Murray Perahia (Piano, Conductor), The Chamber Orchestra of Europe
VHS Video, Sony Classical (1992)
[Previous Article]/[Up]/[Wolfy Top]/[Next]
This video consists of two parts: (1) the Rehearsal and (2) the Performance.
Actually the content of the performance section of this video is identical with the one of an audio CD (Sony Classics - #46485). And in terms of the sound quality the CD surpasses this VHS video version. There is no doubt about it. So the value of this video depends on the content and the quality of the rehearsal section. And they are excellent. I will explain some of the features that make this video a must-buy for the people who love Mozart's music.
The rehearsal part is a nice blend of the talk-beside-the-piano (Sir Forman interviewing with Murray Perahia) and the rehearsal scene (in Kammermusiksaal in Berliner Philharmonie). Sometimes the camera switches from the talk to the related rehearsal scene in such an effective and smooth way that you can easily understand and appreciate Perahia's interpretation.
In the interview with Murray Perahia, Sir Denis Forman asked him some important and interesting questions. Let me show you a few examples:
With just a single glance over those questions,
any Mozartian must feel the urge to purchase
this video! :-) And Murray answered those questions not
only with his verbal explanation but also
with his piano by picking up some examples
from Mozart's scores: e.g. in order to show how the ornamentation works
in Mozart's slow movement, Murray showed
his example in the 2nd mov. of K. 595, and
then Mozart's own example in the 2nd mov.
of K. 451. With this "lecture-beside-the-piano"
style, his explanation is very convincing
as well as enjoyable to listen to.
Perhaps you will witness the highlight of the rehearsal section when Murray explains how the key changes in the development section in the first movement of K. 595. There, even the layman such as I can have a fairly clear understanding of what Jean-Victor Hocquard wrote, "in Mozart, changing keys itself makes a song!"
The original digital master tape of the audio part of this video was processed and recorded in a 20-bit format. In order to record in a CD, a 20-bit master must be digitally transformed into a 16-bit format. Of course, the rich information contained in the original 20-bit master can not be preserved in its entirety in the downgraded 16-bit format. However, the engineers in SONY apparently found a way to replicate the rich harmony and brilliant tone of the 20-bit master in the 16-bit CD format. As a result, the sound gained by this method captures discernibly more nuances than the conventional 16-bit-only method did.
As far as I know, this recording belongs to one of the earliest generations of 20-bit format recordings. Thanks to the choice of this recording method combined with the rich acoustic effects of the Siemens Villa[*], the sound quality in the CD version is quite superb: you can enjoy both the rich harmony and the subtle nuances in the texture. And above all, Murray Perahia's brilliant and smooth touch was well reproduced in this recording, which was not accomplished in the previous recordings he made with English Chamber Orchestra in the 1980's.
[*] The sound quality of the rehearsal section recorded in Kammermusiksaal is rather poor.
It's a shame we can not enjoy this beautiful video in a DVD. I firmly believe that Sony should release a DVD version of this recording. They even shot the video with a High Definiton TV camera! So we should be able to enjoy this video in a widescreen (16:9) anamorphic format when they release it in a DVD.
If you buy the CD version, you can at least enjoy the high-quality sound of the digital recording of this magnificent performance. Nevertheless, I do recommend to purchase this video version as well because it contains the wonderful and precious rehearsal section as I explained above.
[Prev. Article]/[Up]/[Wolfy Top]/[Next]