Stars: St. Petersburgh Philharmonic Orch, Yuri Temirkanov, BBC Symphony Orchestra, Georg Solti, BBC Philharmonic Orchestra, Richard Buckley, Jose Cura, Kenneth Branagh

Summary: Extracts from the works of Tchaikovsky including 'Eugene Onegin' and 'The Queen Of Spades'; Mahler including 'Das Lied Von Der Erde'; and Puccini including 'Manon Lescaut', 'La Boheme', 'Tosca' and 'Madame Butterfly'.

The lives and works of three of history's greatest composers are examined in this programme which originally appeared as part of the BBC's Great Composers television series. The point of departure for the study of the lives of Tchaikovsky, Puccini and Mahler is the music itself, and extensive footage of their work (featuring, among others, Solti, Cura and the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra) supports interviews and comment from eminent musicians, conductors and music-lovers.

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This three-hour compilation surveying the life and works of Tchaikovsky, Puccini and Mahler completes the BBC Great Composersseries (the two previous releases contain the pairings of Bach/Mozart and Beethoven/Wagner). It's a splendid series, full of judiciously collected biographical information, lively and telling visuals, colourful anecdotes and excellent excerpted performances of the composers' best works. The directors' styles are very different, from Kriss Rusmanis' impressionistic approach (with an early chamber piece of Mahler's accompanied by shots of rippling brooks and dappled sunlight) to Chris Hunt's more forthright take on Puccini, but each is well tailored to the subject matter. There is a certain amount of psychological speculation in each case (Mahler may have inherited his sense of irony from watching nine of his siblings die while the jolly life of his father's tavern continued unabated, for example) but there's nothing outrageous.

If you haven't hooked up your TV to some decent speakers the performances may sound a little pinched, but they are so good the quality shines through nonetheless; particularly noteworthy is Thomas Hampson's glorious reading of excerpts from Kindertotenlieder, and Georg Solti is on top form.

On the DVD:Great Composerson disc comes with subtitles in English, French, German, Spanish and Italian, but no other special features. --Warwick Thompson

Main Language:	English
Region:	Region 2
Subtitles:	English, French, German, Italian, Spanish
Year:	1997
Release Date:	May 13, 2002
Runtime:	177 minutes
Certification:	Exempt.
Catalogue Number:	0927 43538 2
Label:	N V C Arts
Keywords:	Great, Music, Mahler, Orchestral, Puccini, Tchaikovsky, Classical, Performing, Composers, Arts, Vol
Genre:	Music/Performing Arts