The best DVDs & Blu-rays of 2017
Gramophone
Friday, December 8, 2017
Here is our Editor Martin Cullingford's pick of the finest DVD and Blu-ray releases, as reviewed in Gramophone this year
January
Handel Alcina. Tamerlano
Les Talens Lyriques / Christophe Rousset
(Alpha)
This Handel double bill from the sure hands of Rousset and Les Talens Lyriques really caught critic David Vickers’s imagination: ‘essential viewing for those who take Handel as a dramatist seriously’, he concludes.
February
Elgar. Ligeti. Stravinsky. Wagner
Sol Gabetta vc Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra / Sir Simon Rattle
(EuroArts)
Two releases offer us Sol Gabetta’s Elgar Cello Concerto with Rattle this month, and both are highly recommended – a Sony CD and this Euroarts DVD.
March
Schoenberg Gurrelieder
Sols; Netherlands Philharmonic Orchestra / Marc Albrecht
Opus Arte
Gurrelieder as you probably won’t have seen it before: staged. ‘It makes’, as our critic Hugo Shirley puts it ‘for fascinating viewing.’
April
Puccini Turandot
Soloists; Orchestra of La Scala, Milan / Riccardo Chailly
Decca
Riccardo Chailly and his La Scala forces feature twice – and excellently – in this issue (see also Decca’s ‘Overtures, Preludes and Intermezzi’); this Turandot is great testimony to his work in Milan.
May
Verdi Un ballo in maschera
Sols; Chorus of the Bavarian State Opera; Bavarian State Orchestra / Zubin Mehta
C Major Entertainment
An unusual though intriguing staging concept, plus fine performances, earn this a ‘strongly recommended’ from reviewer Mike Ashman.
June
‘Maximum Reger’
Various artists
Fugue State Films
Reger enthusiasts will relish this, but those not so familiar with him should equally explore such compelling advocacy of the composer’s music, life and legacy, told through fascinating documentaries and glorious music-making.
July
Verdi Un ballo in maschera
Sols incl Ricciarelli & Domingo; Royal Opera, Covent Garden / Claudio Abbado
Opus Arte
An archive release from Covent Garden, 1975, featuring music-making from such greats as Plácido Domingo and, in the pit, Claudio Abbado.
August
Wagner Parsifal
Sols incl Ventris & Lang; Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra / Iván Fischer
Challenge Classics
The visual collaboration of Pierre Audi and Anish Kapoor – and of course, musically, Iván Fischer in the pit – is here captured on film.
Read the review in the Reviews Database
September
‘The Opening Concert’
NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchestra / Thomas Hengelbrock
C Major Entertainment
‘A record of an extraordinary musical event … highly recommended’, as critic Charlotte Gardner puts it. She was there, and is thus well qualified to assess how the event has transferred to film.
Awards 2017 Issue
Ravel. Delage. Dutilleux Orchestral Works
London Symphony Orchestra / Sir Simon Rattle
LSO Live
If you can’t make it to the Barbican to watch the new partnership in person, then here’s an excellent chance to observe Rattle and his new London colleagues in action. As Mark Pullinger puts it, it augurs well!
October
Faccio Hamlet
Prague Philharmonic Choir; Vienna Symphony Orchestra / Paolo Carignani
C Major Entertainment
This release of a virtually unknown 19th-century Shakespearean opera constitutes, so writes our reviewer Mark Pullinger, ‘a major operatic rediscovery’.
November
Mozart Così fan tutte
Soloists; Paris Opéra / Philippe Jordan
Arthaus Musik
This attempt to entwine dance and opera soon won over our critic Mark Pullinger – and by the end had him hooked. Add in high-level music-making too, and, if the concept intrigues, you may well feel likewise!
December
Monteverdi L’Orfeo
Soloists; Les Arts Florissants / Paul Agnew
Harmonia Mundi
Having excelled in Monteverdi’s Madrigals, Paul Agnew and Les Arts Florissants turn to L’Orfeo. The players are put on stage, part of the action or, as critic David Vickers puts it, part of ‘democratic music-making’.
