Product Details

• Actors: Leonard Bernstein, June Anderson, Sarah Walker, Klaus Konig, Jan-Hendrik Rootering
• Directors: Humphrey Burton
• Format: AC-3, Classical, Color, Dolby, DTS Surround Sound, DVD, NTSC
• Language: English (PCM)
• Subtitles: German, English, French, Spanish
• Region: All Regions
• Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1
• Number of discs: 1
• Rated: NR (Not Rated)
• Studio: EUROARTS
• DVD Release Date: September 29, 2009
• Run Time: 94 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B002JP9HJO
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #39,762 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The First True Performance of Beethoven's Ninth, November 10, 2009

By 

Patrick S Lasswell - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Ode to Freedom - Beethoven: Symphony No. 9; Leonard Bernstein - Official concert of the Fall of the Berlin Wall 1989 (DVD)

Western Civilization will forever be marked by its unique capacity to free itself from its mistakes of slavery. This performance of this symphony is what all tyrants fear: artists celebrating the greatness of freedom in a triumph of dignity over fear, without violence, without hate, with the promise of freedom for all the world. Freiheit, Freedom, the word in a setting of organized and orchestrated cultural triumph makes Shiller's poetry ring true in ways that the selfish ideal of Fruede, Joy, ever could.

The performance is excellent. Although we might wish for greater video clarity, different camera angle selections, and other fripperies, there will never be as significant a moment as this concert, and this recording is as good as we can hope for. The sound quality is more than good enough for most video systems, but I can see where true audiophiles might well quibble. Bureaucrats will quibble over the word choice, and other people with no sense of history.

The one significant change that I would appreciate in a twenty-year retrospective is a 10-20 minute explanation of the indecency and atrocities of the communist empire that made freedom from tyranny so sweet. Regrettably, serious artists and academics since this performance have largely moved away from acknowledging the problems with tyranny. Fortunately, Leonard Berenstein had more than enough sense and decency to recognize this moment in history. Fortunately also, Beethoven and Schiller could dream of such a day and score the music and write the poetry for a freedom they would never get to live.

For all who lived and died that others might one day be free, this performance is a triumphant justification of all their sacrifice and hope.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars I cried, August 14, 2010

By 

L. Tracy (W. Hollywood CA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Ode to Freedom - Beethoven: Symphony No. 9; Leonard Bernstein - Official concert of the Fall of the Berlin Wall 1989 (DVD)

I am old enough to remember WWII, the so-called Cold War including the Berlin Wall (which I saw firsthand), and at last the fall of that Wall. I did not see this performance at the time on that old-fashioned appliance, television, and did not know of it. On a Lufthansa flight home to California from Munich (ironic?) yesterday I saw it. And I cried because it reminded me of the events surrounding the fall of the Wall which I do remember, including particularly the joy of Berliners as they hacked away at it and embraced each other. The scope of the performance (the size of the orchestra and chorus) is seldom available for the Ninth and that old ham Bernstein (and I mean that in the best possible sense) makes you feel the emotion he feels. The audience was obviously stunned by the performance, because at the end of the piece there is a period of absolute silence before the applause begins. Admittedly the video quality is not perfect, and the audio is not what we expect today, but taken as a whole it is a worthy reminder of the power of music and of Bernstein's way with it.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Beethoven in Berlin by Bernstein and a cast of thousands!, August 25, 2010

By 

Patricia A. Mcknight "intellectual mystery fan" (Tucson, AZ) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Ode to Freedom - Beethoven: Symphony No. 9; Leonard Bernstein - Official concert of the Fall of the Berlin Wall 1989 (DVD)

Bernstein insisted on substituting "Freiheit" or "freedom" for "Freude" or "Joy" in the Ode. So the last movement became "The Ode to Freedom." Beethoven would have approved, I think.I was in Europe during that incredible Fall of 1989. We were in Budapest when the Romanians abruptly rose up and tried and executed their tyrant and his wife in less than 24 hours. The feeling in the air was indescribable. I watched this broadcast from London on Christmas Day and cried throughout. It is not the greatest performance of the 9th -- the crowd of performers was too large. Perfection was not the point. Passion was the point. It included children's choirs as well - the future. At the end Lenny fell into a dream and basically stopped conducting - and the symphony musicians and the singers continued on, faultlessly, without the conductor. It must be the brightest memory for all of them. The description on this site is inadequate.