Barenboim on Beethoven EMI 0946 3 68993 9 8 (Six DVD set; each c.160-180 mins) This big box of well filled DVDs has been hugely exciting to sample. I was especially enthralled by Barenboim's master classes in Chicago with question and answer sessions at the end (including one with the controversial Lang Lang). The concert performances of the sonatas at Barenboim's own Staatsoper Unter der Linden in Berlin brought back memories of his playing them all in London, during the 1967 inaugural season of Queen Elizabeth Hall.* Here, though, I was irritated by the numerous arbitary camera changes, which did nothing for the music (e.g. 20 changes plus a couple of zooms and rotations in the six-minutes first movement of Op. 101).** Peter Grahame Woolf * The Royal Festival Archivist has confirmed my memory and told me that "The Barenboim series of Beethoven sonatas began on 6 March 1967 before the QEH had been open a full week, and ran for eight performances, 6 March to 15 May 1967". In other words, the series finished exactly 40 years ago this evening. [Editor] ** q.v. also "Some of the camerawork, often showing the hammers of the piano, is irritating" (Ying Chang re Schiff Chopin DVD) And see too Daniel Barenboim (playing, teaching and conducting, in Berlin, Chicago & Granada)
|