Rostropovich Don Quixote & Salzburg

[thitch]

I had mentioned this to Linda privately the other day, that DG's new Rostropovich DVD (Life & Art) is just released with his Karajan/Berlin Don Quixote. It is great to have a nice DVD copy of this performance, finally - if they will now hopefully re-release the Weissenberg Rachmaninov concerto that was included as the second feature on what - as far as I know - is still the only one available, and only on VHS.

I would also recommend Tony Palmer's film about the Salzburg Festival as well. Although it is a documentary history of the Festival since its inception to the present day, it is nonetheless worth the price of admission just for the fairly good sections on Karajan alone.

Tim.

[darkehmen]

thitch said:

if they will now hopefully re-release the Weissenberg Rachmaninov concerto that was included as the second feature on what - as far as I know - is still the only one available, and only on VHS.

Fortunately, that Rachmaninov film will indeed be included on the forthcoming "Karajan in Concert" DVD that DG is releasing in March:

tinyurl.com/2385an

thitch said:

I would also recommend Tony Palmer's film about the Salzburg Festival...worth the price of admission just for the fairly good sections on Karajan alone.

"Alone" -- very truly. It's horrible to see what's become of that festival since Karajan departed. Even the former Austrian chancellor is featured in Palmer's film despairing of what the modernist directors had done to this once-glorious cultural event. But the Karajan sections are indeed worth viewing.