Beethoven-Symphonies Nos. 7 & 8 (Daniel Berenboim) (DVD-Audio) (2000) (NTSC)

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General		Extras
Category	Classical	Gallery-Photo Notes-Beethoven's Works In Their Time Featurette-Barenboim on DVD Trailer-3 DVD Credits Booklet
Rating
Year Of Production	2000
Running Time	67:24
RSDL / Flipper	No/No	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu
Region Coding	1,2,3,4,5,6	Directed By	Daniel Barenboim
Studio Distributor	Warner Vision	Starring	Berliner Staatskapelle
Case	DVD-Audio Jewel
RPI	$34.95	Music	Ludwig Van Beethoven

    Recorded solely with DVD-Audio in mind in 1999, the Barenboim collection of Beethoven symphonies is an instantly collectable series of the major composer’s work, something very important to have around when trying to establish a new format. Indeed, Beethoven’s 9th can be found shipping freely with many new DVD-Audio players as a wonderful introduction to the format. Few people can fail to be touched by his music, and it is for this reason his symphonies attract so much attention by artists, studios and the public.

     Both the 7th and the 8th symphonies are perfect partners, being composed in the same year (1812) and taking up only little more than an hour when played back-to-back. Perhaps the 7th is the more well-known of the two, and certainly it is the more sombre in some respects, with the 2nd movement Allegretto being positively devastating in its gut-wrenching emotion. The 8th is livelier, shorter and somewhat easier to take in.

     The performances for both are superb, and although I do find that Barenboim’s interpretation can be at times slightly dry, I also find a great deal of satisfaction can be gained with each new listening session. I think one could do a lot worse than have the complete Teldec Barenboim cycle of Beethoven symphonies in their collection, and the 7th and 8th continue the level of quality I have come to expect from them.

Video

     Stills are available for browsing whilst the MLP tracks are playing - which it should be noted are not available when listening to this in DVD-V mode with Dolby Digital where only the jacket image is presented. They are finely detailed and worth a look, if only once. The video clip is equally well presented, with no significant artefacts worth noting.

Video Ratings Summary

Sharpness
Shadow Detail
Colour
Grain/Pixelization
Film-To-Video Artefacts
Film Artefacts
Overall

Audio

     The sound quality is nothing short of breathtaking in almost every respect. Perhaps the first quality which is conveyed is a sense of “ease” with which instruments are portrayed. Timbre and tonality are presented with discretion and truth, something greatly lacking when compared with CDs which tend to clump instruments together and homogenize them. The next is depth and environment – you truly get to feel people in the room during quieter moments, hear the creaking of chairs, the turning of pages, and even breathing. Delicate passages are conveyed with poignancy, and indeed the orchestra can at times become very quiet and yet instruments still sound superb – and then in true Beethoven fashion can be in the very next instant an all-out assault, handled with aplomb by the generous dynamic range of this format.

     The soundstage is expansive in width and depth, though a conservative approach to multi-channel presentation has been employed. The orchestra is very much to the front, with the the front channels doing most of the work. The surrounds provide ambience and environment cues in a manner which adds warmth and life to the recording, and this is the preferred and most natural way to present a symphonic orchestra as a “live” performance.

     By way of contrast, the Dolby Digital 5.0 soundtrack merely goes through the motions, and in particular is robbed of fine left-to-right and front-to-back imaging accuracy. Certainly you can still enjoy the performance to a degree, but it ultimately lacks the subtlety and raw emotion which the PPCM track so effectively communicates.

Audio Ratings Summary

Dialogue
Audio Sync
Clicks/Pops/Dropouts
Surround Channel Use
Subwoofer
Overall

Gallery-Photo

Notes

Featurette

Trailer

• Mahler – Symphony No. 2
• Nickolaus Harnoncourt – Johann Straus In Berlin (highly, highly recommended)
• Carl Orff – Carmina Burana

DVD Credits

Booklet

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall