Europa Konzert from Lisbon
November 2004 Reviewed by: Anthony Di Marco Format: DVD	(all ratings out of 5): Overall Enjoyment Picture Quality Packaged Extras Sound Quality

For the last 13 years, the Berlin Philharmonic has traveled to a different European city to celebrate its founding on May 1, 1882. For their 2003 concert, they traveled to a 16th-century monastery outside Lisbon where they recorded this DVD. The program is one that plays to Pierre Boulez’s strengths, emphasizing classical form along with a touch of modernism. The DVD starts with Ravel’s Le Tombeau de Couperin, which the orchestra plays at a lilting rhythm and with delightful pacing. Maria Joăo Pires is the soloist for the Mozart Piano Concerto No.20 in D Minor, and she plays with great elegance and style, caressing the slow movement and dashing through the third movement’s Allegro Assai.

The great showpiece on the DVD is the Bartók Concerto for Orchestra, a piece of stunning difficulty that the Berlin Philharmonic tosses off as though it were "Chopsticks." The orchestra returns for an encore of Debussy’s Fętes from Trois Nocturnes, a strangely sedate choice for an encore, but beautifully played, nonetheless.

This EuroArts DVD is beautifully photographed and the picture quality is excellent throughout. Director Bob Coles did a nice job of capturing the various members of the orchestra at just the most important moments. There is no credit for who did the sound mixing, and the three tracks sound quite different. In the PCM and Dolby Digital mixes, the sound is multi-mono with most everything mixed to the front. Only in the Finale of the Bartók (chapter 13), where the orchestra is pounding, whooping, and chugging at full intensity, do we hear any ambience. Conversely, the DTS track is rich and detailed with a deep soundstage and plenty of ambient detail.

EuroArts offers only two extras: a 20-minute puff piece about Lisbon called "A Portrait of Lisbon" and a few candid pictures from the rehearsals. These neither add to nor detract from a fine concert DVD.

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