Gift guide: Classical

Walter Felsenstein Edition (Arthaus Musik, $399.99) This monumental box, devoted to the work of seminal German stage director Walter Felsenstein and his hand-picked troupe at East Berlin’s Komische Oper, is an object of desire for any hard-core historical-opera aficionado. The set includes seven productions (on 12 DVDs) filmed between 1956 and 1976, plus a lavish book, simulated art prints and other generous bonuses. (A compact, no-frills version of the set sells for $149.99.)

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On Russian Music and The Danger of Music (University of California Press, each $39.95) These two new books by Richard Taruskin—a UC Berkeley musicologist and an outspoken cultural critic in The New York Times, The New Republic and elsewhere—are certain to engage cognoscenti. The first book covers Russian music with substantive scholarship and a keen ear; in Danger, Taruskin expounds on the place of music in society and the artist’s obligations in the modern world.

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Juxtapositions box (Medici Arts, $119.99) Culled from an ongoing series of single-disc documentaries devoted to the lives and work of major contemporary composers, this economical compilation helps you become better acquainted with centenarians Elliott Carter and Olivier Messiaen, as well as Pierre Boulez, Philip Glass and Arvo Pärt. If you gave anyone a copy of Alex Ross’s The Rest Is Noise last year, here’s the perfect next step.

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200 Years of Music at Versailles (Naxos, $119.99) The flowering of French music during the reigns of Kings Louis XIII through XVI is the subject of this handsome 20-CD box set, mostly recorded live at the Versailles Palace in fall 2007. Ranging from anonymous lute music and sacred services to florid oratorios and the fledgling symphony, the set includes performances by Baroque specialists including William Christie, Marc Minkowski and Christophe Rousset.

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Cult Opera of the ’70s (Arthaus Musik, $119.99) Another exceptional set devoted to historical opera, this bold 11-DVD box presents ten productions from the Hamburg Opera, staged during the late ’60s and early ’70s, then adapted into studio films for German television. Getting used to the lip-synching is a cinch during these engrossing performances of Le Nozze di Figaro, Fidelio, Die Meistersinger and Wozzeck, as well as novel works by Menotti and Penderecki.

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Art | Books | Classical | Clubs | Comedy | Dance | Film
Gay | Music | Own This City | Theater | TV & DVD

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Holiday gift guide 2008: On a budget
More than 200 ideas that don't look cheap.

Time Out New York / Issue 686 : Nov 20–26, 2008

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