"Director: Nikolaus Harnoncourt"

• Bach-Christmas Oratorio | DVD | (14/11/2005) from £15.85   |  Saving you £1.14 (7.19%)   |  RRP £16.99

  The pinnacle of Baroque Christmas music Johann Sebastian Bach's beloved Christmas Oratorio is performed in the splendour of Waldhausen church - with distinguished soloists Peter Schreier and Robert Holl the Tolzer Knabenchor and Vienna's Concentus Musicus under the baton of acclaimed Baroque specialist Nikolaus Harnoncourt.

• Nikolaus Harnoncourt, Concertus Musicus Vienna : A Concert of Music By Bach | DVD | (03/12/2001) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £19.99

  Glorious Bach is a simple, straightforward record of a concert at the Benedictine Abbey of Melk of three Bach works for the season of Advent. All of them are, in different ways, meditations on the imminent arrival of Christ, both as child and as Messiah, and on the role of Mary as his mother. Nikolaus Harnoncourt has this music in his bones and so do his impressive team of soloists and the Arnold Schoenberg Choir; the Concentus Musicus of Vienna by now play original-style instruments so smoothly that one has almost to remind oneself of how shocking the authenticity movement sounded a few short years ago. Ian Bostridge is especially fine in the extended tenor part of the less well-known piece Nun Komm, der Heiden Heiland; Bostridge combines an absolute vocal purity with a fierce intelligence in his approach to the words--the advantage of the DVD is that it lets us see him and his fellow soloists thinking as well as singing. Christine Schafer is particularly fine in the Magnificat in D, in which Harnoncourt lets his orchestra rip, reminding us why this is such a popular festival piece. On the DVD: The DVD, presented in 16:9 visual ratio, has sumptuous Dolby Digital sound, subtitles in English, German, Italian, Spanish and French and no other frills whatsoever. --Roz Kaveney

• Nikolaus Harnoncourt - Beethoven - Symphonies No. 8 And No. 6 | DVD | (27/11/2006) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £17.99

  During a two week period during the 1990 Styriarte Festival in Austria Nikolaus Harnoncourt and the Chamber Orchestra of Europe performed all nine Beethoven symphonies which were also recorded 'live' by Warner Classics for release on CD. The 5-CD set was highly acclaimed winning many awards including the Gramophone Record of the Year Award in 1992.

• Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart - La Finta Giardiniera | DVD | (28/08/2006) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £29.99

  Almost a quarter of a century ago Harnoncourt presented his reading of this rediscovered work on CD, but in this version from the Zurich Opera directed by well-known Austrian actor Tobias Moretti, the great Mozart magician conducted a staged production for the first time in an acclaimed production recorded live in February 2006. The Zurich Opera gathered a superb cast for this production: Italian soprano Eva Mei sings the Countess Violante, known as Sandrina, the feigned gardener of the title. Spanish soprano Isabel Rey is her opponent Arminda, and Arminda's former lover, the melancholy Cavaliere Ramiro, is sung by Romanian mezzo Liliana Nikiteanu.Moretti's staging presents the action in a modern villa in a hierarchal world of the rich and famous.

• Monteverdi: Il Ritorno D' Ulisse in Patria | DVD | (19/02/2007) from £23.25   |  Saving you £8.00 (36.38%)   |  RRP £29.99