The 2007 Newport Music Festival – Connoisseur’s
Collection (Acorn Media DVD Box
Set)
Picture:
C+ Sound: C+ Extras: C+ Concerts: B+
Without a
doubt, one of the most beautiful places in the U.S. is Newport, Rhode Island, a
place with so much wealth, architecture and history that it has to be seen to
be believed. It is also one of the
primary places where the arts thrive, with its name associated with the good
life in ways that has become synonymous with exclusivity. If it were not so cold in the winter months,
you would hear more about it. We have
had many Classical titles in many formats, but none have been as massive as The 2007 Newport Music Festival –
Connoisseur’s Collection from Acorn Media.
This
10-DVD set comes in a book-like slipcase with DigiPak pages that make this look
like an upscale piece of literature. The
main concerts run 15 hours and there are 6 bonus hours, adding up to 21 hours
of Classical Chamber Music you would usually expect from the likes of a CD box
set or the old extended vinyl record boxes that were a staple of Classical
Music on phonograph records. It is
amazing it took this long for such a release on DVD at 10+ years and going, but
leave it to a class act like Acorn to pull it off.
The
artists and legendary composers covered include:
1)
Adam
Golka (Schubert, Chopin, Liszt, Medtner, Kapustin, Schumann, Rachmaninoff)
2)
Chopiniana
(Chopin, Schubert)
3)
Lisztening
Post (Liszt, Korngold)
4)
Colorado
Quartet (Haydn, Beethoven, Dvorak,)
5)
Newport
Music Festival POPS! (Mozart, Tchaikovsky, Rachmaninoff)
6)
All
In The Family (Mozart, Grieg, Hubay, Sarasate, Staub, Dubois, Holbrooke,
Granados)
7)
Pieces
Of Eight (Hérold, Moscheles, Bruch, Mendelssohn, Villa-Lobos)
8)
Festival
Gala (Schumann, Liszt)
9)
Connoisseur
Concert (Hummel, Elgar, Wieniawski, The Dopplers, Litolff)
10) Best Of The Fest (Mozart, Chopin, Gottschalk,
Bach, Schubert)
I am only
sorry we could not name every single musician individually, but they are very
talented and each takes their lifetime to sometimes learn only one instrument. Some can cover others, but the result is a
certain kind of energy only an event like this can generate and that more than
justifies a major set like this. If you
are a big fan, it is worth every penny.
The
anamorphically enhanced 1.78 X 1 image throughout looks good, but is slightly
soft too, suggesting limits from the downtrade to DVD and maybe the use of
1080i (versus 1080p) HD cameras, but the result are still colorful, clean and
clear enough to enjoy very much. The
Dolby Digital 5.1 is usually a nice on each main program, but I wish was in
richer DTS, with soundstage in Dolby varying more than I would have liked. Extras include bonus performances on each
disc, color booklet loaded with information and on-camera comments by Festival
founder Dr. Mark P. Malkovich, III. All
told, that makes it one of the riches DVD box sets we’ll see all year.
- Nicholas Sheffo