"Actor: The English Baroque Soloists"

• Monteverdi: Vespers Of The Blessed Virgin | DVD | (03/03/2003) from £13.28   |  Saving you £0.71 (5.10%)   |  RRP £13.99

  Monteverdi's 'Vespers Of The Blessed Virgin' performed by the Monteverdi Chior and The English Baroque Soloists. Standing out among the excellent soloists like Ann Monoyious Michael Chance Mark Tucker and Alistaire Miles is the young Bryn Terfel. The archiecture of St. Mark's Venice is used to spectacular advantage with singers and their accompanists isolated at some distance from the main chior and orchestra.

• Bach: Cantatas | DVD | (02/11/2001) from £20.00   |  Saving you £-0.01 (N/A%)   |  RRP £19.99

  Taking the Bach Cantatas as a basis for a year-long pilgrimage in 2000, conductor Sir John Eliot Gardiner led the Monteverdi Choir and English Baroque Soloists on an emotional and artistically triumphant world tour to celebrate the 250th anniversary of the composer’s death. Many of the Cantatas were performed in religious buildings throughout Europe and even in New York, at appropriate times in the liturgical calendar. These performances feature Cantatas 179, 199 and 113, all composed for the 11th Sunday after Trinity, in marvellously dramatic interpretations by the Choir and soloists including soprano Magdalena Kozen, alto William Towers, tenor Mark Padmore and Stephan Loges. Gardiner’s mission to expose the delicacy of emotion at the heart of Bach’s deceptively simple melodies pays dividends in settings which range from baroque German cathedrals to the austere bleakness of Iona. Filmed by BBC Wales, the concerts create a moving spiritual journey in which the music itself is allowed to take centre stage thanks to the passion of the performances and, above all, to Gardiner’s vision of Bach’s continuing relevance in the modern world at the beginning of a new millennium. On the DVD: thanks to the crystal clarity of the PCM Stereo soundtrack and Surround Sound, it’s possible to reproduce at home the distinctive acoustics of the different venues where the cantatas are performed. The picture quality (anamorphic 16:9 ratio) makes for the standard television viewing experience but it’s the music which counts. Extras include a 60-minute documentary explaining Gardiner’s vision for the pilgrimage, with further performance extracts, giving a sense of the sheer size and ambition of the project--not least the logistical issues of moving a large group of performers around such a diverse range of locations. It also shows the extent to which the performers become absorbed by Bach’s music and through it, discover new aspects of their own spirituality. Extensive booklet notes include full texts of the featured Cantatas and the double-sided disc allows viewing in PAL or NTSC format.--Piers Ford

• Christmas Oratorio - Johann Sebastian Bach | DVD | (03/12/2001) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £24.99

  The Christmas Oratorio, Bach's six-part cantata cycle, was presented by The Monteverdi Choir under the direction of John Eliot Gardiner at the Heiderkirche in Weimar in December 2000 as the culmination of a year-long pilgrimage. Gardiner's mission had been to perform Bach's complete canon of liturgical cantatas, in appropriate religious settings, to celebrate the 250th anniversary of the composer's death. This is a magical record of a splendid musical occasion. Although the Oratorio is seasonal, the tale and the manner of its telling repay repeated listening regardless of the time of year. The commitment of Gardiner, his singers and musicians is deeply moving and is heightened by the splendid Baroque surroundings. The story, related largely by tenor Christoph Genz, is a rich tapestry of musical textures, ranging from the celebratory pastoral opening to the poignancy of many of the solo passages (soprano Claron McFadden's bell-like tones soar, in particular). In one of the accompanying brief documentaries, Gardiner says that at a time when we're weighed down with wallpaper music, Bach provides a means of escape through his sacred music. The proof is in the holistic nature of this piece, with its combined senses of nature at work and order, represented by the discipline of the music itself, of almost mathematical proportions. Sublime. On the DVD: two discs each contain three parts of the Oratorio with a short documentary providing some useful background to Gardiner's pilgrimage and an exploration of his belief that through music, "Bach tells us what it's like to be a human being as part of the universe." The picture format is 16:9 and provides ample digital quality; the setting inevitably imposes its own limits on the viewing experience. The segment for the "Third Day of Christmas" features a choice between the concert camera and the conductor camera so you can vary the picture, but this is really just a gimmick soon forgotten if you're mainly interested in the music. You can listen to the soundtrack in LCPM stereo (best), AC3 Digital 5.1 and DTS 5.1 surround. --Piers Ford

• John Eliot Gardiner - In Rehearsal | DVD | (13/06/2002) from £21.58   |  Saving you £-1.59 (N/A%)   |  RRP £19.99

  The In Rehearsal series continues to offer fascinating insights into the technique of conducting with this film about John Eliot Gardiner rehearsing Bach's Cantata BWV63 (Christen, ätzet diesen Tag). The venue is EMI's Abbey Road Studios, so there are the obligatory hackneyed shots of that zebra crossing at the beginning, but there's nothing else hackneyed about the rest of this engrossing film. The devil is in the detail: what Gardiner says about Bach and period performance (enlightening though it is) is less interesting than the way he says it. After one rousing chorus, for example, he leaves everyone breathless in silence while he digs some dirt from his fingernails before giving them a cool "Well done". A mild contretemps with the first trumpet leads to an interview in which the brass player nervously and darkly hints at even greater conflict under the surface of the rehearsal. It's remarkable to hear the sublime music-making that results despite, or perhaps because of, the tension: Gardiner continually urges the musicians to swing the beat and feel the pulse as if it were a dance, and they do. One quibble: the names of the soloists aren't credited anywhere, so here they are: Ann Monoyios, Sara Mingardo, Rufus Müller and Stephan Loges. On the DVD: John Eliot Gardiner in Rehearsal is presented in 4:3 ratio, with PCM Stereo sound format. The picture quality is clear without being lustrous, but perfectly adequate for the needs of the subject. The disc has subtitles available in English, German, French and Spanish. --Warwick Thompson

• Weihnachtsoratorium BWV 248 - Christmas Oratorio Part 1 To 6 | DVD | (31/12/2007) from £26.98   |  Saving you £-6.99 (N/A%)   |  RRP £19.99

  A performance of Bach's Christmas Oratorio recorded in Herderkirche in Weimar in 1999. John Eliot Gardiner conducts the Monteverdi Choir and the English Baroque Soloists.