"Actor: Staatskapelle Berlin"

• The Nutcracker | DVD | (31/10/2000) from £33.73   |  Saving you £-8.74 (-35.00%)   |  RRP £24.99

  It's easy to see why The Nutcracker, Tchaikovsky's perennially popular ballet first performed in 1892, has such enduring appeal. As Patrice Bart's 1999 production shows, it is always beautiful to look at, lending itself to the Christmas season where it has a permanent place in the schedules of the major dance companies. And Hoffmann's tale of the troubled child who must go on a wonderful (and occasionally terrifying) journey of discovery has a universal and timeless appeal. Bart's production for the Staatsoper Unter den Linden in Berlin builds on Petipa's original choreography and develops the context of the child Marie's (Nadja Saidakova) anxiety into a strong narrative. The godfather Drosselmayer (Oliver Matz) is initially a sinister figure, forcing her to confront past events before leading her into the glittering land of the Sugar Plum Fairy. Here, all expectations are exceeded. The familiarity of Tchaikovsky's intricately woven themes works in total harmony with sumptuous production values. The dancing is sublime. As the Prince, Vladimir Malakhov evokes the spirit of a young Nureyev. His pas de deux with the Sugar Plum Fairy should challenge even the most cynical tear ducts. Sit back, share the frisson of anticipation as Daniel Barenboim enters the conductor's box and let the whole experience engulf you. On the DVD: There are no extras. In addition to the 16:9 picture format, which enhances the authentic theatrical atmosphere, the Dolby Digital 5.1 sound helps make this Nutcracker an aural feast. Under Barenboim's masterful control, the orchestra draws you into the heart of the music. Booklet notes provide historical background as well as performer biographies, but a more complete cast list would have been useful. --Piers Ford

• Berlioz: La Damnation de Faust | DVD | (15/05/2000) from £26.98   |  Saving you £-1.99 (-8.00%)   |  RRP £24.99

  This imaginative staging of Berlioz's dramatic symphony for chorus, soloists and orchestra relies heavily on the moving of massed choirs across a large stage. It has vivid lighting effects--rather too many of them using strobes--and monolithic multi-purpose sets, in particular a revolving glass drum which functions both as cinema screen and rostrum for singers, so that the final ride to Hell, for example, is sung by Mephistopheles and Faust above a cavalcade of projected horses, like the inside of a zoetrope. The three main soloists have voices on a scale that can compete with these flashy production values--White and Kasarova, in particular, sing at a level of intensity that would swamp anything less; the climactic seduction trio has rarely been sung so well or with such an overpoweringly polymorphous eroticism. Cambreling marshals his forces effectively, giving full rein to the work's showstoppers like the "Hungarian March" but not neglecting the subtler less kinetic Gluckian side of Berlioz's vocal writing. The DVD has subtitles in English, German and Dutch, and menus in those languages, as well as French, Italian, Spanish and Swedish. --Roz Kaveney

• Mozart: Le Nozze di Figaro (The Marriage of Figaro) -- Berlin/Barenboim | DVD | (05/04/2000) from £22.97   |  Saving you £2.02 (8.10%)   |  RRP £24.99

  A massive success from its premiere on May 3, 1786, Mozart's Le Nozze di Figaro ("The Marriage of Figaro") downplays the social satire in Beaumarchais' original tale of romantic intrigue and revenge between the classes, instead emphasising the psychological dimensions. Here in a live production from the Staatsoper, Berlin, director Alexandre Tarta employs simple sets, focusing all attention on a very fine cast as they spin-out the farcical ironies. The result is one of the most acclaimed interpretations of recent years, with soprano Dorethea Röschmann reprising her star-making 1995 Salzburg debut as the sensual and flirtatious Susanna. Rene Papé makes a fine Figaro, and there are no weak links, with not just the singing but the performances uniformly excellent. The humour on show makes the sorrow all the more genuinely affecting. Of course Mozart's music is marvellous, packed with great arias and duets, and under Daniel Barenboim the State Opera Choir Berlin "Staatskapelle Berlin" are on splendid form.On the DVD: With the opera lasting 190 minutes the only other feature on the disc is a plot synopsis. However, the subtitles can be switched on or off. The booklet also provides a synopsis, together with some background on the opera and the performers. Filming a live production with theatre lights is never going to result in the most detailed images, and under these circumstances the anamorphically enhanced picture fares well, being far superior to VHS. The Dolby Digital 5.1 sound is realistic, detailed and absorbing without ever being unnecessarily showy. --Gary S. Dalkin

• Barenboim - Beethoven Piano Concertos | DVD | (19/11/2007) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £29.99

  Daniel Barenboim Beethoven Piano Concs 1-5 (2 Discs)

• Wagner: Parsifal Berlin 1992 (Euroarts: 2066738) | DVD | (14/03/2012) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

• Bruckner: Mature Symphonies Vol.2 | Blu Ray | (03/06/2013) from £25.79   |  Saving you £4.20 (16.29%)   |  RRP £29.99

  ACCEN 102175; ACCENTUS MUSIC -; Classica Orchestrale

• Mahler/ Boulez: Symphony No. 2 (EUROARTS 2054424) | Blu Ray | (28/11/2011) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £29.99

  I will ship by EMS or SAL items in stock in Japan. It is approximately 7-14days on delivery date. You wholeheartedly support customers as satisfactory. Thank you for you seeing it.

• Berliner Luft - New Year's Concert | DVD | (20/04/2001) from £21.58   |  Saving you £-1.59 (-8.00%)   |  RRP £19.99

  One of the things DVD can do is capture the sense of an occasion: Berliner Luft admirably gives us the feeling of how it was to be at this 1997 gala in the Unter den Linden State Opera of a reunited Berlin. Daniel Barenboim gives us a mixture of light and very light music; the weightiest items here are the duet "La ci Darem" from Mozart's Don Giovanni performed with charm and energy by Dorothea Roeschmann and Rene Pape, and Saint-Saens' Introduction and Rondo Cappricioso given with real fire by the young violinist Raphael Christ. Much of the rest of the programme is standard German lightweight cheerfulness--with songs such as "Untern Linden", Gluhwurmchen-idyll" and "Berliner Luft"--but Barenboim also gives us a couple of slightly rarer items: Shostakovich's "Tahiti Trot", an endlessly inventive paraphrase of "Tea for Two" and Kurt Weill's celebratory "Berlin im Licht" performed with aplomb by the gravel-voiced HK Gruber. All this accompanied by cutaways of waltzing couples and magicians moving among them doing interesting things with cards and handkerchiefs... --Roz Kaveney