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| Baby Einstein - Meet the Orchestra - First Instruments | 
 enlarge | Director: Jim Janicek
Actor: Baby Einstein
Studio: Buena Vista Home Entertainment / Disney
Category: DVD
List Price: $19.99
Buy New: $5.92
You Save: $14.07 (70%)
Buy New/Used from $3.93
Avg. Customer Rating:  (29 reviews)
Sales Rank: 7088
Format: Closed-captioned, Color, Dubbed, Dvd-video, Ntsc
Languages: English (Original Language), French (Dubbed), Spanish (Dubbed)
Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Media: DVD
Running Time: 41 minutes
Number Of Items: 1
Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1
Age: 1 month - 5 years
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.3
Dimensions (in): 0.5 x 5.3 x 7.5
MPN: 510023
UPC: 786936696547
EAN: 0786936696547
ASIN: B000CDGVP8
Release Date: March 7, 2006
Theatrical Release Date: March 15, 2006
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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| Customer Reviews:
 My kid loves it - Isn't that what matters? March 22, 2006
5 out of 9 found this review helpful
It's pretty funny to read all these reviews - they sound like Joan Rivers at the Oscars.
As a guy who has worked as an egineer in the music industry since high school (and enough hours a week that I barely get to see my children!), I just don't know what people are hearing. I'm more than satisfied with the sound of the instruments in the video, and to be honest, I'm happy enough to know that such an introduction to music in general exists at all!!!!
All I know is that at the end of the day, when I come home to find my 20 month old son happily engaged in the sights and the sounds of this DVD (along with the others), I'm happy.
And like I said in the title, "if my kid loves it, isn't that what matters?"
 Don't waste your money! March 20, 2006
11 out of 12 found this review helpful
What a missed opportunity! What could have been a great chance to introduce babies/toddlers to music was missed. Instead, instruments are introduced using some fake electronic violin, cello and other instrument "sounds." Also, as someone else noted there was an ommision of the oboe, which is a very integral part of the woodwind section. When the piano is introduced there is a jazzy version of "Fur Elise" which is an easy choice, but the video misses out on a wealth of piano music. Then piano and guitar play "Fur Elise" AGAIN Flaminco/world music style. When the orchestra is finally introduced they play a hockey version of Beethoven's 9th with the "canned" instruments. You could just picture some guy at Radio Shack playing it on some Casio electric piano. Please do yourself a favor and take your child to a real concert or better yet wait for something on television with real musicians playing real music!
not up to baby einstein's par March 18, 2006
42 out of 46 found this review helpful
Baby einstein usually puts out great videos. We so far have 5, I think. I have noticed that the newer ones are starting to lack some quality. I think they are being rushed into production, possibly after having sold to disney? But that is just a hunch.
Anyway, my husband and I are both orchestra teachers and our daughter loves instruments, especially violin and cello, so we thought this would be right up her alley. Unfortunately as mentioned above, the sounds are mostly synthetic, the animation is truely aweful and there is very little use of the trademarked baby einstein puppets that my daughter loves. They do include some odd choices of instruments- like why included recorder in the woodwind section but not oboe? But bassoon is included. Very odd.
As a strings teacher I am offended by the "music box" orchestra. I don't understand why baby einstein feels that children cannot appreciate fully orchestrated pieces. Personally, I feel that it is just a ploy to get people to buy their cd's for kids instead of using regular classical recordings. Our daughter just loves listening to Beethoven's 5th over and over and over.
Perhaps the worst thing about this video is that it does show kids playing the instruments wrong. How is that supposed to be a good model for kids? If they are going to hire kids to be shown playing instruments have the common sense to hire kids that can play the instruments.
And finally- why did they have to "jazz up" fur elise at the end? Really it is a classic all on its own and kids love it.
my daughter will watch the other baby einstein videos we have straight through, but this one doesn't hold her attention for more than 5 mintues.
 High Expectations March 17, 2006
6 out of 7 found this review helpful
My almost-three year old was not taken by this DVD. He lost interest quickly compared to "on the go". I am very into musical instruments and had high hopes, as I would like my children to at least know about music, if not love it. I hated that the young players did not match the music (fingerings were all wrong). I thought bugle and recorder were strange instruments to portray. Basically disappointed with this one in comparison to the other DVDs. We won't toss it, but I don't see my son choosing it in his regular rotation of Thomas, Elmo and other Baby Einstein DVDs.
I really expected better... March 13, 2006
11 out of 13 found this review helpful
I was unimpressed with the infant videos (Mozart, Bach), so it was only after several recommendations that I gave "Baby Wordsworth" a try. My daughter LOVES it and we watch it nearly daily (at her request...okay, insistance). Besides that, I found it beautifully done visually and musically, even though the "music box orchestra" concept bugs me to pieces.
Getting more than a little burned on Wordsworth, I was pleased to see this new DVD coming out, since she adores music. What a disappointment.
While the video does present many of the instruments of the orchestra, the quality of this DVD leaves me with the impression that the BE group was under the gun to produce something, and fast.
My comments:
*** The animated sequences that introduce each instrument are hideous. Seriously, this looks like something that an 8th-grader learning basic in the 1980s might have haphazardly tossed together! This, by a company owned by Disney? Yikes. The puppet sequences were better, but still, even the puppets looked cheaply created as if in a hurry.
*** The music. As another commenter posted, synthesized sounds are obviously supplied for some of the instruments (nearly the entire brass section, for example). While I've adjusted to the music box orchestra for BE's other productions, this is just plain bad...the soundtrack actually sounds worse than that used on other videos, and it's inappropriate to use a synthesizer for "what a trumpet sounds like." Blech.
*** Would it really be *that* difficult to find out which direction to hold a flute or a guitar? Both are shown held backwards.
We will not be keeping this one; I'm certain I can find better ways to introduce my daughter to instruments.
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