The Art in Heaven Concert (full title Mike Oldfield The Art in Heaven Concert Live in Berlin) is a Mike Oldfield

Mike Oldfield

Michael Gordon Oldfield is an English multi-instrumentalist musician and composer, working a style that blends progressive rock, folk, ethnic or world music, classical music, electronic music, New Age, and more recently, dance. His music is often elaborate and complex in nature...

 concert video taken from 2000 New Year

New Year

The New Year is the day that marks the time of the beginning of a new calendar year, and is the day on which the year count of the specific calendar used is incremented. For many cultures, the event is celebrated in some manner....

's night (31 December 1999) concert at the Victory Column

Berlin Victory Column

The Victory Column is a monument in Berlin, Germany. Designed by Heinrich Strack after 1864 to commemorate the Prussian victory in the Danish-Prussian War, by the time it was inaugurated on 2 September 1873, Prussia had also defeated Austria in the Austro-Prussian War and France in the...

 in Berlin

Berlin

Berlin is the capital city of Germany and is one of the 16 states of Germany. With a population of 3.45 million people, Berlin is Germany's largest city. It is the second most populous city proper and the seventh most populous urban area in the European Union...

, Germany

Germany

Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...

, which is currently available on both CD and DVD

DVD

A DVD is an optical disc storage media format, invented and developed by Philips, Sony, Toshiba, and Panasonic in 1995. DVDs offer higher storage capacity than Compact Discs while having the same dimensions....

.

In a press conference in July 1999 in Langeland

Langeland

Langeland is a Danish island located between the Great Belt and Bay of Kiel. The island measures 285 km² and, as of 1 January 2010, has a population of 13,277. The island produces grain and is known as a recreational area. A bridge connects it to Tåsinge via Siø - a small island with a...

, Oldfield revealed that some ideas for the venue for the millennium night concert were Jubilee Gardens

Jubilee Gardens

Jubilee Gardens is a public park on the South Bank in the London Borough of Lambeth. Created in 1977 to mark the Silver Jubilee of Elizabeth II, the site was formerly used for the Dome of Discovery and the adjacent Skylon Tower during the Festival of Britain in 1951...

 or possibly New Zealand

New Zealand

New Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses and numerous smaller islands. The country is situated some east of Australia across the Tasman Sea, and roughly south of the Pacific island nations of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga...

.

At the concert Oldfield performed pieces from his back catalogue, his then latest album The Millennium Bell

The Millennium Bell

The Millennium Bell is the 20th record album by Mike Oldfield, released in 1999 . The theme of the album is a reflection of different periods of human history. The album borrows its name from the dawning of the 3rd millennium and Oldfield's Tubular Bells series of albums...

and another piece titled "Art in Heaven". "Art in Heaven" begins with an excerpt from the first track of his The Songs of Distant Earth

The Songs of Distant Earth (album)

The Songs of Distant Earth is the 16th album by Mike Oldfield, released in 1994. It is based on Arthur C. Clarke's science fiction novel The Songs of Distant Earth.- Release details :...

 album ("In the Beginning"), and ends with "Ode to Joy

Ode to Joy

"Ode to Joy" is an ode written in 1785 by the German poet, playwright and historian Friedrich Schiller, enthusiastically celebrating the brotherhood and unity of all mankind...

" from Ludwig van Beethoven

Ludwig van Beethoven

Ludwig van Beethoven was a German composer and pianist. A crucial figure in the transition between the Classical and Romantic eras in Western art music, he remains one of the most famous and influential composers of all time.Born in Bonn, then the capital of the Electorate of Cologne and part of...

's Ninth Symphony

Symphony No. 9 (Beethoven)

The Symphony No. 9 in D minor, Op. 125, is the final complete symphony of Ludwig van Beethoven. Completed in 1824, the symphony is one of the best known works of the Western classical repertoire, and has been adapted for use as the European Anthem...

. The rest of the piece was specially composed for the event and was later turned into "Thou Art in Heaven

Thou Art in Heaven

"Thou Art in Heaven" is a single by musician Mike Oldfield, released in 2002.It is from the album Tr3s Lunas. "Thou Art in Heaven" is a cut-down version of the 13-minute "Art in Heaven", which featured on The Art in Heaven Concert, live in Berlin on Millennium night...

" on his next album Tres Lunas

Tres Lunas

Tr3s Lunas is a record album written and mostly performed by Mike Oldfield. It was released in 2002 with a bonus CD containing a demo program for a PC game, Tres Lunas.- Title :...

.

The concert was a few months after the Live Then & Now 1999

Live Then & Now 1999

The Live Then & Now 1999 was a concert tour by the British multi-instrumentalist Mike Oldfield.- Background :Then & Now was Oldfield's second tour of the 1990s, and was Oldfield's last full tour to date. It promoted both the Guitars and Tubular Bells III albums...

 tour and Oldfield's last performance until 2006.

Original DVD annotation

Berlin welcomes the new millennium with the world's most spectacular light-show Art in Heaven set to the timeless music of Mike Oldfield performing live in concert.

Twelve fluorescent light balloons, 250 rare Xenon gas Space Cannons and 550 special stage lights turn the sky above Berlin into a unique pyramid of light under the direction of Gert Hof. More than half a million spectators experience this superlative show set at the foot of Berlin's beautiful Victory Column.

Mike Oldfield performs several of this legendary classics including Tubular Bells, "Moonlight Shadow" and "Shadow on the Wall" as well as the premiere of his album The Millennium Bell. The musical climax of this event is the special "Art in Heaven".

Also appearing is the State Orchestra and the Glinka State Choir of Saint Petersburg. An amazing event of art, culture and music to commemorate the start of the new millennium.

Classic songs

1. "Tubular Bells
   Tubular Bells
   Tubular Bells is the debut record album of English musician Mike Oldfield, released in 1973. It was the first album released by Virgin Records and an early cornerstone of the company's success...
   
   " (Excerpts from part 1)
2. "Portsmouth
   Portsmouth (Mike Oldfield single)
   "Portsmouth" is a single released by musician Mike Oldfield in 1976 . It is Oldfield's highest charting single in the United Kingdom, charting at number 3.- Details :...
   
   "
3. "Moonlight Shadow
   Moonlight Shadow
   "Moonlight Shadow" is a pop song written and performed by English multi-instrumentalist Mike Oldfield, released as a single in May 1983 and included in the album Crises of the same year. The vocals were performed by Scottish vocalist Maggie Reilly, who had joined Mike Oldfield in 1980...
   
   "
4. "Secrets
   Tubular Bells III
   Tubular Bells III is the 18th album by Mike Oldfield, released in 1998. A sequel to Oldfield's 1973 Tubular Bells and his 1992 Tubular Bells II albums, it was released on the 25th anniversary of the first Tubular Bells album....
   
   "
5. "Shadow on the Wall
   Shadow on the Wall
   "Shadow on the Wall" is a single by musician Mike Oldfield, released in 1983. It is taken from Oldfield's album Crises. English rock singer Roger Chapman performs vocals on "Shadow on the Wall".- B-side :...
   
   "

The Millennium Bell songs

6. "Sunlight" ("Sunlight Shining Through Cloud")
7. "The Doges Palace"
8. "Mastermind"
9. "Broad" ("Broad Sunlit Uplands")
10. "Liberation"
11. "Amber Light"
12. "The Millennium Bell"

Special features

• "Art in Heaven" – Oldfield's 13-minute solo
• "The Making Of..." – documentary
• Interview with Mike Oldfield

Personnel

• Mike Oldfield
  Mike Oldfield
  Michael Gordon Oldfield is an English multi-instrumentalist musician and composer, working a style that blends progressive rock, folk, ethnic or world music, classical music, electronic music, New Age, and more recently, dance. His music is often elaborate and complex in nature...
  
   – guitar
  Guitar
  The guitar is a plucked string instrument, usually played with fingers or a pick. The guitar consists of a body with a rigid neck to which the strings, generally six in number, are attached. Guitars are traditionally constructed of various woods and strung with animal gut or, more recently, with...
  
  s
• Robyn Smith – conductor
  Conducting
  Conducting is the art of directing a musical performance by way of visible gestures. The primary duties of the conductor are to unify performers, set the tempo, execute clear preparations and beats, and to listen critically and shape the sound of the ensemble...
  
  
• Adrian Thomas – keyboards
  Keyboard instrument
  A keyboard instrument is a musical instrument which is played using a musical keyboard. The most common of these is the piano. Other widely used keyboard instruments include organs of various types as well as other mechanical, electromechanical and electronic instruments...
  
  , guitars
• Claire Nicolson – keyboards, guitar
• Carrie Melbourne
  Carrie Melbourne
  Carrie Melbourne is a British musician. She had a classical training and success as a session and performance musician with British artists Babylon Zoo, Tricky and Mike Oldfield. She also had a solo career with her own band...
  
   – bass
  Bass guitar
  The bass guitar is a stringed instrument played primarily with the fingers or thumb , or by using a pick....
  
  , Chapman Stick
  Chapman Stick
  The Chapman Stick is an electric musical instrument devised by Emmett Chapman in the early 1970s. A member of the guitar family, the Chapman Stick usually has ten or twelve individually tuned strings and has been used on music recordings to play bass lines, melody lines, chords or textures...
  
  
• Fergus Gerrand – drum
  Drum
  The drum is a member of the percussion group of musical instruments, which is technically classified as the membranophones. Drums consist of at least one membrane, called a drumhead or drum skin, that is stretched over a shell and struck, either directly with the player's hands, or with a...
  
  s, percussions
  Percussion instrument
  A percussion instrument is any object which produces a sound when hit with an implement or when it is shaken, rubbed, scraped, or otherwise acted upon in a way that sets the object into vibration...
  
  
• Jody Linscott
  Jody Linscott
  Jody Linscott is an American session musician and percussionist who resides in England and maintains an extended discography. She has two daughters and has written two children's books which were published by Doubleday, both edited by Jackie Onassis...
  
   – percussions
• Pepsi Demacque – vocals
• Miriam Stockley
  Miriam Stockley
  Miriam Stockley is a British singer. She was born in Johannesburg, South Africa, and her work is influenced by the African music in her home country. Her unique vocalese style gained international acclaim when Karl Jenkins' launched the "Adiemus" project with "Songs of Sanctuary", featuring...
  
   – vocals
• Nicola Emmanuelle
  Nicola Emmanuelle
  -Early life, education:Nicola Emmanuelle comes from a South African jazz dynasty. Her Father Nathan ‘Dambuza’ Mdledle was the founder and lead singer of the Manhattan Brothers and a South African Hall of Famer, her mother Louisa Manuel also in the South African Hall of Fame, the female lead singer...
  
   – vocals
• David Serame – vocals

Also

• Symphony Orchestra State Academic Capella, Saint Petersburg
  Saint Petersburg
  Saint Petersburg is a city and a federal subject of Russia located on the Neva River at the head of the Gulf of Finland on the Baltic Sea...
  
  
• The Glinka State Choir, Saint Petersburg
  Saint Petersburg
  Saint Petersburg is a city and a federal subject of Russia located on the Neva River at the head of the Gulf of Finland on the Baltic Sea...
  
  

Production

• Gert Hof – Director
• Egon Banghard – Producer
• Achim Perleberg – Producer

Sight & Sound version

On 30 June 2008 Warner re-released the concert in a CD and DVD double pack as a part of their Sight & Sound, Classic Performance Live range. The DVD is the same as the original release, with the CD being a reordered version of the concert, excluding the "Art in Heaven" 13 minute track.

CD track listing

1. "Tubular Bells"
2. "Shadow on the Wall"
3. "Secrets"
4. "Portsmouth"
5. "Moonlight Shadow"
6. "The Millennium Bell"
7. "Sunlight"
8. "Broad"
9. "The Doges Palace"
10. "Amber Light"
11. "Mastermind"
12. "Liberation"