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Strauss:The Magic of Vienna

Strauss:The Magic of Vienna

List Price: $9.98
Your Price: $9.98
Product Info Reviews

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Rating: 1 stars
Summary: A viewer from Canberra, Australia - 5/12/1999
Review: After visiting Vienna a couple of times, I was hoping this DVDwould be a nice reminder of my time there. I was greatly disappointeddue to it's poor content and substandard sound and picture quality. Large sections were focused on a couple waltzing in a park rather than actually showing Vienna. When there were scenes of Vienna they were brief, shot at odd angles and were concentrated on only 3 or 4 buildings. The sound was far from the hi-fi standard that DVD can deliver being very compressed (i.e: lacking dynamic range) and also cut out momentarily a few times. This coincided with some skipping of the image, an image that lacked the clarity that one expects from DVD. I would not recommend buying this DVD. Hopefully Naxos will release their superior 'Vienna : A Musical Tour' on DVD in the near future.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: A viewer from Canberra, Australia - 5/12/1999
Review: After visiting Vienna a couple of times, I was hoping this DVDwould be a nice reminder of my time there. I was greatly disappointeddue to it's poor content and substandard sound and picture quality. Large sections were focused on a couple waltzing in a park rather than actually showing Vienna. When there were scenes of Vienna they were brief, shot at odd angles and were concentrated on only 3 or 4 buildings. The sound was far from the hi-fi standard that DVD can deliver being very compressed (i.e: lacking dynamic range) and also cut out momentarily a few times. This coincided with some skipping of the image, an image that lacked the clarity that one expects from DVD. I would not recommend buying this DVD. Hopefully Naxos will release their superior 'Vienna : A Musical Tour' on DVD in the near future.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: Of more interest to ballroom dancers
Review: I purchased this DVD because I have been to Vienna a couple of times with my wife (she was born there) and I was hoping it would be as good as the Naxos DVDs I have of Vienna and Salzburg, no such luck.

The video quality is poor being grainy with too much edge enhancement. My copy also had two glitches that caused it to jump a few frames and/or freeze.

Audio was in the form of six Strauss waltz's. All sounded like they were old, poor quaility analogue recordings with a very compressed dynamic range and little bass.

The worst aspect of this DVD is its content. Approximately one third of the running time is taken up with images of a couple waltzing in a variety of nondescript parks around Vienna. When something of interest in Vienna is shown, it is often a montage made up of oddly angled close-ups of statues and windows of half a dozen Viennese landmarks.

The one bright spot of this DVD is the footage of 'Grinzing', an area of vineyards and Heuriger's, the highlight of this DVD.

The menus scene selection is totally useless because:

(A) It provides 8 scene selections for the 6 waltz's so most take you to the middle of a waltz rather than at it's beginning.

(B) All the little video images accompanying each scene selection shows trees and the couple waltzing in the nondescript parks. Totally useless.

Extras included a 5 question trivia game, a biography of Strauss and an instrument background that provides you with the vital information that you blow into some instruments. Overall a pretty poor effort.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: Cityguide to Vienna
Review: When you like Vienna and not be able to buy a proper cityguide on VHS or DVD you can buy this DVD. When you are looking for a good piece of music with the joy of Strauß then do not buy this CD. The quality is worse, performance is even worser! I heared better for less!

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: Cityguide to Vienna
Review: When you like Vienna and not be able to buy a proper cityguide on VHS or DVD you can buy this DVD. When you are looking for a good piece of music with the joy of Strauß then do not buy this CD. The quality is worse, performance is even worser! I heared better for less!


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