"Actor: Itzhak Perlman"

• The Fantasia Collection | DVD | (11/12/2000) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £49.99

  More ambitious in scope than any of its other animated films (before or to come), Disney's 1940 Fantasia was a dizzying, magical and highly enjoyable marriage of classical music and animated images. Fantasia 2000, originally made for the IMAX large-screen format, features some breathtaking animation and storytelling, and in a few spots soars to wonderful high points, but it still more often than not has the feel of walking in its predecessor's footsteps as opposed to creating its own path. A family of whales swimming and soaring to Respighi's The Pines of Rome is magical to watch, but ends all too soon; a forest sprite's dance of life, death and rebirth to Stravinsky's The Rite of Spring too clearly echoes the original Fantasia's Night on Bald Mountain/Ave Maria sequence. But when it's on target, Fantasia 2000 is glorious enough to make you giddy. Hans Christian Andersen's "The Steadfast Tin Soldier" is a perfect narrative set to Shostakovich's Piano Concerto No. 2, and Donald Duck's guest appearance as the assistant to Noah (of the Ark fame) set to Elgar's Pomp and Circumstance marches is a welcome companion piece (though not an equal) to The Sorcerer's Apprentice, the one original Fantasia piece included here. The high point of Fantasia 2000, though, is a fantastic day-in-the-life sequence of 1930s New York City set to Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue and animated in the style of cartoonist Al Hirschfeld; it's a perfect melding of music, story and animation style. Let's hope future Fantasias (reportedly in the works) take a cue from the best of this compilation. The music is provided by the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, conducted by James Levine, interspersed with negligible intros by Steve Martin, Bette Midler, Itzhak Perlman, James Earl Jones and others. --Mark Englehart

• Beethoven - Triple Concerto And Choral F | DVD | (10/09/2007) from £18.88   |  Saving you £-2.89 (-18.10%)   |  RRP £15.99

  Beethoven - Triple Concerto - Choral Fantasy:

• The Victor Borge Collection Volume 1 | DVD | (05/11/2011) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £29.99

  Do you love serious classical music? Well, you've come to the wrong place! This is classically funny music as only legendary international entertainer Victor Borge, 'the brilliant comedian and master of the keyboard', can perform it. Borge has made generations laugh with his timeless routines and dazzling musicianship. Here are three of 'The Great Dane's' greatest programmes in one box set. Disc 1: Lost Episodes of Victor Borge, Vol.1 Including: Shampoo Music, How Composers Compose, Practisin...

• Fantasia 2000 | DVD | (27/11/2000) from £11.41   |  Saving you £9.84 (96.95%)   |  RRP £19.99

  More ambitious in scope than any of its other animated films (before or to come), Disney's 1940 Fantasia was a dizzying, magical and highly enjoyable marriage of classical music and animated images. Fantasia 2000, originally made for the IMAX large-screen format, features some breathtaking animation and storytelling, and in a few spots soars to wonderful high points, but it still more often than not has the feel of walking in its predecessor's footsteps as opposed to creating its own path. A family of whales swimming and soaring to Respighi's The Pines of Rome is magical to watch, but ends all too soon; a forest sprite's dance of life, death and rebirth to Stravinsky's The Rite of Spring too clearly echoes the original Fantasia's Night on Bald Mountain/Ave Maria sequence. But when it's on target, Fantasia 2000 is glorious enough to make you giddy. Hans Christian Andersen's "The Steadfast Tin Soldier" is a perfect narrative set to Shostakovich's Piano Concerto No. 2, and Donald Duck's guest appearance as the assistant to Noah (of the Ark fame) set to Elgar's Pomp and Circumstance marches is a welcome companion piece (though not an equal) to The Sorcerer's Apprentice, the one original Fantasia piece included here. The high point of Fantasia 2000, though, is a fantastic day-in-the-life sequence of 1930s New York City set to Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue and animated in the style of cartoonist Al Hirschfeld; it's a perfect melding of music, story and animation style. Let's hope future Fantasias (reportedly in the works) take a cue from the best of this compilation. The music is provided by the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, conducted by James Levine, interspersed with negligible intros by Steve Martin, Bette Midler, Itzhak Perlman, James Earl Jones and others. --Mark EnglehartFantasia and Fantasia 2000 are also available together in the three-disc DVD Fantasia Collection.

• The Art Of Violin | DVD | (02/04/2001) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £17.99

  A documentary film by Bruno Monsaingeon devoted to the 20th century's greatest violinists, The Art of Violin really cannot be faulted. The same, incidentally, can also be said of the similar volumes which cover the piano and singing, so there's never been a better time to collect a personal audio-visual archive of some wonderful historical performers. The added dimension provided by the painstakingly collected film material (here featuring no fewer than 20 outstanding soloists) is of course of exceptional value when observing violin technique, and the diversity of approaches presented here in loving detail is in itself a subject for endless comparison. The material mixes archive performance footage, much of which one might never have dreamed existed, with interviews and documentary commentary. However, rather than turn the project into a museum piece, Monsaingeon includes contributions from contemporary figures such as Perlman and, shrewdly, Hilary Hahn--not that there'd be any doubt of the huge relevance of the material to any contemporary player or lover of the repertoire. An absolute must. --Roger Thomas

• Itzhak Perlman - Virtuoso Violinist | DVD | (03/03/2008) from £20.65   |  Saving you £4.34 (21.02%)   |  RRP £24.99

  Itzhak Perlman: Virtuoso Violinist is a documentary DVD containing the following performances: I Know I Played Every Note The Trout Remembered Jacqueline Du Pr Remembered The E Major Bach Partita The D Minor Bach Partita (Including The Great Chaconne)

• Beethoven/Brahms - Violin Concertos (Perlman, Barenboim) | DVD | (09/05/2005) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £15.99

  Beethoven / Brahms - Violin Concerto

• Itzhak Perlman - In The Fiddler's House | DVD | (02/10/2006) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £15.99

  Klezmer is the celebration music of Eastern European Jews around the world. Reflecting the interplay of dance tunes folk songs and liturgical music that flourished in Eastern Europe in the diverse Yiddish-speaking culture until 1939. Here the incomparable Itzhak Perlman takes a break from the concert hall to explore the vitality of klezmer music in this charmingly humorous guide where he journeys from New York's lower East Side to the Jewish Festival in Krakow Poland performing with a wide cross section of popular klezmer groups.

• Perlman in Russia (Perlman, Israel Po, Mehta) | DVD | (09/05/2005) from £22.50   |  Saving you £2.49 (10.00%)   |  RRP £24.99

  Tracklistinig: 1.Bazzini - La Ronde des lutins 2.Bloch E - Nigun 3.Kreisler - Liebesleid 4.Prokofiev - March from 'The Love for Three Oranges 5.Tartini - Violin Sonata in G minor `The Devil's Trill' 6.Tchaikovsky - Violin Concerto in D Op.35 Andante cantabile 7.Wieniawski - Caprice

• Itzhak Perlman in Russia | DVD | (01/05/2001) from £25.90   |  Saving you £-9.91 (-62.00%)   |  RRP £15.99

  The film of the tour follows closely Perlman's first visit to Moscow and Leningrad, and shows him not only as a supreme violinist but as a man of charisma, wit and compassion. The second disc features the recital recorded in Moscow.