Mahler Symphonies Nos. 3 and 4

Mahler Symphony No. 3 and Symphony No. 4. Paavo Järvi conducts the Frankfurt Radio Symphony Orchestra, Limburger Domsingknaben, and the MDR-Rundfunkchor Leipzig. Features Waltraud Meier (mezzo-soprano) and Genia Kühmeier (soprano). Directed for TV by Michael Ciniselli. Released 2015, disc has 5.1 dts-HD Master Audio sound. Grade: F-

Now we have learned that both of these recordings were done on SD cameras for DVDs and then uprezed for Blu-ray presentation. See our review of the full Mahler S1-10 box for details.

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Here's news about high-definition video disc ("HDVD") recordings of opera, ballet, classical music, plays, fine-art documentaries, and paintings. In the journal below are independent (and hard-to-find critical) reports on hundreds of HDVDs. Pick the best titles for your excelsisphere.

Feb 25. We have just completed one of our most ambitious reviews: Einstein on the Beach opera, the surreal 4 and 1/2 hour cult legend. Kudos, encomiums, and accolades to Opus Arte for giving us this authoritative and weirdly fascinating recording, which we grade A+. Absorbing and learning Einstein is uniquely challenging. We try to help out by providing aids not included in the keepcase materials: an accurate libretto and a list of segments in the opera with correct Opus Arte time stamps. Good luck!

We have some other good grades with an A for the recent Met The Pearl Fishers (Les pêcheurs de perles) and a B- for an earlier The Pearl Fishers from Naples. Also, we recently gave an A- for the new Don Quixote from the Vienna State Ballet.