Christmas with Bach

Christmas with Bach concert recorded at the Marktkirche Hannover. Jörg Breiding conducts the Knabenchor Hannover and the Barockorchester L’Arco. Features soloists Antonia Bourvé (soprano); Claudia Erdmann (alto); Markus Schäfer (tenor); and Michael Jäckel (bass). The concert consists of three cantatas:

Nun komm, der Heiden Heiland BWV 61
Christen, ätzet diesen Tag BWV 63
Jauchzet, frohlocket, auf, preiset die Tage BWV 248 I

Directed for TV by Robert Gummlich; director of photography was Alexander Törzs; audio producer was Tobias Hoff; produced by Frank Hallmann. Released 2013, 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.