Verbier Festival 2012: Dutoit and Honeck Conduct

Fantastic concert
Enjoyed every second of this performance - great energy, commitment and virtuosic playing by the orchestra. The ensemble was obviously very connected to the conductor (and he to them), which was extraordinary to witness.

2 stars for Dutoit, 4 stars for Honeck
I have to confess that I've become a Blu-ray snob. Blu-ray's superior picture and sound quality very closely approximates the concert hall experience (and in some ways -- thanks to close-ups and audio clarity -- exceeds it). Nowadays, the only non-Blu-ray DVDs I buy are of historical performances with relatively primitive picture and sound, because these would benefit little from the format upgrade.

Being given a review copy of this DVD provided me with an opportunity to see if I could be satisfied with a non-Blu-ray of a recently captured performance. I found the picture quality to be surprisingly good, only a couple of notches below Blu-ray and certainly better than an HD TV broadcast. The DVD sound (PCM 2.0) was very good but two dimensional. I really missed the surround-sound effect of 5.1 or 5.0. If you only have two speakers attached to your TV, though, you'll be more than satisfied.

Now, as to the performance itself. First up is what I consider one of the...



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