Brahms Symphony No. 1, Dvořák Symphony No. 9, Sibelius Symphony No. 5, Nielsen Symphony No. 3

Four Symphonies Concert. Here's the program:

Brahms Symphony No. 1
Dvořák Symphony No. 9 "New World"
Sibelius Symphony No. 5
Nielsen Symphony No. 3 "Sinfonia Espansiva"

Thomas Dausgaard conducts the Danish National Symphony Orchestra at the Koncerthuset in Copenhagen. Also features interviews with Dausgaard. Directed for TV by Arne J. Rasmussen and Uffe Borgtardt; Sound Producer was Preben Iwan; Sound Engineer was Jan Oldrup. Released 2012, disc has 5.1 dts-HD Master Audio sound. Grade: NA

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Here's news about high-definition video disc ("HDVD") recordings of opera, ballet, classical music, plays, fine-art documentaries, and paintings. In the journal below are independent (and hard-to-find critical) reports on hundreds of HDVDs. Pick the best titles for your excelsisphere.

Feb 25. We have just completed one of our most ambitious reviews: Einstein on the Beach opera, the surreal 4 and 1/2 hour cult legend. Kudos, encomiums, and accolades to Opus Arte for giving us this authoritative and weirdly fascinating recording, which we grade A+. Absorbing and learning Einstein is uniquely challenging. We try to help out by providing aids not included in the keepcase materials: an accurate libretto and a list of segments in the opera with correct Opus Arte time stamps. Good luck!

We have some other good grades with an A for the recent Met The Pearl Fishers (Les pêcheurs de perles) and a B- for an earlier The Pearl Fishers from Naples. Also, we recently gave an A- for the new Don Quixote from the Vienna State Ballet.