What's the point of classical music videos?

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

I have several video Alpensinfonies. Karajan, two Thielemanns, Neeme Järvi and Sinopoli are all straightforward and inoffensive to the eye. If fact the Karajan is probably better played and recorded than the much trumpeted CD recording by the same conductor.

Then there's the Nagano. The producer just had to do something silly. In the thunderstorm, the orchestra is revolved 360 degrees. Utterly pointless, but a decent performance if you turn the TV off.

One of my favourite CD versions is David Zinman's. There ism however a DVD version of the same performance, with a series of still photographs of the Alps. For me, it's a distraction, and not particular well done. A work like this could well make a successful video, but this really isn't it.

One classical music video that I think was a success is Christopher Gunning's "Yorkshire Glory", in 7 movements and portraying life in Yorkshire throughout the day - and the year.

[Dave2002]

I’ve just decided that given my wife’s allergy to Opera, I am going to purchase videos of the Mozart Da Ponte Operas to try and develop some appreciation for them beyond the greatest hits type of familiarity. There is a clear use for Classical Videos

When I started this thread I was particularly focusing on some Youtube videos. Re commercial videos (DVDs, Blu Rays etc.) some are good, though perhaps often the visual element doesn't really add much. I have some older video tapes of string quartets (Alban Berg quartet?) and a few operas - including Porgy and Bess, and really the video quality is not great and the audio is probably comparable.

Modern DVDs and Blu Rays are often much better, and some are very well produced. I really enjoyed watching a Glyndebourne production of Die Fledermaus a few years ago, while I was captivated once in a shop watching Gundula Janowitz (I think) in Ariadne auf Naxos. One problem with DVDs and Blu Rays for consumers is the cost, as often they are only watched once or twice - perhaps streaming video or download rental is now the way to go for such viewing.

So - if we consider good commercial professionally done videos, there is a point to them. Whether they are really commercially viable or not I can't really say - but then that's a problem for classical music generally, unfortunately.

Some of the more historical videos on Youtube or elsewhere are really interesting.

I also once went to a concert in the USA at which slides or videos were presented. Music by Aaron Copland IIRC. It was a somewhat different experience with the visual material than a regular concert, and showed American landscapes. In that case the visual material didn't distract too much from the whole, and was worth watching - but it was different from a normal concert. Again, if I remember correctly, I recorded the concert which was also broadcast to cassette tape, and the effect of listening without the visual elements was significantly different.

[Beresford]

Here is an extremely annoying YouTube video of a string quartet - too close, too jumpy, too self-important.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NXE0Dkm7zGk

Be warned - it is Raphael Cendo's In Vivo - very dramatic.
But the AllofBach videos are excellent; they show what is going on in the music.

[richardfinegold]

When I started this thread I was particularly focusing on some Youtube videos. Re commercial videos (DVDs, Blu Rays etc.) some are good, though perhaps often the visual element doesn't really add much. I have some older video tapes of string quartets (Alban Berg quartet?) and a few operas - including Porgy and Bess, and really the video quality is not great and the audio is probably comparable.

Modern DVDs and Blu Rays are often much better, and some are very well produced. I really enjoyed watching a Glyndebourne production of Die Fledermaus a few years ago, while I was captivated once in a shop watching Gundula Janowitz (I think) in Ariadne auf Naxos. One problem with DVDs and Blu Rays for consumers is the cost, as often they are only watched once or twice - perhaps streaming video or download rental is now the way to go for such viewing.

So - if we consider good commercial professionally done videos, there is a point to them. Whether they are really commercially viable or not I can't really say - but then that's a problem for classical music generally, unfortunately.

Some of the more historical videos on Youtube or elsewhere are really interesting.

I also once went to a concert in the USA at which slides or videos were presented. Music by Aaron Copland IIRC. It was a somewhat different experience with the visual material than a regular concert, and showed American landscapes. In that case the visual material didn't distract too much from the whole, and was worth watching - but it was different from a normal concert. Again, if I remember correctly, I recorded the concert which was also broadcast to cassette tape, and the effect of listening without the visual elements was significantly different.

I am almost 60 years old, I love my wife, and she is allergic to Opera. I’ve come to realize the best chance that I ever will have to explore Opera , which after all is more than just singing, is to go with a decent video, which I can enjoy at my leisure. And what the hey, I might as well make use of my home theater system, which I rarely listen to. If the Da Ponte Operas Of Mozart don’t do it for me, then probably nothing else will, because I love his other music.
You Tube had a wealth of interesting stuff. Not all of it will be of interest to everyone but it’s fun to explore.

[Dave2002]

I sometimes go to opera with a friend, and my wife goes to plays with her friends. Sometimes we even go by ourselves.

[richardfinegold]

I sometimes go to opera with a friend, and my wife goes to plays with her friends. Sometimes we even go by ourselves.

My first marriage went like that. I decided that wasn’t going to be a pattern that I wanted to repeat the second time around.
My current wife and I met in an on line dating site, about 16 years ago when that was still somewhat risqué, called Classical Music Lovers Exchange. Generally we are pretty compatible musically (and otherwise), but neither of us listened to much Opera. We wanted to explore Opera but after sitting thru Carmen and Don Giovanni she decided it just wasn’t her
cup of tea ( although she loves the Suites from Carmen). The last CSO Concert last year was Muti leading extended
Italian excepts, including Boito Mephistopheles Prelude, Verdi Choruses ( Anvil, Va Pensiero) and some other ‘Greatest Hits’
and she became interested in exploring Opera again, but when the Lyric Schedule came out she had lost interest.
We spend most of our time working and apart so the idea of spending our date nights apart doesn’t interest us. She does spend about a night a week out in a book club or having dinner with one of her single friends and I look forward to those nights because I can crank the hi fi up load and play music that she doesn’t care for—Organ, Webern, Stravinsky ballets—and now I am looking to add the Opera Videos