Product Description

"To play Beethoven’s music is to give oneself over completely to the child-spirit which lived in that grim, awkward, violent man. Without that utter submission it is impossible to play the Adagio of the Ninth. Or, Heaven knows, the first movement. And the Finale? Most of all! It is simply unplayable unless we go all the way with him, as he cries out "Brüder!" - Leonard Bernstein. Soloists: Gwyneth Jones, Shirley Verrett, Placido Domingo, Martti Talvela. Vienna Philharmonic; Vienna State Opera Chorus.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #54287 in DVD
• Released on: 2006-01-31
• Rating: NR (Not Rated)
• Aspect ratio: 1.33:1
• Formats: Classical, Color, DVD, NTSC
• Original language: English
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 78 minutes

Customer Reviews

a great performance
I can't believe the stupid "review" below! This must be from some kid only into new digital picture, never mind the performance. Ignore him! This performance is one of the great performances of Beethoven's ninth. As part of the Beethoven bicentennial performances of 1970, of course the video lacks the absolute clarity of a modern digital recording. But no conductor today can hold a candle to Bernstein, one of the last great conductors. The orchestra is still one of the best and the soloists were the best of 1970 and far better than any today (including Domingo who still performs but not with the freshness here).
Bottom line - get this one and the Beethoven 9th with Bernstein in Berlin on Christmas day 1989 when the infamous Wall came down. These are how Beethoven should be conducted. Get them while they're still available as no performance these days comes anywhere near the power and intensity of these DVDs.

This DVD is pure larceny.
No promises or guarantees are implied in the descriptions of the audio nor video qualities of this DVD, and there's a reason for that--the audio AND video quality are terrible. This is a "collector" if one is a collector, otherwise, it's just an out-and-out ripoff. I'd forgotten how angry I was when I took delivery and played this DVD. It is obviously a VHS-to-DVD transfer. The sound quality matches the picture excellently--that is to say, it is equally dismal. Each time I moved down a step in A/V testing equipment, my expectations lowered, until I was watching on a 32" TV thinking, "even mono and pan-and-scan doesn't help". There's supposedly a choice between 2-channel stereo and "Dolby Digital 5.1". There's no 5.1 on this disc; both audio versions are "2-channel stereo". A real shame with such a heavyweight cast--Vienna, Jones, Verrett, Talvela. "2-channel stereo" is a generous descriptor--I think it's mono; it's muffled enough to sound like it.

I played it through once when I bought it those years ago because I'm a huge Talvela fan; I perservered because it *is* Bernstein, Talvela, Jones, and Verrett with the Vienna Phil, but that can't save it. I just couldn't stand it enough to keep it. Flaccido Domingo certainly doesn't add anything to this with his hurried, stuttering, almost panting attempt to keep up.

The general quality is so disappointing I had forgotten about this DVD and found it in a pile on the shelf while I was cleaning up. I thought I'd try to sell it here on Amazon (thinking it might actually be a "collector" version) but I decided for the commonly-available 'used asking price' of $8 I'd do my conscience better by throwing it out instead of queuing up as an Amazon 'used' vendor to burn someone else.

This is how bad it is... reticent to throw out a copy of anything "Talvela", I just viewed it again to confirm my opinion. A terrible shame. Even with the knowledge that these heavyweights don't appear together on any other recorded medium, It's in the trash now.

Really bad A/V quality
I'm not a documentary collector.This is the worst concert recording that I have ever seen. I even thought I got a vcd for this.The video and audio quality is far way below you expected and I can't even "enjoy" this for 2 minutes longer.