Encore-worthy concert DVDs

The next best thing to experiencing live music? Watching a concert in your living room on DVD. (One advantage to home viewing: No karaoke singalongs by the guy in the next seat.) The Weekend section decided to take in some of the year's best concert DVDs, ranging from an inside look at the Philadelphia Orchestra to Pink Floyd's last voyage to "The Dark Side of the Moon" to U2's "Zootopian" extravaganza in Australia. And you'll be relieved to discover that Barbra Streisand's DVD costs just a fraction of what you would have paid for a recent concert ticket.

This DVD collects two previously unreleased films of jazz trumpeter Chet Baker performing in the company of sophisticated European jazz talents unknown stateside. Half of this 70-minute program is a black-and-white Belgian television broadcast during which Baker revealed his indebtedness to Miles Davis by playing three standards identified with Davis. Each piece is performed with with morose lyricism. It is the 1979 color film of Baker at a Norwegian jazz festival that makes this DVD irresistible. The trumpeter performs with a ravishing spirit and confidence, particularly on an aggressively up-tempo interpretation of Cole Porter's "Love for Sale."
– Norman Weinstein

If ever there were musical soul mates, it's these two. Above all, both love to spin a tale. Singer/guitarist extraordinaire Knopfler has been writing and recording keenly observed story songs (set mostly in the pubs, docks, and dingy back streets of his native England) since he burst on the scene in the late '70s with Dire Straits' "Sultans of Swing." Harris's songs about outlaws and dance hall girls are country staples. As a vocal duo, he's the deep, resonant, bass fiddle to her bright and brittle mandolin strings. Filling in the middle and providing the backbeat is a peerless assembly of Nashville-based musicians, playing with exquisite taste and subtlety. This live concert was filmed in front of an adoring audience in Los Angeles and includes many of Knopfler's best songs. "Romeo and Juliet," "Our Shangri-La," and "Why Worry" are standouts in a generous 17-song DVD and 14-song CD package.
– John Kehe

Musicians are usually better heard playing than talking. They make transcendent sounds yet often lack words to describe what they do. "Music moves me very deeply," admits one of the 105 players who make up the Philadelphia Orchestra. "But I don't know why." Yet somehow this documentary, constructed chiefly of interviews with members of that orchestra, is strangely compelling. Its message is an uplifting one, a celebration of the joy of musicmaking. Its highlights include catching players in candid off-hours moments as they play salsa, jazz, or bluegrass. Great classical music is here, too, of course, but little static footage of performances, and almost nothing is seen of conductors, the superstars who usually hog the spotlight. This amiable film, five years in the making, celebrates the world of working musicians who sublimate their individual egos to create a beautiful ensemble sound. Anyone who loves music, and especially those who perform or hope to someday, will delight in this glimpse into the lives of these ordinary folks with extraordinary talents.
– Gregory M. Lamb

Apologies to P.T. Barnum, but this is The Greatest Show on Earth. Who else but Pink Floyd would fly a replica of a Spitfire over an audience and have it crash into the stage? And that's before a glitterball the size of a small moon transforms a cavernous auditorium into a starry universe during "Comfortably Numb." The impressive stagecraft – which includes dreamlike movies playing on a huge screen – is a welcome alternative to watching the band itself. Put it this way: If frontman David Gilmour were any more stationary, he'd start to grow roots. Thankfully, the camera does linger on Gilmour's fingers whenever his guitar takes wing, as on the solo for "Money." This 1994 show, which includes a performance of "The Dark Side of the Moon" album, has been lovingly transferred onto a DVD that has more features than a Swiss Army knife. You'll need to refer to a diagrammed menu in the accompanying booklet to find bootleg footage from other shows or the band's performance during its induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
– Stephen Humphries

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