Customer Reviews

Solti: Orchestra!

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Dating from 1991 this marvellous TV series looks at the Orchestra with the help of the Sir Georg Solti and Dudley Moore. These two are an inspired pairing as many people never realised just how good a musician Dudley Moore was and outside of this TV series Sir Georg Solti was little known to the general public.

Looking at the different areas of the Orchestra, Woodwind, Brass, Strings Percussion etc this is always fascinating whether you know a lot about music or are just a casual viewer. Dudley Moore gets to show off his Piano skills in a variety of styles, usually under the watchful eyes of Sir Georg who himself was brilliant Pianist. I particularly like the section where Moore is trying to get the timing right on the Bartok with Sir Georg tapping time for him.

However there is so much more to this program than just the two presenters and their respective talents. The program is about the Orchestra, its construction, the infinte variety of sounds that it can produce, and of course it also features superb music by some of the greatest composers.

This was a great series, which if you find 'classical music' difficult to get into might just be the turning point in your musical life.

I have to assume this video was intended for young people to view so that they might be inspired to learn to play an orchestral instrument. I have tried showing it to my upper elementary students and they lose interest quickly. I believe this is in part due to the difficulty of understanding Sir George Solti. I have run several of his statements back four or five time and still cannot understand what he's saying. I think it is interesting that the DVD has subtitles in four or five "foreign" languages, when what it really needs are subtitles in English so people can understand Solti!
As a musician, conductor and teacher, I personally found the DVD quite interesting, especially the discussion of how the orchestra has evolved over the centuries. But the difficulty of not being able to understand what is being said causes the entire production to fall short of its goal.

This is an informative guide to the orchestra that makes it easy to learn the different levels of each section of a classical orchestra. These young musicians are superb and in the hands of a legend such as Sir Georg, they shine throughout this excellent series.

This is an excellent production, both for students of music and for the music loving public. It is required viewing for all students in my studio. Bravo! Ron Frost, R.N., M.A.

TO WATCH THESE TWO TALENTED INDIVIDUALS TOGETHER WAS A TREAT. I HAD WATCHED THIS WHEN IT WAS ORIGNALLY AIRED ON PUBLIC TELEVISION. HAVE ALWAYS LIKED AND ENJOYED DUDLEY MOORE, BUT HAD NO IDEA OF HIS GREAT LOVE AND SKILL AT PLAYING CLASSICAL MUSIC. SIR GEORGE SOLTI WAS A PHENOMENON IN THE MUSIC WORLD, AND WHAT THEY DID WITH THESE YOUNG MUSICIANS IS AN INSPIRATION. THIS MUSICAL PRESENTATION SHOULD BE REQUIRED IN OUR PUBLIC SCHOOLS, TO GIVE YOUNG PEOPLE A RAY OF HOPE IN CHOOSING A CAREER IN THE MUSIC WORLD. BREAKING THE ORCHESTRA DOWN IN SECTIONS TO ACTUALLY HEAR THE COMBINATION OF SOUNDS FROM THE SPECIFIC SECTIONS IS TRULY ENLIGHTENING, EVEN FOR A DIE HARD CLASSICAL MUSICIAN AS MYSELF....THIS WAS A TRUE TREAT TO GET ALL SESSIONS OF THIS MUSICAL PRESENTATION ALL ON TWO DISKS. THANK YOU, JOHN ZULAICA

Orchestra is a very good work about how human genius can produce perfection and order from the caos and diversity. Focus and discipline in order to produce art. How that is possible? How to make it? How to understand it? It's a very simple and also quite sofisticated way to bring to everyone the coprehension of it. Amusing and enlightening to all publics.

I saw this series when it was first aired on PBS years ago and liked it. I was surprised to find it on Amazon and so I ordered it. My knowledge of an orchestra has greatly increased since I first saw this show so I was a little disappointed with it. It was still entertaining, mind you, but I felt that it would be better enjoyed by late elementary and middle-school kids. It is fun to see Dudley Moore interacting with the late, great maestro Sir George Solti and Dudley does have the ability to play the most difficult piano part of Bartok's "Music for Strings, Percussion, and Celeste", and it is great to see the veteran conductor, Solti, work with these just-out-of-high-school kids. Three complaints: 1) There are no stops at the ends of episodes. They run right through to the next one, making it hard to break up the disc to watch each episode separately. 2) The bonus CD that comes with it is only snippets of the pieces that the young people in the orchestra have been practicing. 3) When the orchestra is shown performing there are many distracting, flashing and changing colored lights that make you think, "they can't possibly read the music under these conditions. It must be dubbed". These petty things aside, all in all it's a good buy for kids and even for adults wanting to know more about an orchestra.

I found the video to be very informative although Sir Georg Solti is hard to understand with his thick German accent. Subtitles would be a very helpful addition to this program. The colored lights during the performances of the music are distracting and un-needed. The music is perfect as it is and doesn't need any help from them.

What to say; this was brilliant when first aired on television in the mid-90's. I then bought it in video format for the school I was working at at that time. Three schools later and I had need of it again: lo and behold, now on DVD.

Still as insightful and informing as it ever was with the light comedic overtones of Dudley Moore. A well delivered documentary series; the interplay between Dudley Moore, Sir Georg Solti and the students who make up the orchestra is sublime and the playing, whilst not outrageously brilliant, is sufficient to inspire the most jaded of students to think again about taking up an orchestral instrument.

A wonderful insight into the mainstream repertoire for the younger generation as well as a guide to the playing techniques of most instruments.

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