David Gilmour & Symphony Orchestra perform Pink Floyd & Solo on 2 Great Concert DVDs

I actually got this as part of a 2 DVD / 3 CD set from Best Buy.  Although the details for this lists 4 discs, 2 discs are the DVDs reviews here, the other 2 are the CD versions and reviewed separately. If you pick this up at BEST BUY, you will get a third CD with bonus tracks.  If you happen to have 4 to 5,000 dollars lying around, you can also get this DVD set absolutely FREE with your purchase of the David Gilmour Fender Custom Shop Stratocaster.  You may choose the perfect replica of Gilmour's beautiful custom modded black strat used by him on this tour and many classic Floyd albums or a N.O.S. (new old stock) version that is finished brand new, with the same custom mods, just absent the deliberate "worn" look. I wish I had got this set that way, I would love to have a Gilmour Custom Shop Stratocaster.

Here is my review of the David Gilmour Live in Gdansk Concert DVDs.

DVD ONE

Gdanks is a city in Poland and David Gilmour was asked to play here for a concert for Solidarity's 30 year anniversary. The show was filmed in 2006 with the Baltic Philharmonic Symphony Orchestera.  This DVD contains the two and half hour show. It was especially enjoyable to watch this film, because David's friend and Pink Floyd bandmate, Richard Wright is the keyboardist on this tour.  This set was released on September 16th, a day after the untimely loss of Richard Wright due to cancer. It was really nice to remember Wright with this outstanding final performance. He looked well on this tour and played wonderfully.

The Gdansk concert features a live performance of David Gilmour's latest solo album On an Island in it's entirety. If you think picking this up would be duplicative because Gilmour just released Live at the Royal Albert Hall, which also contains a complete performance of the album, trust me, it isn't. Despite having the same songs, Gilmours performance with an entire symphony orchestra gives the album a new and dynamic sound.   The Pink Floyd classics Astronomy Domine, High Hopes, Echoes, A Great Day for Freedom and Comfortably Numb also gain a beautiful new sound with the Baltic Philharmonic.  The orchestra just blends in beautifully with both David Gilmour's solo material and Pink Floyd songs, they add an incredible sense of depth to the songs, and work so well that I almost forgot that the songs were not written for a full symphony orchestra and rock band. You are not getting the same show twice!   Moreover, fans of rock n' roll know that most performers never quite perform their songs the same way from concert to concert, let alone from tour to tour. Both concerts are well worth owning. I was also quite surprised to see David play the saxophone on one song! I didn't know he played sax.

Audio / Video Quality David is a stickler for quality, but I will tell you anyway that the shows video and audio offered in Dolby Stereo and Dolby 5.1 Surround are both excellent.  I hope that the show is offered in Blu Ray as Live at Albert Hall was, however this show in no way disappoints in audio or video presentation. High definition cameras move from close up of Gilmour and his band mates to long shots of the huge video screens above the stage showing multiple camera angles at once. Other times the cameras pan across the conductor and the string section of the orchestra or out into the vast audience at this grand outdoor show. I was especially thrilled to see many close up shots of Gilmours fretting hand working his magic with his custom black Fender Strat.  I could literally see how he played the notes and bent the strings up one, two and even three notes and added tremelo sometimes with the bar, and sometimes with a wiggle of his finger. 

Extras This disc features a Gdansk diary which has interviews and running talks with Gilmour about setting up the concert and filming it.

DVD TWO

As if the Gdansk concert weren't enough the second DVD is chock full of over 2 hours more of assorted concert footage filmed with the same meticulous care. Three songs are performed from the Mermaid Theatre in London from March 2006; Shine On You Crazy Diamond, Wearing the Inside Out and Comfortably Numb.  On an Island and High Hopes are included from the AOL sessions at New York, and three songs are performed from Abbey Road, London; The Blue, Take a Breath and an acoustic version of Echoes! You've just got to see it, it's the band messing around at Abbey Road Studios, and it sounds really cool.

To add to all the fun, there are three "Barn Jams" thrown in for good measure. If you ever wondered what professional talented musicians do to practice or just mess around, you can get a glimpse of them doing just that in a recording studio set up in an old barn on Gilmour's country estate. (at least I think it's Gilmours). It was fun to see Wright, Gilmour and friends just jamming by themselves.  Even these impromptu sessions are filmed with great detail.

Apparently David Gilmour didn't think all that excellent concert video was enough for his fans so he also threw on a complete Surround Sound audio remix of On an Island in Dolby Digital 5.1 and DTS 5.1. So for folks like me who really enjoy surround sound that thought it would be cool to hear something besides Dark Side of the Moon in 5.1, now you can!  Oh, and it is indeed awesome, the surround sound mix is tastefully done and adds new spaciousness and detail to the album.

Reviewing Equipment

These DVDs were played in a Play Station 3 connected to a Yamaha RX 663 Surround Sound Receiver via HDMI cables and viewed with an Optoma HD70 Home Theater Projector on a DaLite Cinemavision 105" movie screen.  Speakers were Cambridge Soundworks MC400s with a Velodyne SPL 1000 II subwoofer.

Summary

Heck, if you are a Pink Floyd fan, you haven't even reached my summary paragraph, you've already gone to the shopping links to order your own copy of this, haven't you?  If you did come back to read my summary, yeah, it's a five star concert, yeah, I absolutey love it, yeah, you will too!  Shine on you crazy diamond!