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FYI for all those in NTSC-world who are curious about these. I recently purchased the Chinese pressing of these and thought a few of you might appreciate the specs on them.
These concerts were, with the exception of the ninth, filmed in Rome. They're available in Europe on PAL DVDs, two symphonies to a DVD, I believe. The China/HongKong box set has 8 discs, each with one symphony, except one. I forget the coupling. The packlaging of these is a mixed bag. The box is sturdy and looks official. The individual two-disc plastic cases feel cheap; the individual DVDs have horrible second-generation looking text and images. It seems clear that the DVDs are not dual-layer; they seem to have been produced in the cheapes manner possible. They even have and adhesive mark near the inner hole; I have no idea why.
The box states that the DVDs are zone 3. They aren't- they play on standard US players.
The video and audio quality is beyond serious criticism. For my taste, the video is a bit oversharpened, which produces more artefacts on my cheaper player. The sound seems fine. Syms. 1-8 have three audio tracks- straight PCM, Dolby Digital (5.1, I believe) and DTS. Sym. 9's menu states that it has three audio tracks, but does not have a PCM track- only Dolby Digital (assuming that it really is what it says it is).
The 9th is from an earlier concert at the Philharmonie- early enough that we see Abbado before his illness. It is not the same 9th as the DVD with the Pletnev piano concerto. While some have commented on Abbado's dull Beethoven 9th, I found myself easily absorbed by the performance, at least the part I saw.
These boxes are being advertised on EBay as having a second video track- a static shot of Abbado. I have found no evidence that any of these DVDs have such a track. And I know how to get to it, trust me. I suppose I should be grateful enough for the three (er, 2 and 7/8) audio tracks. They could have cut them out, too.
The performances, on first, very superficial inspection, appear far more incisive and a bit more aggressive than the BPO of the past. The orchestra sound is lean and not at all like the BPO early in Abbado's tenure (when it was still very Karajan-esque), as far as I can tell. I thought this was detectable in his recent Mahler 7, for instance. It is strange to watch the orchestra, as there are so few familiar faces, and the Karajan army now seems sensibly-sized and conventional. I haven't decided whether this is good or bad.
Anyway, you can take the above with a grain of salt- I'm no real expert, and I've barely sunk my teeth into these. The set is not quite what it is advertised as, but since you can get this on auction for around $50, it is certainly no ripoff.
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Amanda
pietersejl
Champion_Munch
