Product Details

• Actors: San Francisco Symphony, Michael Tilson Thomas
• Directors: David Kennard, Joan Saffa, Gary Halvorson
• Format: AC-3, Classical, Color, Import, NTSC, Widescreen
• Language: English (Dolby Digital 5.1)
• Subtitles: French, English, Spanish, German
• Region: All Regions
• Aspect Ratio: 1.77:1
• Number of discs: 1
• Rated: G (General Audience)
• Studio: San Francisco Sym
• DVD Release Date: November 10, 2009
• Run Time: 111 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B002SKF7H6
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #115,399 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

14 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars MTT was born to teach Ives to the entire world., November 12, 2009

By 

B. Guerrero "Mahler nutcase" - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Keeping Score- Ives: Holidays Symphony (DVD)

After my constant whining about Michael Tilson-Thomas' mannered and - at times - self indulgent Mahler, it's nice to have the opportunity to praise him for this outstanding contribution to our better understanding of America's greatest iconoclastic composer, Charles Ives. In fact, MTT removes that pigeon-holing label altogether, simply by presenting Ives in the most logical and straight-forward manner possible. Ives was a modernist before modernism ever became an "ism". Yet, he was highly sentimental; hoping that modern day successes wouldn't spoil the New England that he grew up in, and so dearly loved. Tilson Thomas covers these points superbly.

It seems to me that both Tilson Thomas and the S.F. Symphony are at their very best for these incredibly well produced "Keeping Score" docu-concerts. All of them are winners, with the Ives and Stravinsky (Rite Of Spring) leading the pack. Bernstein himself couldn't have done better on Ives. More, please! (how about Rimsky's "Mlada", a Tilson Thomas specialty).

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Ives explained!, October 14, 2010

By 

John Dewhurst "Flazmo" (Bethlehem, PA) - See all my reviews
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Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Keeping Score- Ives: Holidays Symphony (DVD)

For those who think that Ives' music is just a random set of notes played simultaneously for the sake of making noise, this DVD will dispell that belief. I've always loved Ives and was still amazed at the care he took to write this complicated music. I recommend this DVD with no reservations. It should leave you with no more unanswered questions.....

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent for drawing neophytes into the realm of classical music., December 29, 2010

By 

Tom Brody (Berkeley, CA) - See all my reviews
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Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Keeping Score- Ives: Holidays Symphony (DVD)

KEEPING SCORE by Michael Tilson Thomas (MTT) and the San Francisco Symphony contains an elementary, picture-postcard narrative of Charles Ives' HOLIDAYS SYMPHONY, followed by a straight, non-narrated version of the same symphony.

In starting the disc, we find a 90 second montage showing musicians and MTT, where the announcer says, "What is the secret of classical music?" Then, we see a menu of 5 choices: (1) Berlioz' Symphonie Fantastique; (2) Shostakovich's Symph. No. 5; (3) Beethoven's Eroica; (4) Stravinsky's rite of Spring; and (5) Copland's Appalachian Spring. Each of these choices provides a 10 minute excerpt from the other discs of this series. There is also the choice of going to the main menu.

The main menu includes these choices: (1) HOLIDAYS SYMPHONY with narration, film clips of marching bands, misty lakes, and snippets of Ives' biography; (2) The actual HOLIDAYS SYMPHONY without narration or photo-montages; (3) A short movie about the robotic cameras and video technicians; and (4) Setup (subtitles in English, Spanish, French, German, Cantonese, Mandarin).

This is about WASHINGTON'S BIRTHDAY (with narration): MTT tells us that "this is music that veers between tender sentiment and savage chaos." We are shown Ives' house in Redding, Connecticut and its interior. MTT sits inside and plays on Ives' old, beat-up piano. MTT exclaims, "Does he [Ives] want me to stand up and slug it out with him?!?" Then, we see a boy tossing a stone in a lake, and a girl walking on a railroad track in the countryside. We see Ives' childhood house in Danbury, Connecticut. Then, there is a reenactment of 2 actual marching bands, playing 2 different tunes, and then marching through each other (something that Charles Ives' father had experimented with). Then we see a misty lake, and we hear some calm music by Ives. Archival footage shows trolley cars and ticker tapes, where the narrative reiterates exactly the same message that in found in Rod Serling's A STOP AT WILLOUGHBY, one of the more famous episodes from TWILIGHT ZONE. In other words, the point of A STOP AT WILLOUGHBY is the same as one of Charles Ives' philosophies of composing (longing for a simpler, more innocent time).

After 10 minutes of this visual postcard, the symphony begins WASHINGTON'S BIRTHDAY (but with continued narration). Paul Brancato, violinist with the S.F. Symphony, leads a bluegrass band, playing tunes found in Ives' symphonies. Then, MTT shows us the musical score of the old tune, HOME SWEET HOME, and MTT plays an Ivesian version of HOME SWEET HOME on piano, and then the full orchestra plays the HOME SWEET HOME excerpt from WASHINGTON'S BIRTHDAY. Then, we see a wind blowing over a snowy meadow, and then the film switches to a distinctive part of WASHINGTON'S BIRTHDAY (a part that is like wind blowing over a snowy meadow). (MTT is shamelessly programmatic, but that is okay, I guess.) MTT tells us about the musical "confrontational crunch" which sometimes occurs in the chaotic parts of Ives' music. After WASHINGTON'S BIRTHDAY, we see film clips from Ives' college, Yale University, and MTT compares LEAVES OF GRASS by Walt Whitman with Ives' compositional philosophy (it has to do with childhood memories.)

Then, DECORATION DAY starts. MTT tells us that this holiday originated to memorialized the Civil War dead, and the film shows graveyards. MTT tells us that the opening notes of DECORATION DAY represent the loss of innocence of Americans, caused by the Civil War. MTT tells us that a large chunk of DECORATION DAY came from the Christmas song, COME ALL YE FAITHFUL (this is the most amazing thing I have learned in the past month). Then, MTT tells us about a tune in DECORATION DAY that represents the question, "Why do we exist?" It is the "why do we exist" tune; it is similar to a tune in UNANSWERED QUESTION. Kelly Leon-Pearce (violinist) tells about her part in DECORATION DAY, where she plays a sobbing violin. Glenn Fischthal (trumpet) tells about his part of playing "taps" in DECORATION DAY. Then, there are more archival film clips, more images of mists over lakes, and so on.

Then, the same cinematographic style is shown for the rest of the HOLIDAYS SYMPHONY, and finally comes the same symphony in its entirety, but without narration and without misty lakes. Overall, I would say that everything about this disc is perfect. MTT is generous in sharing the spotlight with several other musicians of the S.F.Symphony.

CONCLUSION. We know that plenty of tourists to America's most photogenic city (San Francisco) would think nothing about spending $25.00 on a little seafood dish over at Fisherman's Wharf (where all the tourists and pigeons seem to congregate). But in my opinion, the same money could be better spent on one of MTT's KEEPING SCORE discs, with enough change left over to purchase a loaf of fresh San Francisco-style sourdough French bread (in an open paper bag, NOT in a closed plastic bag).