DVD VIDEO from ARTHAUS MUSIK

SIBELIUS Violin Concerto. BACH Partita No. 2 in D Minor, BWV 1004: Sarabande. YSA*E Sonata No. 3: Ballade. DE FALLA Nights in the Gardens of Spain. The Three-Cornered Hat: Farruca. El amor brujo: The Magic Circle; Ritual Fire Dance
Maxim Vengerov, violin; Daniel Barenboim, piano; Daniel Barenboim and Placido Domingo (Nights) conducting the Chicago Symphony Orchestra
Arthaus Musik 100 034 [DVD - PAL] (87 minutes - GB pounds 25.99)

The 75-minute playing time of the Mahler disc includes both applause and pre-/post-performance credits. The symphony itself requires almost 70 minutes -- still on the slow side for a Mahler Fifth. Nevertheless, this is a middle of the road interpretation, and that's not a bad thing. Barenboim leads the orchestra on a journey that is bittersweet, but essentially healthy; the neuroticism favored by many prominent conductors is rejected here. There is little suspense about whether the symphony will end with human triumph or not. From the third movement on, the goal is in sight. Having said that, I also have to say that I enjoyed the third movement's love of life, tenser passages notwithstanding, and the Adagietto's tenderness, in which morbidity plays little part. Barenboim is good about balancing the orchestral sound so that Mahler's textures, while they may be heavy, are never thick. Although this is a live recording, the only obvious mishaps -- and they are tiny -- are a few imperfect notes from the woodwinds and the brass, and a ragged tutti or two.

The camera is trained on the conductor about half of the time, and on members of the orchestra the rest of the time. Probably because of camera placement, some players never appear in close-up, or perhaps the decision was made to focus on first-chair players. The principal trumpet gets the most attention apart from the conductor, as it only right. At the end of the concert, Barenboim draws a white rose from his beautiful bouquet and presents it to him! The images are beautifully clear, and in the end, this performance is as pleasant to watch as it is to hear.

Barenboim, of course, was a piano virtuoso long before he became a conductor, and he plays Nights in the Garden of Spain with sensuous brilliance, but perhaps with more hardness than allure. Domingo does conduct elsewhere from time to time, and whether his stint on the podium here is just a novelty is for you to decide. He keeps the performance on track, although he steals frequent nervous glances at the score, and seems content to let Barenboim do the driving. "Driving" is just what Barenboim does in the three encores. Again, this is percussive, macho playing, but Barenboim's basic affection for the music shines through his facial expressions.

The soloists command most of the camera's attention in the Sibelius and in Nights, and Barenboim takes center stage elsewhere.

Poulenc's opera is based on a play by Georges Bernanos. The setting is revolutionary France and a cloister of Carmelite nuns. Blanche, the daughter of an aristocratic family, is victimized by her own existential fear. In hopes of finding spiritual peace, she is accepted into the cloister. However, fear and death continue to intrude. The mortally ill Prioress experiences her final terrifying moments in Blanche's presence.

Revolutionary forces dissolve the cloister as a dangerous remnant of the old social order. Submissive yet dedicated to their faith, the sisters are arrested and take a vow of martyrdom, praying that their deaths will allow the restoration of spiritual grace to France. At the end of the opera, they are guillotined, the sound of their "Salve regina" is extinguished voice by voice. Blanche, who had briefly fled to her home, returns in time to be martyred with her sisters, no longer afraid.

There is little about this opera that is dramatic in the sense of stage action; the word "dialogues" is telling. (Not even the guillotine is shown; the sisters simply drop to the ground from where they are standing at the sound of its thuds.)

Despite the very frequent use of close-ups, the crucial feeling of a staged performance is not diluted. If anything, the production gains immensely from the faces of the singers. As Blanche, Schmidt's expressions tell all, and the sweet young face of Petitbon will linger in the memory, as will the last tortured grimaces of Denize's Prioress. The composition of the shots is not always ideal, but there are few really problematic moments. When the stage is murkily dark (as it quite often is in this production), some digital "grain" is revealed.

I am unsure about the use of black-and-white footage in some of the orchestral interludes, and I don't understand the series of stills at the opera's beginning, which seem to refer to a different war and different refugees entirely. Perhaps a hint is offered by Florence Emir's costumes, which evoke current times as much as the late 1700s.

Operas on DVD are still relatively new. This new Arthaus Dialogues should be an early star of this format.

This production comes from the 1993 Schwetzinger Festspiele where it appears to have been filmed without an audience present. (There is no applause and no coughing.) The sets are simple but imaginative. Much of the action takes place on what looks like the top of a zodiacal globe. Poppea's bed wheels in and out, and the flats move aside in some scenes to reveal, for example, a foggy Roman seascape, more suggested by color and light than by detail. Little attempt is made to convey a particular historical era through costuming. Instead, the costumes reveal the psychological traits of the characters. (In the case of Poppea, her costume is "revealing" indeed. This DVD might be a great way to introduce teenage boys to the glory of Monteverdi!) The staging eschews classicism, and links the opera to "Caligula," "I, Claudius," and other tarted-up sagas from the Roman era. There's nothing static about this opera, particularly not the way that it has been produced here. These are human characters with very human tastes, and this production hides little beneath a veil of propriety.

The performing edition used here is by conductor René Jacobs. Note that, for the purposes of this production, he has cut Monteverdi's lengthy score; chunks of music, even whole scenes, are missing. (The allegorical Prologue, repeatedly mentioned in the printed annotations, is one of the casualties.) The instrumental ensemble he has assembled - the scores that have come down to us do not indicate instrumentation - consists of three violins, two violas, two cellos, two cembalos, two lutes, harp, two flutes, dulzian, and two cornets.

The quality of the DVD is high; images are clear and the sound is open and well balanced. The usual options are offered, including subtitles in a variety of languages. The accompanying booklet is not so good. It contains many typographical errors, and its author does not realize that the production preserved here is a slightly abridged one. This is just a small problem in a product that is almost uniformly excellent, but it has been a consistent one for Arthaus Musik. Perhaps the success of these DVDs will make it possible for them to pay more attention to annotations.

Brittens Music Eastbourne