Great Classical Music Videos 

Below you will find a selection of highly-regarded classical music performances on VHS and DVD. These videos make great gifts for the music lovers and music students in your life. The selections are categorized to speed your search. Any purchase you make from these links helps to defray the costs of maintaining the dictionary. Thanks.

Menu of Categories

Videos For Children

• Leonard Bernstein's Young People's Concerts (10 DVDs)
  Performer(s): Leonard Bernstein with the New York Philharmonic (DVD)
• Bach's Fight for Freedom
  Performer(s): various (VHS)
• Beethoven Lives Upstairs
  Performer(s): various (VHS)
• Handel's Last Chance
  Performer(s): various (VHS)
• Baby Bach
  Performer(s): Julie Aigner-Clark (VHS)
• Baby Beethoven
  Performer(s): Julie Aigner-Clark (VHS)
• Baby Mozart
  Performer(s): Julie Aigner-Clark (VHS)

Dance

• A Midsummer Night's Dream
  Performer(s): Pacific Northwest Ballet (DVD)
• Flamenco
  Performer(s): various (VHS)
• Dido and Aeneas
  Performer(s): Mark Morris Dance Group (DVD)

Composer Biographies

• Amadeus
  Performer(s): Tom Hulce, et. al. (DVD)
  (A movie about Mozart)
• Immortal Beloved
  Performer(s): Gary Oldman, et. al. (DVD)
  (A movie about Beethoven)

Famous Performers

• A Life with Beethoven
  Performer(s): Anne-Sophie Mutter (DVD)
• Great Pianists of the Bell Telephone Hour (1959-1967)
  Performer(s): Arrau, Bolet, Browning, Casadesus, Van Cliburn, Entremont, Hollander, Iturbi, janis, Johannesen (DVD)
• Great Violinists of the Bell Telephone Hour (1959-1964)
  Performer(s): Stern, Francescatti, Rabin, Elman, Morini< Menuhin, Oistrakh(s), Ricci (DVD)
• Two Titans of the Keyboard - Sviatoslav Richter & Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli
  Performer(s):
  (DVD)
• Life's Virtuoso
  Performer(s): Issac Stern (VHS)

Live Performances

• "Bach - Greatest Organ Works, Vol. 1"
  Performer(s): Hans-Andre Stamm (DVD)
• Brandenburg Concertos
  Performer(s): Freiburg Baroque Orchestra (DVD)
• Concerto in D Major for Violin & Orchestra (1984)
  Performer(s): Von Karajan (DVD)
• Haydn Symphony No. 87 & Mozart Symphony No. 39 (with spoken introduction by Previn)
  Performer(s): Previn, RPO (1984) (DVD)
• Sonatas for Violin and Piano
  Performer(s): Schneider, Oppitz (2001) (DVD)
• Sounds Magnificent (The Story of the Symphony) Symphonie Fantastique
  Performer(s): Previn, RPO (1984) (DVD)
• The Creation
  Performer(s): Schreier, Mathis, Pregardien, Pape, Scottish Chamber Orchestra (1992) (DVD)
• "Yundi Li, Live from 14th International Frederick Chopin Piano Competition"
  Performer(s): Yundi Li (DVD)
• "A Requiem for Mozart (1991 - recorded at St. Stephen's Cathedral, in Vienna on the 200th anniversary of Mozart's death)"
  Performer(s): Solti, Auger, Bartoli, Cole, Pape (VHS)
• Barbara Hendricks: Faure-Poulenc Concert (1988)
  Performer(s): Barbara Hendricks (VHS)
• Bernstein on Beethoven - A Celebration in Vienna (1971)
  Performer(s): Leonard Bernstein (VHS)
• Impromptus/Moments Musicaux
  Performer(s): Schiff (VHS)
• Martha Argerich Plays Schumann & Liszt (1977)
  Performer(s): Martha Argerich (VHS)
• Mendelssohn Violin Concerto (Op. 64) & Bach Concerto for Two Violins S.1043
  Performer(s): Shlomo Mintz, Isaac Stern, Zubin Mehta (VHS)
• Messiah
  Performer(s): Monteverdi Choir, English Baroque Soloists, John Eliot Gardiner, conductor (VHS)
• "Scarlatti, Debussy, & Ravel"
  Performer(s): Piano Recital - Martha Argerich, and others (VHS)
• Trout Quintet
  Performer(s): various (VHS)
• Violin Concertos
  Performer(s): Elizabeth Wallfisch, Alison Bury, et. Al. (VHS)
• "Yo-Yo Ma - Inspired by Bach No. 5, Struggle for Hope (Cello Suite 5) (1998)"
  Performer(s): Yo-Yo Ma (VHS)

Opera: Film Versions

• Carmen
  Performer(s): Maazel, Migenes, Domingo (DVD)
• Carmen Jones (1954)
  Performer(s): Harry Belafonte, Dorothy Dandridge, et. al. (DVD)
• La Traviata
  Performer(s): Stratas, Domingo (DVD)
• Madame Butterfly
  Performer(s): James Conlon, Huang, Troxell, Liang, Cowan (1995) (DVD)
• The Merry Widow (1934)
  Performer(s): Maurice Chevalier, et. al. (VHS)

Opera: Stage Versions

• Aida
  Performer(s): Levine, Domingo, Millo, MET (1981) (DVD)
• Così Fan Tutte
  Performer(s): Harnoncourt, Bartoli, Nikiteanu, Zurich Opera (2000) (DVD)
• Symphonies 40 and 41
  Performer(s): Concertgebouw Orchestra, Amsterdam, Josef Krips, conductor (DVD)
• Fidelio (1991)
  Performer(s): Dohnanyi, Benackova, Protschka, Royal Opera House Covent Garden (DVD)
• L'Incoronazione Di Poppea (1984)
  Performer(s): Salzburg Festival, Thomas Allen, Delores Ziegler; Jeffrey Tate: Michael Hampe (DVD)
• L'Italiana in Algeri (The Italian Girl in Algiers)
  Performer(s): Weikert, Soffel, Kannen, Gambill, Schwetzinger Festspiele (1987) (DVD)
• La Bohème
  Performer(s): Franco Zefirelli, James Levine, Stratas, Scotto, Carreras, MET (1982) (DVD)
• La Clemenza di Tito
  Performer(s): Nicholas Hytner, Andrew Davis, Phillip Langridge, Glyndebourne Opera (1991) (DVD)
• La Damnation de Faust
  Performer(s): Cambreling, Kasarova, Groves, White, Salzburger Festpiele (DVD)
• La Traviata
  Performer(s): Richard Eyre, Solti, Gheorghiu, Lopardo, Nucci, ROH Covent Garden (1994) (DVD)
• Lucia di Lammermoor
  Performer(s): Joan Sutherland, Richard Bonynge, The Metropolitan Opera (1982) (DVD)
• Norma
  Performer(s): Bonynge, Sutherland, Troyanos, Canadian Opera Company (1981) (DVD)
• Otello
  Performer(s): Solti, Domingo, Te Kanawa, Royal Opera Coven Garden (1992) (DVD)
• Rigoletto
  Performer(s): Chailly, Pavarotti, Wixell, Gruberova, Vienna Philharmonic (1990) (DVD)
• Roberto Devereux
  Performer(s): Pendatchanska, Sabbatini, Servile, Komlosi (DVD)
• Romeo & Juliette
  Performer(s): Mackerras, Alagna, Vaduva, Royal Opera Covent Garden (1994) (DVD)
• The Fairy Queen
  Performer(s): English National Opera (1995) (DVD)
• The Marriage of Figaro
  Performer(s): Jean-Pierre Vincent, Paolo Olmi, G. Furlanetto, Szymtka, Opéra National de Lyon (DVD)
• The Ring des Nibelungen (Boulez) Series
  Performer(s): Boulez, McIntyre, Gwyneth Jones, Zednik, Becht, Schwarz, et. al., Bayreuth Festival (1980) (DVD)
• Turandot (Filmed on Location in the Forbidden City)
  Performer(s): Yimou Zhang, Zubin Mehta, G. Casolla, S. Larin, B. Frittoli, Maggio Musicale Fiorentino (1998) (DVD)
• Un ballo in maschera
  Performer(s): James Levine, The Metropolitan Opera (1980), Pavarotti (DVD)
• L'Incoronazione Di Poppea (1984)
  Performer(s): Glyndebourne Festival Opera, Maria Ewing (VHS)
• Xerxes
  Performer(s): Orchestra and Chorus of English National Opera (VHS)

Movies about Music

• Farinelli: Il Castrato
  Performer(s): Stefano Dionisi, et. al. (DVD)
• The Red Violin
  Performer(s): Carlo Cecchi, et. al. (DVD)
• Mr. Holland's Opus
  Performer(s): Richard Dreyfuss (DVD)

Naxos Musical Journeys

• Carnival of the Animals with Bizet L'Arlesienne Suites
  Performer(s): Czechslovak Radio Symphony with Lapsansky & Toperczer (DVD)
• Chopin - Autumn Dream (1995)
  Performer(s): Various (DVD)
• Symphonies 28 & 40 - A Naxos Musical Journey
  Performer(s): Capella Istropolitana, Barry Wordsworth, conductor (DVD)
• Symphony No. 3 (Eroica) & Coriolanus Overture - A Naxos Musical Journey
  Performer(s): Capella Istropolitana (DVD)
• The Four Seasons
  Performer(s): Capella Istropolitana, Stephen Gunzenhauser and Jozef Kopelman, conductors (DVD)
• Water Music & Fireworks Music
  Performer(s): Capella Istropolitana, Bohdan Warchal, conductor (DVD)

Other Interesting Videos

• Stargaze - Hubble's View of the Universe (2002)
  Performer(s): Ralph LaBarge (DVD)
• The Living Sea
  Performer(s): various (DVD)