Winterreise — HDVDARTS

Schubert Winterreise song cycle performed 2015 by bartione Matthias Goerne and pianist Markus Hinterhäuser as part of the Aix-de-Provence Festival. Also features visuals by graphic artist William Kentridge. Includes documentary, A Trio for Schubert, with interviews with all three featured artists.Directed for TV by Christian Leblé. Released 2017, disc has PCM stereo sound. Grade: NA

We usually exclude opera or dance titles with only stereo sound. But we do make exceptions for classical music for soloists when the recording otherwise has some special merit. Here we have a famous tenor with piano accompaniment only, the program is supported by unusual and original video art, and all this was offered live at the famous Aix-en-Provence summer festival.

Here's a clip from this production showing the art of William Kentridge for "The Raven" from Part 2:

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Here's news about high-definition video disc ("HDVD") recordings of opera, ballet, classical music, plays, fine-art documentaries, and paintings. In the journal below are independent (and hard-to-find critical) reports on hundreds of HDVDs. Pick the best titles for your excelsisphere.

Feb 25. We have just completed one of our most ambitious reviews: Einstein on the Beach opera, the surreal 4 and 1/2 hour cult legend. Kudos, encomiums, and accolades to Opus Arte for giving us this authoritative and weirdly fascinating recording, which we grade A+. Absorbing and learning Einstein is uniquely challenging. We try to help out by providing aids not included in the keepcase materials: an accurate libretto and a list of segments in the opera with correct Opus Arte time stamps. Good luck!

We have some other good grades with an A for the recent Met The Pearl Fishers (Les pêcheurs de perles) and a B- for an earlier The Pearl Fishers from Naples. Also, we recently gave an A- for the new Don Quixote from the Vienna State Ballet.