"Actor: Mehta"

• Anton Bruckner: Symphony No. 8 | DVD | (28/01/2002) from £19.45   |  Saving you £0.54 (2.78%)   |  RRP £19.99

  Listening to Bruckner’s monumental Eighth Symphony, here running some 88 minutes, is like scaling Everest. The summit doesn’t come into sight until well into the third, slow movement, then it’s not until the third approach via other vistas that we arrive with a clash of cymbals at the peak. En route there are diversions into Alpine meadows where it’s not too fanciful to suggest an Edelweiss is in flower. Zubin Mehta recorded Bruckner’s Ninth Symphony early on in his career but neither his name nor that of this orchestra has been much associated with the Austrian composer. It was therefore something of a gamble for ArtHaus to release this 1987 performance. Mehta pleads and cajoles his orchestra to give of their all, but ultimately the demands of the music and the unsympathetic acoustic of the Alte Oper Frankfurt defeat them. The Israel Philharmonic Orchestra at key moments isn’t always playing as one in a symphony where there are so many entries that require a unison response. One senses that the conductor’s forward pacing of the music takes its toll on the precision within the huge waves of sound Bruckner launches throughout the work. Anxiety brings with it the wrong sort of tension, so that when the music drops into one of the pastoral episodes there’s little sense that we’ve moved into gentler terrain despite the heroic efforts of the principal flautist to add a scenic diversion. --Adrian Edwards

• Verdi: La Forza Del Destino (C Major 708204) | Blu Ray | (27/11/2011) from £28.55   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

• Zubin Mehta with the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra in Rehearsal | DVD | (21/01/2002) from £10.47   |  Saving you £10.78 (117.05%)   |  RRP £19.99

  Without being at all tricksy or showy, Arthaus Musik's In Rehearsal documentary series offers enthralling, profound insights into music-making of the highest calibre. In this case, with Zubin Mehta conducting the Israel Philharmonic in a rehearsal of Strauss' Till Eulenspiegel, those insights are sharpened by the knowledge that the orchestra is playing the piece for the very first time: the music of Richard Strauss had been banned in Israel until 1994 as a reaction to his involvement with the Nazi party. Thus, though the initial run-through is somewhat scratchy (and causes an hilariously neurotic hissy fit on the part of the principal horn player), the fact that the ensemble has no performance tradition of this piece means that every phrase has to be taken apart, explained, and put together again. We therefore see Mehta's ability to make a phrase more comic or fuller of pathos by simple nips and tucks of note lengths, and hear his reasons for shaping the piece the way he does. The documentary also offers a window on Mehta's genial but steely relationship with the orchestra: when he criticises the first flute (who is auditioning for a place in the orchestra), her terrified face is like a portrait by Francis Bacon. On the DVD: Mehta rehearses the orchestra in English, and the documentary has subtitles in French, German and Spanish. There are also four trailers for other Arthaus music videos. --Warwick Thomson

• Kehtaa Hai Dil Baar Baar | DVD | (29/08/2005) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £6.99

  'Mohabbatein' star Jimmy Shergil and Kim Sharma star in this romantic comedy....

• Luciano Pavarotti - Pavarotti Forever | DVD | (31/03/2008) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £16.99

• Le Nozze Di Figaro - Mozart | DVD | (28/11/2005) from £40.48   |  Saving you £-10.49 (N/A%)   |  RRP £29.99

  Zubin Mehta conducts a performance of Mozart's 'Le Nozze Di Figaro' recorded at the Teatro Comunale in Florence.

• Joint Concert - Tel Aviv | DVD | (17/07/2001) from £21.58   |  Saving you £-1.59 (N/A%)   |  RRP £19.99

  Some concerts are important simply as occasions: The Joint Concert--Tel Aviv was a celebration of reconciliation, a performance shared by the Berlin Philharmonic and the Israel Philharmonic that would have been inconceivable a few years earlier. Zubin Mehta takes a massive band consisting of both orchestras through performances of Ben Haim's fascinating Psalm, Ravel's La Valse and Beethoven's Fifth Symphony. The Ravel is particularly impressive--a work that can often slip into feyness or the too overtly sinister--here has a depth of complexity to its sound that saves it from either, and the sheer volume of the harps in a couple of passages gives the performance an interesting and individual strangeness. The Beethoven is monumental in its scale--rarely has the transition between the "Scherzo" and the "Finale" sounded so like Forster's goblins walking across the universe. Young and promising soloists--Viviane Hagner (violin) and Sharon Kam (clarinet)--play the Saint-Saens Introduction and Rondo Capriccioso with the Israel Philharmonic and the Weber Concertino with the Berlin Philharmonic; we grow so rapidly used to the sound of the orchestras playing together that their individual sounds strike us as almost delicate.On the DVD: The DVD has menus in English, French, German and Spanish and is presented in 4:3 screen ratio with PCM stereo sound, relegating a description of the importance of the event to the booklet. --Roz Kaveney

• European Concert 1995 | DVD | (02/09/2002) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £19.99

  Recorded live at the Palazzo Vecchio in Florence and features Beethoven's Fidelio Overture Dvorak's Slavonic Dance No.8 Stravinsky's Petruschka and more.

• Traffic Signal | DVD | (02/04/2007) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £19.99

  Starring Khunal Khemu, Sameer Khan & Neetu Chandra

• Rishta Kagaz Ka | DVD | (31/03/2008) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £5.99

• Sara Akash | DVD | (31/03/2008) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £5.99

• Verdi - Messa Da Requiem | DVD | (29/01/2007) from £7.06   |  Saving you £15.92 (391.15%)   |  RRP £19.99

  Recorded live at the Sala Santa Cecilia Parco della Musica, Rome, 30 January 2005.

• Anmol | DVD | (29/08/2005) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £6.99

  A Romantic Drama Movie.... Sinha the owner of Hotel Anmol which is named after his daughter marries Pushpa who has two daughters of her own. Pushpa and her brother concoct an evil plot to murder Sinha and grab all his wealth for themselves. They succeed and begin to live a lavish life while Anmol is relegated to becoming a kitchen maid. A new singer Prem joins the band at the hotel and falls in love with Anmol. But he hasn't reckoned with her evil foster-family.... This Ci

• Hashar | DVD | (03/11/2008) from £10.49   |  Saving you £-4.50 (N/A%)   |  RRP £5.99

  Hashar is the story of today''s young generation who without true feelings of love get together and later due to misunderstandings their life becomes tumultuous. Set in university campus it highlights the fact that when supported by politicians for their own benefits student politics can take an ugly turn and create havoc in the personal life of students. The story is all about love passion hatred and romance and above all this fiction is more than reality.

• Opera, Concert, Ballet - the Best of Classical Music on Tdk | DVD | (03/03/2008) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £4.99

  The Best Of Classical Music On TDK - Opera Concert Ballet 08

• Zubin Mehta In Munich - The Inaugural Concert With The Bayerische Staatsoper | DVD | (23/05/2005) from £12.75   |  Saving you £7.24 (56.78%)   |  RRP £19.99

  The Inaugural Concert with the Bayerische Staatsoper.Tracks Include:Giovanni Gabrieli: 3 Sacrae SymphonieJoseph Haydn: Missa in Tempore Belli (Paukenmesse)Giuseppe Verdi: Quattro Pezzi Sacri

• Ek Din 24 Ghante | DVD | (22/03/2004) from £10.78   |  Saving you £-2.79 (-34.90%)   |  RRP £7.99

  When her boyfriend is taken captive by the owner of a casino he owes money to Sameera has to try to get the money off her rich corrupt father. Set in real time 'Ek Din 24 Ghante' is a unique path breaking and conceptually different film from anything that has ever come out of India.

• Haal-E-Dil | DVD | (18/08/2008) from £8.08   |  Saving you £11.91 (59.60%)   |  RRP £19.99

  When love is not madness it is not love... What's that neurotic madness that young girls and guys suffer from? Haal E Dil! What happens when all that matters is love love and love... Haal E Dil! What is this mystic state where life and even death have no meaning? Haal E Dil! This is the story of Sanjana for whom love is chaste and sacred. For her love is not part of life but life itself. This is the story of Shekhar who keeps falling for every girl he meets and loves to be in the perennial state of love not realising that soon he is going to meet a girl who'll change his very definition of love and life. This is the story of Rohit who will love so deeply so fiercely that nobody and nothing will have the power to keep him away from his love. This is the story of a young girl who discovers herself at the crossroad of life where she has to choose between her perfect love and a perfect stranger. What will she do? What would you do? Fall for a man who is completely wrong for you? Or keep faith with the man you have always loved and vowed to love always? Haal E Dil - When ordinary people go to ordinary lemgths - for the sake of love!

• Yeh Kya Ho Raha Hai | DVD | (27/01/2003) from £12.93   |  Saving you £7.06 (35.30%)   |  RRP £19.99

  A Bollywood cultural equivalent of 'American Pie'!

• Mozart: The Requiem from Sarajevo | DVD | (07/01/1998) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £15.97