Product Details

• Directors: Andreas Morell
• Format: AC-3, Classical, Color, Widescreen
• Language: French (Dolby Digital 5.1)
• Subtitles: Spanish
• Region: All Regions
• Aspect Ratio: 1.77:1
• Number of discs: 1
• Rated: NR (Not Rated)
• Studio: Euroarts
• DVD Release Date: October 28, 2008
• Run Time: 100 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (19 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B001F1YBP8
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #32,278 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)
  • #39 in Movies & TV > Blu-ray > Performing Arts
  • #92 in Movies & TV > Blu-ray > Special Interests

Editorial Reviews

BACH:BRANDENBURG CTOS 1-6 - Blu-Ray Movie

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

15 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Bach Brandenburg on Blu-ray, January 9, 2009

By 

Horn Blower - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Johann Sebastian Bach: Brandenburg Concertos 1-6 [Blu-ray] (Blu-ray)

This is an excellent DVD from start to finish. Its all well played, filmed, and recorded. With the Blu-ray version you can read the time on the first horn's wrist watch, in Roman Numerals! There are a couple of places where the sound is not quite in sync with the video. This is very minor, not distracting, and was probably due to some editing or patch work that needed to be done. You have to be watching very closely to spot it.

The best players are used throughout and are well guided by Maestro Abbado. Be sure to watch the last movement of the #2 concerto played a second time as an encore. Piccolo trumpet Reinhold Friedrich nails it both times taking the last note up to a high F during the encore!

This is a very exciting DVD. You will be as glad to own it as I am.

10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Absolutely astounding!, January 7, 2009

By 

Cdn Redbird (Windsor Ontario) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Johann Sebastian Bach: Brandenburg Concertos 1-6 [Blu-ray] (Blu-ray)

I have several Classical Music & Operas in my DVD collection. Enjoying all of them. I found the Brandenburg Concertos 1-6 BLU-RAY while browsing the internet and decided right away to purchase it assuming it would be superior to a DVD both in picture and sound. To my amazement, this Blu-Ray "knocked my socks off". I had recently purchased a largescreen TV and WOW, the PQ and the sound quality was superb. Claudio Abbado is one of my favourite conductors and watching the "super clear" expressions on his face and the faces of the musicians is really exciting to watch and hear. I would highly recommend this Blu-Ray DVD to anyone.

9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Delightful Concert of all the Brandenburg Concertos, November 1, 2008

By 

J Scott Morrison (Middlebury VT, USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Johann Sebastian Bach: Brandenburg Concertos 1-6 (DVD)

Claudio Abbado, surely one of the great conductors working today, formed a small orchestra, called Orchestra Mozart, in 2004. This group consists of several world-renowned instrumentalists and a number of exceedingly fine young players, mostly from Italy. Among the 'names' in the orchestra are Michala Petri, recorder; Giuliano Carmignola, principal violin; Reinhold Friedrich, trumpet; Jacques Zoon, flute; Alois Posch, bass; Alessio Allegrini, horn; and Ottavio Dantone, harpsichord. In their early seasons they concentrated on music by Mozart, Haydn, Beethoven and Schubert. But in 2007 they prepared all six of Bach's Brandenburg Concertos and toured them throughout Italy, with concerts in Bologna, Ferrara, Pisa, Prato, Reggio Emilia, Venice, Modena, Verona and Bolzano. This DVD is a live recording of the April 21, 2007 concert they played in the visually gorgeous and acoustically excellent Teatro Municipale Romolo Valli in Reggio Emilia.

The players (except for cellos and harpsichord) stand for the performances. Consequently there is considerable swaying of bodies and generally greater animation of the instrumentalists. I mention this because in a visual medium like a DVD this makes for more engaging viewing. The video of this concert focuses almost entirely on the instrumentalists; we rarely see Abbado. I like this approach as I'm much more interested in what the players are doing. One does notice, though, that Abbado is conducting without score. And indeed he's not even conducting at all in the Sixth Concerto -- that's the one without violins; its group of seven players are truly a chamber ensemble.

The principals couldn't be better. I was immensely impressed, as I have been in other recordings, by Allegrini, who has to one of the finest horn players around. As well, I loved the blending of Petri's and Nikolaj Tarasov's recorders in the Second. That concerto was played last on the program -- the sequence was Concertos 1, 3, 5, 6, 4, 2 -- and in response to the enthusiastic applause of the audience, the group played the final Allegro assai of the No. 2 and this time Petri substituted a sopranino recorder for her usual instrument, a piquant touch. Carmignola's lickety-split violin obbligato in the opening Allegro of that concerto has to be seen and heard to be believed.

Dantone was superb in the supremely virtuosic harpsichord part in the Fifth Concerto. The audio didn't bring out the sound of his instrument as much as I would have liked, but I rather suspect it was true to the actual sound in the hall. And I did lean forward to hear it better, which one often actually does in live performances in my experience.

Abbado's approach with the concertos is to take them fairly briskly. He does fairly often slow down slightly for cadences but there is not much else in the way of tempo variation. Usually, frankly, I felt he set the opening tempo and then these excellent musicians played as chamber musicians would, making subtle adjustments to the playing of their colleagues. This is not a criticism of Abbado; rather it is a commendation of his lack of ego and his willingness to let his musicians play together in their own way.

I cannot recommend this DVD highly enough. Often, when I've listened to or attended concerts featuring all six of these works I've lost attention somewhere along the way. This time I was energized for the entire 100 minutes of the concert. (Indeed, as I write this I'm listening again to the delightful No. 2.)

Time: 100mins; Format: NTSC 16:9; Sound PCM Stereo, Dolby 5.1, DTS 5.1; Region: 0 (worldwide). The disc is also available in Blu-Ray format Johann Sebastian Bach: Brandenburg Concertos 1-6 [Blu-ray]

Scott Morrison