Customer Reviews

Nobel Prize Concert 2008

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As a partial documentation of the 2008 Nobel Prize festivities, the concert DVD, recorded on 8 December 2008, is very impressive. The interviews with the laureates and with Sir John Eliot Gardiner, however, are relatively noncommittal and not all too enlightening. The concert itself is beautifully filmed and, apart from some occasional slight distortion in the mid-range, the soundtrack is very good. Gardiner's idea of placing the trombones (in the Mozart) among the choristers is musically convincing and highly effective, but it may account for some sound diffraction. The Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra players are visibly on their toes: they and Gardiner give the Dvorak much loving care, but the symphony somehow does not really take flight until the final movement. This is a good, rather unidiomatic performance you can live with. If you want the "real thing" on DVD, go for Belohlávek with the Prague Symphony Orchestra (Arthaus) with all the inner dynamics and altogether glorious élan, finesse and vigor. The Mozart Mass is a different matter. It is superbly done (see the orchestra musicians playing almost without vibrato) by all and everyone, the two great choirs and the very fine soloists included. Particular praise should go to the concertmaster and the leader of the second violins. Gardiner is in his element: refined, expressive, forceful and definitely on par with his earlier, "authentic" DVD recording of the unfinished Mass (Philips).