Europakonzert 2010 Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		4.0
Video		4.0
Audio		4.5
Extras		0.0
Overall		4.0

Europakonzert 2010 Blu-ray Movie Review

Cellist Alisa Weilerstein highlights this May Day offering at Oxford's Sheldonian Theatre.

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman October 23, 2010

Most of us in the United States don’t really have a lot of experience with the festive, sometimes outright raucous, celebrations surrounding May Day. Indeed “may day” for many Americans serves as a distress call, and that same idea is spilling over into some European countries, where the holiday has been celebrated for centuries in various guises but has become increasingly boisterous and even dangerous in modern times. May Day also served, in 1882, as the birthday for the Berlin Philharmonic, long one of the bastions of high minded traditionalism among the continental orchestral troupes. Since the fall of the Berlin wall, the Philharmonic has made its birthday celebration part of an outreach to various European locations to breed a spirit of brotherhood and commonality among the members of the EU. Cynics might decry this as a thinly veiled attempt to inveigle the audience toward that other traditional May Day call to brotherhood (i.e., Communism). But those with more liberal sensibilities will simply see this new tradition as a chance to share some luscious music played by some of the finest musicians available, all under the recondite baton of Daniel Barenboim. Such is the case with this slightly odd concatenation of three very different pieces, one Wagner, one Elgar and one Brahms, performed by the Berlin Philharmonic in the lovely and intimate setting of Oxford’s Sheldonian Theatre on April 30 and May 1, 2010.

Barenboim starts the concert out with the slowly burnished strains of one of Wagner’s more meditative pieces, the Prelude to Act 3 of Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg. Kenneth Chalmers makes the point in his introductory comments in this Blu-ray’s liner notes that this piece is perfectly a propos a May Day concert, as in Wagner’s opera it comes when Meistersinger’s hero, Hans Sachs, is reacting to having witnessed the same sort of Bacchanalian exploits Londoners themselves had probably seen during the sometimes out of control May Day celebrations of 2010 in and around their fair city. This is a gorgeous, slowly building piece that exploits a number of deeply burnished timbres brilliantly, and the Berlin Philharmonic plays it languidly and with considerable lyricism.

After having presented something iconically German, Barenboim and his orchestra delve into the British repertoire with a lovely and nuanced reading of Edward Elgar’s magnificent Cello Concerto in E minor, Op. 85. While this piece is often associated with Oxford’s own paradigmatic cellist, Jacqueline du Pré, here we’re given a solid and really astoundingly musical interpretation by the young American Alisa Weilerstein. This formidable woman, still in her early 20s, started playing her instrument when she was a mere four years old, and she made her professional debut at the tender age of 13 with the Cleveland Orchestra. (It should be noted her father is the first chair violinist of the Cleveland Quartet). Here Weilerstein brings a surprising maturity to her interpretation, offering some incredible vibrato and portamenti, especially in the first movement which is completely dominated by the soloist. Weilerstein’s gentle pizzicatti introduce the brief, oddly sad Scherzo, and then she commands the dialogue again with the uninterrupted solo line of the third movement. Elgar uses a “callback” technique in his Rondo finale, with little snippets or allusions to previously heard themes. The orchestra and Weilerstein trade phrases in this movement almost like jazz players, and it makes for a delightful finish to one of the most formidable pieces for cello.

Barenboim is both astoundingly invigorating and also almost comically non-intrusive in his reading of the Brahms Symphony No. 1 in C Minor, which, like the other pieces in this concert, he conducts without a score. This piece gets off to a bracing start with its redolent tympani and massive crescendi. At times Barenboim seems to just step back, letting his baton drop for a moment, as if he knows his players have done this a million times and don’t really need him waving his arms in front of them. And the Berlin Philharmonic plays this gorgeous piece, often (though in my not so humble opinion, inaccurately) called Beethoven’s Tenth. The bookending first and fourth movements are especially impressive here, with fluid changes in tempi and dynamics. Solo players, especially the clarinet, offer some beautiful lyrical passages in the interior movements, and over all this is an extremely athletic, though very balanced, reading of this momentous work of symphonic art.

It’s to Barenboim and the Berlin Philharmonic’s joint credit that a concert featuring three at least relatively disparate pieces coheres so successfully as a cogent concert experience. That said, it’s the central Elgar performance with the really exciting presence of Alisa Weilerstein which will probably be the real calling card to a lot of classical music junkies for this title, and they most definitely will not be disappointed.

Europakonzert 2010 Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

As odd as it may sound, the best part of watching this concert may be the chance to see Christopher Wren's gorgeous Sheldonian Theatre in Oxford, a quaint and close quartered structure which has the audience virtually in the Philharmonic's lap. Delivered via an AVC codec, in 1080i and 1.78:1, this concert looks beautifully bright and wonderfully crisp, especially for an interlaced source video. This was evidently a daytime concert, and the spring light fills the hall with a lovely sunny ambience that casts the players and the Sheldonian itself in a lustrous saffron hue. Detail is quite good throughout the concert, and colors are exceptionally robust, highlighted by Weilerstein's astoundingly red gown.

Europakonzert 2010 Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

I seldom if ever have major problems with the lossless stereo fold downs provided on most of the classical musical titles distributed by Naxos, EuroArts being among them, but I recommend highly you stick with the DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 mix rather than LPCM 2.0 mix on this disc. The 5.1 mix is so much more spacious than the stereo mix, and it provides such exquisite separation between the sections of the orchestra, and most especially between Weilerstein and the orchestra, that I heartily suggest you not even bother with the stereo version. This track sports brilliant fidelity, with an amazing dynamic range which comes to the fore most especially in the Brahms, which provides some thundering tutti that will shake your rafters. The Sheldonian has beautiful acoustics, if with somewhat less hall reverb than larger continental venues provide, and that ambience is captured perfectly on this DTS HD-Master Audio 5.1 track.

Europakonzert 2010 Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

Only trailers (which I never count) are included on the Blu-ray. The insert booklet has introductory comments as well as brief essays on the Elgar and the Brahms. Wagner gets left out, strangely.

Europakonzert 2010 Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

You may not exactly be willing to run out and dance around the maypole and/or join the Wobblies, but this May Day concert is a quietly festive undertaking that is sure to provide aural delights galore. Weilerstein is amazing and the Berlin Philharmonic sounds gorgeous under the solid direction of Barenboim. Recommended.