Product Details

• Actors: Lucia Popp, Mischa Maisky, Eva Randova, Josef Protschka, Ivan Zenaty
• Directors: Rodney Greenberg
• Format: AC-3, Classical, Color, Dolby, DTS Surround Sound, DVD, NTSC
• Language: English (PCM)
• Subtitles: French, English
• Region: All Regions
• Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1
• Number of discs: 1
• Rated: NR (Not Rated)
• Studio: Arthaus Musik
• DVD Release Date: September 29, 2009
• Run Time: 88 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B0016IV1YO
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #175,855 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Piano Concerto a winner, October 25, 2010

By 

Gerhard P. Knapp "gpk" (Forest Grove, OR, United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Dvorak Cycle, Vol. 3 (DVD)

See my general remarks on the Dvorak Cycle in my review of Volume 1. In Volume 3, Petr Altrichter conducts the Prague Symphony Orchestra in an idiomatic reading of the serene and tuneful Eighth Symphony. His rapport with the musicians is not on the same level as Belohlávek's, and his direction can be at times overly fussy or needlessly lingering on detail instead of transported by the natural flow of this marvelous music. The end result is a fine, but not an exceptional performance. In the Piano Concerto op. 33, the excellent young soloist Igor Ardasev appears to be the driving force of the proceedings. The concerto -- for once in all of Dvorak's works -- is not replete with memorable themes. It is also quite demanding on the soloist and the orchestra with its frequent shifts in meter and harmony, but here it all comes together almost miraculously. The concerto alone is well worth the price of this disk.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Dvorák's Sunniest Symphony and His Problematic Piano Concerto, October 25, 2009

By 

J Scott Morrison (Middlebury VT, USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Dvorak Cycle, Vol. 3 (DVD)

[As of the date of this review Amazon lists Lucia Popp and Mischa Maisky for this DVD. Neither appears on this issue.]

This DVD combines two of Dvorák's orchestral works, his Eighth Symphony and his Piano Concerto. They appear to live 1993 performances by the Prague Symphony under Paul Altrichter at the Alte Oper in Frankfurt. First on the program is the Piano Concerto with the twenty-something Igor Ardasev as soloist. He's a pianist I'd never heard of, but he is very good. I found, by googling him, that he was a student of, among others, Rudolf Firkusny, and a prizewinner in several international piano competitions including the Queen Elisabeth and the Tchaikovsky. The Dvorák concerto is, of course, a work with problems. Dvorák was not himself a virtuoso pianist and some wag, not long after its premiere, called the piano concerto a 'work for two right hands.' The work is not often performed and when it is it's often the edition made by Vilém Kurz, who revised the soloist's part while leaving the orchestration intact. It is this version that Ardasev plays. The concerto is very tuneful and has an especially lovely Andante middle movement and a particularly Czech-sounding finale with melancholy lyricism mixed with dramatic narrative. There is a DVD of the piano concerto played by Rudolf Firkusny with Jiri Belohlavek and the Prague Philharmonic, and combined with the Cello Concerto. It is perhaps the better buy although it is the older recording. Dvorak: Piano & Cello Concerto

Dvorák's Eighth Symphony is less often played than the 'New World' and perhaps even of the more Romantic Seventh, but it is easily the composer's sunniest symphony drawing its inspiration from that wellspring of Czech music, Bohemian folk-music. The Prague Symphony is the city's second orchestra and although they don't play at the exalted level of the Philharmonic, they are clearly a first-rate orchestra. The only other Eighth Symphony on DVD is one with Karajan and the Vienna Philharmonic Dvorák: Symphonies Nos. 8 & 9 [DVD Video], but I have not seen it. I am quite satisfied with the reading on this DVD.

Sound and picture are fine for their era but I found myself amused by the dated sideburns, flowing mustaches and long hair of early 1990s Prague.

Scott Morrison