Because of the many thousands of compact discs available from the UK, Europe, USA and Australasia, this web site only shows a small percentage of the the discs and music that we can supply. If you are unable to find what you are searching for, please send us an e-mail or make an enquiry through our enquiry/order form.  
UK DVD-video Releases - Retail Only

All prices are inclusive of postage and packing (airmail world-wide) - see our notes about DVD compatibility.

Some releases of special interest


BFIVD524BFI VD524: Ken Russell's Elgar - made for the BBC's Monitor series and first shown on 11 November 1962. Ken Russell's film is remarkable for its sensitive portrait of the rise of a young musician from a relatively poor background to international fame. The film was also groundbreaking, in that for the first time the BBC relaxed its taboo on using actors in factual films, although Russell was only allowed to use actors if they appeared in long shot and spoke no dialogue. The black and white film is evocative, visually superb and true to the elegiac nobility of Elgar's music.

This DVD features a commentary on the film by Michael Kennedy and Ken Russell, footage of Elgar at the Three Choirs Festivals, a live recording of Land of Hope and Glory, which celebrated the opening of Abbey Road studios in 1931, a stills gallery and director's biography.
(All Regions/PAL - GB pounds 19.99)

BFIVD518BFI VD518: Delius - Song of Summer - A Film by Ken Russell - Perhaps the finest of the series of biographical films that Ken Russell made for the BBC in the 1960's, Song of Summer is an immensely moving story of sacrifice, idealism and musical genius. Based on Eric Fenby's 1936 memoir Delius as I knew him, and co-scripted by Russell with Fenby himself, it traces the last years of the composer Frederick Delius and Fenby's dedication in giving up five years of his life to helping the blind, paralysed composer set down the unfinished scores he could hear in his head. There are terrific performances from Max Adrian as the monstrous, tyrannical, tormented Delius, Maureen Pryor as his devoted, long-suffering wife Jelka, and Christopher Gable (remarkably, in his first screen acting role) as the shy, intense, talented young composer thrust into this strange household.

This DVD features a commentary on the film by Ken Russell and an on-screen biography.
(Region 2/PAL - GB pounds 19.99)

BFIVD538BFI VD538: Michael Nyman's Man With a Movie Camera - A silent film by Dziga Vertov (USSR 1929) with a specially commissioned score by Michael Nyman, performed by the Michael Nyman Band - an extraordinary piece of filmmaking, a montage of urban Russian life showing the people of the city at work and at play and the machines that keep the city going. It was Vertov's first full-length film, and he used all the cinematic techniques at his disposal - dissolves, split screen, slow motion and freeze-frames - to produce a work that is exhilarating and intellectually brilliant. Michael Nyman's music has reached its largest audience by way of his film scores. Key to the Stalinist 1920s period, Dziga Vertov's extraordinary film Man with a Movie Camera documents the full spectrum of Soviet urban life with dazzling inventiveness. It was Vertov's formal inventiveness and energetic lyricism which inspired Nyman to create his new score for this radical experiment of the Soviet cinematic avant-garde.
(Region 2/PAL - GB pounds 15.99)

0741509Decca 0741509: William Walton - At the Haunted End of the Day - This award winning South Bank Show film from 1981, directed by Tony Palmer, is a revealing and moving portrait of the great composer. Supported by archive material, extracts from many of his works and interviews with Lady Susana Walton, Lord Olivier, and Sacheverell Sitwell, Walton reflects on his journey from Oldham in Lancashire to his island home on Ischia in Italy where he was to die in 1983. Performers include, Julian Bream, Ioma Brown, Yvonne Kenny, Ralph Kirschbaum, Yehudi Menuhin, Simon Preston, John Shirley-Quirk, Philharmonia Orchestra, Simon Rattle
(All regions/NTSC - GB pounds 19.00)

 

 

0711539Decca 0711539: The Golden Ring - The legendary 1965 BBC film, directed by Humphrey Burton, on the pioneering recording by Sir Georg Solti of Wagner's Der Ring des Nibelungen. Filmed during the recording of Gotterdammerung in the Sofiensalle with the Vienna Philharmonic, it features performances by the great Wagner singers Birgit Nilsson, Wolfgang Windgassen, Gottlob Frick and Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau. The disc also includes over an hour of audio excerpts from Solti's Ring in Dolby Digital 5.1 surround sound.
(All Regions/NTSC - GB pounds 19.00)




 

730439Deutsche Grammophon 0730439: Wagner - Der Ring des Nibelungen - Hildegard Behrens, Mari Anne Haggander, Siegfried Jerusalem, Christa Ludwig, Kurt Moll, James Morris, Jessye Norman, Matti Salminen, New York Metropolitan Opera, James Levine
(7 discs - All Regions/NTSC - GB pounds 89.99)

each opera also available separately:

(Siegfried - 2 discs - All Regions/NTSC - GB pounds 27.00)
(Das Rheingold - 1 disc - All Regions/NTSC - GB pounds 23.00)
(Die Walkure - 2 discs - All Regions/NTSC - GB pounds 27.00)
(Gotterdammerung - 2 discs - All Regions/NTSC - GB pounds 27.00)

EMI/IMG Artists Classic Archive:4901109

5991599EMI 5991599: Bach - The Six Cello Suites - Mstislav Rostropovich cello
(2 discs - All Regions/PAL - GB pounds 21.99)

 

 

 

 

750899
Philips 0750899: Mussorgsky - Boris Godunov (complete 1872 version) - The ROH Covent Garden production directed by Stephen Lawless and filmed at the Mariinsky Theatre in 1990 by Humphrey Burton. Robert Lloyd, Alexei Steblianko, Olga Borodina, Sergei Leiferkus, Kirov Opera, Valery Gergiev
(2 discs - All Regions/NTSC - GB pounds 27.00)

 

 

DV-OPLBHTDK DV-OPLBH: Offenbach - La Belle Helene - The Laurent Pelly production filmed at the Theatre Music de Paris, Chatelet, in 2000. Dame Felicity Lott, Yann Beuron, Michel Senechal, Laurent Naouri, Francois Le Roux, Choeur du Chatelet, Les Musiciens du Louvre Grenoble, Marc Minkowski
(Region 2/PAL - GB pounds 26.50)

 

 

 

CDR10530Columbia Tristar CDR10530: Bizet - Carmen - film by Francesco Rosi. Julia Migenes, Placido Domingo, Ruggero Raimondi, Faith Esham, Radio-France Choir, Orchestre National de France, Lorin Maazel
(Region 2/PAL - GB pounds 14.99)

 

 

 

 

8573837802NVC Arts 8573837802: Schubert - Winterreise - Ian Bostridge tenor with Julius Drake piano. Complete performance in David Alden's dramatisation of Schubert's terrifying and deeply moving portrayal of human desolation. Plus 50 min. documentary Over the Top with Franz illuminating the difficulties of bringing Winterreise to the screen. Focusing on the developing relationships of the artists, from the rehersal to final day of filming, this is a rare and humerous insight into the collaborative process.
(Region 2-6/PAL - GB pounds 26.50)

 

 

NVC Arts 0630169132: Britten - Peter Grimes - Jon Vickers, Heather Harper, Norman Bailey, Royal Opera House Chorus and Orchestra, Sir Colin Davis
(Region 0/NTSC - GB pounds 21.50)

NVC Arts 0630140162: Janacek - The Makropoulos Affair - Anja Silja, Kim Begley, Anthony Roden, Glyndebourne Festival Opera Chorus and Orchestra, Sir Andrew Davis
(Region 0/NTSC - GB pounds 21.50)

Warner Vision 0630169132: Britten - Peter Grimes - Jon Vickers, Heather Harper, Norman Bailey, Elizabeth Bainbridge, Chorus and Orchestra of Royal Opera House Covent Garden, Sir Colin Davis

(Regions 2-6/PAL - GB pounds 21.50)

15930DVDMGM 15930DVD: Bernstein - West Side Story - film by Robert Wise and Jerome Robbins. Garnering a total of ten Academy Awards in 1961, West Side Story set a brilliant standard for movie musicals that remains unsurpassed to this day. Leonard Bernstein's unforgettable score and Stephen Sondheim's lyrics combine with Jerome Robbin's exuberant choreography to create a transcendent fusion of realism and fantasy. Starring Natalie Wood, Richard Beymer, Russ Tamblyn, Rita Moreno and George Chakiris and conducted by Johnny Green.
(All Regions/PAL - GB pounds 12.99)

 

 

 

100382Arthaus 100382/100383: Britten - Peter Grimes - Philip Langridge; Janice Cairns, Alan Opie, Ann Howard, Andrew Greenan, Chorus and Orchestra of the English National Opera, David Atherton
(Regions 2-8/PAL - GB pounds 26.50)
(Region 1/NTSC - GB pounds 26.50)

 

 

VAI 4238: Rosalyn Tureck at Teatro Colon, Buenos Aires on 14 August 1992 and in the Teatro il Sistina, Rome on 10 March 1996. Music by Bach, Mendelssohn, Schubert, Bach-Busoni and Brahms - Rosalyn Tureck piano
(GB pounds 24.00)

Notes about DVD Compatibility
 

The position with regard to playback of DVDs is terribly complicated and it is easy to confuse region coding with PAL and NTSC format.

In general, the PAL TV format is used throughout Europe, Australasia and most of Asia whereas NTSC format is used in the Americas and Japan. Similarly, DVDs intended only for use in North America are region coded 1; those only intended for use in Europe and Japan are region coded 2 and those only intended for use in Australasia and Latin America are region coded 4. Region 3 is South East Asia and Region 5 is Russia, rest of Asia and Africa. Multi-region DVDs (i.e. those not region coded) are also known as region 0.

In order to play European PAL format DVDs in the USA (and other NTSC areas), it is generally necessary for the DVD player to be capable of playing PAL format discs and for it to be multi-region. Also, unless the DVD player converts the output to NTSC format when playing PAL format discs, the television must also be capable of displaying a (European) PAL format picture as well as the normal NTSC.

Many DVDs are only available in Europe in PAL format and they may also be region coded for Europe (region 2). If they are region coded 0, then there is no region coding problem as those will play anywhere in the world.

Exceptions to this general rule are that most Arthaus, and some Opus Arte, releases can be ordered in either PAL or NTSC format and all DVDs from Universal Music (Decca, Deutsche Grammophon, Philips) are produced in NTSC format only, even for Europe. This can give problems with display on older PAL-only televisions. However, most Universal Music DVDs are multi-region.

Most DVD players work perfectly well with both PAL and NTSC formatted discs but many players are set with the region coding for the area where they were purchased. DVD players are available in the USA which not only play both NTSC and PAL format discs but also output a signal from PAL discs which will display on an NTSC television.

It is worthwhile for those resident in North America to consider purchasing one of those players if they do wish to play discs from all over the world.

Similarly, those resident in Europe who wish to view DVDs from around the world would be wise to purchase multi-region players and to ensure that they have televisions which can correctly display the output from DVD players when playing NTSC format discs. Virtually all televisions on sale in the UK since 1998 have this facility but for those built earlier, the results are unpredictable!

All prices are inclusive of postage and packing (air mail world-wide)




Brittens MUSIC Eastbourne
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