"Actor: Slovak Philharmonic Chorus"

• Mozart: Requiem | DVD | (02/12/2002) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £9.99

  Mozart's Requiem makes for another entry in the Naxos label's Musical Journey series, which combines great classics with images appropriate to the composer and work. Here the soundtrack is taken from a Naxos audio CD of the Requiem in its traditional version as completed by Sussmayr (though the DVD doesn't provide this or any other musical information), performed with considerable authority and dramatic weight by the Slovak Philharmonic and Chorus under Zdenek Kosler. The accompanying images begin in the Mozartplatz, Salzburg and encompass suitably bellicose classical paintings, the memorials to the composer and Goethe at the city's Buggarten and on to the Vienna History Museum, the Austrian National Library and the glorious stained glass windows of Linz Cathedral. These artistic treasures are contrasted with the natural glories of the Danube, intensely dramatic images of the sun against a tempestuous sky, and the spectacular Dachstein mountain landscape and glacier, with the breathtaking sight of a cross dominating a mountain almost 10,000 feet high. The scenes are generally well chosen and edited to provide an enjoyable visual tour to accompany one of Mozart's greatest masterpieces. On the DVD: Mozart's Requiem on disc boasts an "E-Z Menu" promising "the most accessible navigation", which is ironic given this is an extremely frustrating and counter-intuitive menu and appears to have been thrown together by a 1980's database designer who has never seen a DVD before. The 4:3 picture is very good, and the sound is equally fine, with the DTS mix having a little more weight and definition than the Dolby Digital 5.1 version. The stereo original is likewise impressive. Unfortunately the ends of several tracks are not allowed to fade out naturally, but are jarringly and abruptly cut off. This is most noticeable at the end of the "Benedictus", and completely ruins the end of the final "Lux Aeterna". The travel notes are useful, but would be more so if they could be superimposed over the programme. To turn the subtitles on one must deselect them. The disc also contains eight trailers. --Gary S Dalkin

• Khovanshchina | DVD | (29/03/2004) from £36.43   |  Saving you £-6.44 (-21.50%)   |  RRP £29.99

  Modest Mussorgsky's opera 'Khovanshchina' performed by the Vienna State Opera and Chorus and the Slovak Philharmonic Chorus from Bratislava; conducted by Claudio Abbado.