CD-Charts Position 1
Average Rating:

Harvest of Sorrow - Tony Palmer's Film About Sergei Rachmaninoff

starring: Rachmaninoff; Gielgud; Gergiev
directed by: Tony Palmer

Release Date July 31, 2007
I agree with the person giving the DVD a one star rating and talking about mockery of the "motherland". While the performances are good and I WOULD buy this DVD again, the footage of modern-day Russia is very misplaced and does not add, rather detracts from one trying to get a sense of Rachmaninoff's Russia and I feel should have been left out. Footage of Rachmaninoff himself however has been extremely interesting to see.

I did not find the narration to be very informative. In conclusion, while the historical footage and the performances are excellent, modern-day Russia footage and narrative are disappointing and left me with a feeling that something was missing. I would've liked to learn more historical facts from Rachmaninoff's ... Read More:

CD-Charts Position 2
Average Rating:

Cream - Farewell Concert

starring: Eric Clapton, Ginger Baker, Jack Bruce (II)
directed by: Tony Palmer, Sandy Oliveri

Release Date October 04, 2005
Cream - in the brief period of just two years - earned and gained the respect, admiration and countless praises of thousand and thousand people by then. Leonard Bernstein, believe o not, was one of his most fervent hard fans. In my personal case, Cream was one of my top bands between 1968 and 1970, the others were Steppenwolf, Vanilla Fudge, Doors, Ten years after and Band of Gypsies.

Their sound was utterly original, innovative and vibrating. Additionally every one of them was among the top list of virtuosos in every discipline. 100 % creativeness and full inspiration arouse a mesmerizing atmosphere wherever they appeared.

"Farewell Concert" is a nostalgic documental that revises the most exciting performances of ... Read More:

CD-Charts Position 3
Average Rating:

Stravinsky: Once at a Border / Tony Palmer

starring: Vera Stravinsky, Robert Craft
directed by: Tony Palmer

Release Date May 27, 2008
There has never been a time when Stravinsky's music was not important to me. The very first Classical recordings that I can recall purchasing decades ago were an LP set of Stravinsky conducting his epochal first three ballets (purchased along with the seminal DGG recording of Karlheinz Stockhausen's electronic masterpiece, Gesang der Junglinge). My ears were first attracted to vertical orchestral color and the distinctive differences in tone of the various musical instruments. In the history of music there have been few masters of instrumental color (as well as the temporal aspects of the orchestra) as creative and forceful as Igor Stravinsky. He was the most influential composer of the 20th Century. This marvelous 1982 film by British director Tony Palmer ... Read More:

CD-Charts Position 4
Average Rating:

Wagner - The Complete Epic

starring: Richard Burton, Vanessa Redgrave, László Gálffi, John Gielgud, Ralph Richardson
directed by: Tony Palmer

Release Date April 26, 2005
No matter what one thinks of Burton's performance (he died a year later), this series should be seen if only for the chance of glimpsing the Olivier-Gielgud-Richardson triumvirate once more (they appeared together in "Richard III"). A nice touch would be to buy this set at amazon.co.uk and pay less than half the price!

CD-Charts Position 5
Average Rating:

Tony Palmer's Film About Maria Callas - 30th Anniversary Edition

starring: Zeffirelli, Meneghini, Onassis, Sciutti, Visconti
directed by: Tony Palmer

Release Date January 13, 2008
This film by Tony Palmer was originally made thirty years ago but I had never seen it before. I have never been a huge fan of Callas (although I do think her recorded Tosca is the dramatically finest I know), and I came away from it stunned at the tragedy of her life and with immense respect for how she handled her admittedly somewhat compromised gifts. This DVD consists of a chronological retelling of her life story -- one that surely has all the makings itself of an opera; why hasn't anyone written one yet? -- and includes wonderful (mostly) black-and-white video clips of excerpts from performances by and interviews (as well as newsreel items) with Callas. The musical clips includes such things as 'Un voce poco far' (Barber of Seville), 'Oh, s'io potessi' ... Read More:

CD-Charts Position 6
Average Rating:

Testimony - Tony Palmer's Story of Shostakovich / Ben Kingsley

starring: Ben Kingsley, Sherry Baines, Magdalen Asquith, Mark Asquith, Terence Rigby
directed by: Tony Palmer

Release Date July 25, 2006
Having watched a 1-hour version of this film several years ago on TV, I was elated at finding out the complete version was on DVD. So much for the good news. When I started watching it I thought something was wrong with my DVD player; unfortunately (or fortunately!) there was nothing wrong with the player... the quality of the transfer is just horrible, equal to a very worn out VHS tape. For the price this is going for, it's highway robbery. You've been warned. By the way, the film is excellent... the sequence at Babi Yar is ver poignant. Hopefully someday the film will get a decent remastering. 5 stars for the film; 0 stars for the DVD. Too bad.

CD-Charts Position 7
Average Rating:

All My Loving

starring: The Beatles, Donovan Leitch, Anthony Burgess, George Martin, Cream (IV)
directed by: Tony Palmer

Release Date September 18, 2007
Another frustrating example of late '60's machine-gun film editing.
Images and faces coming at you in rapid bursts, barely pausing to let your brain process what you're looking at.
Ginger Baker performing an on-stage drum solo with the camera zeroed in on his head. No backing up to take his performance in context. Not even a pull-back shot of just him thrashing away on his kit. No. What you get is a trained shot inches away from his head. brilliant(he wrote sarcastically).
Jack Bruce singing the words to I'm So Glad and if all you wanted to see was JUST the close-up face of Jack Bruce singing those words and could care less about the GROUP he was in or other shots of the group members, well then you are in luck!
Same thing with Eric Burdon ... Read More:

CD-Charts Position 8
Average Rating:

England, My England - The Story of Henry Purcell

starring: Purcell; Callow; Gardiner
directed by: Tony Palmer

Release Date July 31, 2007
Since not much is known about Henry Purcell's life, the DVD focuses on the rantings of a writer/actor seeking to portray the England of Purcell's time. Unfortunately, the scenes jump from the late 60's to the 1600's and back again in a distracting manner. A lot of time is wasted on soap box monologues that have nothing to do with Purcell, or the England of his day. The DVD is a patchwork of dramatic scenes leading to the dramatist's hoped-for goal. In retrospect, this type of filming has become cliche.

CD-Charts Position 9
Average Rating:

God Rot Tunbridge Wells: The Life of Georg Frederic Handel

starring: Trevor Howard, Dave Griffiths, Christopher Bramwell, Peter Stanger, Shona Drummond
directed by: Tony Palmer

Release Date May 20, 2008
Since not much is known about Henry Purcell's life, the DVD focuses on the rantings of a writer/actor seeking to portray the England of Purcell's time. Unfortunately, the scenes jump from the late 60's to the 1600's and back again in a distracting manner. A lot of time is wasted on soap box monologues that have nothing to do with Purcell, or the England of his day. The DVD is a patchwork of dramatic scenes leading to the dramatist's hoped-for goal. In retrospect, this type of filming has become cliche.

CD-Charts Position 10
Average Rating:

Benjamin Britten: A Time There Was / Tony Palmer

directed by: Tony Palmer

Release Date November 21, 2006
The steady, deliberate pace of this revelatory documentary is clear from the first images and with the addition of Leonard Bernstein's equally careful, caring and deliberate opinions of Britten and his extraordinary output, the viewer is taken on a veritable ocean voyage through Britten's life. Most astonishing to me were the extended excerpts from the operas, all of them in previously unreleased and still unavailable footage. There are BBC video recordings of many of Britten's operas (a Peter Grimes with mostly the entire original cast) that remain archived somewhere. It is to Palmer's credit that he was able to secure access to these excerpts.

Britten's life was a rich and productive one. Others have commented here that there is much that is omitted. This cannot ... Read More: