Customer Reviews

Sounds Magnificent (The Story of the Symphony) - Tchaikovsky Symphony No. 6 (Pathetique) / Previn, RPO

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These comments come from a music lover who is trained in subject matters different from music.

This installment in the series called "Sounds Magnificent: The History of the Symphony" provides much needed enlightenment and information!

For this particular symphony, Tchaikovsky seeks to convey the mood of his feelings about his own life. It is a "confessional" of sorts, which can be better understood and perceived with knowledge of the details of his own life.

The commentary by Mr. Previn is quite enlightening, and the chosen musical excerpts illustrate his points quite appropriately.

The sound itself is of real audiophile quality, conveying the depth and brilliance of this magnificent symphony. The use of the camera is thoughtfully planned to bring attention to the musical phrases.

The conducting by Mr. Previn is well attuned to the composition, in an impressive rendition of this piece, and the Orchestra plays with quite apparent focus and emotional response to the written score and conductor.

All in all, a very stimulating and educational experience to be enjoyed many times over.

I've been collecting Karayan DVD's and I have all Beethoven Symphony DVD's of his. Finally I've got sick of all the same patterns of Video productions, so I tried Previn DVD's. At first, it was refreshing with detailed explanations about composer's life and the music by Andre Previn and with different setting (studio, not concert hall). However, I was really disappointed with the sound which was so poor that I thought the music was from cassette tape. And the volume is only one third of Karayan's which has superb audio quality as compared with Previn's. I don't know how they made this DVDs, but if they want to appeal to music lovers, they should do something special to improve the audio quiality. Well, if you want to learn music and composer's life, Previn's DVD would be a good bet, but if you just interested in listening to music with good sound quality, Previn's DVD would be a poor choice. What is music DVD for anyway?

Having just attended an all Tchaikowsky concert last night, I was in the mood to revisit this exquisite and insightful commentary by Andre Previn on Peter Tchaikowsky.Tchaikowsky was "composer to the Czar" and enjoyed fame and position in upper-crust Russia. He was also a man who could never resolve with his homosexual nature.This plays a very important part in Tchaikowsky's musical output as a man who "wears his emotions on his shoulder." Previn's discussion is outstanding in teaching about the man and his musical genius. Previn so correctly asserts that Tchaikowsky was a "popular and tuneful" composer, so much so that this was one of the common criticisms of his work.To illustrate how Tchaikowsky uses his conflicted emotions, Previn deconstucts Symphony #6, the Pathetique (immense sorrow),and shows how Tchaikowsky uses his motifs to tell a story of untold sorrow.The Royal Philharmonic plays with great conviction at the 40 minute mark the entire symphony. This review concerns the KULTUR VHS version. The sound and the picture are OUTSTANDING.(Some people have commented that the dvd is not!)

An excellent companion film on the life of Tchaikowsky would be Ken Russel's 1970 THE MUSIC LOVERS with Richard Chamberlain and Glenda Jackson. THAT IS ONE RIVETING AND CONTROVERSIAL PIECE OF WORK!!!

I purchased the VHS version of this. I enjoyed the music but the commentary by Previn was much too long and should have come at the end of the performance and not at the beginning. I enjoy watching the musicians play their instruments but most of the time we may see an instrument but we don't see who is playing. We do get to see many shots of Previn though. We even see the camera placed in the orchestra that is photographing him. This was done in a recording studio and not in front of an audience. I intend to buy more of Tchaikovsky's work but in concert instead.