Search - New Year's Concert 1991 [DVD Video] on DVD

Great celebration of sound

S. Pavlov | Illinois | 02/14/2008

(4 out of 5 stars)

"It is quite thrilling that this video finally appeared on DVD. It is a really great performance. However, this is not Abbado who we know from the Mahler DVDs with Lucerne orchestra. Of course, the performance is wonderfully musical, sensual and beautiful, but it is far from the ravishing concert that Kleiber offered in 1992 and even from the warmth of Georges Pretre's concert from 2008. It is much, much better than Mehta and Maazel and it is probably a little less exciting that Muti. Nevertheless, Abbado is one of the few really great conductors who are still among us. I would highly recommend this video."

Neujahrskonzert With Abbado, for collectors only

Rafael Rodriguez | Costa Rica | 10/02/2008

(4 out of 5 stars)

"I have been collecting the New Year's concerts for a while, since the 1987 one, this was the only one missing, so I was really happy when it finally was out. Even though it is indeed a great performance in general, the program of music included that year was not the best. I particularly don't find appealing the inclusion of the Schubert's pieces and the ones by Mozart does not mix well with the Strauss's music, at least for my taste, I found that music kind of interrupting the mood of the concert. It is interesting though, to listen to Rossini's "La Gazza Ladra" mostly because Abbado has proven over the years to be a master performing and recording this overture and the fact that this opens the concert makes it a "non intrusive" piece. Apart from the usual encores at the end, maybe the most known piece is the "Kaiser Walzer". The performance is great though I find Karajan's 1987 and Harnoncourt's 2003 better. Abbado also conducted this concert in 1988 and that one was much better than the 1991 one. If you are a collector of the New Year's concerts, or an Abbado's fan, go for it, if you are only interested in the music, you can find more satisfying recordings of it."