Customer Reviews

Mozart - Sonatas for Violin and Piano / Schneider, Oppitz

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It's not the breathtaking production quality of Anne-Sophie Mutter's "A Life with Beethoven" sonatas with Lambert Orkis (piano) on DVD, but very worthwhile presentation all round of these enchanting Mozart sonatas. The duo perform with a vigor and resolve that clearly shows their reverence for these works. My admiration to the violinist whose brilliance is unmarred as his face streams with sweat under the harsh lighting.

Make sure you select from the audio options according to your sound system. I had quite a scare- the sound was absolutely horrid until I changed from the default "5.1 Dolby digital surround" to "Non-compressed stereo" in my case.

First of all, let me say that these two musicians provide an excellent rendition of these pieces. No complaints there, and since there's no other DVD of this body of work to my knowledge you won't find any better. The complaint I have is the setting. Because of the nature of the venue the backdrop makes the viewing uncomfortable. It's an old German auditorium with gold and white fixtures and unfortunately the viewer encounters a certain amount of glare and reflections during the performance. A modern auditorium with conventional video lighting would have been much better. Also, the audio has a problem from time to time with a thumping sound that makes me think either somebody was bumping a live mic or the mic was too sensitive to handle certain passages. Another thing that was less than attractive was the violinist's dripping sweat on his Stradivarius violin as he played under the intense lighting. There's a certain charm to seeing this music played in a building where these pieces may well have been performed a couple of centuries ago. If that appeals to you you're certain to love this DVD. If you're more into the modern (this performance is nearly 20 years old) digital type concert experience you might not be as thrilled.

A terrific program! Oppitz and Schneider play masterfully, and Mozart's music is just beautiful. The intimate setting is captured well by the exceptional audio recording. The DVD has a subtitle track containing interesting notes about the composition, making the DVD ideal for students or anyone else interested in gaining insight into Mozart's compositions.

The video quality is only average, but the music is first rate. And on a program like this, that's what really matters.

The performance are superb. Both Schneider and Oppitz delivered exceptional performance; However, the camera work/editing totally destroys the exceptional performance of both musician. The angle is odd, very mechanical, as if being directed by a 3-year old. The recording could use some polishing. On a decent audio system, one can hear what sound like grunt (and also the occasional breathing) by the performers. My main complain is video work, it is bad, very bad. I had to turn off the TV to enjoy the performance.