concerto, he looked like he was in physical pain - that's too bad. Anyway, I really enjoyed Hilary Hahn's amazing performance, the excellent Stuttgart Radio Symphony Orchestra, and Dudamel's perfect interpretation of Mozart. The camera work during this concerto was also exemplary. I loved how members in the orchestra were focused on, especially the very sweet face of a female oboe player. Her adorable expressions helped counter the Pope's pained ones.

I loved the music selections for this concert. Dudamel is really something to watch - so much enthusiam and passion for the music. Excellent musicians all around.

The only issue I noticed was with the video being muddy for wide shots. Close ups look great, but pictures of the audience and the orchestra seem out of focus. Since the concert was shot so recently I expected the video quality to be excellent. Maybe on a large screen TV the video is fine, but on my 12-foot projection screen the sharpness is just missing except for close-ups. Am I hooked on the hi-definition of blu-ray?

I bought this DVD on the basis of a film clip I saw on TV of the first movement of Dvorak's Symphony No. 9, conducted by Gustavo Dudamel in Rome on the occasion of the Pope's birthday celebration. Dudamel's interpretation frankly left me in tears. The Stuttgart Radio Symphony Orchestra seemed to be a part of him, and I had the impression he was weaving a tapestry of sound from and around them. Of particular note were the flute solos in the first movement, which seemed to mirror exactly the emotions that many might consider the almost cinematic approach Dudamel had to that movement. A fresh and faultless performance all around.

This is my favorite music video, played by my favorite violinist, playing my favorite composer. Lets all pray Hilary will make more videos and share them with us.

As a roman catholic this is a dvd I play over and over to see the pope so happy and enjoying the superb music young hillary is a delight to see and to listen to I would recomend this dvd to all no matter what there faith

Kevin Doyle

CONGRATULATIONS to Pope BENEDICT XVI - and CONGRATULATIONS to ALL PARTICIPANTS who realised this wonderful VATICAN CONCERT!

It must have been a heavenly decision that two so great young musicians, the wonderful, graceful Violinist HILARY HAHN and the very lively, very spirited conductor GUSTAVO DUDAMEL, were chosen to perform a piece of POPE BENEDICT XVI most favourite composer WOLFGANG AMADEUS MOZART upon his explicit wish for his 80th Birthday as well as pieces by GABRIELI and DVORAKS symphony No. 9 "From the New World". I think that there can hardly be a greater present for POPE BENEDICT'S 80th Birthday than the remarkable musical performance and musical experience of these two outstanding artists together with the truly great RADIO-SIMPHONY ORCHESTRA STUTTGART!

Even the first beats of this concerto show that this is a very fine, mature and well thought through interpretation of the G major violin concerto by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (violin concerto No. 3, K. 216). Only 26 years old conducter GUSTAVO DUDAMEL makes you feel the great happiness with which he manages to conduct the orchestra in these musical pieces with such enthusiasm which vitalises the interpretation and gives it the "freshness" and liveliness which are needed for these pieces. Only 27 years old HILARY HAHN appears in her usual seriousness - and thus is the calm in the "storm" which is erupted by conductor GUSTAVO DUDAMEL with his very agile and lively way of conducting; on the contrary, HILARY HAHN seems to "internalise" all her feelings and emotions for this music and is, even in this special concert, all the calmness and focus on this music herself, almost as if this was a concert like "any" concert. However, from this "internalisation" and the deep focus on the musicality of this concerto HILARY HAHN'S very grand, very serious violin play which she excersises with so much soul and so spirited and animation which make her violin play and her musicality a well thought through and very mature interpretation of this great Mozart piece. HILARY HAHN'S natural violin play, which bears her highly precise intonation, manages very easily to "hide" all difficulties and complexities - a divined violin play which is carried by HILARY HAHN'S very distinctive, beautiful and discreet and very fine and crystally-clear vibrato which makes HER violin tone truly clearly and in all its beauty and in all its mighty recognisable from the one of other violinists.

Something very special about this performance of HILARY HAHN'S 3rd violin concerto by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart is that HILARY HAHN plays cadenzas written by herself in the 1st and 2nd movements of this concerto, and these cadenzas - which will no doubt be recognised by each classicist by first listing - are none of the known cadenzas; HILARY HAHN performed and even improvised the cadenzas she had composed just for this birthday concert of Pope BENEDICT (which are cadenzas she normally does not perform in this Mozart concerto as I found out (on May 22nd, 2007, in Harmonie Heilbronn). So, HILARY HAHN now also "CADENCES" nun herself! BRAVISSIMO HILARY!! THANK YOU - now it's also you who "free" us from those old and "antiquated" cadenzas which, too, are very nice to listen to if they are performed by virtuosos with much spirit and soul, but which somehow seem kind of "worn-out" or even "banal"! So, THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU SO MUCH HILARY!!! There is now again NEW LIFE in one of the MOZART VIOLIN CONCERTOS!! HILARY HAHN'S CADENZAS are truly very well phrased and articulated and played by her with her usual perfection and deep soul, but, admittedly, the seem very "particular" or characteristic for themselves in view of such a Mozart violin concerto (this, however, shall not lower ones sights of this beautiful music - it's just the opposite!) and for the classicist they may seem a bit unusual, unfamilar or unaccustomed and spontaneuos, and audiences might at first be a bit surprised about HILARY'S own cadenzas, which in fact are of full liveliness, freshness, energy, effortlessness and virtuosity while HILARY plays passages and phrases in them one would not necessarily expect like that by Mozart! Anyway, HILARY HAHN proves with these self-created and composed cadenzas, which she even improvised during the concert, that she is also outstanding - besides her superb violin play and her other artistic qualifications - in making compositions of her own musical ideas, and proves in her own self-confident artistic way what clearly exceptional position she has among other young violinist virtuosos. HILARY HAHN GIVES with these her OWN CADENZAS Mozart some new characteristics and, thus, NEW LIFE, which shows that besides her excellent function as a solist her artistic demands for herself are even much higher through her own musical creations, which do imply some certain musical imagination, than HILARY has shown us, her audiences, in her CD and DVD recordings so far. So, her artistic demands for herself now also include, besides her solist and chambermusic engagements, making compositions of her own new musical inspirations - HILARY HAHN simply wonderful! HILARY, PLEASE CONTINUE THIS DAS and, besides your self-created cadenzas for the Mozart violin concertos also write cadenzas for other violin concertos by other composers and please play them in concert halls as well, as we would really like to hear and listen to more of your beautifully self-created cadenzas! (Mayby you could write your own violin concerto?). In this context, I would like to emphasize that HILARY HAHN is especially brave - what even more proves her violinistic and musical talent as well as her highly developed technical skills - not only to perform completely practised and studied cadenzas, but that she even improvises them! I think that these self-composed and performed and partly improvised cadenzas by HILARY HAHN are certainly the "personal serenade" for Pope BENEDICT! One might really think so! However, it is only a bit of a pity that in some passages of these cadenzas but also in some parts during the whole concert the Vatican audiences disturb the performance by making some interruptive noise (this "noise" must certainly have been the silent applause for the wonderful violin play by HILARY HAHN!).

This is altogether a very emotional performance of the pieces recorded on this DVD, while also Dvorak's symphony "From the New World" was interpreted quite profoundly and mature, and I give all my best recommendations and STARS, which REACH INTO HEAVEN, for the pieces performed on this DVD, in particular for the 3rd violin concerto in G major by WOLFGANG AMADEUS MOZART as performed by my VIOLIN FAVOURITE HILARY HAHN! This concert performance shall be a great pleasure for all fans and enthusiasts of POPE BENEDICT XVI, HILARY HAHN, GUSTAVO DUDAMEL as well as for all catholics and believers.

BRAVISSIMO, Amen!

Happy birthday to His Holiness Pope Benedict XVI.
His Holiness chose a program that he loves - Mozart.
Hilary Hahn and Gustavo Dudamel collaborated with the Stuttgart Symphony Orchestra in the Mozart Concerto No. 3 for Violin.
Hahn displayed her pyro-technique, but, just as His Holiness, I went to sleep over this performance. Not so much because of Hahn, but that Dudamel totally failed to boost the icily technical interpretation of the piece by Hilary: he could DO NOTHING. The end result is a deathly boring Mozart (or rather, it wasn't Mozart, but a jamble of notes purely and accurately performed on the solo violin and orchestra).
The other half is much better in that it has more life, though it is very evident that the entire New World Symphony was being interpreted in the way to make it sound almost like Also sprach Zarathustra's Introduction through and through.
Well, being young is a great asset when it comes to criticisms. So three stars to the two youngsters.