Claudio Abbado - Hearing the Silence conveys an intensely moving view on one of the leading musicians of our time. In several interviews, Abbado talks about artistic, musical and biographical aspects of his life. The film shows excerpts from rehearsals and concerts with some of his favourite orchestras. Statements from colleagues and friends are combined with views from his favourite surroundings and help to characterize the "silent thinker."
Film director Paul Smaczny had a very rare opportunity to get a glimpse of the immensely private personality of Claudio Abbado, described by many in the film as noble and elegant but also as a warm-hearted friend. The musicians all mention his reserved but exact gestures, his respectful way of working in rehearsals and concerts and the atmosphere of co-operation this creates. Cooperation in music making is an aspect that, as Abbado indicates in one of his interviews, is very important to him and one that is at the core of his artistic intentions. The film follows Abbado?EUR(TM)s work with the orchestras with whom he most frequently collaborated, making use of both recent and archival film footage, including clips of him rehearsing and performing works by Beethoven, Brahms, Bruckner, Debussy, Dvorak, Strauss, Stravinsky, and Nono.
Herbert von Karajan's story is the story of the record industry itself, which he was instrumental in creating and sustaining over half a century with hundreds of spectacular and award-winning recordings.
His life and his music-making still provoke extreme reactions; in Gernot Friedel's film, made with the help of the Karajan-Centrum in Salzburg, we see the hypnotic effect he could have upon musicians and listeners alike, we hear him in the repertoire for which he was renowned, and we are taken through a life never less than eventful.
This film is both a memoir of the Berliner Philharmoniker director Claudio Abbado's early years, and a personal introduction to the orchestra. It culminates in a deeply felt introduction to the sections of the orchestra with Abbado leading the Youth Orchestra of a United Europe.
The 128 musicians of the prestigious Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra have cast their votes: their new Principal Conductor will be Sir Simon Rattle.
He succeeds Claudio Abbado to become the sixth Principal Director in the 2002/2003 season.
The Berliner Philharmoniker is the only symphony orchestra world-wide choosing its principal conductor in its own responsibility. The camera has been following the orchestra since 1999 at auditions, concerts and guest performances and shows the various steps, from the groundwork preceding the election until the final counting of votes.
The most extensive documentation ever produced about this leading orchestra also presents the orchestra as a microcosm of the German society at the end of the 20th century. Excerpts from auditions and interviews with the Major conductors our time, statements by members of the orchestra, important agents and soloists working with him, reveal the significance of this new election and convey an atmosphere of expectation and excitement.
This mythological figure of Prometheus symbolises the creativity of man - and Claudio Abbado took this symbol as the Leitmotif of this very unique concert recording: An exploration of the Prometheus myth through the works of four composers, evocatively visualized by television director Christopher Swann, known for directing Leonard Bernstein conducts West Side Story among others.
Featuring Marta Argerich as the solo pianist, the concert was a giant was a giant collaboration of the Berliner Philharmoniker, the Berliner Singkadamie, the Solistenchor Freiburg, and the vocal soloist Ingrid Ade-Jeseman and Monika Bair-Ivenz and speakers Ulrike Krumbiegel and Matthias Schadock.
A film by Paul Smaczny and Maria Stodtmeier. Venezuela's unique system of music education takes children from violent slums and turns some of them into world-class musicians. El Sistema shows how Venezuelan visionary Jose Antonio Abreu has changed the lives of hundreds of thousands of children over the past three decades. This lyrical and moving documentary takes us from the rubbish dumps and barrios of Caracas to the world's finest concert halls. Children from streets dominated by the gun battles of gang warfare are taken into music schools, given access to music, and taught through the model of the symphony orchestra how to build a better society. Paul Smaczny and Maria Stodtmeier's film finds hope and joy in unlikely places.
Rodrigo at 90 is an intimate portrait of Spain's best known composer of the 20th century. At the age of ninety, he has lived a life filled with as tragedy as joy, and his belief in demons rivals his belief in God - but his art has maintained an outlook which is as sunny as the land whence it comes.
The legendary Concierto de Aranjuez has never been performed with such sensuality and profundity as by guitarist Pepe Romero and the Academy of St. Martin in the Fields conducted by Sir Neville Marriner. Romero's interpretation is influenced by Rodrigo's recounting of the true story behind this masterpiece: the sadness of the loss of an unborn child mixed with joyous earlier memories of his honeymoon in Aranjuez.
The city of Cremona immediately evokes the violin and the great families of violin makers who, since the end of the 16th century and for many generations, made it world famous.
In this documentary, Italian violinist Salvatore Accardo is joined by Andrea Mosconi, President of the Stradivari Museum, and by violin makers Francesco Bissolotti and Bruce Carlson in a fascinating journey of this Cremonese traditional craftsmanship.
Force of Nature Natalia follows a season in the life of dance superstar Natalia Osipova . With unique access to Natalia's personal archive, we follow her preparations for a fifth season as a principal of The Royal Ballet as she continues to champion contemporary dance with some of the world's greatest choreographers. This compelling portrait chronicles the rehearsal process of two new works, The Mother by Arthur Pita, and Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui's Medussa, and follows legendary ballerina and choreographer Natalia Makarova as she directs a revival of her classic production of La Bayadere for The Royal Ballet.
Natalia opens up about her life and history, her childhood in Russia, her time with American Ballet Theatre and her journey to the Royal Opera House. It is an unparalleled opportunity to get up close and personal with the leading ballerina of our generation and understand why critics and audiences all over the world call her a ''force of nature' of the dance world.
This mythological figure of Prometheus symbolises the creativity of man - and Claudio Abbado took this symbol as the Leitmotif of this very unique concert recording: An exploration of the Prometheus myth through the works of four composers, evocatively visualized by television director Christopher Swann, known for directing Leonard Bernstein conducts West Side Story among others.
Featuring Marta Argerich as the solo pianist, the concert was a giant was a giant collaboration of the Berliner Philharmoniker, the Berliner Singkadamie, the Solistenchor Freiburg, and the vocal soloist Ingrid Ade-Jeseman and Monika Bair-Ivenz and speakers Ulrike Krumbiegel and Matthias Schadock.
Almost seventy years of creative activity lay between Verdi's first compositions for Busseto and his corrections of the Falstaff score in 1893. During this period, the style of his public image and his role composer underwent a sea change. From a craftsman who produced melodramatic operas on the assembly line for some local theatre operation, he became an artistic genius whose complex works ranked as world wide theatrical events. At the end of his life, Verdi was the largest property owner in the province, and one the richest men in Italy.
With Va pensiero, sull'ali dorate (Fly, thought, on golden wings) , the prisoners' chorus from Nabucco, Verdi had entered the hearts of his compatriots, and in those hearts he has remained.
The film by Felix Breisach follows Verdi's life to the places of origin most important for him. Hosted by Thomas Hampson, the eloquent and world famous baritone also song four of some of Verdi's famous arias.
Conductor Franz Welser-Most, director Sven-Eric Bechtolf and singers Laura Aiken, Alfred Muff, Rolf Haunstein, Steve Davislim and Peter Straka contribute to a programme introducing Berg's complex masterpiece.
A major force in contemporary music, Pierre Boulez is committed to the expansion and recreation of musical language. This documentary looks at his work, in particular the creation of Repons , which was heralded as the Signal of "a new age of instrumental achievement" (Financial Times). Boulez is seen rehearsing at his Paris laboratory for new music (IRCAM). He talks about his experimentation, the difficulties involved in communicating his ideas, and the post-war composers who have influenced him.
Throughout Russian history there has been a love/hate relationship with her neighbors, oscillating between fear and loathing, envy and imitation. This final program in the series travels from the edge of the one-time empire to the heart of Russia and reveal that the cultural and musical impact of these conflicts has been vast, colorful and searing.
Classic Yo-Yo Ma chronicles Ma's unique work process and legendary performances with rarely seen rehearsal and concert footage from throughout his entire career.
In addition to these exquisite musical selections, the program includes newly-taped interviews with Yo-Yo Ma and his friends and colleagues Daniel Barenboim, Emanuel Ax, Tan Dun and Bobby McFerrin. Yo-Yo Ma is world-renowned for his incomparable artistry and range. His discography of nearly fifty albums includes fourteen Grammy Awards. His remarkable talent and limitless interests have created new boundaries for classical music.
The program highlights Ma's unique ability to explore cultures and musical forms outside the Western classical tradition. His diversity is demonstrated not only through richly nuanced interpretations of Bach, Beethoven , and Brahms , but also Piazzolla, Edgar Meyer , American folk music and Tan Dun .
Everything about Piotr Anderszewski is extraordinary: his talent, his repertoire, his constant questioning of his work as a performer. Any film about this highly unconventional pianist owes it to itself to depart from the beaten path; on the borderline between documentary and fiction, this "road movie" is set against the backdrop of a winter journey by train across Poland with a piano installed on board. Punctuated by Piotr's highly personal reflections, the repertoire consists of essential pieces by Bach, Mozart, Chopin, Beethoven, Schumann and Szymanowski.
Everything about Piotr Anderszewski is extraordinary: his talent, his repertoire, his constant questioning of his work as a performer. Any film about this highly unconventional pianist owes it to itself to depart from the beaten path; on the borderline between documentary and fiction, this "road movie" is set against the backdrop of a winter journey by train across Poland with a piano installed on board. Punctuated by Piotr's highly personal reflections, the repertoire consists of essential pieces by Bach, Mozart, Chopin, Beethoven, Schumann and Szymanowski.
The Risør Festival of Chamber Music has firmly established itself as one of the most prestigious and recognized chamber music festivals in the world. Each year, international artists visit the small fishing town in southern Norway and join forces with some of Norway's best musicians for six days of chamber music making. The setting is amongst the most beautiful to be found in Norway, the exquisite coastline architecture and quintessential southern white houses providing an atmosphere of intimacy and calmness.
The founding artistic directors were violist Lars Anders Tomter and pianist Leif Ove Andsnes. In 2011 Andsnes handed over the co-artistic leadership to violinist Henning Kraggerud. The festival takes place in the last week of June each year. The films shown here are produced by Music in Motion (www.musicinmotion.no).
Romeo and Juliet - The Tragic Lovers, offers insight, commentary and staged performances of Shakespeares famous tragedy of star-crossed lovers. As a companion to the literary interpretation, actual dramatic scenes filmed in Verona, Italy are used as Shakespeare had intended in his original play.
Scholar and host, James Bride, introduces factual information about Shakespeares play by referencing a digitally enhanced version of the Prologue. Gary Taylor, Editor of the Oxford Editions of Shakespeares Complete Works, offers an engaging dialogue about the historical background of exotic Verona, use of boy actors, staging challenges and 16th Century sacred and secular attitudes that influenced the writing of the play. Additionally, Judith Annozine covers the humor in this play providing insight into the characters and role of the Nurse and Mercutio in advancing the action.
A brilliant swordsman, athlete, violin virtuoso and composer, Joseph Bologne, Chevalier de Saint-Georges might well lay claim to being the most talented figure in an age of remarkable individuals. The string quartet was still in its infancy in France in the 1770s, but while these pieces are small in scale they are exceptionally rewarding.
Saint-Georges appreciated the intimate nature of this genre, avoiding overt soloistic virtuosity and exploring chamber music timbres, amply demonstrating his rich lyrical gifts and a natural ability to delight performers and audiences alike.
No non-Western musical idiom has so impacted on the Western concert tradition as Indonesian gamelan, beginning with the Javanese Pavilion at the 1889 Paris Exposition: an epiphany. Sampling gamelan-inspired works by Debussy, Ravel , and McPhee , the film arrives at a paragon exemplar of cultural fusion - Lou Harrison - and a pair of concertos for violin and piano, unsurpassed by those of any other American. The composer/scholar Bill Alves demonstrates the layered complexity of Javanese gamelan, and how it translates into keyboard textures composed by Harrison for Keith Jarrett. For Harrison's Concerto for Violin and Percussion , tour the 'junk percussion' - including flower pots and washtubs - that Harrison made sing and dance.
Participants include the gamelan scholars Jody Diamond and Sumarsam, and the conductor Dennis Russell Davies, who has long championed Harrison on both sides of the Atlantic.
Behind the scenes of the premier of The Helicopter String Quartet he dreamt of it and he did it.
Karlheinz Stockhausen is the composer of the superlative: in everything, he is "the most" (crazy, prolific, demanding, committed, innovative, radical, extravagant, etc.). Born near Cologne in 1928, he left a world that had become too small for him on December 5th, 2007. Before doing so he left three hundred and sixty works which experiment with all genres: serialism, electronics, pointillism, quotations, the collage and the aleotary. He will be remembered as a master of electro-acoustic music and of the spatialisation of sound, as revealed in this documentary dedicated to the world premiere, on June 26th, 1995 at the Holland Festival, of his Helicopter String Quartet.
This is not a joke. Karlheinz Stockhausen dreamt of it and he did it. He wrote a score for a string quartet whose musicians (in this instance the Arditti Quartet) would each play in a helicopter, while their music would be mixed on the ground by Stockhausen and broadcasted in the concert hall. The helicopter rotors are naturally present.
Frank Scheffer enables us to take part in the preparation of this "borderline" experiment: a huge amount of work rehearsing with the participation of the Dutch Navy, who...
Three previous volumes of this series were dedicated to La Scala. In this fourth DVD volume, we turn our attention to another beloved and well-known Italian operatic venue: the Arena of Verona, which is able to host more than 20,000 spectators and endowed with acoustics that are quite extraordinary.
This documentary, originally filmed in 16 mm, famed Italian journalist Enzo Biagi interviews the celebrity artists and directors who appeared at the Arena at the beginning of the 1908s, including Sherrill Millnes, Rajna Kabaiwanska, Fiorenza Cossotto, Mirella Freni, Rolando Panerai, Oliviero De Fabritiis, Nicola Martinucci , director Giancarlo Sbragia and set designer Giulio Coletllacci .
The DVD features excerpts from performances of Rigoletto, Aida, La traviata and Nabucco during that period of time.
The mother through the daughter's eyes - a family portrait blending intimate conversations, agreements and disagreements, and shred ties of sounds and blood. This intimate portrait of two musical giants by Martha Argerich's daughter Stephanie has been filmed over two decades and around the world: Warsaw, where Martha Argerich won the Chopin competition first prize; Japan, which hosts a unique Argerich festival; London, where Stephen Kovacevich, Stephanie's father, lives, works and enjoys intensively Indian food; Belgium, where Martha lives in a house filled with pianos and cats; Argentina, which she left at the age of twelve to study in Vienna, but still conceals valuable family treasures; Switzerland, where Stephanie and her sister Lyda are currently living.
A film by Stephanie Argerich herself, Bloody Daughter is made up of documentary sequences focusing on the two characters of Martha and Stephen in their everyday lives, in rehearsal and in performance, the film will be largely given over to intimate, delicious anecdotes, and a few scenes in which the family is reunited.
This mythological figure of Prometheus symbolises the creativity of man - and Claudio Abbado took this symbol as the Leitmotif of this very unique concert recording: An exploration of the Prometheus myth through the works of four composers, evocatively visualized by television director Christopher Swann, known for directing Leonard Bernstein conducts West Side Story among others.
Featuring Marta Argerich as the solo pianist, the concert was a giant was a giant collaboration of the Berliner Philharmoniker, the Berliner Singkadamie, the Solistenchor Freiburg, and the vocal soloist Ingrid Ade-Jeseman and Monika Bair-Ivenz and speakers Ulrike Krumbiegel and Matthias Schadock.
The mother through the daughter's eyes - a family portrait blending intimate conversations, agreements and disagreements, and shred ties of sounds and blood. This intimate portrait of two musical giants by Martha Argerich's daughter Stephanie has been filmed over two decades and around the world: Warsaw, where Martha Argerich won the Chopin competition first prize; Japan, which hosts a unique Argerich festival; London, where Stephen Kovacevich, Stephanie's father, lives, works and enjoys intensively Indian food; Belgium, where Martha lives in a house filled with pianos and cats; Argentina, which she left at the age of twelve to study in Vienna, but still conceals valuable family treasures; Switzerland, where Stephanie and her sister Lyda are currently living.
A film by Stephanie Argerich herself, Bloody Daughter is made up of documentary sequences focusing on the two characters of Martha and Stephen in their everyday lives, in rehearsal and in performance, the film will be largely given over to intimate, delicious anecdotes, and a few scenes in which the family is reunited.
This film is about the life of a composer creating in the darkness of a tragic era. As we will see, like most Soviet citizens, Khachaturian hid a complex private life behind a mask of Communist loyalty. Khachaturian was the President of the powerful Composer's Union of the Soviet Union, and as a communist party functionary wielded great influence over the course of Russian music. However, he was also a comrade and personal friend to the dissident composers of the time ?EUR" Shostakovich, Prokofiev, and others. This documentary shows the fine line a man had to tread between being a loyal party functionary on the one hand, and a fighter for artistic freedom on the other.
Profile of dancer-choreographer Karole Armitage , much of it in her own words. The program begins with a discussion of her evening-length work The predators' ball: hucksters of the soul , which she presented in several versions between 1994 and 1996.
Looking back upon her career, Armitage describes her beginnings as a ballet dancer, and her discovery of the work of Merce Cunningham, whose company she joined. She discusses her own choreography and its aims, her establishment of her own company in the 1980s, her move to France, and her appointment to the directorship of Maggio Danza in Florence, and compares audience and critical reactions to her innovations in the U.S. and Europe. Additional insights are offered by her friend Joan Juliet Buck; dance historian Sally Sommer; Armitage's husband, the painter David Salle; and fashion designer Christian Lacroix.
Almost seventy years of creative activity lay between Verdi's first compositions for Busseto and his corrections of the Falstaff score in 1893. During this period, the style of his public image and his role composer underwent a sea change. From a craftsman who produced melodramatic operas on the assembly line for some local theatre operation, he became an artistic genius whose complex works ranked as world wide theatrical events. At the end of his life, Verdi was the largest property owner in the province, and one the richest men in Italy.
With Va pensiero, sull'ali dorate (Fly, thought, on golden wings) , the prisoners' chorus from Nabucco, Verdi had entered the hearts of his compatriots, and in those hearts he has remained.
The film by Felix Breisach follows Verdi's life to the places of origin most important for him. Hosted by Thomas Hampson, the eloquent and world famous baritone also song four of some of Verdi's famous arias.
Go behind the scenes of Peter Sellars' landmark 1992 production of Messiaen's Saint Francois d'Assise in this documentary directed by Jean-Pierre Gorin. These controversial and ultimately universally acclaimed Salzburg Festival performances of the composer's first and only opera starred Jose van Dam and Dawn Upshaw, joined by the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra and Arnold Schonberg Choir under the baton of Esa-Pekka Salonen.
Commissioned in 1975 by the acclaimed Paris Opera director Rolf Liebermann, Olivier Messiaen composed both the libretto and score of Saint Francois d'Assise by himself over the course of the following four years, selecting Catholic saint and fellow bird lover Francis of Assisi as his opera's protagonist. After its orchestration, the work was rehearsed and premiered in 1983 at the Paris Opera under Messiaen's supervision. While these performances were beloved by audiences, critical reception was mixed, which is perhaps why it took almost ten years before the opera would again enjoy a full scenic production, an honor which it would receive in spades at the 1992 Salzburg Festival.
In his documentary, Jean-Pierre Gorin follows the development of Peter Sellars' Salzburg production from its rehearsals to its premiere. In addition to excerpted video...
Throughout his adult life, composer Robert Schumann (1810-1856) struggled against a fear of mental disintegration. His Symphony No. 2 in C Major, Op. 61 was written in 1845 while he was recovering from a breakdown and contains an illustration of how his creative daemons, the heroic, high-spirited Florestan, and the brooding, poetic Eusebius, came into conflict in his music, with its combination of power and intimate lyricism. Focusing on the Second Symphony, this film uses a dynamic interaction between rehearsal footage and dramatized sequences to give a penetrating insight into the composer's complex and fractured genius.
The Schumann Encounter finds Sir Roger Norrington in Salzburg to rehearse and perform the Symphony No. 2 with the Camerata Academica, one of Europe's leading chamber orchestras. Snatching some rest before the evening's concert with the Camerata Academica, he is aware of an argument in progress in the adjoining hotel room. He falls asleep only to awake in another reality, transformed into Master Raro the mediator between Florestan and Eusebius, both played by Simon Callow (Amadeus, Shakespeare in Love) who are at odds over the composition of the Second Symphony.
The portrait film, Vladimir Ashkenazy: The Vital Juices Are Russian , includes sequences with Itzhak Perlman, Daniel Barenboim, Edo de Waart and the Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra. It features music by Beethoven, Chopin, César Franck and Stravinsky.
Vladimir Ashkenazy has had a particular affection for the music of Rachmaninoff throughout his professional life, and his performances have long had the ring both of authenticity and of deep commitment. This is not surprising in a Russian-born and Russian-trained musician of Ashkenazy's stature, but it is worth remembering that for many years after his emigration from the Soviet Union his interest in Russian music was somewhat eclipsed by his concern to master the music of the Western European traditions.
The films follow an artistic journey that was not an easy one. Living through the great turning point in Western music, many of Sibelius' concerns were strikingly similar to those of Schoenberg and Stravinsky. Each followed a different path, however, and it is not surprising that their reputations should be caught up in the massive shifts of fashion that characterise the turmoil of twentieth century music.
Christopher Nupen offers an intimate look at what Sibelius himself felt that he was trying to achieve. To quote Nupen: "His music has lasted and I believe that it will continue to last, whatever fashion may do...his voice is inimitable, unmistakable and for me unforgettable. My first encounters with it opened up a whole new world that remains with me."
As with Nupen's films on Respighi, Mussorgsky and Tchaikovsky, the orchestra is the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra conducted by Vladimir Ashkenazy. They are joined in this film by Elisabeth Söderström and Boris Belkin.
The films follow an artistic journey that was not an easy one. Living through the great turning point in Western music, many of Sibelius' concerns were strikingly similar to those of Schoenberg and Stravinsky. Each followed a different path, however, and it is not surprising that their reputations should be caught up in the massive shifts of fashion that characterise the turmoil of twentieth century music.
Christopher Nupen offers an intimate look at what Sibelius himself felt that he was trying to achieve. To quote Nupen: "His music has lasted and I believe that it will continue to last, whatever fashion may do...his voice is inimitable, unmistakable and for me unforgettable. My first encounters with it opened up a whole new world that remains with me."
As with Nupen's films on Respighi, Mussorgsky and Tchaikovsky, the orchestra is the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra conducted by Vladimir Ashkenazy. They are joined in this film by Elisabeth Söderström and Boris Belkin.
This Christopher Nupen film is about the music and the artistic intentions of Pyotr Il'yich Tchaikovsky, one of the greats and a composer with an immediate appeal for many millions of people.
In this film the focus is on Tchaikovsky's concern with his own fate in Manfred and the last three symphonies and his extraordinary relationship with Nadezhda von Meck as told in his revealing correspondence with her.
This Christopher Nupen film is about the music and the artistic intentions of Pyotr Il'yich Tchaikovsky, one of the greats and a composer with an immediate appeal for many millions of people.
The prime focus is Tchaikovsky's lifelong preoccupation with the idea of fate as a controlling influence in our lives.
The women in this film are both the women in his personal life (his mother Alexandra, his governess Fanny Durbach and the Belgian singer Desiree Artot) and the vulnerable young heroines in his early music (Katerina Kabanova in The Storm, Juliet in Romeo and Juliet, Francesca in Francesca da Rimini, Odette in Swan Lake and Tatyana in Evgeny Onegin).
The title is taken from a poem by a 12-year-old girl, Eva Pickova, written in the Theresienstadt concentration camp. Her words provide both the title and the climaxEUR"in a setting for two choruses and orchestra by the American composer Franz Waxman, in his touching work The Song of Terezin.
It is a film is about many things. It is about freedom and captivity, about emancipation, acculturation and assimilation; it is about the roles played by Moses and Felix Mendelssohn in the dream of fruitful, unproblematic integration of the Jews into German society after their liberation from the ghettos; it is about Richard Wagner, his ferociously anti-Semitic essay Das Judenthum in der Musik (The Jews in Music) and his influence on the thinking of the Third Reich but, most of all, it is a film about how much music can mean to people, even in the direst of circumstances, or particularly in the direst circumstances.
Explore Europe's most spectacular cities and landscapes while luxuriating in the great classical music composed within their precincts. Viewers will learn about the lives of the master musicians, the cities they lived in, and how their work reflects the very same surroundings we see today.
Renowned actor, writer and classical music specialist Simon Callow presents a spectacular continental odyssey with a soundtrack by Mozart, Bach, Beethoven, Vivaldi, Puccini, Grieg, Sibelius, Smetana, Tchaikovsky and others.
Vivaldi's Venice, the Salzburg of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, the fjords of Norway evoked in music by Edvard Grieg, and the Vienna that waltzed to Johann Strauss have never looked - or sounded - better.
Simon Callow details the dreams, dramas and musical triumphs of composers such as Handel, Chopin, Liszt, Rachmaninov, Shostakovich, Elgar, Holst, Debussy, Ravel, Richard Strauss, Resphigi and Rossini to name just a few.
Classic Yo-Yo Ma chronicles Ma's unique work process and legendary performances with rarely seen rehearsal and concert footage from throughout his entire career.
In addition to these exquisite musical selections, the program includes newly-taped interviews with Yo-Yo Ma and his friends and colleagues Daniel Barenboim, Emanuel Ax, Tan Dun and Bobby McFerrin. Yo-Yo Ma is world-renowned for his incomparable artistry and range. His discography of nearly fifty albums includes fourteen Grammy Awards. His remarkable talent and limitless interests have created new boundaries for classical music.
The program highlights Ma's unique ability to explore cultures and musical forms outside the Western classical tradition. His diversity is demonstrated not only through richly nuanced interpretations of Bach, Beethoven , and Brahms , but also Piazzolla, Edgar Meyer , American folk music and Tan Dun .
The State Opera is the first film ever made about the Bavarian State Opera, one of the world's oldest, most prestigious and internationally esteemed companies. It charts the course of three operas - Die Meistersinger von Nurnberg , Les Indes galantes and Un ballo in maschera - as they come to life on the stage.
We meet some of the great singers, such as Jonas Kaufmann and Anja Harteros, in performance and behind the scenes, as well as artistic directors past and present, and two of the music directors in Kirill Petrenko and his predecessor Zubin Mehta. As both a celebration and an exploration, this entertaining film is a declaration of love for the operatic form.
Born in England, of German parents, Frederick Delius (1862-1934) traveled throughout his life to America, Scandinavia, Germany, France and Italy. Although ranked as one of the leading English composers, he was inspired by the foreign landscapes he visited.
Discovering Delius looks at the early life and work of the young cosmopolitan composer. Several champions of Delius' music - conductor Charles Mackerras, cellist Julian Lloyd Webber, violinist Tasmin Little, baritone Thomas Hampson and the Brindisi Quartet - are seen rehearsing, performing and discussing his work.
The music chosen focuses on the landmarks of Delius's creativity and reveals every aspect of his compositional style and includes extracts from the film of A Village Romeo and Juliet, featuring Thomas Hampson; A Mass of Life from the 1992 Brighton Festival; Sir Charles Mackerras and the Welsh National Opera rehearsing and performing The Song of the High Hills and movements from the Florida Suite.
Tasmin Little discusses, rehearses and performs the Concerto for Violin and Piano ; the Sonata for Cello and Piano is performed by Julian Lloyd Webber; and the Brindisi Quartet rehearses and performs Late Swallows from the String Quartet.
Alban Berg (1885-1935) lived in the mainstream of well-to-do Austrian society. His marriage to the beautiful Helene was thought to be made in heaven. But how can this doyen of Viennese respectability be reconciled with the composer who wrote the dark operas Wozzeck and Lulu ?
This multi-layered film explores Berg's double life. Soprano Kristine Ciesinki, who features in specially-staged extracts from Lulu and Wozzeck, travels to Vienna, Prague, the USA and Germany to track down important archive documents and people who can recall the composer's presence in their lives.
This mythological figure of Prometheus symbolises the creativity of man - and Claudio Abbado took this symbol as the Leitmotif of this very unique concert recording: An exploration of the Prometheus myth through the works of four composers, evocatively visualized by television director Christopher Swann, known for directing Leonard Bernstein conducts West Side Story among others.
Featuring Marta Argerich as the solo pianist, the concert was a giant was a giant collaboration of the Berliner Philharmoniker, the Berliner Singkadamie, the Solistenchor Freiburg, and the vocal soloist Ingrid Ade-Jeseman and Monika Bair-Ivenz and speakers Ulrike Krumbiegel and Matthias Schadock.
Herbert von Karajan's story is the story of the record industry itself, which he was instrumental in creating and sustaining over half a century with hundreds of spectacular and award-winning recordings.
His life and his music-making still provoke extreme reactions; in Gernot Friedel's film, made with the help of the Karajan-Centrum in Salzburg, we see the hypnotic effect he could have upon musicians and listeners alike, we hear him in the repertoire for which he was renowned, and we are taken through a life never less than eventful.
The world does not need any conductors! A provocative thesis that the little animated baton builder puts up at his workbench. Do the participants of the world-renowned Gustav Mahler Conducting Competition see this as well? In a humorous way, the film examines the power and magic of the maestros and explains what the orchestra actually needs a conductor for.
A tribute to Jacqueline du Pre to mark the thirtieth anniversary of her death thirty years ago, on 19 October 1987.
The documentary contains archive footage shot during Jacqueline du Pre's lifetime which captures some glorious and professionally filmed live performances. It also remembers both her personality and her music through the memories and tributes of her closest friends and colleagues including Daniel Barenboim, Pinchas Zukerman, Itzhak Perlman, Toby Perlman, Fou Ts'ong, Zubin Mehta, William Pleeth, Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, Hugh Maguire, Elizabeth Wilson, Cynthia Friend, Charles Beare, Suvi Grubb, Dr Len Selby and Clive Barda.
In the music she is accompanied by Daniel Barenboim, Pinchas Zukerman, Gervase de Peyer, Itzhak Perlman, Zubin Mehta, Janet Baker The New Philharmonia Orchestra and the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra.
There is music by Beethoven, Eccles, Couperin, Clementi, Elgar, Brahms, Offenbach and Bruch . The writer and director is Christopher Nupen who was close to Jacqueline du Pre for more than 20 years and made five films with her during her lifetime.
From 1999 to 2001, filmmaker Paul Smaczny followed legendary pianist and conductor Daniel Barenboim , exploring his exceptional life and brilliant career.
Daniel Barenboim, director of Staatskapelle Berlin, is a legendary pianist, conductor, and music director. This man of many passions has played an essential role in some of the most important debates of our time. Paul Smaczny followed Barenboim on a tour that took him to Berlin, Chicago, Weimar, and Buenos Aires (where he made his debut 50 years before), and concluded in Jerusalem (where he dared to present a program featuring Wagner, breaking an implicit taboo of the Jewish state's musical world). Over the course of the journey, Barenboim unveiled his story, from his birth in 1942 in Buenos Aires to his arrival in Europe from Israel at the age of 10.
Cecilia Bartoli, Pierre Boulez, Zubin Mehta, and Waltraud Meier, his colleagues, pay tribute to this exceptional musician.
This documentary includes one particularly moving scene: the young Barenboim playing in a swimming pool with his wife, the cellist Jacqueline Dupre, who passed away at a young age. The program includes historic photos from the concert in Israel where the conductor offered the audience an encore performance of a work by Wagner.
Nowhere in the world is the myth of Wagner as alive as in Bayreuth, and nowhere are performances of his works followed as closely as those at the Festspielhaus in Bayreuth. But after a decade-long reign as the uncontested ruler of the Wagner Festival, the composer's grandson Wolfgang Wagner has stepped down from his post. A new era is about to begin...
This documentary thematizes the past, present and future of the festival and provides rare insights behind the scenes of the Wagner "workshop." For the first time ever, the film team was able to record in the legendary Bayreuth orchestra pit, giving rise to stunningly candid shots of conductor Christian Thielemann rehearsing Götterdämmerung. A conversation with Wolfgang Wagner recorded especially for this production is presumably the patriarch's last appearance on film as head of the festival. The program also features rehearsals of the new 2008 production of Parsifal with director Stefan Herheim and conductor Daniele Gatti. Members of the Wagner family and leading Wagner interpreters of our time also comment on the unique Wagner aura. The authors have assembled an amazing collection of historical film material and photos on the history of the festival. There are also excerpts from great productions recorded by Unitel...
Classic Yo-Yo Ma chronicles Ma's unique work process and legendary performances with rarely seen rehearsal and concert footage from throughout his entire career.
In addition to these exquisite musical selections, the program includes newly-taped interviews with Yo-Yo Ma and his friends and colleagues Daniel Barenboim, Emanuel Ax, Tan Dun and Bobby McFerrin. Yo-Yo Ma is world-renowned for his incomparable artistry and range. His discography of nearly fifty albums includes fourteen Grammy Awards. His remarkable talent and limitless interests have created new boundaries for classical music.
The program highlights Ma's unique ability to explore cultures and musical forms outside the Western classical tradition. His diversity is demonstrated not only through richly nuanced interpretations of Bach, Beethoven , and Brahms , but also Piazzolla, Edgar Meyer , American folk music and Tan Dun .
A tribute to Jacqueline du Pre to mark the thirtieth anniversary of her death thirty years ago, on 19 October 1987.
The documentary contains archive footage shot during Jacqueline du Pre's lifetime which captures some glorious and professionally filmed live performances. It also remembers both her personality and her music through the memories and tributes of her closest friends and colleagues including Daniel Barenboim, Pinchas Zukerman, Itzhak Perlman, Toby Perlman, Fou Ts'ong, Zubin Mehta, William Pleeth, Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, Hugh Maguire, Elizabeth Wilson, Cynthia Friend, Charles Beare, Suvi Grubb, Dr Len Selby and Clive Barda.
In the music she is accompanied by Daniel Barenboim, Pinchas Zukerman, Gervase de Peyer, Itzhak Perlman, Zubin Mehta, Janet Baker The New Philharmonia Orchestra and the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra.
There is music by Beethoven, Eccles, Couperin, Clementi, Elgar, Brahms, Offenbach and Bruch . The writer and director is Christopher Nupen who was close to Jacqueline du Pre for more than 20 years and made five films with her during her lifetime.
The 128 musicians of the prestigious Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra have cast their votes: their new Principal Conductor will be Sir Simon Rattle.
He succeeds Claudio Abbado to become the sixth Principal Director in the 2002/2003 season.
The Berliner Philharmoniker is the only symphony orchestra world-wide choosing its principal conductor in its own responsibility. The camera has been following the orchestra since 1999 at auditions, concerts and guest performances and shows the various steps, from the groundwork preceding the election until the final counting of votes.
The most extensive documentation ever produced about this leading orchestra also presents the orchestra as a microcosm of the German society at the end of the 20th century. Excerpts from auditions and interviews with the Major conductors our time, statements by members of the orchestra, important agents and soloists working with him, reveal the significance of this new election and convey an atmosphere of expectation and excitement.
The West-Eastern Divan Orchestra left its significant mark on the programming of the Salzburg Festival 2007. The symphonic concerts in the Grosses Festspielhaus, the chamber music concerts in the Mozarteum and the "School for Listening" workshops in the Great University Hall under the guidance of Daniel Barenboim turned out to be another highlight of the politically ambitious project that started in 1999 as a workshop for chamber music.
This documentary provides an insight into the rehearsals of the musicians, covers political discussions and shows the legendary West-Eastern Divan Orchestra - Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra soccer match. The final tour concert in the sold-out Berliner Philharmonie forms the grand finale.
Anne-Sophie Mutter is one of the greatest musicians of our age and for the last five decades has appeared at the world's leading concert venues. In addition to premiering 31 new works from leading composers, she is an inspiring mentor, has promoted top young musicians and fostered numerous charitable projects. In this documentary, she meets figures she admires, such as tennis star Roger Federer, as well as Daniel Barenboim, legendary film composer John Williams, and others. Anne-Sophie Mutter talks candidly about her personal life and the demands of her international career. This unprecedented portrait of a socially active artist is supplemented by archive material from her stellar career.
The title is taken from a poem by a 12-year-old girl, Eva Pickova, written in the Theresienstadt concentration camp. Her words provide both the title and the climaxEUR"in a setting for two choruses and orchestra by the American composer Franz Waxman, in his touching work The Song of Terezin.
It is a film is about many things. It is about freedom and captivity, about emancipation, acculturation and assimilation; it is about the roles played by Moses and Felix Mendelssohn in the dream of fruitful, unproblematic integration of the Jews into German society after their liberation from the ghettos; it is about Richard Wagner, his ferociously anti-Semitic essay Das Judenthum in der Musik (The Jews in Music) and his influence on the thinking of the Third Reich but, most of all, it is a film about how much music can mean to people, even in the direst of circumstances, or particularly in the direst circumstances.
This video contains a Christopher Nupen film about the most charismatic performer in the entire history of Western classical music EUR" also the most talked about, the most controversial, the most famous and the most successful classical soloist that the world of music has ever known.
The story is astonishing, exciting, wildly unusual and, at the end, deeply touching. It is one of the most extraordinary tales in the history of music and it is told with all the Nupen finesse and commitment that have won him DVD of the Year Award four times in the past six years.
In the recording, Christopher Nupen looks at the legend and the strange man who created it with his dazzling combination of technical brilliance, supreme showmanship, Italian melody and unbridled manipulative skill EUR" a man whose extraordinary personality unsettled even the most sophisticated and educated minds and provoked wildly contradictory opinions.
It presents Paganini's music, shot and edited in the style developed by Christopher Nupen and his colleagues for their prize winning DVDs about Sibelius, Schubert and Tchaikovsky and combines it with extracts from Paganini's letters and quotations from both his admirers and his many detractors.
The conductor Rudolf Barshai was one of the greatest musicians of the twentieth century. The Moscow Chamber Orchestra founded by Barshai in the late 1950s took the world by storm. Among the orchestra's collaborators were Sviatoslav Richter, David Oistrakh, Emil Gilels, Yehudi Menuhin. In 1977, at the peak of his career, Barshai emigrated to the West to perform works banned in the USSR. He led orchestras in Israel, Britain, Canada, France, Switzerland, and Japan. A master of orchestration, whom Shostakovich ?EUR" his mentor and friend ?EUR" trusted to arrange his quartets into chamber symphonies. Barshai considered his greatest achievements in life the ending to Bach's Art of Fugue and a version of Mahler's Tenth Symphony. The film, shot in Switzerland in 2010, is the maestro's confessional monologue, recorded a month before his death.
This Christopher Nupen film is about the music and the artistic intentions of Pyotr Il'yich Tchaikovsky, one of the greats and a composer with an immediate appeal for many millions of people.
In this film the focus is on Tchaikovsky's concern with his own fate in Manfred and the last three symphonies and his extraordinary relationship with Nadezhda von Meck as told in his revealing correspondence with her.
This Christopher Nupen film is about the music and the artistic intentions of Pyotr Il'yich Tchaikovsky, one of the greats and a composer with an immediate appeal for many millions of people.
The prime focus is Tchaikovsky's lifelong preoccupation with the idea of fate as a controlling influence in our lives.
The women in this film are both the women in his personal life (his mother Alexandra, his governess Fanny Durbach and the Belgian singer Desiree Artot) and the vulnerable young heroines in his early music (Katerina Kabanova in The Storm, Juliet in Romeo and Juliet, Francesca in Francesca da Rimini, Odette in Swan Lake and Tatyana in Evgeny Onegin).
Maya Plisetskaya is in every sense an exceptional personality. Like almost no other dancer, the eternal prima ballerina assoluta of the Bolshoi Theatre understood how to combine outstanding dance skills with dramatic expression. There are also very few dancers who can look back on such a long and active career: even on her eightieth birthday in November 2005 she personally gave a stage performance. A homage to her inimitable creative work, this video features fascinating footage of her greatest successes as a ballerina together with an interview in which Maya Plisetskaya describes her life as a dancer - which is simultaneously a whole chapter of Russian history, from Stalin to perestroika.
After his first two operas Oberto and Un giorno di regno, Verdi fell into a depression that dissipated only when he was shown the libretto to Nabucco and discovered the chorus "Va, pensiero." The words sung by the Hebrew exiles made an indelible impression on the composer, who also saw the political potential within them: an echo of the Italians' longing for freedom and a unified nation. The work was premiered at the Teatro alla Scala on 9 March 1842 and was an enormous success. The story of the Babylonian king and the captive Israelites struck a patriotic chord in the hearts of the Milan audiences and swiftly carried Verdi's name throughout Italy and the rest of the world. Nabucco has long been at home in the Arena di Verona, and for many, the "Va, pensiero" chorus is, along with the triumphal march from Aida, the very embodiment of the Verona experience. This video production vividly captures this unique experience and provides the viewer with fascinating details that escape many of the Arena's spectators. Stage director Denis Krief casts the work in a sparse modern setting, providing a highly effective showcase for the true heroes of the evening, the singers under conductor Daniel Oren. "Nuanced and temperamental, Daniel Oren's interpretation dazzles with...
A major force in contemporary music, Pierre Boulez is committed to the expansion and recreation of musical language. This documentary looks at his work, in particular the creation of Repons , which was heralded as the Signal of "a new age of instrumental achievement" (Financial Times). Boulez is seen rehearsing at his Paris laboratory for new music (IRCAM). He talks about his experimentation, the difficulties involved in communicating his ideas, and the post-war composers who have influenced him.
Opera evenings can be life-changing. Anyone who saw Callas still talks about her today. And they still exist, the great heroines: singers who pierce our hearts. This film presents three of them, explores what they do, how they do it and what it does to us: Ermonela Jaho , Barbara Hannigan and Asmik Grigorian . Their cultural backgrounds - Albanian, Canadian, Lithuanian - are remarkably diverse, yet they have one thing in common: they give their utmost on stage and hold nothing back. They merge with their stage personae and strive for the full experience.
Hannigan is the analyst. She dissects every role in minute detail and interprets it with icy fire. Her Lulu, her Melisande, her Marie in Zimmermann's Soldaten are beings from a future world: remote, self-assured, modern women. Masculine desire leaves them cold; even when they succumb, they are still in charge. This is similar to Grigorian, who won acclaim for her Salome in Salzburg. Grigorian's Salome is both victim and perpetrator; she enjoys her desire and the deadly spiral into which she is drawn. With Jaho, on the other hand, everything is in the voice; she carries the whole gamut of emotions in it and captivates audiences - as Violetta, Angelica, Ciocio-san - with her vocal acting.
Global Wagner - From Bayreuth to the World is not a biography of Richard Wagner , nor is it a musicological analysis of his work. This is a documentary dedicated solely to the world's fascination with the man, and an exploration of the question as to how such massive hype and world-wide cult following developed around this highly controversial artist. The program is a revealing feature-length study of life with Wagner's legacy from one Bayreuth Festival to the next, and we travel the world to meet devoted Wagnerians and those most intimately involved in commenting on and producing his work today.
Maya Plisetskaya is in every sense an exceptional personality. Like almost no other dancer, the eternal prima ballerina assoluta of the Bolshoi Theatre understood how to combine outstanding dance skills with dramatic expression. There are also very few dancers who can look back on such a long and active career: even on her eightieth birthday in November 2005 she personally gave a stage performance. A homage to her inimitable creative work, this video features fascinating footage of her greatest successes as a ballerina together with an interview in which Maya Plisetskaya describes her life as a dancer - which is simultaneously a whole chapter of Russian history, from Stalin to perestroika.
From McGill University's Centre for Interdisciplinary Research in Music Media and Technology (Montreal, Canada) comes a path-breaking project. Performer and musicologist Tom Beghin , Tonmeister and producer Martha de Francisco , and recording engineer Wieslaw Woszczyk apply the VIRTUAL ACOUSTICS for the first time to a recording of this magnitude. In the "Immersive Presence" Laboratory, surrounded by a semi-sphere of 24 loudspeakers, Tom Beghin plays "as if" in the historical room. His sounds are captured, mixed with reverberation responses identical to those of the actual location, and retransmitted almost instantaneously through the sphere, allowingt him to engage "the room" then and there.
The films follow an artistic journey that was not an easy one. Living through the great turning point in Western music, many of Sibelius' concerns were strikingly similar to those of Schoenberg and Stravinsky. Each followed a different path, however, and it is not surprising that their reputations should be caught up in the massive shifts of fashion that characterise the turmoil of twentieth century music.
Christopher Nupen offers an intimate look at what Sibelius himself felt that he was trying to achieve. To quote Nupen: "His music has lasted and I believe that it will continue to last, whatever fashion may do...his voice is inimitable, unmistakable and for me unforgettable. My first encounters with it opened up a whole new world that remains with me."
As with Nupen's films on Respighi, Mussorgsky and Tchaikovsky, the orchestra is the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra conducted by Vladimir Ashkenazy. They are joined in this film by Elisabeth Söderström and Boris Belkin.
The films follow an artistic journey that was not an easy one. Living through the great turning point in Western music, many of Sibelius' concerns were strikingly similar to those of Schoenberg and Stravinsky. Each followed a different path, however, and it is not surprising that their reputations should be caught up in the massive shifts of fashion that characterise the turmoil of twentieth century music.
Christopher Nupen offers an intimate look at what Sibelius himself felt that he was trying to achieve. To quote Nupen: "His music has lasted and I believe that it will continue to last, whatever fashion may do...his voice is inimitable, unmistakable and for me unforgettable. My first encounters with it opened up a whole new world that remains with me."
As with Nupen's films on Respighi, Mussorgsky and Tchaikovsky, the orchestra is the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra conducted by Vladimir Ashkenazy. They are joined in this film by Elisabeth Söderström and Boris Belkin.
American choreographer Agnes de Mille (1909-93) is best-known for her cowboy ballet Rodeo and her choreography for the original Broadway show and film of Oklahoma. A profile, made when this grand old lady of dance was in her seventies, shows her still energetically rehearsing Rodeo with American Ballet Theatre dancers. She talks in interview about her life and influences and her earlier career is illustrated with archive film.
The Russian pianist Boris Berezovsky is one of the most virtuous piano interpreters of our times. One can tell that for him the borders of keyboard possibilities have not yet been reached. Boris Berezovsky brought attention to himself with his daring dexterity at the 1990 International Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow. He won the Gold Medal straight off. The film accompanies Boris Berezovsky on his musical journey. The artist Boris Berezovsky drives through the Yekaterinburg, as a passionate player he goes to the casino and improvises along with a little band in a Jazz Club.
Harry Partch (like his friend Anais Nin) considered his life's work to be a letter to the world. His last act was going to be to add the enclosures. He never got around to it. After 20 years of working on the Partch archives, Philip Blackburn has now completed the seven-part Enclosures series as it were on his behalf.
Enclosure 7 is a monumental tribute to the most significant works of this American original and iconoclast. It includes new versions of his late masterworks and never-before-seen footage that bring us closer to the real Harry behind the myth.
The Dreamer That Remains is a documentary produced by Betty Freeman and directed by Stephen Pouliot in 1972. Here is the director's original cut along with his commentary. If you've never seen Partch or his instruments before, this is the place to start.
Delusion of the Fury was his magnum opus; a lifetime of instrument invention and ideas of ritual theater were poured into this giant work. The 1971 film has been resynched and the soundtrack remastered in 5.1 surround sound.
The CBS LPs of this work came with a bonus album of Harry introducing his instruments. Unavailable for years, this recording features this talk along with a slideshow of the instruments.
Revelation in the Courthouse Park was Harry's...
Claudio Abbado - Hearing the Silence conveys an intensely moving view on one of the leading musicians of our time. In several interviews, Abbado talks about artistic, musical and biographical aspects of his life. The film shows excerpts from rehearsals and concerts with some of his favourite orchestras. Statements from colleagues and friends are combined with views from his favourite surroundings and help to characterize the "silent thinker."
Film director Paul Smaczny had a very rare opportunity to get a glimpse of the immensely private personality of Claudio Abbado, described by many in the film as noble and elegant but also as a warm-hearted friend. The musicians all mention his reserved but exact gestures, his respectful way of working in rehearsals and concerts and the atmosphere of co-operation this creates. Cooperation in music making is an aspect that, as Abbado indicates in one of his interviews, is very important to him and one that is at the core of his artistic intentions. The film follows Abbado?EUR(TM)s work with the orchestras with whom he most frequently collaborated, making use of both recent and archival film footage, including clips of him rehearsing and performing works by Beethoven, Brahms, Bruckner, Debussy, Dvorak, Strauss, Stravinsky, and Nono.
The conductor Pierre Boulez (born in 1925) best describes his relationship with the music of composer Bela Bartok (1881-1945) as a "sympathy between musicians". The Frenchman has been involved with the music of the Hungarian composer for over five decades. Bartok and Boulez belong to the 20th century's most influential artists. A key work of Bartok is the Concerto for Orchestra , which was premiered in Boston in 1944.
The program Emotion and Analysis follows Pierre Boulez in his rehearsals of this composition with the Berlin Philharmonic. The documentary provides a fascinating look into the methods of the great master of modern music. The rehearsals take place in the spectacular setting of the monastery Mosteiro dos Jeronimos in Lisbon which was also the location of the annual European Concert of the Berlin Philharmonic for the year 2003. Pierre Boulez explains in a series of interviews the historical origins of Bartok's late work, his own personal style of interpretation and his role as conductor as well as his love of composing.
Herbert von Karajan's story is the story of the record industry itself, which he was instrumental in creating and sustaining over half a century with hundreds of spectacular and award-winning recordings.
His life and his music-making still provoke extreme reactions; in Gernot Friedel's film, made with the help of the Karajan-Centrum in Salzburg, we see the hypnotic effect he could have upon musicians and listeners alike, we hear him in the repertoire for which he was renowned, and we are taken through a life never less than eventful.
The 128 musicians of the prestigious Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra have cast their votes: their new Principal Conductor will be Sir Simon Rattle.
He succeeds Claudio Abbado to become the sixth Principal Director in the 2002/2003 season.
The Berliner Philharmoniker is the only symphony orchestra world-wide choosing its principal conductor in its own responsibility. The camera has been following the orchestra since 1999 at auditions, concerts and guest performances and shows the various steps, from the groundwork preceding the election until the final counting of votes.
The most extensive documentation ever produced about this leading orchestra also presents the orchestra as a microcosm of the German society at the end of the 20th century. Excerpts from auditions and interviews with the Major conductors our time, statements by members of the orchestra, important agents and soloists working with him, reveal the significance of this new election and convey an atmosphere of expectation and excitement.
This mythological figure of Prometheus symbolises the creativity of man - and Claudio Abbado took this symbol as the Leitmotif of this very unique concert recording: An exploration of the Prometheus myth through the works of four composers, evocatively visualized by television director Christopher Swann, known for directing Leonard Bernstein conducts West Side Story among others.
Featuring Marta Argerich as the solo pianist, the concert was a giant was a giant collaboration of the Berliner Philharmoniker, the Berliner Singkadamie, the Solistenchor Freiburg, and the vocal soloist Ingrid Ade-Jeseman and Monika Bair-Ivenz and speakers Ulrike Krumbiegel and Matthias Schadock.
Having made his conducting debut with the Berliner Philharmoniker in 1987, Sir Simon Rattle was appointed as Claudio Abbado's successor in 1999. On 7 September 2002, Sir Simon gave his first concert as the orchestra's chief conductor.
Sixteen years later, an era is coming to an end.
How will Sir Simon and the Berliner Philharmoniker shape the end of their era? The claims have been staked, most highs and lows of the relationship have been surpassed. It is the period of the greatest common denominator and the greatest serenity. Echoing an Era finds us amidst the part of the relationship that we will come to miss the most. This gives us the opportunity to comprehend which sides of Sir Simon Rattle's personality have come to define his time with the Berliner Philharmoniker the most.
In 2007 the Berlin Philharmonic celebrates its 125th year. The orchestra is using its jubilee as an opportunity to examine a rather unknown chapter in its history: The years under the rule of the National Socialists (between 1933 and 1945). The centre stage is taken by the musicians, the people and their individual fates.
Thanks to contemporary witnesses from the orchestra and its fringes who are still alive today, and thanks also to extensive and until now unappraised archive materials, it is possible to gain an insight into this microcosmos: where does the thin line run separating autonomy from entanglement, innocence from guilt? A chapter from the history of Germany and Berlin, as gripping as it is volatile, comes to life once more.
The film made by Enrique Sanchez-Lansch - whose documentary Rhythm is it! was awarded with the Bavarian Film Award 2004, the German Critics Award 2004 and two times with the German Film Award LOLA for Best Documentary and Best Editing - seeks out witnesses from all over the world and forgotten (or carefully concealed) footage of propaganda events such as the Nuremberg Rallies or the opening ceremony of the 1936 Olympics. It visits the relatives of the four Jewish members who were removed from the orchestra, the descendants of the musicians...
This mythological figure of Prometheus symbolises the creativity of man - and Claudio Abbado took this symbol as the Leitmotif of this very unique concert recording: An exploration of the Prometheus myth through the works of four composers, evocatively visualized by television director Christopher Swann, known for directing Leonard Bernstein conducts West Side Story among others.
Featuring Marta Argerich as the solo pianist, the concert was a giant was a giant collaboration of the Berliner Philharmoniker, the Berliner Singkadamie, the Solistenchor Freiburg, and the vocal soloist Ingrid Ade-Jeseman and Monika Bair-Ivenz and speakers Ulrike Krumbiegel and Matthias Schadock.
Seldom has the genius of one man so influenced the musical conscience of his age. Leonard Bernstein triumphed as composer, conductor, writer and teacher. The spontaneous joy of his Broadway hits, the bold, spiritual quest of his orchestral works, his intensity and vitality as conductor, made Bernstein one of the central figures in 20th-century music. In Leonard Bernstein – Reflections , he discusses his Boston childhood, his musical growth at Harvard and the Curtis Institute and the influence of great masters like Reiner, Mitropoulos and Koussevitzky. He shares his feelings on the primacy of tonal music and speculates on the nature of the creative process. From Carnegie Hall, scene of his début, to the living room of his home and his private studio overlooking New York's Central Park, Reflections explores the artist's varied and colourful career.
Bonus feature:
Milhaud, D.: Le Boeuf sur le toit - Ballet, Op. 58
Orchestra National de France
Leonard Bernstein, conductor
Carlo Gesualdo - beastly murderer and divine composer - is one of the most striking figures in the history of music. Based on his dramatic honour killing, the film tells the story of multifaceted, revolutionary music and the search for forgiveness.
Gesualdo, 47, is the Prince of Venosa, a musical genius and insomniac. Every night he lies awake, haunted by the gruesome act he committed on the 16th of October 1590. Developing from this opening sequence, the documentary tells the story of this extraordinary character, well-illustrated through visits to the original settings in Naples and the village of Gesualdo, as well as enacted scenes.
Through the power of music, the film explores the thin line between fascination and disgust. How is it possible to commit a capital crime, yet write divine music? Are crime and genius interwoven? And can salvation through music be achieved?
Russia is at once devoutly Christian and deeply pagan. Both faith and magic were stuffed into the deep-freeze by the Soviets. What has emerged since the thaw is inspiring and alarming in equal measure. Program Two shows how the obsession with things spiritual is in all Russian Music
Milan's la Scala theatre as told by the protagonists of its golden years, interviewed by the renowned Italian journalist Enzo Biagi . A series originally produced on 16mm film, now restored and offered to the public at large by Accasfilm.
Milan's La Scala theatre as told by the protagonists of its golden years.
Enzo Biagi was one of the Italy's most famous and beloved journalists. His fondness of the prestigious Milanese venue led to the programmes presented now but was made in 1981 to 1982. Documenting the La Scala productions of those years, Biagi entered the theatre during the rehearsals and interviewed not only the conductors, singers and directors of the time, but also some of the great stars of the past.
Milan's La Scala theatre as told by the protagonists of its golden years.
Enzo Biagi was one of the Italy's most famous and beloved journalists. His fondness of the prestigious Milanese venue led to the programmes presented now but was made in 1981 to 1982. Documenting the La Scala productions of those years, Biagi entered the theatre during the rehearsals and interviewed not only the conductors, singers and directors of the time, but also some of the great stars of the past.
Harry Partch (like his friend Anais Nin) considered his life's work to be a letter to the world. His last act was going to be to add the enclosures. He never got around to it. After 20 years of working on the Partch archives, Philip Blackburn has now completed the seven-part Enclosures series as it were on his behalf.
Enclosure 7 is a monumental tribute to the most significant works of this American original and iconoclast. It includes new versions of his late masterworks and never-before-seen footage that bring us closer to the real Harry behind the myth.
The Dreamer That Remains is a documentary produced by Betty Freeman and directed by Stephen Pouliot in 1972. Here is the director's original cut along with his commentary. If you've never seen Partch or his instruments before, this is the place to start.
Delusion of the Fury was his magnum opus; a lifetime of instrument invention and ideas of ritual theater were poured into this giant work. The 1971 film has been resynched and the soundtrack remastered in 5.1 surround sound.
The CBS LPs of this work came with a bonus album of Harry introducing his instruments. Unavailable for years, this recording features this talk along with a slideshow of the instruments.
Revelation in the Courthouse Park was Harry's...
This film is about the life of a composer creating in the darkness of a tragic era. As we will see, like most Soviet citizens, Khachaturian hid a complex private life behind a mask of Communist loyalty. Khachaturian was the President of the powerful Composer's Union of the Soviet Union, and as a communist party functionary wielded great influence over the course of Russian music. However, he was also a comrade and personal friend to the dissident composers of the time ?EUR" Shostakovich, Prokofiev, and others. This documentary shows the fine line a man had to tread between being a loyal party functionary on the one hand, and a fighter for artistic freedom on the other.
The ghettos of Kinshasa - the devastated capital of a country politically and economically adrift - are filled with many gifted, yet impoverished musicians. Their outstanding talent, humour and vital energy are their on means of survival. Amongst them, Jupiter Bokondji, the charismatic leader of the band "Okwess International," acts as our narrator and guide. This local Don Quixote introduces us to the Kinshasa music scene - teenage rappers, handicapped bluesmen, street children, griots ans guitar craftsmen - and describe his 20-year struggle to bring his music out of the ghetto.
Joseph Haydn was born into a poor family in 18th century Hungary. His huge musical talent brought him into the service of a Prince. Eventually his work was recognized throughout the musical world. The film by Malcolm Hossick describes his fascinating life and the social change he went through. It is followed by a brief overview of his work. Joseph Haydn was born into a simple rural community where his father worked for the local landowner. Joseph's musical talents developed in local church choirs and his fine voice took him to the choir of St Stephen's in Vienna. We follow his career into the the employment of the Esterhazy family where he remained until he was sixty. His international fame as a composer brought him an invitation to London where his career was reborn. The video ends with a brief overview of Haydn's work useful to experienced music lovers and and newcomers alike. On the soundtrack some of his most characteristic compositions are played by members of the Elysium ensemble.
The State Opera is the first film ever made about the Bavarian State Opera, one of the world's oldest, most prestigious and internationally esteemed companies. It charts the course of three operas - Die Meistersinger von Nurnberg , Les Indes galantes and Un ballo in maschera - as they come to life on the stage.
We meet some of the great singers, such as Jonas Kaufmann and Anja Harteros, in performance and behind the scenes, as well as artistic directors past and present, and two of the music directors in Kirill Petrenko and his predecessor Zubin Mehta. As both a celebration and an exploration, this entertaining film is a declaration of love for the operatic form.
Harry Partch (like his friend Anais Nin) considered his life's work to be a letter to the world. His last act was going to be to add the enclosures. He never got around to it. After 20 years of working on the Partch archives, Philip Blackburn has now completed the seven-part Enclosures series as it were on his behalf.
Enclosure 7 is a monumental tribute to the most significant works of this American original and iconoclast. It includes new versions of his late masterworks and never-before-seen footage that bring us closer to the real Harry behind the myth.
The Dreamer That Remains is a documentary produced by Betty Freeman and directed by Stephen Pouliot in 1972. Here is the director's original cut along with his commentary. If you've never seen Partch or his instruments before, this is the place to start.
Delusion of the Fury was his magnum opus; a lifetime of instrument invention and ideas of ritual theater were poured into this giant work. The 1971 film has been resynched and the soundtrack remastered in 5.1 surround sound.
The CBS LPs of this work came with a bonus album of Harry introducing his instruments. Unavailable for years, this recording features this talk along with a slideshow of the instruments.
Revelation in the Courthouse Park was Harry's...
No non-Western musical idiom has so impacted on the Western concert tradition as Indonesian gamelan, beginning with the Javanese Pavilion at the 1889 Paris Exposition: an epiphany. Sampling gamelan-inspired works by Debussy, Ravel , and McPhee , the film arrives at a paragon exemplar of cultural fusion - Lou Harrison - and a pair of concertos for violin and piano, unsurpassed by those of any other American. The composer/scholar Bill Alves demonstrates the layered complexity of Javanese gamelan, and how it translates into keyboard textures composed by Harrison for Keith Jarrett. For Harrison's Concerto for Violin and Percussion , tour the 'junk percussion' - including flower pots and washtubs - that Harrison made sing and dance.
Participants include the gamelan scholars Jody Diamond and Sumarsam, and the conductor Dennis Russell Davies, who has long championed Harrison on both sides of the Atlantic.
Classic Yo-Yo Ma chronicles Ma's unique work process and legendary performances with rarely seen rehearsal and concert footage from throughout his entire career.
In addition to these exquisite musical selections, the program includes newly-taped interviews with Yo-Yo Ma and his friends and colleagues Daniel Barenboim, Emanuel Ax, Tan Dun and Bobby McFerrin. Yo-Yo Ma is world-renowned for his incomparable artistry and range. His discography of nearly fifty albums includes fourteen Grammy Awards. His remarkable talent and limitless interests have created new boundaries for classical music.
The program highlights Ma's unique ability to explore cultures and musical forms outside the Western classical tradition. His diversity is demonstrated not only through richly nuanced interpretations of Bach, Beethoven , and Brahms , but also Piazzolla, Edgar Meyer , American folk music and Tan Dun .
Nowhere in the world is the myth of Wagner as alive as in Bayreuth, and nowhere are performances of his works followed as closely as those at the Festspielhaus in Bayreuth. But after a decade-long reign as the uncontested ruler of the Wagner Festival, the composer's grandson Wolfgang Wagner has stepped down from his post. A new era is about to begin...
This documentary thematizes the past, present and future of the festival and provides rare insights behind the scenes of the Wagner "workshop." For the first time ever, the film team was able to record in the legendary Bayreuth orchestra pit, giving rise to stunningly candid shots of conductor Christian Thielemann rehearsing Götterdämmerung. A conversation with Wolfgang Wagner recorded especially for this production is presumably the patriarch's last appearance on film as head of the festival. The program also features rehearsals of the new 2008 production of Parsifal with director Stefan Herheim and conductor Daniele Gatti. Members of the Wagner family and leading Wagner interpreters of our time also comment on the unique Wagner aura. The authors have assembled an amazing collection of historical film material and photos on the history of the festival. There are also excerpts from great productions recorded by Unitel...
A major force in contemporary music, Pierre Boulez is committed to the expansion and recreation of musical language. This documentary looks at his work, in particular the creation of Repons , which was heralded as the Signal of "a new age of instrumental achievement" (Financial Times). Boulez is seen rehearsing at his Paris laboratory for new music (IRCAM). He talks about his experimentation, the difficulties involved in communicating his ideas, and the post-war composers who have influenced him.
The conductor Pierre Boulez (born in 1925) best describes his relationship with the music of composer Bela Bartok (1881-1945) as a "sympathy between musicians". The Frenchman has been involved with the music of the Hungarian composer for over five decades. Bartok and Boulez belong to the 20th century's most influential artists. A key work of Bartok is the Concerto for Orchestra , which was premiered in Boston in 1944.
The program Emotion and Analysis follows Pierre Boulez in his rehearsals of this composition with the Berlin Philharmonic. The documentary provides a fascinating look into the methods of the great master of modern music. The rehearsals take place in the spectacular setting of the monastery Mosteiro dos Jeronimos in Lisbon which was also the location of the annual European Concert of the Berlin Philharmonic for the year 2003. Pierre Boulez explains in a series of interviews the historical origins of Bartok's late work, his own personal style of interpretation and his role as conductor as well as his love of composing.
Pierre Boulez has already left an indelible imprint on the international music scene, not only as a composer and conductor but also as a music philosopher and teacher. This documentary, a homage on the occasion of his 85th birthday, shows his invaluable nurturing of young musicians as they come together during the summer for intensive rehearsal weeks. Adopting the perspective of both Pierre Boulez and of the students, the film conveys an infectious enthusiasm for contemporary music, a determination on the part of everybody to do it justice, and a wonderful insight into the legacy that Pierre Boulez passes on to the next generation.
A brilliant swordsman, athlete, violin virtuoso and composer, Joseph Bologne, Chevalier de Saint-Georges might well lay claim to being the most talented figure in an age of remarkable individuals. The string quartet was still in its infancy in France in the 1770s, but while these pieces are small in scale they are exceptionally rewarding.
Saint-Georges appreciated the intimate nature of this genre, avoiding overt soloistic virtuosity and exploring chamber music timbres, amply demonstrating his rich lyrical gifts and a natural ability to delight performers and audiences alike.
This program by Malcolm Hossick explores the life and work of William Blake . He was born the son of a hosier in the then respectable district of Soho in London. He had no formal education but was taught by his mother. He was a voracious reader and as a boy he drew constantly. He studied at an art school and learned the trade of engraving by which he lived. His painting and poetry were valued by only a few in his own times and he died in poverty. Gradually over the ensuing centuries his reputation has grown until now he is highly regarded as a remarkable and talented visionary. The film includes several of his unusual illustrated poems. It is followed by a brief overview of his work.
This program in the Famous Author series by Malcolm Hossick tries to uncover the astonishing life of Daniel Defoe who wrote Robinson Crusoe , one of the earliest novels to achieve world wide success. Defoe was a dissenting Christian when deviation from the norm was dangerous. He made a fortune making bricks just after London burned down: he was a very active government spy and he was one of the busiest writers ever. What a man! The film is followed by an overview of his works.
Samuel Johnson was one of the most interesting figures of literature in 18th century England. He founded a literary magazine The Rambler and compiled the first major dictionary of English. He is best remembered as the subject of a biography by his friend Boswell. This documentary by Malcolm Hossick explores his life and the influence he had on the thought and manners of his age. It is followed by an overview of his work.
This film is a docufiction on the great Toscanini directed by well-known filmmaker Larry Weinstein, who pushes the boundaries of conventional documentary storytelling by borrowing tools from fiction films, including dramatic reconstructions and historical cinematic stylings. Arturo Toscanini (1867-1957), arguably the greatest and most famous conductor in history, was paradoxically one of the most private. He never granted interviews, and he didn't leave diaries or journals of any kind. But during the last years of his life, his son Walter secretly recorded 150 hours of intimate conversations that Toscanini shared with friends and family who visited his home. TOSCANINI: In His Own Words, is based on these tapes which remained vaulted for more than 50 years. Recreated conversations reveal aspects of the Maestro never seen before. His loves, his opinions about colleagues, his clashes with Mussolini and Hitler, his personal memories of Verdi, Puccini, Furtwangler, and Stokowski, his greatest joys, and the causes of his endemic sadness are all part of his frank conversation. Interwoven throughout the film are many of Toscanini's greatest musical performances.
Everything about Piotr Anderszewski is extraordinary: his talent, his repertoire, his constant questioning of his work as a performer. Any film about this highly unconventional pianist owes it to itself to depart from the beaten path; on the borderline between documentary and fiction, this "road movie" is set against the backdrop of a winter journey by train across Poland with a piano installed on board. Punctuated by Piotr's highly personal reflections, the repertoire consists of essential pieces by Bach, Mozart, Chopin, Beethoven, Schumann and Szymanowski.
Virtuosity searches for the musical souls of the most gifted young pianists on the planet as they try to make a name for themselves of the 2013 Van Cliburn International Piano Competition. The pressure on these kids is overwhelming because the stakes are so high: prize money, concert bookings, a recording contract, a career.
At the heart of this story is the courage is takes for 20-year-old to go onstage alone before 2,000 people, and hundreds of thousands more online, and play a unique interpretation of one of the most difficult pieces ever written for the piano. The Competition requires not only a transcendent musical ability, but a mental toughness that must sustain the soloist through three straight weeks of performance. The Cliburn becomes as much a test of character as a musical proving ground.
Romeo and Juliet - The Tragic Lovers, offers insight, commentary and staged performances of Shakespeares famous tragedy of star-crossed lovers. As a companion to the literary interpretation, actual dramatic scenes filmed in Verona, Italy are used as Shakespeare had intended in his original play.
Scholar and host, James Bride, introduces factual information about Shakespeares play by referencing a digitally enhanced version of the Prologue. Gary Taylor, Editor of the Oxford Editions of Shakespeares Complete Works, offers an engaging dialogue about the historical background of exotic Verona, use of boy actors, staging challenges and 16th Century sacred and secular attitudes that influenced the writing of the play. Additionally, Judith Annozine covers the humor in this play providing insight into the characters and role of the Nurse and Mercutio in advancing the action.
Celebrated in his day not only as a great composer he was also admired as an outstanding pianist who was a peerless interpreter of his own works including the piano concerti and the Rhapsody on a Theme by Paganini .
It is well known that he was in effect the sole pianist capable of performing his most demanding Third Piano Concerto and his performances and recording of the concerto came to be considered as the definitive ones.
The relationship between performance, interpretation, and Rachmaninoff's own life will be addressed in this documentary by the young pianists interviewed. The program explored the evolution of interpretation over the past few decades, hear brief excerpts of recordings by Rachmaninoff as contrasted with contemporary performances by today's well-known young pianists as they comment on the differences (or similarities) of their approach.
This documentary will be the first to explore performance styles and interpretation of the Rachmaninoff piano repertoire. Viewed from a broad perspective the documentary will focus on the danger of how a musician might be bound and stymied by tradition as opposed to being able to use a knowledge of the past to liberate one's approach and infuse the performances with the same sense of improvisatory freedom with which...
A major force in contemporary music, Pierre Boulez is committed to the expansion and recreation of musical language. This documentary looks at his work, in particular the creation of Repons , which was heralded as the Signal of "a new age of instrumental achievement" (Financial Times). Boulez is seen rehearsing at his Paris laboratory for new music (IRCAM). He talks about his experimentation, the difficulties involved in communicating his ideas, and the post-war composers who have influenced him.
Celebrated in his day not only as a great composer he was also admired as an outstanding pianist who was a peerless interpreter of his own works including the piano concerti and the Rhapsody on a Theme by Paganini .
It is well known that he was in effect the sole pianist capable of performing his most demanding Third Piano Concerto and his performances and recording of the concerto came to be considered as the definitive ones.
The relationship between performance, interpretation, and Rachmaninoff's own life will be addressed in this documentary by the young pianists interviewed. The program explored the evolution of interpretation over the past few decades, hear brief excerpts of recordings by Rachmaninoff as contrasted with contemporary performances by today's well-known young pianists as they comment on the differences (or similarities) of their approach.
This documentary will be the first to explore performance styles and interpretation of the Rachmaninoff piano repertoire. Viewed from a broad perspective the documentary will focus on the danger of how a musician might be bound and stymied by tradition as opposed to being able to use a knowledge of the past to liberate one's approach and infuse the performances with the same sense of improvisatory freedom with which...
In this exclusive profile, Joan Sutherland - La Stupenda - looks back on her remarkable forty-two year career as one of the world's greatest singers. The programme includes film of her final performances in Les Huguenots and Die Fledermaus , a wealth of archive performance extracts and newsreel footage. There are interviews with Joan Sutherland and her husband, the director and conductor Richard Bonynge, and contributions from friends and colleagues, including Luciano Pavarotti, Marilyn Horne, Kiri Te Kanawa, and her biographer, Norma Major.
Brahms was born in Hamburg into a poor but musical family. His talent was early recognized and he received devoted and first class tuition. He was discovered by the violinist Joachim and the composer Schumann and he enjoyed amazing success from his very first published work. Brahms never married but settled in Vienna where he came to be recognized as one of the great musical masters of the century.
Explore Europe's most spectacular cities and landscapes while luxuriating in the great classical music composed within their precincts. Viewers will learn about the lives of the master musicians, the cities they lived in, and how their work reflects the very same surroundings we see today.
Renowned actor, writer and classical music specialist Simon Callow presents a spectacular continental odyssey with a soundtrack by Mozart, Bach, Beethoven, Vivaldi, Puccini, Grieg, Sibelius, Smetana, Tchaikovsky and others.
Vivaldi's Venice, the Salzburg of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, the fjords of Norway evoked in music by Edvard Grieg, and the Vienna that waltzed to Johann Strauss have never looked - or sounded - better.
Simon Callow details the dreams, dramas and musical triumphs of composers such as Handel, Chopin, Liszt, Rachmaninov, Shostakovich, Elgar, Holst, Debussy, Ravel, Richard Strauss, Resphigi and Rossini to name just a few.
Throughout his adult life, composer Robert Schumann (1810-1856) struggled against a fear of mental disintegration. His Symphony No. 2 in C Major, Op. 61 was written in 1845 while he was recovering from a breakdown and contains an illustration of how his creative daemons, the heroic, high-spirited Florestan, and the brooding, poetic Eusebius, came into conflict in his music, with its combination of power and intimate lyricism. Focusing on the Second Symphony, this film uses a dynamic interaction between rehearsal footage and dramatized sequences to give a penetrating insight into the composer's complex and fractured genius.
The Schumann Encounter finds Sir Roger Norrington in Salzburg to rehearse and perform the Symphony No. 2 with the Camerata Academica, one of Europe's leading chamber orchestras. Snatching some rest before the evening's concert with the Camerata Academica, he is aware of an argument in progress in the adjoining hotel room. He falls asleep only to awake in another reality, transformed into Master Raro the mediator between Florestan and Eusebius, both played by Simon Callow (Amadeus, Shakespeare in Love) who are at odds over the composition of the Second Symphony.
One of the most sought after cello pedagogues, Israeli cellist Amit Peled is a Professor at the Peabody Conservatory of Music of the Johns Hopkins University. From the United States to Europe to the Middle East and Asia, Peled is acclaimed as one of the most exciting instrumentalists on the concert stage today and described as a musician of profound artistry and charismatic stage presence. Peled often surprises audiences with the ways he breaks down barriers between performers and the public, making classical music more accessible to wider audiences.
Tim Smith of the Baltimore Sun reflected on a recent performance: "Peled did a lot of joking in remarks to the audience. His amiable and inviting personality is exactly the type everyone says we'll need more of if classical music is to survive." Peled was chosen among "Musical America's 30 Professionals of the Year 2015 and performs on Pablo Casals?EUR(TM)s own cello, a 1733 Matteo Gofriller loaned to him by the great cellist's widow, Marta.
An emancipated slave, the Chevalier de Saint-George managed to elevate himself to the highest spheres of the Enlightened 18th-century French society, thanks to his incredible accomplishments as a fencer, horseman, and musician. From the Guadeloupe where he was born, to Paris and Versailles where he made a name for himself, to Lille that he defended against the royalists during the French Revolution, he quickly became one of the most important characters in both the musical and the military scenes. Through his compositions, testimonies from specialists and secrets shared by some of his best interprets, this film narrates his extraordinary adventures.
Throughout his adult life, composer Robert Schumann (1810-1856) struggled against a fear of mental disintegration. His Symphony No. 2 in C Major, Op. 61 was written in 1845 while he was recovering from a breakdown and contains an illustration of how his creative daemons, the heroic, high-spirited Florestan, and the brooding, poetic Eusebius, came into conflict in his music, with its combination of power and intimate lyricism. Focusing on the Second Symphony, this film uses a dynamic interaction between rehearsal footage and dramatized sequences to give a penetrating insight into the composer's complex and fractured genius.
The Schumann Encounter finds Sir Roger Norrington in Salzburg to rehearse and perform the Symphony No. 2 with the Camerata Academica, one of Europe's leading chamber orchestras. Snatching some rest before the evening's concert with the Camerata Academica, he is aware of an argument in progress in the adjoining hotel room. He falls asleep only to awake in another reality, transformed into Master Raro the mediator between Florestan and Eusebius, both played by Simon Callow (Amadeus, Shakespeare in Love) who are at odds over the composition of the Second Symphony.
Herbert von Karajan's story is the story of the record industry itself, which he was instrumental in creating and sustaining over half a century with hundreds of spectacular and award-winning recordings.
His life and his music-making still provoke extreme reactions; in Gernot Friedel's film, made with the help of the Karajan-Centrum in Salzburg, we see the hypnotic effect he could have upon musicians and listeners alike, we hear him in the repertoire for which he was renowned, and we are taken through a life never less than eventful.
Elliott Carter has lived in New York almost a century and describes his music as a reflection on modern democratic society, where people have to cooperate but keep their individuality. This revelatory portrait of the man widely considered to be the greatest living composer was brilliantly created by Scheffer, who has also made a number of award winning films on Stockhausen, John Cage, Mahler and the history of electronic music.
Several luminaries can claim to have invented the gramophone. Only one man made mass duplication of discs possible - Emil Berliner . As a result, a major new industry came into being.
In this video tracing the evolution of sound recording, his grandson, Oliver, tells the story of his life and his achievement. Caruso and other great performers are heard in early recordings, and contributors, including John Eliot Gardiner, Pierre Boulez, and Anne-Sophie Mutter, comment on the pros and cons of today's advanced technology.
A brilliant swordsman, athlete, violin virtuoso and composer, Joseph Bologne, Chevalier de Saint-Georges might well lay claim to being the most talented figure in an age of remarkable individuals. The string quartet was still in its infancy in France in the 1770s, but while these pieces are small in scale they are exceptionally rewarding.
Saint-Georges appreciated the intimate nature of this genre, avoiding overt soloistic virtuosity and exploring chamber music timbres, amply demonstrating his rich lyrical gifts and a natural ability to delight performers and audiences alike.
A major force in contemporary music, Pierre Boulez is committed to the expansion and recreation of musical language. This documentary looks at his work, in particular the creation of Repons , which was heralded as the Signal of "a new age of instrumental achievement" (Financial Times). Boulez is seen rehearsing at his Paris laboratory for new music (IRCAM). He talks about his experimentation, the difficulties involved in communicating his ideas, and the post-war composers who have influenced him.
"Domingo creates the magical illusion that Alfano wrote the role especially for him: Domingo de Bergerac" (review of the premiere in the Madrid daily ABC). Placido Domingo's triumph in Valencia's stunningly futuristic theater El Palau de les Arts in February 2007 echoes the overwhelmingly positive reception he obtained at the Metropolitan Opera and the Royal Opera House Covent Garden in this role. A coproduction of the New York, London and Valencia houses, Franco Alfano's little-known 1936 opera Cyrano de Bergerac has been reawakened to life by the great Spanish tenor. Although Alfano (1875-1954) enjoyed a long and prolific career as an opera composer, he is known today above all for having completed Puccini's Turandot. His earlier works not surprisingly reflect Puccini's verismo style, but his later works - including Cyrano de Bergerac - are clearly inspired by Debussy, Ravel and Strauss. Opulent scoring and colorful orchestral effects elegantly underscore the tragic story based on Rostand's famous drama of 1897, which achieved international celebrity in the Oscar-nominated 1990 film adaptation with Gerard Depardieu. Alfano's work faithfully relates the story of the large-nosed soldier poet who pines for the beautiful Roxane and writes her glowing love letters in the...
Prizewinner at the International Tchaikovsky competition in Moscow and the Internationaler Musikwettbewerb der ARD in Munich, internationally acclaimed soloist Alexander Chaushian , is one of the foremost cellists of his generation, regularly performing at venues such as the Wigmore Hall, Wiener Konzerthaus, Suntory Hall and the Carnegie Hall.
A graduate from the The Yehudi Menuhin School, the Guildhall School of Music and Drama and the Hochschule fur Musik Hanns Eisler Berlin, Mr. Chaushian has appeared as a soloist with orchestras such the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Philharmonia Orchestra, the Academy of St Martin in the Fields and the OSR - Orchestre de la Suisse Romande.
His chamber music partnerships have included concerts with Lord Yehudi Menuhin, Yuja Wang, Julia Fischer, Levon Chilingirian, Yuri Bashmet, Diemut Poppen, Francois-frederic Guy, Emmanuel Pahud and the pianist Yevgeny Sudbin, with whom he has made several critically acclaimed recordings for BIS Records. He is the cellist of the Tchaikovsky Trio alongside Pavel Vernikov and Konstantin Bogino.
Alexander Chaushian is a Cello Professor at the Royal College of Music and the artistic director at the Orpheus and Bacchus Festival in Bordeaux, The Pharos Arts Foundation Festival in Cyprus and the Yerevan...
An emancipated slave, the Chevalier de Saint-George managed to elevate himself to the highest spheres of the Enlightened 18th-century French society, thanks to his incredible accomplishments as a fencer, horseman, and musician. From the Guadeloupe where he was born, to Paris and Versailles where he made a name for himself, to Lille that he defended against the royalists during the French Revolution, he quickly became one of the most important characters in both the musical and the military scenes. Through his compositions, testimonies from specialists and secrets shared by some of his best interprets, this film narrates his extraordinary adventures.
Virtuosity searches for the musical souls of the most gifted young pianists on the planet as they try to make a name for themselves of the 2013 Van Cliburn International Piano Competition. The pressure on these kids is overwhelming because the stakes are so high: prize money, concert bookings, a recording contract, a career.
At the heart of this story is the courage is takes for 20-year-old to go onstage alone before 2,000 people, and hundreds of thousands more online, and play a unique interpretation of one of the most difficult pieces ever written for the piano. The Competition requires not only a transcendent musical ability, but a mental toughness that must sustain the soloist through three straight weeks of performance. The Cliburn becomes as much a test of character as a musical proving ground.
World-famous choreographer and dancer Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui uses the body - movement - as the principal vehicle for is ideas. The result is there in performances, intimist or otherwise, in which the body is displayed to an audience. Here, in four different settings - Belgium, China, Corsica, India - we make the acquaintance of one of the most prolific and likeable figures on today's dance scene. In the course of interviews and excerpts from his performances Cherkaoui reveals his passion for the dance, spirituality, his childhood and his family
Force of Nature Natalia follows a season in the life of dance superstar Natalia Osipova . With unique access to Natalia's personal archive, we follow her preparations for a fifth season as a principal of The Royal Ballet as she continues to champion contemporary dance with some of the world's greatest choreographers. This compelling portrait chronicles the rehearsal process of two new works, The Mother by Arthur Pita, and Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui's Medussa, and follows legendary ballerina and choreographer Natalia Makarova as she directs a revival of her classic production of La Bayadere for The Royal Ballet.
Natalia opens up about her life and history, her childhood in Russia, her time with American Ballet Theatre and her journey to the Royal Opera House. It is an unparalleled opportunity to get up close and personal with the leading ballerina of our generation and understand why critics and audiences all over the world call her a ''force of nature' of the dance world.
This film is a docufiction on the great Toscanini directed by well-known filmmaker Larry Weinstein, who pushes the boundaries of conventional documentary storytelling by borrowing tools from fiction films, including dramatic reconstructions and historical cinematic stylings. Arturo Toscanini (1867-1957), arguably the greatest and most famous conductor in history, was paradoxically one of the most private. He never granted interviews, and he didn't leave diaries or journals of any kind. But during the last years of his life, his son Walter secretly recorded 150 hours of intimate conversations that Toscanini shared with friends and family who visited his home. TOSCANINI: In His Own Words, is based on these tapes which remained vaulted for more than 50 years. Recreated conversations reveal aspects of the Maestro never seen before. His loves, his opinions about colleagues, his clashes with Mussolini and Hitler, his personal memories of Verdi, Puccini, Furtwangler, and Stokowski, his greatest joys, and the causes of his endemic sadness are all part of his frank conversation. Interwoven throughout the film are many of Toscanini's greatest musical performances.
Principal Violist of the Berliner Philharmoniker for 20 years, Viola Professor at the Hochschule fur Musik in Freiburg and current leader of the violists at the Lucerne Festival Orchestra, Professor Christ is featured in several of our viola masterclasses, all of which you will find in our spectacular catalogue.
Praised for his exhilarating and sensitive interpretations, Mr. Christ was chosen by Herbert von Karajan to become one of the youngest principals in the history of the Berliner Philharmoniker. A prize winner at the Internationaler Musikwettbewerb der ARD and recipient of the Grand Prix du Disque 1992 by the Deutsche Grammophon, Maestro Wolfram Christ is one of the first artists who unconditionally supported DakApp from its beginnings.
To reveal the talent of unknown young singers by sending them on a tour of the world's leading venues: this is the aim of "Le Jardin des Voix," the academy of Les Arts Florissants founded by William Christie. We share moments of grace, uncertainty and disappointment as the film follows the jury through the auditioning process. Then, a year later, we find the ten winners at the Theatre de Caen for three weeks of intensive rehearsal with some of the leading figures from today's Baroque music scene.
A major force in contemporary music, Pierre Boulez is committed to the expansion and recreation of musical language. This documentary looks at his work, in particular the creation of Repons , which was heralded as the Signal of "a new age of instrumental achievement" (Financial Times). Boulez is seen rehearsing at his Paris laboratory for new music (IRCAM). He talks about his experimentation, the difficulties involved in communicating his ideas, and the post-war composers who have influenced him.
Alban Berg (1885-1935) lived in the mainstream of well-to-do Austrian society. His marriage to the beautiful Helene was thought to be made in heaven. But how can this doyen of Viennese respectability be reconciled with the composer who wrote the dark operas Wozzeck and Lulu ?
This multi-layered film explores Berg's double life. Soprano Kristine Ciesinki, who features in specially-staged extracts from Lulu and Wozzeck, travels to Vienna, Prague, the USA and Germany to track down important archive documents and people who can recall the composer's presence in their lives.
Anne-Sophie Mutter is one of the greatest musicians of our age and for the last five decades has appeared at the world's leading concert venues. In addition to premiering 31 new works from leading composers, she is an inspiring mentor, has promoted top young musicians and fostered numerous charitable projects. In this documentary, she meets figures she admires, such as tennis star Roger Federer, as well as Daniel Barenboim, legendary film composer John Williams, and others. Anne-Sophie Mutter talks candidly about her personal life and the demands of her international career. This unprecedented portrait of a socially active artist is supplemented by archive material from her stellar career.
The title is taken from a poem by a 12-year-old girl, Eva Pickova, written in the Theresienstadt concentration camp. Her words provide both the title and the climaxEUR"in a setting for two choruses and orchestra by the American composer Franz Waxman, in his touching work The Song of Terezin.
It is a film is about many things. It is about freedom and captivity, about emancipation, acculturation and assimilation; it is about the roles played by Moses and Felix Mendelssohn in the dream of fruitful, unproblematic integration of the Jews into German society after their liberation from the ghettos; it is about Richard Wagner, his ferociously anti-Semitic essay Das Judenthum in der Musik (The Jews in Music) and his influence on the thinking of the Third Reich but, most of all, it is a film about how much music can mean to people, even in the direst of circumstances, or particularly in the direst circumstances.
The title is taken from a poem by a 12-year-old girl, Eva Pickova, written in the Theresienstadt concentration camp. Her words provide both the title and the climaxEUR"in a setting for two choruses and orchestra by the American composer Franz Waxman, in his touching work The Song of Terezin.
It is a film is about many things. It is about freedom and captivity, about emancipation, acculturation and assimilation; it is about the roles played by Moses and Felix Mendelssohn in the dream of fruitful, unproblematic integration of the Jews into German society after their liberation from the ghettos; it is about Richard Wagner, his ferociously anti-Semitic essay Das Judenthum in der Musik (The Jews in Music) and his influence on the thinking of the Third Reich but, most of all, it is a film about how much music can mean to people, even in the direst of circumstances, or particularly in the direst circumstances.
Bejart's magical staging transforms the piece into an enchanting autobiography and a loving homage to the choreographer's mother and to his creative hero, Marius Petipa. The first part of the performance is punctuated by Bejart, on a huge video screen, letting something of his childhood. Summing up his approach to creating this ballet, Bejart replied, "You live a life and you dream a life. When you come to write your own life you tell a lie to build the truth."
The showman of modern dance, Maurice Bejart's work has been provocative, influential and popular in equal measure. His choreography has always been physically thrilling, setting up an immediate emotional combustion between audience and performer, and he attracted huge new audiences for dance with the Ballet of the Twentieth Century productions he mounted in sports, stadia, public squares and circus tents.
Bejart's magical staging transforms the piece into an enchanting autobiography and a loving homage to the choreographer's mother and to his creative hero, Marius Petipa. The first part of the performance is punctuated by Bejart, on a huge video screen, letting something of his childhood. Summing up his approach to creating this ballet, Bejart replied, "You live a life and you dream a life. When you come to write your own life you tell a lie to build the truth."
The showman of modern dance, Maurice Bejart's work has been provocative, influential and popular in equal measure. His choreography has always been physically thrilling, setting up an immediate emotional combustion between audience and performer, and he attracted huge new audiences for dance with the Ballet of the Twentieth Century productions he mounted in sports, stadia, public squares and circus tents.
In 1985 Philip Blackburn climbed the stairs to an attic in Iowa City and started trying to make sense of the boxes piled up there. They contained a composer's life's work: scrapbooks, tapes, photos, letters, scores, and film reels - fragile treasures documenting the twentieth century from a most unusual viewpoint, that of perhaps the world's most original musician: Harry Partch.
The idea was to publish them and reveal Harry to the world on his own terms. Not as the crabby, homeless, self-taught microtonal musical weirdo and instrument maker, but as that most American of all artists, a truly independent thinker. With Enclosure 8, the work of bringing them to public attention reaches its apotheosis.
The Enclosures series (named for the extras Partch wanted to add to his life-long letter to the world) started appearing in 1995 with a VHS video of four films made in collaboration with the Chicago-based filmmaker Madeline Tourtelot. Four CDs, two years and one book later, Enclosure 4 appeared featuring his later films: Delusion of the Fury (his culminating ritual-theater work) and a San Diego Public TV documentary, also on VHS. Now the time has come for these to be issued on DVD, extensively restored, resynched and digitally remastered from the extant original prints....
Alan Lomax said this film "takes us past the solemn facade of clambakes and town meetings into a lively world of all night dances and local musicians who could have helped Daniel Webster play down the devil".
The film includes performances of seven of the finest traditional musicians in the Northeast including Joe Cormier, Jerry Robichaud, Ben Guillemette, Paddy Cronin, Wilfred Guillette, Harold Luce, and Ron West playing in their lively and distinct Acadian, Irish, Cape Breton, and Quebecois styles.
Force of Nature Natalia follows a season in the life of dance superstar Natalia Osipova . With unique access to Natalia's personal archive, we follow her preparations for a fifth season as a principal of The Royal Ballet as she continues to champion contemporary dance with some of the world's greatest choreographers. This compelling portrait chronicles the rehearsal process of two new works, The Mother by Arthur Pita, and Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui's Medussa, and follows legendary ballerina and choreographer Natalia Makarova as she directs a revival of her classic production of La Bayadere for The Royal Ballet.
Natalia opens up about her life and history, her childhood in Russia, her time with American Ballet Theatre and her journey to the Royal Opera House. It is an unparalleled opportunity to get up close and personal with the leading ballerina of our generation and understand why critics and audiences all over the world call her a ''force of nature' of the dance world.
Force of Nature Natalia follows a season in the life of dance superstar Natalia Osipova . With unique access to Natalia's personal archive, we follow her preparations for a fifth season as a principal of The Royal Ballet as she continues to champion contemporary dance with some of the world's greatest choreographers. This compelling portrait chronicles the rehearsal process of two new works, The Mother by Arthur Pita, and Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui's Medussa, and follows legendary ballerina and choreographer Natalia Makarova as she directs a revival of her classic production of La Bayadere for The Royal Ballet.
Natalia opens up about her life and history, her childhood in Russia, her time with American Ballet Theatre and her journey to the Royal Opera House. It is an unparalleled opportunity to get up close and personal with the leading ballerina of our generation and understand why critics and audiences all over the world call her a ''force of nature' of the dance world.
Alan Lomax said this film "takes us past the solemn facade of clambakes and town meetings into a lively world of all night dances and local musicians who could have helped Daniel Webster play down the devil".
The film includes performances of seven of the finest traditional musicians in the Northeast including Joe Cormier, Jerry Robichaud, Ben Guillemette, Paddy Cronin, Wilfred Guillette, Harold Luce, and Ron West playing in their lively and distinct Acadian, Irish, Cape Breton, and Quebecois styles.
The Risør Festival of Chamber Music has firmly established itself as one of the most prestigious and recognized chamber music festivals in the world. Each year, international artists visit the small fishing town in southern Norway and join forces with some of Norway's best musicians for six days of chamber music making. The setting is amongst the most beautiful to be found in Norway, the exquisite coastline architecture and quintessential southern white houses providing an atmosphere of intimacy and calmness.
The founding artistic directors were violist Lars Anders Tomter and pianist Leif Ove Andsnes. In 2011 Andsnes handed over the co-artistic leadership to violinist Henning Kraggerud. The festival takes place in the last week of June each year. The films shown here are produced by Music in Motion (www.musicinmotion.no).
Prize-winner at numerous international violin competitions, such as the Wieniawski.pl, the Viotti and the Associazione Culturale "Maestro Rodolfo Lipizer" Onlus, acclaimed french violinist Nicolas Dautricourt studied with Philip Hirschhorn, Miriam Fried, Jean-Jacques Kantorow, Gerard Poulet and Jean Mouillere.
Nicolas Dautricourt plays a magnificent instrument by Antonio Stradivarius (Cremona, 1713), the "Chateau Fombrauge", on a generous loan from the Institut Culturel Bernard Magrez.
No non-Western musical idiom has so impacted on the Western concert tradition as Indonesian gamelan, beginning with the Javanese Pavilion at the 1889 Paris Exposition: an epiphany. Sampling gamelan-inspired works by Debussy, Ravel , and McPhee , the film arrives at a paragon exemplar of cultural fusion - Lou Harrison - and a pair of concertos for violin and piano, unsurpassed by those of any other American. The composer/scholar Bill Alves demonstrates the layered complexity of Javanese gamelan, and how it translates into keyboard textures composed by Harrison for Keith Jarrett. For Harrison's Concerto for Violin and Percussion , tour the 'junk percussion' - including flower pots and washtubs - that Harrison made sing and dance.
Participants include the gamelan scholars Jody Diamond and Sumarsam, and the conductor Dennis Russell Davies, who has long championed Harrison on both sides of the Atlantic.
Russia's whole history has been marked by cycles of bloodshed and especially by the torturing and killing of its own people. There is a pattern of self-destruction that the country does not seem to be able to escape and Russian music endlessly explores the tragic repetitions of its history. Program Four investigates, musically and visually, the legacy of tyranny in Russia.
Russia is at once devoutly Christian and deeply pagan. Both faith and magic were stuffed into the deep-freeze by the Soviets. What has emerged since the thaw is inspiring and alarming in equal measure. Program Two shows how the obsession with things spiritual is in all Russian Music
Russians have always espoused village life. Over the centuries, the traditions of folk culture have been assertion of the Russian identity and the melodies of the country side can be found everywhere in Russian classical music. The first program evokes Russia's rural heart and searches for the origins of the Russian folk-song that is the core of all her music.
Throughout Russian history there has been a love/hate relationship with her neighbors, oscillating between fear and loathing, envy and imitation. This final program in the series travels from the edge of the one-time empire to the heart of Russia and reveal that the cultural and musical impact of these conflicts has been vast, colorful and searing.
This program looks at one of the archetypal forms of Russian culture, the fairy-tale. An essential part of Russian childhood, these stories with their princesses, heroes and magical characters are also the inspiration of many of the great Russian ballets, operas, symphonic poems and piano works.
Conductor Franz Welser-Most, director Sven-Eric Bechtolf and singers Laura Aiken, Alfred Muff, Rolf Haunstein, Steve Davislim and Peter Straka contribute to a programme introducing Berg's complex masterpiece.
Three previous volumes of this series were dedicated to La Scala. In this fourth DVD volume, we turn our attention to another beloved and well-known Italian operatic venue: the Arena of Verona, which is able to host more than 20,000 spectators and endowed with acoustics that are quite extraordinary.
This documentary, originally filmed in 16 mm, famed Italian journalist Enzo Biagi interviews the celebrity artists and directors who appeared at the Arena at the beginning of the 1908s, including Sherrill Millnes, Rajna Kabaiwanska, Fiorenza Cossotto, Mirella Freni, Rolando Panerai, Oliviero De Fabritiis, Nicola Martinucci , director Giancarlo Sbragia and set designer Giulio Coletllacci .
The DVD features excerpts from performances of Rigoletto, Aida, La traviata and Nabucco during that period of time.
Blame it on the Russian Revolution: it took Sergey Prokofiev (1891–1953) only a few months to write his early opera The Gambler between October 1915 and March 1916, but problems arose during rehearsals in January 1917, and the premiere in St. Petersburg (then Petrograd) had to be cancelled when the first revolution broke out in February. This first version of the work was never heard, since the composer revised the tempestuous score eleven years later, reducing it and eliminating what he considered "padding." The work was premiered in this version in Brussels in 1929.
Based on Dostoyevsky’s novel of the same name, The Gambler is a dark study of human failings and the corruptive power of money. In this work, everyone gambles: the hero Alexey, the General and even the wealthy aunt Babulenka gamble with money; Blanche, the Marquis and Polina – who loves Alexey – gamble with their fellow human beings. The results are humiliation, ruin and self-delusion. But when the Staatskapelle Berlin under world-famous conductor Daniel Barenboim provide the orchestral sound to the full, lustrous voices of Vladimir Ognovenko, Kristine Opolais, Misha Didyk, Stefania Toczyska and their colleagues, there is nothing even remotely dismal about the opera or its...
This first film in the series keys on Dvorak's prophecy and explores its present-day pertinence. In New York City and Spillville, Iowa, Dvorak boldly chose to regard African Americans and Native Americans as representative Americans. That decision was both acclaimed and ridicules at the time. It remains inspirational. His New World Symphony , still the best-known and best-loved symphonic work conceived on American soil, is saturated with the influence of plantation song, and also with Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's The Song of Hiawatha . This act of appropriation, the film argues, was an act of empathy performed by a great humanitarian.
The musical selections are mainly taken fro the Hiawatha Melodrama , which co-composed with the music historian Michael Beckerman with orchestrations by Angel Gil-Ordonez. It makes Dvorak with Longfellow.
The participating commentators include the music historians Mark Clague and Lorenzo Candelaria, the literary historian Brian Yothers, the conductor JoAnn Falletta, faculty members from Howard University - and also (sagely commenting on cultural appropriation) the bass-baritone Kevin Deas, with whom Horowitz long enjoyed the privilege of performing the spiritual arrangements of Dvorak's assistant Harry Burleigh.
If George Gershwin's Porgy and Bess - the highest creative achievement in American classical music - embodies a glorious (and controversial) fulfillment of Dvorak's prophecy, there also exists a buried lineage of exceptional compositions of Black composers following in Dvorak's wake. Coming first was his assistant Harry Burleigh whose seminal settings of Deep River are as much compositions as transcriptions. Burleigh's initiative was sealed by singers like Paul Robeson and Marian Anderson. But William Levi Dawson's oracular Negro Folk Symphony , though triumphantly premiered by Leopold Stokowski and his Philadelphia Orchestra in 1934, gathered dust - and Dawson was never to create the symphonic catalogue he seemed destined to undertake.
The commentators include George Shirley, the most legendary name in present-day Black classical music, also Kevin Deas, who sings Burleigh with singular authority, and the conductors Roderick Cox and the late Michael Morgan.
A performer of fierce integrity and dazzling communicative power, young French pianist Lucas Debarque became the most talked-about artist of the fifteenth International Tchaikovsky Competition. The documentary offers unique insights into Debarque's life as a musician at the beginning of a remarkable career, with rehearsals and concerts from Moscow to Chicago via Weimar and Salerno, revealing talents as a composer and jazz improvisor and his first-time entry into a world of recording studios, touring and fame, in a crucial year of discoveries.
Virtuosity searches for the musical souls of the most gifted young pianists on the planet as they try to make a name for themselves of the 2013 Van Cliburn International Piano Competition. The pressure on these kids is overwhelming because the stakes are so high: prize money, concert bookings, a recording contract, a career.
At the heart of this story is the courage is takes for 20-year-old to go onstage alone before 2,000 people, and hundreds of thousands more online, and play a unique interpretation of one of the most difficult pieces ever written for the piano. The Competition requires not only a transcendent musical ability, but a mental toughness that must sustain the soloist through three straight weeks of performance. The Cliburn becomes as much a test of character as a musical proving ground.
The State Opera is the first film ever made about the Bavarian State Opera, one of the world's oldest, most prestigious and internationally esteemed companies. It charts the course of three operas - Die Meistersinger von Nurnberg , Les Indes galantes and Un ballo in maschera - as they come to life on the stage.
We meet some of the great singers, such as Jonas Kaufmann and Anja Harteros, in performance and behind the scenes, as well as artistic directors past and present, and two of the music directors in Kirill Petrenko and his predecessor Zubin Mehta. As both a celebration and an exploration, this entertaining film is a declaration of love for the operatic form.
Proust wrote a remarkable and very long novel called La Recheche de Temps Perdue, translated usually as Remembrance of Things Past. It's size and reputaiton for density and incomprehensibility mean that not many folk take it on. This is a great pity as once you have started reading it is hard not to be drawn into Proust's world. This is because you will find yourself there in it's huge cast of sensitively drawn characters. The film explores how he did it and is followed by an overview of his work. Proust was born the son of a wealthy Parisian doctor and had an easy entry into the higher echelons of French society. His knowledge of this world was the background to the astonishing series of novels called A La Recherche du Temps Perdu (Remembrance of Things Past). He did not have an early success but by the end of his life it was recognized that his work - sensitive, searching, amusing and amazingly perceptive about how humans work - was in a class of its own. The program traces his unusual life and ends with an overview of his works.
Katie Derham introduces highlights from the past ten years at the Royal Ballet in this special, extended edition of Essential Royal Ballet.
Presented on location in Covent Garden at the iconic Royal Opera House, Katie weaves the history of ballet through carefully curated excerpts from the past decade of performances and goes behind the scenes to see what it takes to be a dancer in the company of The Royal Ballet as they prepare to take to the stage.
From the great classics of The Sleeping Beauty and The Nutcracker to the exciting frontiers of contemporary dance, Katie takes us on a romp through the repertory, showcasing the diversity of the UK's biggest ballet company.
With stunning solos, passionate pas de deux and jaw-dropping numbers for the corps de ballet, it is a chance to see your favourite dancers up close, including Carlos Acosta, Marianela Nunez, Natalia Osipova and Steven McRae, alongside rising stars like Francesca Hayward and Matthew Ball, who will introduce their favourite ballets and share stories of their life on the stage.
The ballets featured include the classics Giselle, La Bayadere, Swan Lake, The Sleeping Beauty and The Nutcracker while the 20th-century heritage of the Royal Ballet is explored in works by Frederick Ashton and Kenneth MacMillan...
He is often hailed as the greatest composer alive, and John Adams has his finger on the cultural and political pulse of America like few others: fearless in his confrontation of hot topics like imperialism and terrorism within his own works such as Nixon in China and the still-controversial Death of Klinghofer Alice Goodman and Peter Sellars. Through them and the operas themselves, in extensive performance extracts by Willard White. Dawn Upshaw and the late Lorraine Hunt Lieberson, we see a fresh someone who has revitalised both opera and American music for a new age.
Two hundred orchestral musicians are playing Orff's Carmina Burana in total darkness. A power cut has hit the Ngiri Ngiri district of Kinshasa, only a few bars before the last section of the work. Kinshasa's power stations and main networks are insufficient to supply electricity to all the 8 million inhabitants of what is Africa's third-largest city. Once again the lights have gone out in the "Salle des fêtes", a kind of open garage where the orchestra practises. But for its members this is no reason to stop rehearsing. Most of them know their parts by heart. Small lapses of memory are compensated for by a talent for improvisation and the grace of God.
Blame it on the Russian Revolution: it took Sergey Prokofiev (1891–1953) only a few months to write his early opera The Gambler between October 1915 and March 1916, but problems arose during rehearsals in January 1917, and the premiere in St. Petersburg (then Petrograd) had to be cancelled when the first revolution broke out in February. This first version of the work was never heard, since the composer revised the tempestuous score eleven years later, reducing it and eliminating what he considered "padding." The work was premiered in this version in Brussels in 1929.
Based on Dostoyevsky’s novel of the same name, The Gambler is a dark study of human failings and the corruptive power of money. In this work, everyone gambles: the hero Alexey, the General and even the wealthy aunt Babulenka gamble with money; Blanche, the Marquis and Polina – who loves Alexey – gamble with their fellow human beings. The results are humiliation, ruin and self-delusion. But when the Staatskapelle Berlin under world-famous conductor Daniel Barenboim provide the orchestral sound to the full, lustrous voices of Vladimir Ognovenko, Kristine Opolais, Misha Didyk, Stefania Toczyska and their colleagues, there is nothing even remotely dismal about the opera or its...
Herbert von Karajan's story is the story of the record industry itself, which he was instrumental in creating and sustaining over half a century with hundreds of spectacular and award-winning recordings.
His life and his music-making still provoke extreme reactions; in Gernot Friedel's film, made with the help of the Karajan-Centrum in Salzburg, we see the hypnotic effect he could have upon musicians and listeners alike, we hear him in the repertoire for which he was renowned, and we are taken through a life never less than eventful.
Recording the In Rehearsal programme, the cameras were witnessing part of the process of development of a new relationship between an orchestra and its Music Director. Dohnanyi is seen working with the Philharmonia on Haydn's Symphony No. 88 in G for a concert in their 1998 Haydn/Bartok series at London's Royal Festival Hall. It was to be Dohnanyi's first Haydn performance with the orchestra and so the limited time available for preparation was of vital importance. The musician's appreciation of his musically precise and exacting approach is evident in the concentrated atmosphere of rehearsals and also in comments they make about working with the maestro.
"Domingo creates the magical illusion that Alfano wrote the role especially for him: Domingo de Bergerac" (review of the premiere in the Madrid daily ABC). Placido Domingo's triumph in Valencia's stunningly futuristic theater El Palau de les Arts in February 2007 echoes the overwhelmingly positive reception he obtained at the Metropolitan Opera and the Royal Opera House Covent Garden in this role. A coproduction of the New York, London and Valencia houses, Franco Alfano's little-known 1936 opera Cyrano de Bergerac has been reawakened to life by the great Spanish tenor. Although Alfano (1875-1954) enjoyed a long and prolific career as an opera composer, he is known today above all for having completed Puccini's Turandot. His earlier works not surprisingly reflect Puccini's verismo style, but his later works - including Cyrano de Bergerac - are clearly inspired by Debussy, Ravel and Strauss. Opulent scoring and colorful orchestral effects elegantly underscore the tragic story based on Rostand's famous drama of 1897, which achieved international celebrity in the Oscar-nominated 1990 film adaptation with Gerard Depardieu. Alfano's work faithfully relates the story of the large-nosed soldier poet who pines for the beautiful Roxane and writes her glowing love letters in the...
Global Wagner - From Bayreuth to the World is not a biography of Richard Wagner , nor is it a musicological analysis of his work. This is a documentary dedicated solely to the world's fascination with the man, and an exploration of the question as to how such massive hype and world-wide cult following developed around this highly controversial artist. The program is a revealing feature-length study of life with Wagner's legacy from one Bayreuth Festival to the next, and we travel the world to meet devoted Wagnerians and those most intimately involved in commenting on and producing his work today.
Virtuosity searches for the musical souls of the most gifted young pianists on the planet as they try to make a name for themselves of the 2013 Van Cliburn International Piano Competition. The pressure on these kids is overwhelming because the stakes are so high: prize money, concert bookings, a recording contract, a career.
At the heart of this story is the courage is takes for 20-year-old to go onstage alone before 2,000 people, and hundreds of thousands more online, and play a unique interpretation of one of the most difficult pieces ever written for the piano. The Competition requires not only a transcendent musical ability, but a mental toughness that must sustain the soloist through three straight weeks of performance. The Cliburn becomes as much a test of character as a musical proving ground.
In 1985 Philip Blackburn climbed the stairs to an attic in Iowa City and started trying to make sense of the boxes piled up there. They contained a composer's life's work: scrapbooks, tapes, photos, letters, scores, and film reels - fragile treasures documenting the twentieth century from a most unusual viewpoint, that of perhaps the world's most original musician: Harry Partch.
The idea was to publish them and reveal Harry to the world on his own terms. Not as the crabby, homeless, self-taught microtonal musical weirdo and instrument maker, but as that most American of all artists, a truly independent thinker. With Enclosure 8, the work of bringing them to public attention reaches its apotheosis.
The Enclosures series (named for the extras Partch wanted to add to his life-long letter to the world) started appearing in 1995 with a VHS video of four films made in collaboration with the Chicago-based filmmaker Madeline Tourtelot. Four CDs, two years and one book later, Enclosure 4 appeared featuring his later films: Delusion of the Fury (his culminating ritual-theater work) and a San Diego Public TV documentary, also on VHS. Now the time has come for these to be issued on DVD, extensively restored, resynched and digitally remastered from the extant original prints....
Munich's court theater was the venue for the premiere of Mozart's Idomeneo on 29 January 1781; today, it hosts another premiere of this same work to celebrate the reopening of this sparkling Rococo gem of a theater, now known after its architect as the Cuvilliés Theater. Restored at the cost of over 25 million euros, the theater provides an exultant red, gold and white setting for Mozart's opera seria, which is considered as the first of the seven uncontested masterworks of his dramatic oeuvre.
Drama keynotes Idomeneo, which is drenched in endless despair, the constant threat of death, and the destructive passions of jealousy and hatred. For having saved his life, King Idomeneo promises Neptune to sacrifice the first person he encounters. Unfortunately, this happens to be his son Idamante, who is torn between two women: the Trojan Princess Ilia, whom he loves, and the Greek Princess Elettra, who desperately wants to marry him and ascend the throne.
Mozart's highly expressive music is given a passionate reading by conductor Kent Nagano, who leads his singers and players with brisk energy. The dark, full sound of the Bayerisches Staatsorchester provides lush underpinnings for the bravura arias and glittering coloraturas. In the title role, John Mark Ainsley tackles his...
Celebrated in his day not only as a great composer he was also admired as an outstanding pianist who was a peerless interpreter of his own works including the piano concerti and the Rhapsody on a Theme by Paganini .
It is well known that he was in effect the sole pianist capable of performing his most demanding Third Piano Concerto and his performances and recording of the concerto came to be considered as the definitive ones.
The relationship between performance, interpretation, and Rachmaninoff's own life will be addressed in this documentary by the young pianists interviewed. The program explored the evolution of interpretation over the past few decades, hear brief excerpts of recordings by Rachmaninoff as contrasted with contemporary performances by today's well-known young pianists as they comment on the differences (or similarities) of their approach.
This documentary will be the first to explore performance styles and interpretation of the Rachmaninoff piano repertoire. Viewed from a broad perspective the documentary will focus on the danger of how a musician might be bound and stymied by tradition as opposed to being able to use a knowledge of the past to liberate one's approach and infuse the performances with the same sense of improvisatory freedom with which...
A tribute to Jacqueline du Pre to mark the thirtieth anniversary of her death thirty years ago, on 19 October 1987.
The documentary contains archive footage shot during Jacqueline du Pre's lifetime which captures some glorious and professionally filmed live performances. It also remembers both her personality and her music through the memories and tributes of her closest friends and colleagues including Daniel Barenboim, Pinchas Zukerman, Itzhak Perlman, Toby Perlman, Fou Ts'ong, Zubin Mehta, William Pleeth, Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, Hugh Maguire, Elizabeth Wilson, Cynthia Friend, Charles Beare, Suvi Grubb, Dr Len Selby and Clive Barda.
In the music she is accompanied by Daniel Barenboim, Pinchas Zukerman, Gervase de Peyer, Itzhak Perlman, Zubin Mehta, Janet Baker The New Philharmonia Orchestra and the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra.
There is music by Beethoven, Eccles, Couperin, Clementi, Elgar, Brahms, Offenbach and Bruch . The writer and director is Christopher Nupen who was close to Jacqueline du Pre for more than 20 years and made five films with her during her lifetime.
Remembering Jacqueline du Pré focuses on her music. The first half is filmed mostly in rehearsal situations where she is at her most revealing and exuberant. The second half features performances at the highest level, including the closing five minutes of the Elgar Cello Concerto in the legendary Philharmonia/Barenboim performance of 1967.
Who was Jacqueline du Pré? focuses on her personality as seen through the people who knew her best. It sets the record straight, corrects some of the more distorted myths and keeps this vibrant personality alive in the world in the way only film can do.
Everything about Piotr Anderszewski is extraordinary: his talent, his repertoire, his constant questioning of his work as a performer. Any film about this highly unconventional pianist owes it to itself to depart from the beaten path; on the borderline between documentary and fiction, this "road movie" is set against the backdrop of a winter journey by train across Poland with a piano installed on board. Punctuated by Piotr's highly personal reflections, the repertoire consists of essential pieces by Bach, Mozart, Chopin, Beethoven, Schumann and Szymanowski.
When the Fire Burns is a musical documentary portrait shot throughout Spain and Argentina. The film captures the rich sensuality of Manuel de Falla's music. Directed by Larry Weinstein, the film music combines night-time footage of the Alhambra, the Moorish palace and gardens atop the hills of Granada, with a stunning performance of de Falla's masterpiece by pianist Alicia de Larrocha
Proust wrote a remarkable and very long novel called La Recheche de Temps Perdue, translated usually as Remembrance of Things Past. It's size and reputaiton for density and incomprehensibility mean that not many folk take it on. This is a great pity as once you have started reading it is hard not to be drawn into Proust's world. This is because you will find yourself there in it's huge cast of sensitively drawn characters. The film explores how he did it and is followed by an overview of his work. Proust was born the son of a wealthy Parisian doctor and had an easy entry into the higher echelons of French society. His knowledge of this world was the background to the astonishing series of novels called A La Recherche du Temps Perdu (Remembrance of Things Past). He did not have an early success but by the end of his life it was recognized that his work - sensitive, searching, amusing and amazingly perceptive about how humans work - was in a class of its own. The program traces his unusual life and ends with an overview of his works.
How is the perfect sequence of steps formed?
An intimate documentary about the internationally highly esteemed choreographer Mats Ek . In May 2013 Juliet and Romeo premiered at the Royal opera house in Stockholm. A new and much anticipated full length work by choreographer Mats Ek.
Filmmakers Andreas Soderberg and Bjorn Eriksson have been there from early on in the process, making a documentary with an unique insight into Mats Ek's artistic process. We get as close to Mats as he gets to the dancers.
Like most women of her time Jane Austen lived out her life on home ground. Her adventurous brothers meant however that she was very much in touch with her age. Coupling this with her own remarkable personality she produced some of the finest novels in English literature. This program by Malcolm Hossick covers her life and background and ends with an overview of her work.
Johann Sebastian Bach is now reckoned to be one of the great masters of music. He was not a great innovator but built upon the developments of harmony which had begun with the occurance of the renaissance of learning and an understanding of the world in scientific terms in the centuries before him. He was an astonishingly gifted musician and his life was a tortured journey of success and drawbacks.
Writer, producer and director Malcolm Hossick explores how he worked and lived and assesses the contribution he made to music. It is followed by a brief overview of his huge output. Bach was born in Germany into a talented musical family. His astonishing musical gifts showed at an early age and by his late teens he was organist at the local church and soon moving on to positions in the many small Princely courts which made up Germany at the time. In the German musical world he quickly gained a reputation as a master organist and composer. It was not until almost a century after his death that his greatness was fully recognized outside Germany. The documentary by Malcolm Hossick traces his life and work and ends with an overview of his music.
Beethoven was born into a musical family in Bonn. He was well taught and generally well educated. With the support of his local ruler he went to Vienna to further his musical studies. He was soon celebrated as a pianist and composer and spent the rest of his life in Vienna supported by generous patrons and free to compose as he wished. In spite of going stone deaf he was able to continue composing, producing some of his greatest works in his later years. The documentary details his life and times and is followed by an overview of his works.
This program by Malcolm Hossick explores the life and work of William Blake . He was born the son of a hosier in the then respectable district of Soho in London. He had no formal education but was taught by his mother. He was a voracious reader and as a boy he drew constantly. He studied at an art school and learned the trade of engraving by which he lived. His painting and poetry were valued by only a few in his own times and he died in poverty. Gradually over the ensuing centuries his reputation has grown until now he is highly regarded as a remarkable and talented visionary. The film includes several of his unusual illustrated poems. It is followed by a brief overview of his work.
Brahms was born in Hamburg into a poor but musical family. His talent was early recognized and he received devoted and first class tuition. He was discovered by the violinist Joachim and the composer Schumann and he enjoyed amazing success from his very first published work. Brahms never married but settled in Vienna where he came to be recognized as one of the great musical masters of the century.
This film by Malcolm Hossick follows the life and times of the 18th century Scottish poet, Robert Burns . Burns came from a simple farming background but his poetry was soon accepted as of remarkable quality and he is now remembered as the ploughman poet. The program includes examples of his work and is followed by an overview of his work.
The Polish composer Frederic Chopin is unique in that he composed almost exclusively for his own instrument, the piano. As a pianist he was self taught and had an astonishing talent for improvisation. As a composer he was a perfectionist in the classical mould and his wonderful compositions ensure that he is one of the best loved names in world music. The documentary traces his short life and includes an overview of his musical works.
The program by Malcolm Hossick explores the astonishing life and work of the 14th century Italian poet Dante . He wrote in everyday Italian and was the first writer to explore the life of the individual in any depth. His ideas have filtered down through the ages and have greatly influenced humanity at large.
Drawing on archival and contemporary materials, this program presents a factual outline of Charles Dicken's life as well as the social and historical background to his writings.
This program introduces the rich imaginative life of Charlotte, Emily , and Anne Bronte , exposed to the world of literature by their father Patrick Bronte priest, examiner, and writer. The family struggled with poverty, and the family home Haworth and moorland provided inspiration for the daughters. Charlotte and Emily were educated at Cowan Bridge School, later the inspiration for Charlotte's Jane Eyre, until their father could no longer ignore the mistreatment they suffered there. Afterward, the Brontw daughters pursued education at home, where they had access to literature, contemporary art, newspapers, and magazines. When their father got sick, the sisters tried to earn a living, but all the girls struggled with the stifling loss of freedom of being a teacher, student, or governess, and Emily returned to Haworth quickly. After years of trying to live as governesses, the three set out to open their own school.
F. Scott Fitzgerald was born in St. Paul Minnesota into a fairly well-off family. He began his first novel while at Princeton University and very shortly after leaving it was accepted by Scribners and successfully published. He went on to be the prophet of the Jazz age of the twenties but his popularity declined. He is now recognised as one of the greatest American writers of the 20th century. This film by Malcolm Hossick covers his life and background and ends with an overview of his work.
Handel was born in the small German town of Halle. His father was Surgeon to the local ruler a certain Duke of Weissenfels. From an early Age he displayed a precocious musical talent. His local church organist was a fine musician and teacher so Handel's talent was carefully nurtured. After a spell playing the organ in a local church he left for Hamburg determined to become a composer of operas. He met with immediate success, a success which He enjoyed for the rest of his life. He settled in England and became a national institution. The film outlines his life and is followed by a brief overview of his works.
Thomas Hardy was born into the family of a practical country builder in mid 19th century England. He got a good education in the local town of Dorchester on the south coast and after beginning as an architect he soon developed into one of the most prolific and popular novelists of his times. the film follows his interesting life and is followed by a concise overview of his works.
Joseph Haydn was born into a poor family in 18th century Hungary. His huge musical talent brought him into the service of a Prince. Eventually his work was recognized throughout the musical world. The film by Malcolm Hossick describes his fascinating life and the social change he went through. It is followed by a brief overview of his work. Joseph Haydn was born into a simple rural community where his father worked for the local landowner. Joseph's musical talents developed in local church choirs and his fine voice took him to the choir of St Stephen's in Vienna. We follow his career into the the employment of the Esterhazy family where he remained until he was sixty. His international fame as a composer brought him an invitation to London where his career was reborn. The video ends with a brief overview of Haydn's work useful to experienced music lovers and and newcomers alike. On the soundtrack some of his most characteristic compositions are played by members of the Elysium ensemble.
Traces the life and literary career of Ernest Hemingway , using portraits and views of places associated with his life. "Enigmatic and intriguing, Hemingway is one of America's favorite authors. His dramatic understatement, dialogue and use of heroes made for great human interest.
Victor Hugo was born the son of a General under Napoleon Bonaparte. At an early age he began writing and his career as a poet, playwright, novelist and even politician has rarely been equaled. His fearless stance for the rights of the common man endeared him to the French people but caused governments to drive him into exile. He lived for nineteen years in the English Channel islands. The film covers his life and background and ends with an overview of his work.
Henrik Ibsen was born in the small coastal town of Skien in Norway. His family were middle class burghers. He worked as an apprentice to an apothecary before going to Oslo to study. He began writing plays which found little favour in Norway. He lived and wrote for about 30 years in Italy and Germany and became recognized worldwide as the greatest dramatist of his age and the Father of modern drama. This documentary traces his life and is followed by a brief overview of his works.
Begins with Henry James' comfortable boyhood in New York, during which his father moved James and his brother around and back and forth from Europe frequently for the sake of education. He eventually went to Harvard to study law and began writing, but felt uncomfortable with American culture and left for England, where he spent most of the rest of his life.
The program traces how humans beings have made 'art' from the earliest recorded times. Until the fundamental changes in the way human societies viewed themselves we know as the Renaissance, artists were the servants of the rulers. This is true of all human groups throughout the world. Now in the age of individual freedom artists have come to enjoy a new role. This explores the change and how art has come to be such a powerful and fruitful force in our daily lives.
James Joyce was born in Dublin. He was sent first to a Jesuit school but had to leave after three years because his father could no longer afford the fees. He went to another Jesuit school in Dublin and then to University College there. He went to Paris in 1902 and rarely returned to Ireland. His writing was difficult to publish and he had a very tricky character but with his unique style he became one of the most influential writers of the twentieth century. The documentary covers his life and background and is followed by an overview of his works.
Franz Kafka was born in Prague, still under the Austro-Hungarian Empire. He was well educated and from an early age he determined to become a writer. He worked in an insurance company and in his ample free time wrote a number of remarkable novels and short stories. His heroes are all struggling to find themselves against a background of the totalitarian state or tribe or religion, and his name has become synonymous with the idea of modern man and his struggle to maintain his individuality. The documentary traces his unusual life and is followed by a brief overview of his works.
The English poet Keats was born into comfortable circumstances in 1795. He had a good education. His father died in an accident when he was in his early teens and he took up the profession of surgeon. He was however writing poetry and he was soon recognized by his discerning friends as someone quite exceptional. He died of tuberculosis at the age of 26. This documentary traces his brief life and is followed by an overview of his delightful work.
Gustav Mahler was born into a poor family in a small town in the Austro-Hungarian Empire. His astonishing musical talent carried him from there to the heights of music in his day as a conductor and composer. His vast musical landscapes have made him into one of the most admired composers in the musical canon. This film by Malcolm Hossick traces his remarkable life and is followed by a brief overview of his works. Mahler was born into a poor family in a small town in the Austro-Hungarian Empire. His astonishing musical talent carried him from there to the heights of music in his day as a conductor and composer. His vast musical landscapes have made him into one of the most admired composers in the musical canon. This film by Malcolm Hossick traces his remarkable life and is followed by a brief overview of his works.
Montaigne was a French aristocrat born in the middle of the 16th century a while before Shakespeare. He wrote essays about his views on life and in particular about himself. They are wise and amusing and just as pertinent today as they were in this own times. This documentary by Malcolm Hossick follows his unusual and fascinating life. The program begins by giving a sense of Montaigne's views on life suggesting why they are so prescient for today. It follows his unusual education and gives a background of the history of France of which he was for a time actually an intimate part. His brief friendship with a man called La Boetie colours his understanding of mankind and probably plays a part in his deciding to write down all he could think of about himself which forms what we know of as his essays. The program ends with some of the topics which so engaged him and which make him such a charming candidate for our attention in the twenty first century!
Mozart was born into a musical family and his extraordinary musical talent was evident at an early age. As a child prodigy he traveled to all the capitals of Europe and developed into one of the greatest composers of all time. The video uncovers his delightful character and explores the difficulties he had to overcome to to establish himself as an independent artist in age when musicians were simply seen as the servants of the rich and powerful. The video ends with a brief overview of Mozart's work useful to experienced music lovers and newcomers alike. On the soundtrack some of his most characteristic compositions are played by members of the Elysium ensemble.
The program traces how humans beings have made 'art' from the earliest recorded times. Until the fundamental changes in the way human societies viewed themselves we know as the Renaissance, artists were the servants of the rulers. This is true of all human groups throughout the world. Now in the age of individual freedom artists have come to enjoy a new role. The documentary explores this change and how art has come to be such a powerful and fruitful force in the daily lives.
O'Neill was born in 1888 into a theatrical family. He got a good education but led a turbulent existence until he finally began to have some success with the plays he wrote for the tiny theatre in Providence Massachusetts. The program follows his early life and the influence he has had on world theatre through his work. It is followed by a brief overview of his work. O'Neill's father was a successful actor and as a child he was loved and cared for. He spent his youth rebelling against everything and finally settled down to become America's first serious dramatist of international stature. He won the Nobel prize for literature in 1936.
This program by Malcolm Hossick follows the life and work of George Orwell . Orwell was born in India and educated at Eton College. In 1922 he went out to Burma as a police officer. He returned to England in 1927 and determined to be a writer. He was interested in politics and the lot of the poor in society and his works reflect this interest. Just as he was becoming a successful novelist he died of tuberculosis. Many rate him as one of the most influential writers of the 20th century. The film is followed by a brief summary of his works.
Proust wrote a remarkable and very long novel called La Recheche de Temps Perdue, translated usually as Remembrance of Things Past. It's size and reputaiton for density and incomprehensibility mean that not many folk take it on. This is a great pity as once you have started reading it is hard not to be drawn into Proust's world. This is because you will find yourself there in it's huge cast of sensitively drawn characters. The film explores how he did it and is followed by an overview of his work. Proust was born the son of a wealthy Parisian doctor and had an easy entry into the higher echelons of French society. His knowledge of this world was the background to the astonishing series of novels called A La Recherche du Temps Perdu (Remembrance of Things Past). He did not have an early success but by the end of his life it was recognized that his work - sensitive, searching, amusing and amazingly perceptive about how humans work - was in a class of its own. The program traces his unusual life and ends with an overview of his works.
Puccini was born in Lucca in Italy to a musical family and went on to write some of the best loved operas of all time. This film by Malcolm Hossick traces his interesting life and is followed by an overview of his work. Born in the beautiful old Tuscan city of Lucca in 1858 you could argue Puccini was destined to be a composer. For generations his family had been at the centre of musical life in the city. Few could have prophesied the phenomenal success he enjoyed in his day and his works are still as popular as ever. This film by Malcolm Hossick film traces his interesting and eventful life and is followed by an overview of his work.
Ravel was born in the little seaside town of Ciboure in French Basque country near the Spanish border. His mother had also been born in Ciboure but his father was a Swiss engineer and a naturalized French citizen. Ravel lived most of his life in Paris, following his music studies there and becoming one of the greatest of French composers and in spite of his relatively small output one of the most influential composers of the 20th century. The program traces his life and his musical development and ends with an overview of his works.
The Renaissance which began in Italy 600 years ago is probably the most important and astonishing event in human history. Until that time throughout the world tyrants and authoritarian religions controlled the lives of most human beings. War was the means of settling disputes. The lives of the majority of people counted for nothing. The Renaissance changed everything and its effect is now felt in every corner of the globe. This film by Malcolm Hossick explores how it began and how it is effecting all our lives today.
Schubert was born the son of a schoolmaster in a suburb of Vienna. He became a singer in the choir of the court chapel. His precarious life struggling to live from his compositions was enlivened by the group of friends among whom he lived and who supported him and valued his work. He achieved little outside recognition in his own time and died of typhus at the tragically early age of 31.The film ends with a brief overview of Schubert's work useful to experienced music lovers and newcomers alike. On the soundtrack some of his most characteristic compositions are played by members of the Elysium Ensemble.
The program follows the life and times of the great English dramatist William Shakespeare . It emphasizes the classical education he had in the works of the ancient Greeks and Romans as well as his experience of country life which he used so fruitfully in his work. The quality and variety of life in Elizabethan London played a great part in his development and the rise of theaters and a rich cultural life in general is explored. In the end however Shakespeare's own unmatched talent in writing about and expressing the astonishing complexity of human life is what marks him out as probably the greatest writer of all time. Shakespeare was born in the country town of Stratford-upon-Avon.He was educated at the local grammar school. He went to London in 1588 to begin a life in the theater. He was immensely successful and he is now recognized as the greatest dramatist of all time.
George Bernard Shaw was born into a protestant family in Catholic Dublin. His family was slowly sliding down the social ladder. He left school at 15 to become a clerk. Then aged twenty three he went off to London to become a writer. Blessed with a brilliant wit and a capacity for hard work he became the most prominent dramatist of his age. The program covers his life and background. Shaw was born into a protestant family in Catholic Dublin. His family was slowly sliding down the social ladder. He left school at 15 to become a clerk. Then aged twenty three he went off to London to become a writer. Blessed with a brilliant wit and a capacity for hard work he became the most prominent dramatist of his age.
Sibelius was born in Finland. He learned to play the violin and after studying music for a while set out to be a composer. He developed a unique style and was steeped in the literature and natural beauty of his native land which inspired his music. These nordic roots have not stopped him becoming universally admired and his music is now a staple of modern concert halls. This film by Malcolm Hossick traces his life and his musical development. It is followed by an overview of his work.
Stevenson was born in Edinburgh the only child of middle class parents. He went to the University of Edinburgh and took a law degree but in spite of his parents' opposition he was intent on being a writer. He suffered from poor health throughout his life but was successful from early in his career. He died in Samoa celebrated the world over. He wrote many travel books and short stories but is best known for his novels mostly with a background of Scottish history. The program covers his life and times and ends with an overview of his work.
Strauss was born in Munich into a very musical family. He showed talent for composition at an early age and had his first symphony performed when he was only seventeen. He began conducting in various opera houses around Germany and was soon astounding the world with his wonderful music. He began with compositions for orchestra but became one of leading composers of opera in the first half of the twentieth century. The video traces his career and ends with and overview of his works.
Stravinsky was born into a musical family in the little town of Lermontov near St. Petersburg. His father was principal bass singer at the opera there, so music was part of his life. He studied at the St. Petersburg conservatioire under Rimsky Korsakov and was soon making an impression with his compositions. He had early successes with his ballet music for Diaghilev and over a long and productive life went on to become arguably the greatest composer of the twentieth century. The video traces his eventful life and ends with a brief overview of his compositions.
Jonathan Swift was born in Dublin into a well off English protestant family. His father died and he was brought up and given the best possible education at the expense of his uncle. He was not grateful for this and his acid views on man's iniquities were the subject of his many writings. He worked for the English government and as a church administrator but loved and was much beloved by his friends. In Ireland he is seen as the first hero of the struggle against English dominance. This program traces his fascinating life and ends with an overview of his works.
Tchaikovsky was born into a modest family on the bottom rank of the Russian aristocracy. His father was a mining engineer and after an early education from a French governess Tchaikovsky was sent to the School of Jurisprudence in St. Petersburg Conservatory opened shortly afterwards and as one of its first graduates he launched into the doubtful career of music composition. His gifts were soon recognized and he went on to achieve extraordinary international acclaim. The video traces his career and ends with an overview of his works.
Vincent van Gogh was born in 1853 the 5th child of a respected Dutch Protestant priest. Largely self taught he only settled on becoming an artist in his late twenties. He was very practical and knew the difficulties of what he wanted to do. He suffered from depression but in a working career of a dozen or so years he produced some of the best loved paintings of any age.
This program by Malcolm Hossick introduces some of his greatest works and through some of the letters he wrote to his brother and friends we learn of his approach to his work. Uncomplicated, astonishingly talented and extraordinarily confident Van Gogh was a master of his craft and a great believer in human worth. He produced work which touches the heart of all who see it and this is a celebration of the man and his art.
The film by Malcolm Hossick tells the remarkable story of Verdi - who rose from poverty and obscurity to become one of the greatest opera composers of all time. It is followed by an overview of his work. Verdi was born in the tiny and remote village of Roncole near Busetto a town in the then principality of Parma, Italy. With the help of a local businessman he was given a good general education and under the local organist a fine training in music. In spite of terrible setbacks in his personal life he went on to become one of Italy's most successful composers of opera. The video traces his career and development over a long life and many operas. He never stood still and in his later years he produced some of his finest work. The video ends with a brief overview of his compositions. Verdi was born in the tiny and remote village of Roncole near Busetto a town in the then principality of Parma, Italy. With the help of a local businessman he was given a good general education and under the local organist a fine training in music. In spite of terrible setbacks in his personal life he went on to become one of Italy's most successful composers of opera. The video traces his career and development over a long life and many operas. He never stood still and in his later years he...
Voltaire was born the son of a prominent lawyer and from his earliest days showed a precocious literary talent. He wrote plays and novels and historical and philosophical works his outspokeness constantly landed him in trouble with the authorities. He became the leading liberal voice of the french enlightenment and he has had a world wide influence ever since. The program traces his fascinating life and ends with an overview of his works.
Wagner was born in Leipzig into the family of a government official. However his father died and his mother remarried. His stepfather was an actor in the theatre at Dresden giving Wagner an exceptionally vivid experience of the theatre which was to be the basis of his great series of music dramas. He had immense natural musical gifts and a huge ego which carried his massive operatic projects through including the building of his own theatre at Bayreuth in Bavaria. The film traces his life and the development of his work and ends with an overview of his compositions.
Oscar Wilde was certainly one of the most brilliant writers of comedy for the English stage. The tale of his tragic downfall, caused by the society of his time condemning his private sexual life, has generally overshadowed the importance of his work. This program by Malcolm Hossick follows his early career and attempts to regain the balance between tragic figure and artist. It covers his life and background and ends with an overview of his work.
William Butler Yeats was born in Dublin. His father was a successful artist and from an early age Yeats determined to be and was soon accepted as a poet. On the London literary scene he was a leading light and in Dublin was instrumental in setting up an Irish Theatre. He became the recognized poet of the Irish struggle for freedom and ended his long life as a senator and venerated patriarch of the new state. The documentary traces his life and ends with an overview of his works.
Zola was born the son of an Italian engineer. He early determined to be a writer and via work with the publishing firm Hachette, he began writing the many realistic novels with which he made his mark. His work was very popular with a wide audience and he was seen as a champion of democracy and the people. He was exiled for the stance he took against the government at the Dreyfus trial. The documentary traces his successful and industrious life and ends with an overview of his works.
Through his particular combination of scholarship and inspired musicianship, John Eliot Gardiner has won international acclaim as a key figure in the revival of early music. His concert performances and recordings with the ensembles he has founded - the Monteverdi Choir, the English Baroque Soloists and the Orchestra Revolutionnaire et Romantique - are unmistakable, not just for their zest and technical mastery, but as highly personal readings of music from Monteverdi to Verdi and beyond.
A major force in contemporary music, Pierre Boulez is committed to the expansion and recreation of musical language. This documentary looks at his work, in particular the creation of Repons , which was heralded as the Signal of "a new age of instrumental achievement" (Financial Times). Boulez is seen rehearsing at his Paris laboratory for new music (IRCAM). He talks about his experimentation, the difficulties involved in communicating his ideas, and the post-war composers who have influenced him.
A brilliant swordsman, athlete, violin virtuoso and composer, Joseph Bologne, Chevalier de Saint-Georges might well lay claim to being the most talented figure in an age of remarkable individuals. The string quartet was still in its infancy in France in the 1770s, but while these pieces are small in scale they are exceptionally rewarding.
Saint-Georges appreciated the intimate nature of this genre, avoiding overt soloistic virtuosity and exploring chamber music timbres, amply demonstrating his rich lyrical gifts and a natural ability to delight performers and audiences alike.
Maya Plisetskaya is in every sense an exceptional personality. Like almost no other dancer, the eternal prima ballerina assoluta of the Bolshoi Theatre understood how to combine outstanding dance skills with dramatic expression. There are also very few dancers who can look back on such a long and active career: even on her eightieth birthday in November 2005 she personally gave a stage performance. A homage to her inimitable creative work, this video features fascinating footage of her greatest successes as a ballerina together with an interview in which Maya Plisetskaya describes her life as a dancer - which is simultaneously a whole chapter of Russian history, from Stalin to perestroika.
After his first two operas Oberto and Un giorno di regno, Verdi fell into a depression that dissipated only when he was shown the libretto to Nabucco and discovered the chorus "Va, pensiero." The words sung by the Hebrew exiles made an indelible impression on the composer, who also saw the political potential within them: an echo of the Italians' longing for freedom and a unified nation. The work was premiered at the Teatro alla Scala on 9 March 1842 and was an enormous success. The story of the Babylonian king and the captive Israelites struck a patriotic chord in the hearts of the Milan audiences and swiftly carried Verdi's name throughout Italy and the rest of the world. Nabucco has long been at home in the Arena di Verona, and for many, the "Va, pensiero" chorus is, along with the triumphal march from Aida, the very embodiment of the Verona experience. This video production vividly captures this unique experience and provides the viewer with fascinating details that escape many of the Arena's spectators. Stage director Denis Krief casts the work in a sparse modern setting, providing a highly effective showcase for the true heroes of the evening, the singers under conductor Daniel Oren. "Nuanced and temperamental, Daniel Oren's interpretation dazzles with...
If George Gershwin's Porgy and Bess - the highest creative achievement in American classical music - embodies a glorious (and controversial) fulfillment of Dvorak's prophecy, there also exists a buried lineage of exceptional compositions of Black composers following in Dvorak's wake. Coming first was his assistant Harry Burleigh whose seminal settings of Deep River are as much compositions as transcriptions. Burleigh's initiative was sealed by singers like Paul Robeson and Marian Anderson. But William Levi Dawson's oracular Negro Folk Symphony , though triumphantly premiered by Leopold Stokowski and his Philadelphia Orchestra in 1934, gathered dust - and Dawson was never to create the symphonic catalogue he seemed destined to undertake.
The commentators include George Shirley, the most legendary name in present-day Black classical music, also Kevin Deas, who sings Burleigh with singular authority, and the conductors Roderick Cox and the late Michael Morgan.
No non-Western musical idiom has so impacted on the Western concert tradition as Indonesian gamelan, beginning with the Javanese Pavilion at the 1889 Paris Exposition: an epiphany. Sampling gamelan-inspired works by Debussy, Ravel , and McPhee , the film arrives at a paragon exemplar of cultural fusion - Lou Harrison - and a pair of concertos for violin and piano, unsurpassed by those of any other American. The composer/scholar Bill Alves demonstrates the layered complexity of Javanese gamelan, and how it translates into keyboard textures composed by Harrison for Keith Jarrett. For Harrison's Concerto for Violin and Percussion , tour the 'junk percussion' - including flower pots and washtubs - that Harrison made sing and dance.
Participants include the gamelan scholars Jody Diamond and Sumarsam, and the conductor Dennis Russell Davies, who has long championed Harrison on both sides of the Atlantic.
The Intimacy of Creativity – The Bright Sheng Partnership: Composers Meet Performers in Hong Kong is a pioneering, internationally-acclaimed partnership devoted to promoting an intimate dialogue between composers and performers.
Distinguished composers, together with selected emerging composers from Hong Kong and around the world, present and revise their chamber music compositions after in-depth discussions with world-renowned performers during open discussions. The revised compositions are presented at two world premiere concerts in downtown Hong Kong, preceded by preview concerts on the campus of The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, which hosts the partnership.
For the 2011 inaugural season, artistic director and internationally-acclaimed composer, conductor, and pianist Bright Sheng was joined by distinguished guests Richard Stoltzman, Yehudi Wyner, and the Daedalus Quartet; Hong Kong guest artists Mary Wu, Stephen Chong, and Olivier Nowak; and emerging composers Pedro Faria Gomes, Ted Goldman, Moon Young Ha, Narong Prangcharoen, Matthew Tommasini, and Ming-Hsiu Yen.
Presented for the first time in 2010, with the artistic direction of Diemut Poppen and under the initiative of Goethe Institute, Festival Cantabile occurs yearly, during the month of September in the city of Lisbon, and is one of the most important festivals of chamber music in the country.
Festival Cantabile, The art of Chamber Music , offers a variety of classical and modern repertoires to the Portuguese people, in particular habitants of the Lisbon region, connecting periods of time and crossing pieces of classical masters with contemporary composers such as Rihm, Ligeti, Kurtag, Kancheli and the Portuguese Antonio Pinho Vargas and Luis Tinoco .
https://en.cantabilefest.pt/festival-cantabile
Anne-Sophie Mutter is one of the greatest musicians of our age and for the last five decades has appeared at the world's leading concert venues. In addition to premiering 31 new works from leading composers, she is an inspiring mentor, has promoted top young musicians and fostered numerous charitable projects. In this documentary, she meets figures she admires, such as tennis star Roger Federer, as well as Daniel Barenboim, legendary film composer John Williams, and others. Anne-Sophie Mutter talks candidly about her personal life and the demands of her international career. This unprecedented portrait of a socially active artist is supplemented by archive material from her stellar career.
Celebrated in his day not only as a great composer he was also admired as an outstanding pianist who was a peerless interpreter of his own works including the piano concerti and the Rhapsody on a Theme by Paganini .
It is well known that he was in effect the sole pianist capable of performing his most demanding Third Piano Concerto and his performances and recording of the concerto came to be considered as the definitive ones.
The relationship between performance, interpretation, and Rachmaninoff's own life will be addressed in this documentary by the young pianists interviewed. The program explored the evolution of interpretation over the past few decades, hear brief excerpts of recordings by Rachmaninoff as contrasted with contemporary performances by today's well-known young pianists as they comment on the differences (or similarities) of their approach.
This documentary will be the first to explore performance styles and interpretation of the Rachmaninoff piano repertoire. Viewed from a broad perspective the documentary will focus on the danger of how a musician might be bound and stymied by tradition as opposed to being able to use a knowledge of the past to liberate one's approach and infuse the performances with the same sense of improvisatory freedom with which...
The world does not need any conductors! A provocative thesis that the little animated baton builder puts up at his workbench. Do the participants of the world-renowned Gustav Mahler Conducting Competition see this as well? In a humorous way, the film examines the power and magic of the maestros and explains what the orchestra actually needs a conductor for.
This Christopher Nupen film is about the music and the artistic intentions of Pyotr Il'yich Tchaikovsky, one of the greats and a composer with an immediate appeal for many millions of people.
In this film the focus is on Tchaikovsky's concern with his own fate in Manfred and the last three symphonies and his extraordinary relationship with Nadezhda von Meck as told in his revealing correspondence with her.
This Christopher Nupen film is about the music and the artistic intentions of Pyotr Il'yich Tchaikovsky, one of the greats and a composer with an immediate appeal for many millions of people.
The prime focus is Tchaikovsky's lifelong preoccupation with the idea of fate as a controlling influence in our lives.
The women in this film are both the women in his personal life (his mother Alexandra, his governess Fanny Durbach and the Belgian singer Desiree Artot) and the vulnerable young heroines in his early music (Katerina Kabanova in The Storm, Juliet in Romeo and Juliet, Francesca in Francesca da Rimini, Odette in Swan Lake and Tatyana in Evgeny Onegin).
The great German baritone Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau is greatly admired for his interpretive insight, note-perfect control of the tonal qualities, and shadings of color in his voice, for exceptional rhythmic sense and impeccable diction. His reputation as a lieder singer is so high - he had a repertoire of more than 3.000 songs - that it is easy to forget his extensive list of operatic roles.
In this conversation Fischer-Dieskau reveals for the last time on camera the secrets of his outstanding career. His Last Words provide a deep insight into the extraordinary artistic life of one of the most famous and prolific lieder singer of our time. Fischer-Dieskau died in May 2012 at the age of 86.
Discover the kinds of plays performed at Stratford in Shakespeares youth along with an introduction to the Royal Shakespeare Theatre. Shakespeares London Years 1591-1613: British presenter, Rebecca Flynn, offers a horseback journey into London and a walking tour over a dozen London sites that conjure up the presence of William Shakespeare during his London years.
This program follows the trail and visits eighteen major sites associated with Shakespeare and his plays which include - the Tower of London; St. Pauls Cathedral; the Middle Temple for law students; George Tavern, a venue for outdoor plays; Southwark Cathedral, where his brother Edmund Shakespeare is buried; and the London Globe Theatre site.
Shakespeares Stratford Years 1564-1590 - This program conjures up the presence of William Shakespeare during his Stratford years by taking you on a walking, biking, and rowing journey around Warwickshire. It features the baptismal font and tomb at Trinity church, Shakespeares Birthplace, the King Edward VI Grammar School he attended, Anne Hathaways Cottage, Shottery, Wilmcote, Kenilworth Castle, the Mary Arden Farm, and many other important locations.
This program is an enormously valuable historical, literary and dramatic analysis of the essence of Macbeth showing how the significant parts of the drama tie together with scenes from the play.
Hosts, Rebecca Flynn and Gary Taylor introduce Macbeth The Tragic Pair using the stunning backdrop of the Scottish Highlands to lift the veil covering the language, plot, themes, geographical and historical background to The Tragedy of Macbeth, first published in 1623.
Macbeth is the shortest and most compressed in language, action and character development of the Shakespeare tragedies. At a heath near Forres, 3 Weird Sisters (witches) meet with the King of Scotland (Duncan) and his General Macbeth, hailing Macbeth with a triple prophecy that ends with a promise that Macbeth with be king. After events occur supporting these prophecies, the ambitious Macbeth and Lady Macbeth work together to murder the King in their castle (Inverness). In time, the Tragic Pair are haunted by guilt, paranoia and isolation with Lady Macbeth taking her own life and Macbeth fighting to the last, even though he realizes the three witches had issued false and misleading prophecies. Both die and Scotland returns to normalcy with Duncans son, Malcolm crowned at Scone, Scotland.
Just two years before she died, Margot Fonteyn finally agreed to tell the full story of her life for this exclusive television biography. It was made at her home in Panama and is the only personal account of her life and career that exists on film. It includes archive footage of many of her great roles and extensive newsreel coverage of key events in her life.
Just two years before she died, Margot Fonteyn finally agreed to tell the full story of her life for this exclusive television biography. It was made at her home in Panama and is the only personal account of her life and career that exists on film. It includes archive footage of many of her great roles and extensive newsreel coverage of key events in her life.
Just two years before she died, Margot Fonteyn finally agreed to tell the full story of her life for this exclusive television biography. It was made at her home in Panama and is the only personal account of her life and career that exists on film. It includes archive footage of many of her great roles and extensive newsreel coverage of key events in her life.
Virtuosity searches for the musical souls of the most gifted young pianists on the planet as they try to make a name for themselves of the 2013 Van Cliburn International Piano Competition. The pressure on these kids is overwhelming because the stakes are so high: prize money, concert bookings, a recording contract, a career.
At the heart of this story is the courage is takes for 20-year-old to go onstage alone before 2,000 people, and hundreds of thousands more online, and play a unique interpretation of one of the most difficult pieces ever written for the piano. The Competition requires not only a transcendent musical ability, but a mental toughness that must sustain the soloist through three straight weeks of performance. The Cliburn becomes as much a test of character as a musical proving ground.
This video contains a Christopher Nupen film about the most charismatic performer in the entire history of Western classical music EUR" also the most talked about, the most controversial, the most famous and the most successful classical soloist that the world of music has ever known.
The story is astonishing, exciting, wildly unusual and, at the end, deeply touching. It is one of the most extraordinary tales in the history of music and it is told with all the Nupen finesse and commitment that have won him DVD of the Year Award four times in the past six years.
In the recording, Christopher Nupen looks at the legend and the strange man who created it with his dazzling combination of technical brilliance, supreme showmanship, Italian melody and unbridled manipulative skill EUR" a man whose extraordinary personality unsettled even the most sophisticated and educated minds and provoked wildly contradictory opinions.
It presents Paganini's music, shot and edited in the style developed by Christopher Nupen and his colleagues for their prize winning DVDs about Sibelius, Schubert and Tchaikovsky and combines it with extracts from Paganini's letters and quotations from both his admirers and his many detractors.
A tribute to Jacqueline du Pre to mark the thirtieth anniversary of her death thirty years ago, on 19 October 1987.
The documentary contains archive footage shot during Jacqueline du Pre's lifetime which captures some glorious and professionally filmed live performances. It also remembers both her personality and her music through the memories and tributes of her closest friends and colleagues including Daniel Barenboim, Pinchas Zukerman, Itzhak Perlman, Toby Perlman, Fou Ts'ong, Zubin Mehta, William Pleeth, Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, Hugh Maguire, Elizabeth Wilson, Cynthia Friend, Charles Beare, Suvi Grubb, Dr Len Selby and Clive Barda.
In the music she is accompanied by Daniel Barenboim, Pinchas Zukerman, Gervase de Peyer, Itzhak Perlman, Zubin Mehta, Janet Baker The New Philharmonia Orchestra and the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra.
There is music by Beethoven, Eccles, Couperin, Clementi, Elgar, Brahms, Offenbach and Bruch . The writer and director is Christopher Nupen who was close to Jacqueline du Pre for more than 20 years and made five films with her during her lifetime.
"Domingo creates the magical illusion that Alfano wrote the role especially for him: Domingo de Bergerac" (review of the premiere in the Madrid daily ABC). Placido Domingo's triumph in Valencia's stunningly futuristic theater El Palau de les Arts in February 2007 echoes the overwhelmingly positive reception he obtained at the Metropolitan Opera and the Royal Opera House Covent Garden in this role. A coproduction of the New York, London and Valencia houses, Franco Alfano's little-known 1936 opera Cyrano de Bergerac has been reawakened to life by the great Spanish tenor. Although Alfano (1875-1954) enjoyed a long and prolific career as an opera composer, he is known today above all for having completed Puccini's Turandot. His earlier works not surprisingly reflect Puccini's verismo style, but his later works - including Cyrano de Bergerac - are clearly inspired by Debussy, Ravel and Strauss. Opulent scoring and colorful orchestral effects elegantly underscore the tragic story based on Rostand's famous drama of 1897, which achieved international celebrity in the Oscar-nominated 1990 film adaptation with Gerard Depardieu. Alfano's work faithfully relates the story of the large-nosed soldier poet who pines for the beautiful Roxane and writes her glowing love letters in the...
In 1985 Philip Blackburn climbed the stairs to an attic in Iowa City and started trying to make sense of the boxes piled up there. They contained a composer's life's work: scrapbooks, tapes, photos, letters, scores, and film reels - fragile treasures documenting the twentieth century from a most unusual viewpoint, that of perhaps the world's most original musician: Harry Partch.
The idea was to publish them and reveal Harry to the world on his own terms. Not as the crabby, homeless, self-taught microtonal musical weirdo and instrument maker, but as that most American of all artists, a truly independent thinker. With Enclosure 8, the work of bringing them to public attention reaches its apotheosis.
The Enclosures series (named for the extras Partch wanted to add to his life-long letter to the world) started appearing in 1995 with a VHS video of four films made in collaboration with the Chicago-based filmmaker Madeline Tourtelot. Four CDs, two years and one book later, Enclosure 4 appeared featuring his later films: Delusion of the Fury (his culminating ritual-theater work) and a San Diego Public TV documentary, also on VHS. Now the time has come for these to be issued on DVD, extensively restored, resynched and digitally remastered from the extant original prints....
Seldom has the genius of one man so influenced the musical conscience of his age. Leonard Bernstein triumphed as composer, conductor, writer and teacher. The spontaneous joy of his Broadway hits, the bold, spiritual quest of his orchestral works, his intensity and vitality as conductor, made Bernstein one of the central figures in 20th-century music. In Leonard Bernstein – Reflections , he discusses his Boston childhood, his musical growth at Harvard and the Curtis Institute and the influence of great masters like Reiner, Mitropoulos and Koussevitzky. He shares his feelings on the primacy of tonal music and speculates on the nature of the creative process. From Carnegie Hall, scene of his début, to the living room of his home and his private studio overlooking New York's Central Park, Reflections explores the artist's varied and colourful career.
Bonus feature:
Milhaud, D.: Le Boeuf sur le toit - Ballet, Op. 58
Orchestra National de France
Leonard Bernstein, conductor
Impressed with how European music could have a "German sound," a "French sound," and so on, Aaron Copland returned from his years in Paris to New York City, intent on capturing the essence of the "American sound."
This documentary presents an artful blending of the life and music of one of America's great modern composers. The many milestones in Copland's long career are discussed by his biographer, Howard Pollock, while stirring images of Copland's native city are set to selections of his music as performed by the Frankfurt Radio Symphony Orchestra. FRSO conductor Hugh Wolff provides astute commentary. Many interviews with Copland are included, along with a historic recording of Clarinet Concerto with Benny Goodman playing and Copland conducting.
This mythological figure of Prometheus symbolises the creativity of man - and Claudio Abbado took this symbol as the Leitmotif of this very unique concert recording: An exploration of the Prometheus myth through the works of four composers, evocatively visualized by television director Christopher Swann, known for directing Leonard Bernstein conducts West Side Story among others.
Featuring Marta Argerich as the solo pianist, the concert was a giant was a giant collaboration of the Berliner Philharmoniker, the Berliner Singkadamie, the Solistenchor Freiburg, and the vocal soloist Ingrid Ade-Jeseman and Monika Bair-Ivenz and speakers Ulrike Krumbiegel and Matthias Schadock.
Herbert von Karajan's story is the story of the record industry itself, which he was instrumental in creating and sustaining over half a century with hundreds of spectacular and award-winning recordings.
His life and his music-making still provoke extreme reactions; in Gernot Friedel's film, made with the help of the Karajan-Centrum in Salzburg, we see the hypnotic effect he could have upon musicians and listeners alike, we hear him in the repertoire for which he was renowned, and we are taken through a life never less than eventful.
The legendary Italian singer Barbara Frittoli , one of the today's greatest sopranos in the world, regularly appears at the Wiener Staatsoper, the Covent Garden London, the Salzburger Festspiele (Salzburg Festival), Teatro alla Scala, Opera national de Paris and the The Metropolitan Opera in New York. She has performed with some of the world's leading orchestras, such as, the Berliner Philharmoniker, the Wiener Philharmoniker, the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, the London Symphony Orchestra, the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra and the Boston Symphony Orchestra under the baton of Riccardo Muti, Claudio Abbado, Riccardo Chailly, Zubin Mehta, Antonio Pappano, Colin Davies, Lorin Maazel, Bernard Haitink, Valery Gergiev and Gianandrea Noseda.
In this series of masterclasses, exclusively recorded by DakApp, Ms. Frittoli works on excerpts from Verdi's Rigoletto alongside the talented singers from the Verbier Festival Academy 2018!
The Risør Festival of Chamber Music has firmly established itself as one of the most prestigious and recognized chamber music festivals in the world. Each year, international artists visit the small fishing town in southern Norway and join forces with some of Norway's best musicians for six days of chamber music making. The setting is amongst the most beautiful to be found in Norway, the exquisite coastline architecture and quintessential southern white houses providing an atmosphere of intimacy and calmness.
The founding artistic directors were violist Lars Anders Tomter and pianist Leif Ove Andsnes. In 2011 Andsnes handed over the co-artistic leadership to violinist Henning Kraggerud. The festival takes place in the last week of June each year. The films shown here are produced by Music in Motion (www.musicinmotion.no).
The Risør Festival of Chamber Music has firmly established itself as one of the most prestigious and recognized chamber music festivals in the world. Each year, international artists visit the small fishing town in southern Norway and join forces with some of Norway's best musicians for six days of chamber music making. The setting is amongst the most beautiful to be found in Norway, the exquisite coastline architecture and quintessential southern white houses providing an atmosphere of intimacy and calmness.
The founding artistic directors were violist Lars Anders Tomter and pianist Leif Ove Andsnes. In 2011 Andsnes handed over the co-artistic leadership to violinist Henning Kraggerud. The festival takes place in the last week of June each year. The films shown here are produced by Music in Motion (www.musicinmotion.no).
The Risør Festival of Chamber Music has firmly established itself as one of the most prestigious and recognized chamber music festivals in the world. Each year, international artists visit the small fishing town in southern Norway and join forces with some of Norway's best musicians for six days of chamber music making. The setting is amongst the most beautiful to be found in Norway, the exquisite coastline architecture and quintessential southern white houses providing an atmosphere of intimacy and calmness.
The founding artistic directors were violist Lars Anders Tomter and pianist Leif Ove Andsnes. In 2011 Andsnes handed over the co-artistic leadership to violinist Henning Kraggerud. The festival takes place in the last week of June each year. The films shown here are produced by Music in Motion (www.musicinmotion.no).
The Risør Festival of Chamber Music has firmly established itself as one of the most prestigious and recognized chamber music festivals in the world. Each year, international artists visit the small fishing town in southern Norway and join forces with some of Norway's best musicians for six days of chamber music making. The setting is amongst the most beautiful to be found in Norway, the exquisite coastline architecture and quintessential southern white houses providing an atmosphere of intimacy and calmness.
The founding artistic directors were violist Lars Anders Tomter and pianist Leif Ove Andsnes. In 2011 Andsnes handed over the co-artistic leadership to violinist Henning Kraggerud. The festival takes place in the last week of June each year. The films shown here are produced by Music in Motion (www.musicinmotion.no).
The Risør Festival of Chamber Music has firmly established itself as one of the most prestigious and recognized chamber music festivals in the world. Each year, international artists visit the small fishing town in southern Norway and join forces with some of Norway's best musicians for six days of chamber music making. The setting is amongst the most beautiful to be found in Norway, the exquisite coastline architecture and quintessential southern white houses providing an atmosphere of intimacy and calmness.
The founding artistic directors were violist Lars Anders Tomter and pianist Leif Ove Andsnes. In 2011 Andsnes handed over the co-artistic leadership to violinist Henning Kraggerud. The festival takes place in the last week of June each year. The films shown here are produced by Music in Motion (www.musicinmotion.no).
The Risør Festival of Chamber Music has firmly established itself as one of the most prestigious and recognized chamber music festivals in the world. Each year, international artists visit the small fishing town in southern Norway and join forces with some of Norway's best musicians for six days of chamber music making. The setting is amongst the most beautiful to be found in Norway, the exquisite coastline architecture and quintessential southern white houses providing an atmosphere of intimacy and calmness.
The founding artistic directors were violist Lars Anders Tomter and pianist Leif Ove Andsnes. In 2011 Andsnes handed over the co-artistic leadership to violinist Henning Kraggerud. The festival takes place in the last week of June each year. The films shown here are produced by Music in Motion (www.musicinmotion.no).
The Risør Festival of Chamber Music has firmly established itself as one of the most prestigious and recognized chamber music festivals in the world. Each year, international artists visit the small fishing town in southern Norway and join forces with some of Norway's best musicians for six days of chamber music making. The setting is amongst the most beautiful to be found in Norway, the exquisite coastline architecture and quintessential southern white houses providing an atmosphere of intimacy and calmness.
The founding artistic directors were violist Lars Anders Tomter and pianist Leif Ove Andsnes. In 2011 Andsnes handed over the co-artistic leadership to violinist Henning Kraggerud. The festival takes place in the last week of June each year. The films shown here are produced by Music in Motion (www.musicinmotion.no).
Nowhere in the world is the myth of Wagner as alive as in Bayreuth, and nowhere are performances of his works followed as closely as those at the Festspielhaus in Bayreuth. But after a decade-long reign as the uncontested ruler of the Wagner Festival, the composer's grandson Wolfgang Wagner has stepped down from his post. A new era is about to begin...
This documentary thematizes the past, present and future of the festival and provides rare insights behind the scenes of the Wagner "workshop." For the first time ever, the film team was able to record in the legendary Bayreuth orchestra pit, giving rise to stunningly candid shots of conductor Christian Thielemann rehearsing Götterdämmerung. A conversation with Wolfgang Wagner recorded especially for this production is presumably the patriarch's last appearance on film as head of the festival. The program also features rehearsals of the new 2008 production of Parsifal with director Stefan Herheim and conductor Daniele Gatti. Members of the Wagner family and leading Wagner interpreters of our time also comment on the unique Wagner aura. The authors have assembled an amazing collection of historical film material and photos on the history of the festival. There are also excerpts from great productions recorded by Unitel...
In 2007 the Berlin Philharmonic celebrates its 125th year. The orchestra is using its jubilee as an opportunity to examine a rather unknown chapter in its history: The years under the rule of the National Socialists (between 1933 and 1945). The centre stage is taken by the musicians, the people and their individual fates.
Thanks to contemporary witnesses from the orchestra and its fringes who are still alive today, and thanks also to extensive and until now unappraised archive materials, it is possible to gain an insight into this microcosmos: where does the thin line run separating autonomy from entanglement, innocence from guilt? A chapter from the history of Germany and Berlin, as gripping as it is volatile, comes to life once more.
The film made by Enrique Sanchez-Lansch - whose documentary Rhythm is it! was awarded with the Bavarian Film Award 2004, the German Critics Award 2004 and two times with the German Film Award LOLA for Best Documentary and Best Editing - seeks out witnesses from all over the world and forgotten (or carefully concealed) footage of propaganda events such as the Nuremberg Rallies or the opening ceremony of the 1936 Olympics. It visits the relatives of the four Jewish members who were removed from the orchestra, the descendants of the musicians...
Several luminaries can claim to have invented the gramophone. Only one man made mass duplication of discs possible - Emil Berliner . As a result, a major new industry came into being.
In this video tracing the evolution of sound recording, his grandson, Oliver, tells the story of his life and his achievement. Caruso and other great performers are heard in early recordings, and contributors, including John Eliot Gardiner, Pierre Boulez, and Anne-Sophie Mutter, comment on the pros and cons of today's advanced technology.
Through his particular combination of scholarship and inspired musicianship, John Eliot Gardiner has won international acclaim as a key figure in the revival of early music. His concert performances and recordings with the ensembles he has founded - the Monteverdi Choir, the English Baroque Soloists and the Orchestra Revolutionnaire et Romantique - are unmistakable, not just for their zest and technical mastery, but as highly personal readings of music from Monteverdi to Verdi and beyond.
This program looks at one of the archetypal forms of Russian culture, the fairy-tale. An essential part of Russian childhood, these stories with their princesses, heroes and magical characters are also the inspiration of many of the great Russian ballets, operas, symphonic poems and piano works.
The story of the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra is colourful and dramatic, with a reputation worldwide for music-making of the highest quality. This special recording celebrates over sixty years of the Orchestra's history through film and music, charting the high-profile conductors, international performances and turbulent times that have helped to shape the Orchestra as we know it today and to create an ongoing tradition of musical excellence.
Nowhere in the world is the myth of Wagner as alive as in Bayreuth, and nowhere are performances of his works followed as closely as those at the Festspielhaus in Bayreuth. But after a decade-long reign as the uncontested ruler of the Wagner Festival, the composer's grandson Wolfgang Wagner has stepped down from his post. A new era is about to begin...
This documentary thematizes the past, present and future of the festival and provides rare insights behind the scenes of the Wagner "workshop." For the first time ever, the film team was able to record in the legendary Bayreuth orchestra pit, giving rise to stunningly candid shots of conductor Christian Thielemann rehearsing Götterdämmerung. A conversation with Wolfgang Wagner recorded especially for this production is presumably the patriarch's last appearance on film as head of the festival. The program also features rehearsals of the new 2008 production of Parsifal with director Stefan Herheim and conductor Daniele Gatti. Members of the Wagner family and leading Wagner interpreters of our time also comment on the unique Wagner aura. The authors have assembled an amazing collection of historical film material and photos on the history of the festival. There are also excerpts from great productions recorded by Unitel...
Rehearsal: The Scythian Suite is of particular interest in that Gergiev has a personal affinity with this composition. The Scythians lived in the region of the Caucasus where Gergiev has his roots: Ossetia. The ancient myths associated with these illustrious, blood-thirsty, but highly-cultured tribal nomads are an important part of the heritage of the Ossets. Intimately filmed and informed throughout by Gergiev's infectious passion for his work, this music-filled documentary captures the fascinating dynamics between the galvanic conductor and his orchestra, as he seeks to convey the spirit of the quintessentially Russian piece to Western musicians. Footage of rehearsals and performance are interwoven with comments from Gergiev and Oleg Prokofiev, the composer's son; archive film material of Prokofiev; and examples of Scythian treasures in the Hermitage Museum, to create a picture of the composer and his music. The film gives a unique insight into the chemistry which exists between composer, conductor and orchestra, and the means by which a masterly performance is achieved.
Russia's whole history has been marked by cycles of bloodshed and especially by the torturing and killing of its own people. There is a pattern of self-destruction that the country does not seem to be able to escape and Russian music endlessly explores the tragic repetitions of its history. Program Four investigates, musically and visually, the legacy of tyranny in Russia.
Russia is at once devoutly Christian and deeply pagan. Both faith and magic were stuffed into the deep-freeze by the Soviets. What has emerged since the thaw is inspiring and alarming in equal measure. Program Two shows how the obsession with things spiritual is in all Russian Music
Russians have always espoused village life. Over the centuries, the traditions of folk culture have been assertion of the Russian identity and the melodies of the country side can be found everywhere in Russian classical music. The first program evokes Russia's rural heart and searches for the origins of the Russian folk-song that is the core of all her music.
Throughout Russian history there has been a love/hate relationship with her neighbors, oscillating between fear and loathing, envy and imitation. This final program in the series travels from the edge of the one-time empire to the heart of Russia and reveal that the cultural and musical impact of these conflicts has been vast, colorful and searing.
This program looks at one of the archetypal forms of Russian culture, the fairy-tale. An essential part of Russian childhood, these stories with their princesses, heroes and magical characters are also the inspiration of many of the great Russian ballets, operas, symphonic poems and piano works.
Global Wagner - From Bayreuth to the World is not a biography of Richard Wagner , nor is it a musicological analysis of his work. This is a documentary dedicated solely to the world's fascination with the man, and an exploration of the question as to how such massive hype and world-wide cult following developed around this highly controversial artist. The program is a revealing feature-length study of life with Wagner's legacy from one Bayreuth Festival to the next, and we travel the world to meet devoted Wagnerians and those most intimately involved in commenting on and producing his work today.
Carlo Gesualdo - beastly murderer and divine composer - is one of the most striking figures in the history of music. Based on his dramatic honour killing, the film tells the story of multifaceted, revolutionary music and the search for forgiveness.
Gesualdo, 47, is the Prince of Venosa, a musical genius and insomniac. Every night he lies awake, haunted by the gruesome act he committed on the 16th of October 1590. Developing from this opening sequence, the documentary tells the story of this extraordinary character, well-illustrated through visits to the original settings in Naples and the village of Gesualdo, as well as enacted scenes.
Through the power of music, the film explores the thin line between fascination and disgust. How is it possible to commit a capital crime, yet write divine music? Are crime and genius interwoven? And can salvation through music be achieved?
This film is a docufiction on the great Toscanini directed by well-known filmmaker Larry Weinstein, who pushes the boundaries of conventional documentary storytelling by borrowing tools from fiction films, including dramatic reconstructions and historical cinematic stylings. Arturo Toscanini (1867-1957), arguably the greatest and most famous conductor in history, was paradoxically one of the most private. He never granted interviews, and he didn't leave diaries or journals of any kind. But during the last years of his life, his son Walter secretly recorded 150 hours of intimate conversations that Toscanini shared with friends and family who visited his home. TOSCANINI: In His Own Words, is based on these tapes which remained vaulted for more than 50 years. Recreated conversations reveal aspects of the Maestro never seen before. His loves, his opinions about colleagues, his clashes with Mussolini and Hitler, his personal memories of Verdi, Puccini, Furtwangler, and Stokowski, his greatest joys, and the causes of his endemic sadness are all part of his frank conversation. Interwoven throughout the film are many of Toscanini's greatest musical performances.
Beethoven was born into a musical family in Bonn. He was well taught and generally well educated. With the support of his local ruler he went to Vienna to further his musical studies. He was soon celebrated as a pianist and composer and spent the rest of his life in Vienna supported by generous patrons and free to compose as he wished. In spite of going stone deaf he was able to continue composing, producing some of his greatest works in his later years. The documentary details his life and times and is followed by an overview of his works.
Brahms was born in Hamburg into a poor but musical family. His talent was early recognized and he received devoted and first class tuition. He was discovered by the violinist Joachim and the composer Schumann and he enjoyed amazing success from his very first published work. Brahms never married but settled in Vienna where he came to be recognized as one of the great musical masters of the century.
Joseph Haydn was born into a poor family in 18th century Hungary. His huge musical talent brought him into the service of a Prince. Eventually his work was recognized throughout the musical world. The film by Malcolm Hossick describes his fascinating life and the social change he went through. It is followed by a brief overview of his work. Joseph Haydn was born into a simple rural community where his father worked for the local landowner. Joseph's musical talents developed in local church choirs and his fine voice took him to the choir of St Stephen's in Vienna. We follow his career into the the employment of the Esterhazy family where he remained until he was sixty. His international fame as a composer brought him an invitation to London where his career was reborn. The video ends with a brief overview of Haydn's work useful to experienced music lovers and and newcomers alike. On the soundtrack some of his most characteristic compositions are played by members of the Elysium ensemble.
Begins with Henry James' comfortable boyhood in New York, during which his father moved James and his brother around and back and forth from Europe frequently for the sake of education. He eventually went to Harvard to study law and began writing, but felt uncomfortable with American culture and left for England, where he spent most of the rest of his life.
Proust wrote a remarkable and very long novel called La Recheche de Temps Perdue, translated usually as Remembrance of Things Past. It's size and reputaiton for density and incomprehensibility mean that not many folk take it on. This is a great pity as once you have started reading it is hard not to be drawn into Proust's world. This is because you will find yourself there in it's huge cast of sensitively drawn characters. The film explores how he did it and is followed by an overview of his work. Proust was born the son of a wealthy Parisian doctor and had an easy entry into the higher echelons of French society. His knowledge of this world was the background to the astonishing series of novels called A La Recherche du Temps Perdu (Remembrance of Things Past). He did not have an early success but by the end of his life it was recognized that his work - sensitive, searching, amusing and amazingly perceptive about how humans work - was in a class of its own. The program traces his unusual life and ends with an overview of his works.
Buffeted by social and political currents, Copland can seem unmoored: a cork in a stream. He was politicised by the Depression - and by the example of Mexico, whose artists galvanized national identity and progressive thought. He wrote a prize winning workers' song and addressed a Communist picnic in Minnesota. Twenty years later, the Red Scare targeted him as a traitor. Can his odyssey be read as a parable illuminating the fate of the American artist?
The film features a re-enactment of Copland's grilling by Senator Joseph McCarthy (played by Edward Gero). It also highlights the most consequential Copland score we don't know: his ingenious music for Lewis Mumford's 1939 World's Fair film The City , itself a complex product of the Popular Front. We reconsider the valedictory Piano Fantasy , in which Copland refreshed his modernist roots - a galvanising performance by Benjamin Pasternack, who also recalls a telling encounter with the composer. Our other commentators include the American historians Michael Kazin and Joseph McCartin, who ponder the tangled legacy of American populism of the left and right.
Hollywood's supreme film composer was a casualty of the standard narrative - as he himself was bitterly aware. Not only were his movie scores high creative accomplishments; Bernard Herrmann was a formidabale - and formidably unfashionable - concert composer whose Clarinet Quintet may be the most beautiful chamber music by an American. His Psycho Narrative , which also sampled, surpasses the Psycho Suite normally heard.
He hones his gift for dramatizing the spoken word as the pre-eminent composer for a genre no longer remembered: the radio drama. Example, Whitman (1944) - a Norman Corwin radio play that deserves to live as a concert work. It also exemplifies how radio, an unprecedented mass medium, once consolidated the American experience, its biggest star being Franklin D. Roosevelt.
The participants include the Whitman scholar Karen Karbiener, the critic Alex Ross, Murray Horwitz on radio lore, and William Sharp on playing Walt Whitman to music by Bernard Herrmann.
Made for the 1939 New York World's Fair ("The World of Tomorrow"), The City is a seminal documentary film distinguished for the organic integration of narration (scripted by city planner Lewis Mumford), cinematography (Ralph Steiner and Willard Van Dyke), and music (Aaron Copland). The score, arguably Copland's highest achievement in film, was also his ticket to Hollywood; it has been called "an astonishing missing link not only in the genesis of Copland's Americana style but in American music and cinema" (Mark Swed, The Los Angeles Times ). As the film contains no dialogue, it is possible to create a fresh soundtrack and discover musical riches inaudible on the original monaural recording. As Copland created no suite from The City, the present video at the same time marks the world premiere recording of this music in its entirety.
Bonus features:
- The City with the original soundtrack (1939) featuring Morris Carnovsky (narrator) and an orchestra conducted by Max Goberman
- Which Playground for your Child: Greenbelt or Gutter? (2000): a documentary film from the Greenbelt Museum featuring interviews with three Greenbelt "pioneers"
- George Stoney in conversation with Joseph Horowitz (2007): a legendary documentary filmmaker revisits The City
This first film in the series keys on Dvorak's prophecy and explores its present-day pertinence. In New York City and Spillville, Iowa, Dvorak boldly chose to regard African Americans and Native Americans as representative Americans. That decision was both acclaimed and ridicules at the time. It remains inspirational. His New World Symphony , still the best-known and best-loved symphonic work conceived on American soil, is saturated with the influence of plantation song, and also with Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's The Song of Hiawatha . This act of appropriation, the film argues, was an act of empathy performed by a great humanitarian.
The musical selections are mainly taken fro the Hiawatha Melodrama , which co-composed with the music historian Michael Beckerman with orchestrations by Angel Gil-Ordonez. It makes Dvorak with Longfellow.
The participating commentators include the music historians Mark Clague and Lorenzo Candelaria, the literary historian Brian Yothers, the conductor JoAnn Falletta, faculty members from Howard University - and also (sagely commenting on cultural appropriation) the bass-baritone Kevin Deas, with whom Horowitz long enjoyed the privilege of performing the spiritual arrangements of Dvorak's assistant Harry Burleigh.
No non-Western musical idiom has so impacted on the Western concert tradition as Indonesian gamelan, beginning with the Javanese Pavilion at the 1889 Paris Exposition: an epiphany. Sampling gamelan-inspired works by Debussy, Ravel , and McPhee , the film arrives at a paragon exemplar of cultural fusion - Lou Harrison - and a pair of concertos for violin and piano, unsurpassed by those of any other American. The composer/scholar Bill Alves demonstrates the layered complexity of Javanese gamelan, and how it translates into keyboard textures composed by Harrison for Keith Jarrett. For Harrison's Concerto for Violin and Percussion , tour the 'junk percussion' - including flower pots and washtubs - that Harrison made sing and dance.
Participants include the gamelan scholars Jody Diamond and Sumarsam, and the conductor Dennis Russell Davies, who has long championed Harrison on both sides of the Atlantic.
Pare Lorentz's The Plow that Broke the Plains (1936) and The River (1937) are landmark American documentary films. Aesthetically, they break new ground in seamlessly marrying pictorial imagery, symphonic music, and poetic free verse, all realized with supreme artistry. Ideologically, they indelibly encapsulate the strivings of Franklin Delano Roosevelt's "New Deal." Virgil Thomson's scores for both films are among the most famous ever composed for the movies. Aaron Copland praised the music for The Plow for its "frankness and openness of feeling," calling it "fresher, more simple, and more personal" than the Hollywood norm. He called the music for The River "a lesson in how to treat Americana."
Bonus Features:
- George Stoney on The Plow and The River
- The New Deal, The River, and Race
- Charles Fussell on Virgil Thomson
- Virgil Thomson on Virgil Thomson (audio only)
- The original ending of The Plow that Broke the Plains
- The original beginning of The Plow that Broke the Plains
"Domingo creates the magical illusion that Alfano wrote the role especially for him: Domingo de Bergerac" (review of the premiere in the Madrid daily ABC). Placido Domingo's triumph in Valencia's stunningly futuristic theater El Palau de les Arts in February 2007 echoes the overwhelmingly positive reception he obtained at the Metropolitan Opera and the Royal Opera House Covent Garden in this role. A coproduction of the New York, London and Valencia houses, Franco Alfano's little-known 1936 opera Cyrano de Bergerac has been reawakened to life by the great Spanish tenor. Although Alfano (1875-1954) enjoyed a long and prolific career as an opera composer, he is known today above all for having completed Puccini's Turandot. His earlier works not surprisingly reflect Puccini's verismo style, but his later works - including Cyrano de Bergerac - are clearly inspired by Debussy, Ravel and Strauss. Opulent scoring and colorful orchestral effects elegantly underscore the tragic story based on Rostand's famous drama of 1897, which achieved international celebrity in the Oscar-nominated 1990 film adaptation with Gerard Depardieu. Alfano's work faithfully relates the story of the large-nosed soldier poet who pines for the beautiful Roxane and writes her glowing love letters in the...
A prizewinner at the Viotti and the Chopin International Piano Competition, Mr. Gililov is a professor at the Universitat Mozarteum Salzburg and the Hochschule fur Musik und Tanz Koln, where he has instructed a long list of international award-winning pianists. In 2005, Pavel Gililov founded the International Telekom Beethoven Competition Bonn where he is currently the artistic director and jury president.
Boris Giltburg is lauded worldwide as a deeply sensitive, insightful and compelling interpreter, with critics praising his impassioned approach to performance. This project to record all of Beethoven's 32 piano sonatas is a personal exploration for Giltburg, driven by curiosity and his profound respect for the composer.
These exceptional performances received widespread critical acclaim upon their original digital release, and this premiere 9-disc boxed set includes extended personal and informative booklet notes written by the pianist. From the vivid energy of the early sonatas, through the dark passions and enchanted lyricism of Beethoven's middle period, to the awe-inspiring transcendence of the final sonatas - this cycle runs the full gamut of human emotion.
A series of short films, recorded at the Louisiana Museum of Modern Art in Denmark.
A series of short films, recorded at the Louisiana Museum of Modern Art in Denmark.
Herbert von Karajan's story is the story of the record industry itself, which he was instrumental in creating and sustaining over half a century with hundreds of spectacular and award-winning recordings.
His life and his music-making still provoke extreme reactions; in Gernot Friedel's film, made with the help of the Karajan-Centrum in Salzburg, we see the hypnotic effect he could have upon musicians and listeners alike, we hear him in the repertoire for which he was renowned, and we are taken through a life never less than eventful.
Force of Nature Natalia follows a season in the life of dance superstar Natalia Osipova . With unique access to Natalia's personal archive, we follow her preparations for a fifth season as a principal of The Royal Ballet as she continues to champion contemporary dance with some of the world's greatest choreographers. This compelling portrait chronicles the rehearsal process of two new works, The Mother by Arthur Pita, and Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui's Medussa, and follows legendary ballerina and choreographer Natalia Makarova as she directs a revival of her classic production of La Bayadere for The Royal Ballet.
Natalia opens up about her life and history, her childhood in Russia, her time with American Ballet Theatre and her journey to the Royal Opera House. It is an unparalleled opportunity to get up close and personal with the leading ballerina of our generation and understand why critics and audiences all over the world call her a ''force of nature' of the dance world.
Force of Nature Natalia follows a season in the life of dance superstar Natalia Osipova . With unique access to Natalia's personal archive, we follow her preparations for a fifth season as a principal of The Royal Ballet as she continues to champion contemporary dance with some of the world's greatest choreographers. This compelling portrait chronicles the rehearsal process of two new works, The Mother by Arthur Pita, and Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui's Medussa, and follows legendary ballerina and choreographer Natalia Makarova as she directs a revival of her classic production of La Bayadere for The Royal Ballet.
Natalia opens up about her life and history, her childhood in Russia, her time with American Ballet Theatre and her journey to the Royal Opera House. It is an unparalleled opportunity to get up close and personal with the leading ballerina of our generation and understand why critics and audiences all over the world call her a ''force of nature' of the dance world.
The Intimacy of Creativity – The Bright Sheng Partnership: Composers Meet Performers in Hong Kong is a pioneering, internationally-acclaimed partnership devoted to promoting an intimate dialogue between composers and performers.
Distinguished composers, together with selected emerging composers from Hong Kong and around the world, present and revise their chamber music compositions after in-depth discussions with world-renowned performers during open discussions. The revised compositions are presented at two world premiere concerts in downtown Hong Kong, preceded by preview concerts on the campus of The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, which hosts the partnership.
For the 2011 inaugural season, artistic director and internationally-acclaimed composer, conductor, and pianist Bright Sheng was joined by distinguished guests Richard Stoltzman, Yehudi Wyner, and the Daedalus Quartet; Hong Kong guest artists Mary Wu, Stephen Chong, and Olivier Nowak; and emerging composers Pedro Faria Gomes, Ted Goldman, Moon Young Ha, Narong Prangcharoen, Matthew Tommasini, and Ming-Hsiu Yen.
This film is a docufiction on the great Toscanini directed by well-known filmmaker Larry Weinstein, who pushes the boundaries of conventional documentary storytelling by borrowing tools from fiction films, including dramatic reconstructions and historical cinematic stylings. Arturo Toscanini (1867-1957), arguably the greatest and most famous conductor in history, was paradoxically one of the most private. He never granted interviews, and he didn't leave diaries or journals of any kind. But during the last years of his life, his son Walter secretly recorded 150 hours of intimate conversations that Toscanini shared with friends and family who visited his home. TOSCANINI: In His Own Words, is based on these tapes which remained vaulted for more than 50 years. Recreated conversations reveal aspects of the Maestro never seen before. His loves, his opinions about colleagues, his clashes with Mussolini and Hitler, his personal memories of Verdi, Puccini, Furtwangler, and Stokowski, his greatest joys, and the causes of his endemic sadness are all part of his frank conversation. Interwoven throughout the film are many of Toscanini's greatest musical performances.
Opera evenings can be life-changing. Anyone who saw Callas still talks about her today. And they still exist, the great heroines: singers who pierce our hearts. This film presents three of them, explores what they do, how they do it and what it does to us: Ermonela Jaho , Barbara Hannigan and Asmik Grigorian . Their cultural backgrounds - Albanian, Canadian, Lithuanian - are remarkably diverse, yet they have one thing in common: they give their utmost on stage and hold nothing back. They merge with their stage personae and strive for the full experience.
Hannigan is the analyst. She dissects every role in minute detail and interprets it with icy fire. Her Lulu, her Melisande, her Marie in Zimmermann's Soldaten are beings from a future world: remote, self-assured, modern women. Masculine desire leaves them cold; even when they succumb, they are still in charge. This is similar to Grigorian, who won acclaim for her Salome in Salzburg. Grigorian's Salome is both victim and perpetrator; she enjoys her desire and the deadly spiral into which she is drawn. With Jaho, on the other hand, everything is in the voice; she carries the whole gamut of emotions in it and captivates audiences - as Violetta, Angelica, Ciocio-san - with her vocal acting.
Music, Mon Amour delves into the secret of a grand passion – the love of music. What makes it irresistible? Why can't we live without music? In Music, Mon Amour we embark on a search for clues – together with the Israeli singer Yasmin Levy, the Japanese violinist Midori and the German composer Helmut Oehring. They reveal their deep love of music and talk of the joy and despair that go with it. Their accounts, intimate and affecting, and from widely differing perspectives, convey their existential and contradictory relationship to music.
The date is 2 May 1957. Stalin died only four years before and perestroika is still a long way off. However, the Canadian pianist Glenn Gould, who is just 24, arrives in Moscow for an exceptional tour: he is the first North American musician to play behind the iron curtain. Witness accounts from musicians such as Ashkenazy and Rostropovitch, the original recordings of his concerts in Moscow and Leningrad, as well a recording that had never been released before of his lecture-recital in Leningrad make this an invaluable documentary revealing a whole side of Glenn Gould's past few people are aware of.
Opera evenings can be life-changing. Anyone who saw Callas still talks about her today. And they still exist, the great heroines: singers who pierce our hearts. This film presents three of them, explores what they do, how they do it and what it does to us: Ermonela Jaho , Barbara Hannigan and Asmik Grigorian . Their cultural backgrounds - Albanian, Canadian, Lithuanian - are remarkably diverse, yet they have one thing in common: they give their utmost on stage and hold nothing back. They merge with their stage personae and strive for the full experience.
Hannigan is the analyst. She dissects every role in minute detail and interprets it with icy fire. Her Lulu, her Melisande, her Marie in Zimmermann's Soldaten are beings from a future world: remote, self-assured, modern women. Masculine desire leaves them cold; even when they succumb, they are still in charge. This is similar to Grigorian, who won acclaim for her Salome in Salzburg. Grigorian's Salome is both victim and perpetrator; she enjoys her desire and the deadly spiral into which she is drawn. With Jaho, on the other hand, everything is in the voice; she carries the whole gamut of emotions in it and captivates audiences - as Violetta, Angelica, Ciocio-san - with her vocal acting.
He makes you feel what it feels like to be alone at the top. Whoever sees and hears him suddenly knows more about the search for the right path that drives every serious person. His stage characters touch the heart. The bass Gunther Groissbock embodies kings, scholars, philosophers in the great opera houses of the world; he plays priests, mythical creatures, gods. You could say he specializes in solitary figures.
As first glance, however, Gunther Groissbock does seem like someone who has personal experience with the subject of loneliness. The singer stands, works, acts on and off stage in intensive contact with people. He is married, father of a daughter, in the middle of life or, as conductor Philippe Jordan puts it: "He burns for many things in life, not only for art". Can you play what you don't know? How does he shape his stage characters? What are the building blocks for the play? When does the instrument, his voice, touch the audience? How much public spirit, how much individually does an opera singer need today?
And where does Gunther Groissbock get the incredible energy he radiates on stage? For two years we accompanied the artist from Waidhofen an der Ybbs (Lower Austria) with our camera, on night journeys and day trips. At rehearsals, sports and performances. We...
Three previous volumes of this series were dedicated to La Scala. In this fourth DVD volume, we turn our attention to another beloved and well-known Italian operatic venue: the Arena of Verona, which is able to host more than 20,000 spectators and endowed with acoustics that are quite extraordinary.
This documentary, originally filmed in 16 mm, famed Italian journalist Enzo Biagi interviews the celebrity artists and directors who appeared at the Arena at the beginning of the 1908s, including Sherrill Millnes, Rajna Kabaiwanska, Fiorenza Cossotto, Mirella Freni, Rolando Panerai, Oliviero De Fabritiis, Nicola Martinucci , director Giancarlo Sbragia and set designer Giulio Coletllacci .
The DVD features excerpts from performances of Rigoletto, Aida, La traviata and Nabucco during that period of time.
Alan Lomax said this film "takes us past the solemn facade of clambakes and town meetings into a lively world of all night dances and local musicians who could have helped Daniel Webster play down the devil".
The film includes performances of seven of the finest traditional musicians in the Northeast including Joe Cormier, Jerry Robichaud, Ben Guillemette, Paddy Cronin, Wilfred Guillette, Harold Luce, and Ron West playing in their lively and distinct Acadian, Irish, Cape Breton, and Quebecois styles.
Alan Lomax said this film "takes us past the solemn facade of clambakes and town meetings into a lively world of all night dances and local musicians who could have helped Daniel Webster play down the devil".
The film includes performances of seven of the finest traditional musicians in the Northeast including Joe Cormier, Jerry Robichaud, Ben Guillemette, Paddy Cronin, Wilfred Guillette, Harold Luce, and Ron West playing in their lively and distinct Acadian, Irish, Cape Breton, and Quebecois styles.
Buffeted by social and political currents, Copland can seem unmoored: a cork in a stream. He was politicised by the Depression - and by the example of Mexico, whose artists galvanized national identity and progressive thought. He wrote a prize winning workers' song and addressed a Communist picnic in Minnesota. Twenty years later, the Red Scare targeted him as a traitor. Can his odyssey be read as a parable illuminating the fate of the American artist?
The film features a re-enactment of Copland's grilling by Senator Joseph McCarthy (played by Edward Gero). It also highlights the most consequential Copland score we don't know: his ingenious music for Lewis Mumford's 1939 World's Fair film The City , itself a complex product of the Popular Front. We reconsider the valedictory Piano Fantasy , in which Copland refreshed his modernist roots - a galvanising performance by Benjamin Pasternack, who also recalls a telling encounter with the composer. Our other commentators include the American historians Michael Kazin and Joseph McCartin, who ponder the tangled legacy of American populism of the left and right.
Made for the 1939 New York World's Fair ("The World of Tomorrow"), The City is a seminal documentary film distinguished for the organic integration of narration (scripted by city planner Lewis Mumford), cinematography (Ralph Steiner and Willard Van Dyke), and music (Aaron Copland). The score, arguably Copland's highest achievement in film, was also his ticket to Hollywood; it has been called "an astonishing missing link not only in the genesis of Copland's Americana style but in American music and cinema" (Mark Swed, The Los Angeles Times ). As the film contains no dialogue, it is possible to create a fresh soundtrack and discover musical riches inaudible on the original monaural recording. As Copland created no suite from The City, the present video at the same time marks the world premiere recording of this music in its entirety.
Bonus features:
- The City with the original soundtrack (1939) featuring Morris Carnovsky (narrator) and an orchestra conducted by Max Goberman
- Which Playground for your Child: Greenbelt or Gutter? (2000): a documentary film from the Greenbelt Museum featuring interviews with three Greenbelt "pioneers"
- George Stoney in conversation with Joseph Horowitz (2007): a legendary documentary filmmaker revisits The City
After his first two operas Oberto and Un giorno di regno, Verdi fell into a depression that dissipated only when he was shown the libretto to Nabucco and discovered the chorus "Va, pensiero." The words sung by the Hebrew exiles made an indelible impression on the composer, who also saw the political potential within them: an echo of the Italians' longing for freedom and a unified nation. The work was premiered at the Teatro alla Scala on 9 March 1842 and was an enormous success. The story of the Babylonian king and the captive Israelites struck a patriotic chord in the hearts of the Milan audiences and swiftly carried Verdi's name throughout Italy and the rest of the world. Nabucco has long been at home in the Arena di Verona, and for many, the "Va, pensiero" chorus is, along with the triumphal march from Aida, the very embodiment of the Verona experience. This video production vividly captures this unique experience and provides the viewer with fascinating details that escape many of the Arena's spectators. Stage director Denis Krief casts the work in a sparse modern setting, providing a highly effective showcase for the true heroes of the evening, the singers under conductor Daniel Oren. "Nuanced and temperamental, Daniel Oren's interpretation dazzles with...
Herbert von Karajan's story is the story of the record industry itself, which he was instrumental in creating and sustaining over half a century with hundreds of spectacular and award-winning recordings.
His life and his music-making still provoke extreme reactions; in Gernot Friedel's film, made with the help of the Karajan-Centrum in Salzburg, we see the hypnotic effect he could have upon musicians and listeners alike, we hear him in the repertoire for which he was renowned, and we are taken through a life never less than eventful.
The 128 musicians of the prestigious Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra have cast their votes: their new Principal Conductor will be Sir Simon Rattle.
He succeeds Claudio Abbado to become the sixth Principal Director in the 2002/2003 season.
The Berliner Philharmoniker is the only symphony orchestra world-wide choosing its principal conductor in its own responsibility. The camera has been following the orchestra since 1999 at auditions, concerts and guest performances and shows the various steps, from the groundwork preceding the election until the final counting of votes.
The most extensive documentation ever produced about this leading orchestra also presents the orchestra as a microcosm of the German society at the end of the 20th century. Excerpts from auditions and interviews with the Major conductors our time, statements by members of the orchestra, important agents and soloists working with him, reveal the significance of this new election and convey an atmosphere of expectation and excitement.
Almost seventy years of creative activity lay between Verdi's first compositions for Busseto and his corrections of the Falstaff score in 1893. During this period, the style of his public image and his role composer underwent a sea change. From a craftsman who produced melodramatic operas on the assembly line for some local theatre operation, he became an artistic genius whose complex works ranked as world wide theatrical events. At the end of his life, Verdi was the largest property owner in the province, and one the richest men in Italy.
With Va pensiero, sull'ali dorate (Fly, thought, on golden wings) , the prisoners' chorus from Nabucco, Verdi had entered the hearts of his compatriots, and in those hearts he has remained.
The film by Felix Breisach follows Verdi's life to the places of origin most important for him. Hosted by Thomas Hampson, the eloquent and world famous baritone also song four of some of Verdi's famous arias.
Opera evenings can be life-changing. Anyone who saw Callas still talks about her today. And they still exist, the great heroines: singers who pierce our hearts. This film presents three of them, explores what they do, how they do it and what it does to us: Ermonela Jaho , Barbara Hannigan and Asmik Grigorian . Their cultural backgrounds - Albanian, Canadian, Lithuanian - are remarkably diverse, yet they have one thing in common: they give their utmost on stage and hold nothing back. They merge with their stage personae and strive for the full experience.
Hannigan is the analyst. She dissects every role in minute detail and interprets it with icy fire. Her Lulu, her Melisande, her Marie in Zimmermann's Soldaten are beings from a future world: remote, self-assured, modern women. Masculine desire leaves them cold; even when they succumb, they are still in charge. This is similar to Grigorian, who won acclaim for her Salome in Salzburg. Grigorian's Salome is both victim and perpetrator; she enjoys her desire and the deadly spiral into which she is drawn. With Jaho, on the other hand, everything is in the voice; she carries the whole gamut of emotions in it and captivates audiences - as Violetta, Angelica, Ciocio-san - with her vocal acting.
The world is going to see increasingly less of legendary conductor Nikolaus Harnoncourt, who celebrates his 80th birthday in December 2009. So the time is right for a comprehensive portrait of one the most important conductors of our time.
Harnoncourt - the captivator. One immediately comes under the spell of his admirable intensity, his humorous comparisons, his wit and his brilliant rhetoric. It's nearly impossible not to succumb to his fascinating congeniality. Even his critics are captivated!
The film also draws parallels between Nikolaus Harnoncourt and Joseph
Haydn, who in their popularity and diversity are both unique. Besides great concerts in Eisenstadt and Esterháza, Harnoncourt conducts Haydn's famous opera Il mondo della Luna at the stunning Theater an der Wien. In his inimitable way Harnoncourt presents his own picture of Haydn, which is different from anything we have known before.
The documentary by Felix Breisach shows the conductor from his private side. He touchingly talks about his fears, aging, his relationship with his wife Alice. His brother Philipp Harnoncourt tells of their childhood and youth, his son Franz describes how he sees his father. In addition, there is the instrumental ensemble Concentus Musicus Wien, founded by Harnoncourt, director's theater and Harnoncourt's love of music.
One of the world's foremost violinists, Anne-Sophie Mutter is a musical celebrity known even by countless people who rarely listen to classical music. The artist and teacher, who promotes young musicians and commissions new works from contemporary composers, made her spectacular breakthrough under Herbert von Karajan at the 1977 Salzburg Easter Festival. She has since concertized at every major venue throughout the world. In 2008 she was awarded not only the prestigious Ernst von Siemens Music Award, but also the Leipzig Mendelssohn Award. The award ceremony in March 2008 was crowned by a gala concert at Leipzig's Gewandhaus with the Gewandhaus Orchestra under Kurt Masur, at which Mutter performed the Mendelssohn Violin Concerto in E minor Op. 64.
On the occasion of the Mendelssohn Year, Unitel Classica offers the documentary Anne-Sophie Mutter – Encounters with Mendelssohn, in which the artist discusses her affinity to Mendelssohn and explains why she particularly admires the works presented here.
The State Opera is the first film ever made about the Bavarian State Opera, one of the world's oldest, most prestigious and internationally esteemed companies. It charts the course of three operas - Die Meistersinger von Nurnberg , Les Indes galantes and Un ballo in maschera - as they come to life on the stage.
We meet some of the great singers, such as Jonas Kaufmann and Anja Harteros, in performance and behind the scenes, as well as artistic directors past and present, and two of the music directors in Kirill Petrenko and his predecessor Zubin Mehta. As both a celebration and an exploration, this entertaining film is a declaration of love for the operatic form.
Global Wagner - From Bayreuth to the World is not a biography of Richard Wagner , nor is it a musicological analysis of his work. This is a documentary dedicated solely to the world's fascination with the man, and an exploration of the question as to how such massive hype and world-wide cult following developed around this highly controversial artist. The program is a revealing feature-length study of life with Wagner's legacy from one Bayreuth Festival to the next, and we travel the world to meet devoted Wagnerians and those most intimately involved in commenting on and producing his work today.
This Christopher Nupen film is about the music and the artistic intentions of Pyotr Il'yich Tchaikovsky, one of the greats and a composer with an immediate appeal for many millions of people.
In this film the focus is on Tchaikovsky's concern with his own fate in Manfred and the last three symphonies and his extraordinary relationship with Nadezhda von Meck as told in his revealing correspondence with her.
This Christopher Nupen film is about the music and the artistic intentions of Pyotr Il'yich Tchaikovsky, one of the greats and a composer with an immediate appeal for many millions of people.
The prime focus is Tchaikovsky's lifelong preoccupation with the idea of fate as a controlling influence in our lives.
The women in this film are both the women in his personal life (his mother Alexandra, his governess Fanny Durbach and the Belgian singer Desiree Artot) and the vulnerable young heroines in his early music (Katerina Kabanova in The Storm, Juliet in Romeo and Juliet, Francesca in Francesca da Rimini, Odette in Swan Lake and Tatyana in Evgeny Onegin).
Conductor Franz Welser-Most, director Sven-Eric Bechtolf and singers Laura Aiken, Alfred Muff, Rolf Haunstein, Steve Davislim and Peter Straka contribute to a programme introducing Berg's complex masterpiece.
This video contains a Christopher Nupen film about the most charismatic performer in the entire history of Western classical music EUR" also the most talked about, the most controversial, the most famous and the most successful classical soloist that the world of music has ever known.
The story is astonishing, exciting, wildly unusual and, at the end, deeply touching. It is one of the most extraordinary tales in the history of music and it is told with all the Nupen finesse and commitment that have won him DVD of the Year Award four times in the past six years.
In the recording, Christopher Nupen looks at the legend and the strange man who created it with his dazzling combination of technical brilliance, supreme showmanship, Italian melody and unbridled manipulative skill EUR" a man whose extraordinary personality unsettled even the most sophisticated and educated minds and provoked wildly contradictory opinions.
It presents Paganini's music, shot and edited in the style developed by Christopher Nupen and his colleagues for their prize winning DVDs about Sibelius, Schubert and Tchaikovsky and combines it with extracts from Paganini's letters and quotations from both his admirers and his many detractors.
A collection of five authentic dances in the Khmer court repertoire, performed in traditional costume by masters of these dances. The narration provides excellent historical background as introduction to each dance. The dances are filmed so that in each solo and group dance, the hands, feet, and body movements can be seen clearly.
The accompanying traditional music is performed by the Pinn Peat Ensemble , including instruments such as shawms, xylophones, gongs, barrel, drums, metallophone, and small cymbals.
An excellent introduction to the dances of the ancient royal court of Cambodia. The film was produced in conjunction with the Khmer Studies Institute California State University, Northridge.
In the fifties, Pierre Henry provoked a scandal by inventing Musique concrete with Pierre Schaeffer. Music was no longer written with notes on a score for instrumentalists but was based on sounds and noises from our environment, collected, edited and transformed by machines. A radical innovator, he composed several "hits" that mark their time: Symphonie pour un homme seul, Messe pour le temps present and Dixieme Remix among others.
Today, young musicians from all over the world and, strangely enough, electronic buff DJs claim to be followers of his fabulous work in fashioning sound. In Pierre Henry: The Art of Sounds, we follow him as he brandishes his boom on which two microphones are mounted in search of a sound in the Coulee Verte, in Paris. As the journey unfolds we are brought fourty years back to Bordeaux where people are leaving the "concert couche" ("lying down concert") with reactions from the audience.
Nowhere in the world is the myth of Wagner as alive as in Bayreuth, and nowhere are performances of his works followed as closely as those at the Festspielhaus in Bayreuth. But after a decade-long reign as the uncontested ruler of the Wagner Festival, the composer's grandson Wolfgang Wagner has stepped down from his post. A new era is about to begin...
This documentary thematizes the past, present and future of the festival and provides rare insights behind the scenes of the Wagner "workshop." For the first time ever, the film team was able to record in the legendary Bayreuth orchestra pit, giving rise to stunningly candid shots of conductor Christian Thielemann rehearsing Götterdämmerung. A conversation with Wolfgang Wagner recorded especially for this production is presumably the patriarch's last appearance on film as head of the festival. The program also features rehearsals of the new 2008 production of Parsifal with director Stefan Herheim and conductor Daniele Gatti. Members of the Wagner family and leading Wagner interpreters of our time also comment on the unique Wagner aura. The authors have assembled an amazing collection of historical film material and photos on the history of the festival. There are also excerpts from great productions recorded by Unitel...
This documentary on the unconventional life and ground-breaking music of the Russian pianist and composer Alexander Scriabin (1872-1915) sheds light on the mystical ideas which inspired him. He became consumed by a vision of a union of the arts, a coalescence of music, words, movement, light, colour and ideas, to create transcendent experiences. Contributors to his fascinating exploration of the composer's life and work are musicians Vladimir Ashkenazy and Vladimir Horowitz; conductor Mikhail Pletnev; and Scriabin's daughter, Marina.
The programme draws on Scriabin's writings, archive photographs and documentation, and footage shot in Switzerland, Italy and Moscow. Among a wealth of musical extracts, Scriabin himself is heard playing his Poem Op.32 No. 1 , recorded in 1908 on a Welte Mignon player-piano.
In 1985 Philip Blackburn climbed the stairs to an attic in Iowa City and started trying to make sense of the boxes piled up there. They contained a composer's life's work: scrapbooks, tapes, photos, letters, scores, and film reels - fragile treasures documenting the twentieth century from a most unusual viewpoint, that of perhaps the world's most original musician: Harry Partch.
The idea was to publish them and reveal Harry to the world on his own terms. Not as the crabby, homeless, self-taught microtonal musical weirdo and instrument maker, but as that most American of all artists, a truly independent thinker. With Enclosure 8, the work of bringing them to public attention reaches its apotheosis.
The Enclosures series (named for the extras Partch wanted to add to his life-long letter to the world) started appearing in 1995 with a VHS video of four films made in collaboration with the Chicago-based filmmaker Madeline Tourtelot. Four CDs, two years and one book later, Enclosure 4 appeared featuring his later films: Delusion of the Fury (his culminating ritual-theater work) and a San Diego Public TV documentary, also on VHS. Now the time has come for these to be issued on DVD, extensively restored, resynched and digitally remastered from the extant original prints....
Carlo Gesualdo - beastly murderer and divine composer - is one of the most striking figures in the history of music. Based on his dramatic honour killing, the film tells the story of multifaceted, revolutionary music and the search for forgiveness.
Gesualdo, 47, is the Prince of Venosa, a musical genius and insomniac. Every night he lies awake, haunted by the gruesome act he committed on the 16th of October 1590. Developing from this opening sequence, the documentary tells the story of this extraordinary character, well-illustrated through visits to the original settings in Naples and the village of Gesualdo, as well as enacted scenes.
Through the power of music, the film explores the thin line between fascination and disgust. How is it possible to commit a capital crime, yet write divine music? Are crime and genius interwoven? And can salvation through music be achieved?
Harry Partch (like his friend Anais Nin) considered his life's work to be a letter to the world. His last act was going to be to add the enclosures. He never got around to it. After 20 years of working on the Partch archives, Philip Blackburn has now completed the seven-part Enclosures series as it were on his behalf.
Enclosure 7 is a monumental tribute to the most significant works of this American original and iconoclast. It includes new versions of his late masterworks and never-before-seen footage that bring us closer to the real Harry behind the myth.
The Dreamer That Remains is a documentary produced by Betty Freeman and directed by Stephen Pouliot in 1972. Here is the director's original cut along with his commentary. If you've never seen Partch or his instruments before, this is the place to start.
Delusion of the Fury was his magnum opus; a lifetime of instrument invention and ideas of ritual theater were poured into this giant work. The 1971 film has been resynched and the soundtrack remastered in 5.1 surround sound.
The CBS LPs of this work came with a bonus album of Harry introducing his instruments. Unavailable for years, this recording features this talk along with a slideshow of the instruments.
Revelation in the Courthouse Park was Harry's...
After a few years rest and some at-home unofficial rehabilitation Horowitz was ready to begin performing again. Horowitz recorded the material on this production in his own living room. We see a rejuvinated, different Horowitz, someone in much more control than in the 1982 and 1983 recitals. The only thing lacking in Horowitz's performance from this point on was preparation; Horowitz admittedly did not practice very much and it shows.
Like most women of her time Jane Austen lived out her life on home ground. Her adventurous brothers meant however that she was very much in touch with her age. Coupling this with her own remarkable personality she produced some of the finest novels in English literature. This program by Malcolm Hossick covers her life and background and ends with an overview of her work.
This program by Malcolm Hossick explores the life and work of William Blake . He was born the son of a hosier in the then respectable district of Soho in London. He had no formal education but was taught by his mother. He was a voracious reader and as a boy he drew constantly. He studied at an art school and learned the trade of engraving by which he lived. His painting and poetry were valued by only a few in his own times and he died in poverty. Gradually over the ensuing centuries his reputation has grown until now he is highly regarded as a remarkable and talented visionary. The film includes several of his unusual illustrated poems. It is followed by a brief overview of his work.
This film by Malcolm Hossick follows the life and times of the 18th century Scottish poet, Robert Burns . Burns came from a simple farming background but his poetry was soon accepted as of remarkable quality and he is now remembered as the ploughman poet. The program includes examples of his work and is followed by an overview of his work.
This program by Malcolm Hossick explores the life and work of the Chinese sage known to the west as Confucius . He did not found a religion and there is nothing about what he said which we have to believe. But the ideas about government and how humans should behave if they wish to live a frutiful life have coloured Chinese life throughout its history. The program explores his background and ideas and how even today Confucius is a powerful force for good in Chinese society.
Leonardo da Vinci is famous all over the world as the man who painted the Mona Lisa. But he was a very unusual painter. He did not complete many paintings and his interests ranged over a wide variety of subjects. He was very unorthodox in an age which was just opening up to the new renaissance ideas on science and beliefs. This program by Malcolm Hossick explores the life and work of this most remarkable man.
The program by Malcolm Hossick explores the astonishing life and work of the 14th century Italian poet Dante . He wrote in everyday Italian and was the first writer to explore the life of the individual in any depth. His ideas have filtered down through the ages and have greatly influenced humanity at large.
This program in the Famous Author series by Malcolm Hossick tries to uncover the astonishing life of Daniel Defoe who wrote Robinson Crusoe , one of the earliest novels to achieve world wide success. Defoe was a dissenting Christian when deviation from the norm was dangerous. He made a fortune making bricks just after London burned down: he was a very active government spy and he was one of the busiest writers ever. What a man! The film is followed by an overview of his works.
Drawing on archival and contemporary materials, this program presents a factual outline of Charles Dicken's life as well as the social and historical background to his writings.
This program by Malcolm Hossick follows the improbable life of Emily Dickinson writing very imaginative poetry in the little New England town of Amherst in the middle of the 19th century. Against all the odds her work, largely unpublished during her lifetime was printed and has found an appreciative audience. A brief overview of her work follows.
John Donne was born into a fascinating and creative period of human history. He got the best education on offer in the England of Queen Elizabeth and hardly out of his teens he was recognized as a poet of astonishing ability. In a period when the pace was set by no less a mortal than Shakespeare Donne had a unique way with words and ideas which delighted and amazed his brightest contemporaries. But it was an age of terrible religious division and as a Roman Catholic by birth he was at once at odds with the prevailing Protestant faith. It was a problem that coloured his whole life and this program by Malcolm Hossick covers the course of his work and the struggles he had to make his way. It includes several of his delightful poems and we see how in spite of his travails Donne's positive spirit rose above them all.
George Eliot was born Mary Anne Evans in 1819 near the small town of Nuneaton in Warwickshire. Her father ran the estate of the local landowner. She had an excellent education in local schools and took up journalism. She began writing novels when she was over 30 and became one of the most celebrated and influential writers of her age. The program by Malcolm Hossick traces her life and her remarkable achievements in fields until then dominated by men. It is followed by a brief overview of her work.
This program introduces the rich imaginative life of Charlotte, Emily , and Anne Bronte , exposed to the world of literature by their father Patrick Bronte priest, examiner, and writer. The family struggled with poverty, and the family home Haworth and moorland provided inspiration for the daughters. Charlotte and Emily were educated at Cowan Bridge School, later the inspiration for Charlotte's Jane Eyre, until their father could no longer ignore the mistreatment they suffered there. Afterward, the Brontw daughters pursued education at home, where they had access to literature, contemporary art, newspapers, and magazines. When their father got sick, the sisters tried to earn a living, but all the girls struggled with the stifling loss of freedom of being a teacher, student, or governess, and Emily returned to Haworth quickly. After years of trying to live as governesses, the three set out to open their own school.
Introduces the major themes of Faulkner's poems, plays, short stories, and novels. The program contextualizes life in the American south in the first half of the 20th century; Faulkner's southern upbringing, family history, and race relations in the wake of the Civil War were a major influence on his fiction. In 1924, Faulkner left his small town of Oxford and spent six months in New Orleans, where he was finally able to see the conditions of his upbringing from a distance and become acquainted with a literary circle with Sherwood Anderson at the center, jump-starting his serious fiction writing.
F. Scott Fitzgerald was born in St. Paul Minnesota into a fairly well-off family. He began his first novel while at Princeton University and very shortly after leaving it was accepted by Scribners and successfully published. He went on to be the prophet of the Jazz age of the twenties but his popularity declined. He is now recognised as one of the greatest American writers of the 20th century. This film by Malcolm Hossick covers his life and background and ends with an overview of his work.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749-1832) was born in Frankfurt on Main, Germany, into a well-to-do family. He made some attempts to become a lawyer but eventually began writing poetry and novels. He was immediately successful. He joined the court of the Duke of Weimar and from there became accepted as the greatest writer of his age. The film covers his life and background and ends with an overview of his work.
The dramatists of ancient Greece, Aeschylus, Sophocles and Euripides had a huge influence on their own times but they are arguably just as significant today. In this program Malcolm Hossick uncovers how they worked and why their ideas and methods were so revolutionary.
Thomas Hardy was born into the family of a practical country builder in mid 19th century England. He got a good education in the local town of Dorchester on the south coast and after beginning as an architect he soon developed into one of the most prolific and popular novelists of his times. the film follows his interesting life and is followed by a concise overview of his works.
Nathaniel Hawthorne was an American novelist and short story writer who enjoyed considerable success with his romantic tales usually set in in the puritanical world of his home state Massachusetts. He traveled extensively in England and Italy and reflected American views on the old world of Europe. This documentary explores his roots in puritanical culture, his growth at Bowdoin College, his explosion in the literary world, his political appointments and his journey abroad.
Traces the life and literary career of Ernest Hemingway , using portraits and views of places associated with his life. "Enigmatic and intriguing, Hemingway is one of America's favorite authors. His dramatic understatement, dialogue and use of heroes made for great human interest.
Victor Hugo was born the son of a General under Napoleon Bonaparte. At an early age he began writing and his career as a poet, playwright, novelist and even politician has rarely been equaled. His fearless stance for the rights of the common man endeared him to the French people but caused governments to drive him into exile. He lived for nineteen years in the English Channel islands. The film covers his life and background and ends with an overview of his work.
Henrik Ibsen was born in the small coastal town of Skien in Norway. His family were middle class burghers. He worked as an apprentice to an apothecary before going to Oslo to study. He began writing plays which found little favour in Norway. He lived and wrote for about 30 years in Italy and Germany and became recognized worldwide as the greatest dramatist of his age and the Father of modern drama. This documentary traces his life and is followed by a brief overview of his works.
Begins with Henry James' comfortable boyhood in New York, during which his father moved James and his brother around and back and forth from Europe frequently for the sake of education. He eventually went to Harvard to study law and began writing, but felt uncomfortable with American culture and left for England, where he spent most of the rest of his life.
The program traces how humans beings have made 'art' from the earliest recorded times. Until the fundamental changes in the way human societies viewed themselves we know as the Renaissance, artists were the servants of the rulers. This is true of all human groups throughout the world. Now in the age of individual freedom artists have come to enjoy a new role. This explores the change and how art has come to be such a powerful and fruitful force in our daily lives.
Samuel Johnson was one of the most interesting figures of literature in 18th century England. He founded a literary magazine The Rambler and compiled the first major dictionary of English. He is best remembered as the subject of a biography by his friend Boswell. This documentary by Malcolm Hossick explores his life and the influence he had on the thought and manners of his age. It is followed by an overview of his work.
James Joyce was born in Dublin. He was sent first to a Jesuit school but had to leave after three years because his father could no longer afford the fees. He went to another Jesuit school in Dublin and then to University College there. He went to Paris in 1902 and rarely returned to Ireland. His writing was difficult to publish and he had a very tricky character but with his unique style he became one of the most influential writers of the twentieth century. The documentary covers his life and background and is followed by an overview of his works.
Franz Kafka was born in Prague, still under the Austro-Hungarian Empire. He was well educated and from an early age he determined to become a writer. He worked in an insurance company and in his ample free time wrote a number of remarkable novels and short stories. His heroes are all struggling to find themselves against a background of the totalitarian state or tribe or religion, and his name has become synonymous with the idea of modern man and his struggle to maintain his individuality. The documentary traces his unusual life and is followed by a brief overview of his works.
The English poet Keats was born into comfortable circumstances in 1795. He had a good education. His father died in an accident when he was in his early teens and he took up the profession of surgeon. He was however writing poetry and he was soon recognized by his discerning friends as someone quite exceptional. He died of tuberculosis at the age of 26. This documentary traces his brief life and is followed by an overview of his delightful work.
D.H. Lawrence was born into the family of a coal miner in 1885. His remarkable achievement in becoming one of the most successful novelists of his day is explored in this film by Malcolm Hossick. Not only did he make it as a writer but in his honesty and open mindedness he had a huge effect on the way novels are written in general. The film is followed by a brief overview of his work. Lawrence was born in Eastwood, Nottinghamshire. His father was a coalminer and his mother a schoolteacher. He went to Nottingham University College. He began a teaching career in London but in 1812 became a full-time writer. He went off with the aristocratic German wife of his professor at Nottingham. After a turbulent but ultimately successful career which included taking up painting,he died of tuberculosis when he was forty-five.
The documentary follows the life of Melville was born in New York, USA. His father was a prosperous business man but the economic climate changed and the business failed. The family moved to his mother's home in New Albany and he went to Albany Academy. At twenty he went to sea and returned to write very popular books about his adventures. His success did not last and he died in obscurity. His work was rediscovered in the early 20th century.
Montaigne was a French aristocrat born in the middle of the 16th century a while before Shakespeare. He wrote essays about his views on life and in particular about himself. They are wise and amusing and just as pertinent today as they were in this own times. This documentary by Malcolm Hossick follows his unusual and fascinating life. The program begins by giving a sense of Montaigne's views on life suggesting why they are so prescient for today. It follows his unusual education and gives a background of the history of France of which he was for a time actually an intimate part. His brief friendship with a man called La Boetie colours his understanding of mankind and probably plays a part in his deciding to write down all he could think of about himself which forms what we know of as his essays. The program ends with some of the topics which so engaged him and which make him such a charming candidate for our attention in the twenty first century!
The program traces how humans beings have made 'art' from the earliest recorded times. Until the fundamental changes in the way human societies viewed themselves we know as the Renaissance, artists were the servants of the rulers. This is true of all human groups throughout the world. Now in the age of individual freedom artists have come to enjoy a new role. The documentary explores this change and how art has come to be such a powerful and fruitful force in the daily lives.
O'Neill was born in 1888 into a theatrical family. He got a good education but led a turbulent existence until he finally began to have some success with the plays he wrote for the tiny theatre in Providence Massachusetts. The program follows his early life and the influence he has had on world theatre through his work. It is followed by a brief overview of his work. O'Neill's father was a successful actor and as a child he was loved and cared for. He spent his youth rebelling against everything and finally settled down to become America's first serious dramatist of international stature. He won the Nobel prize for literature in 1936.
This program by Malcolm Hossick follows the life and work of George Orwell . Orwell was born in India and educated at Eton College. In 1922 he went out to Burma as a police officer. He returned to England in 1927 and determined to be a writer. He was interested in politics and the lot of the poor in society and his works reflect this interest. Just as he was becoming a successful novelist he died of tuberculosis. Many rate him as one of the most influential writers of the 20th century. The film is followed by a brief summary of his works.
Proust wrote a remarkable and very long novel called La Recheche de Temps Perdue, translated usually as Remembrance of Things Past. It's size and reputaiton for density and incomprehensibility mean that not many folk take it on. This is a great pity as once you have started reading it is hard not to be drawn into Proust's world. This is because you will find yourself there in it's huge cast of sensitively drawn characters. The film explores how he did it and is followed by an overview of his work. Proust was born the son of a wealthy Parisian doctor and had an easy entry into the higher echelons of French society. His knowledge of this world was the background to the astonishing series of novels called A La Recherche du Temps Perdu (Remembrance of Things Past). He did not have an early success but by the end of his life it was recognized that his work - sensitive, searching, amusing and amazingly perceptive about how humans work - was in a class of its own. The program traces his unusual life and ends with an overview of his works.
The Renaissance which began in Italy 600 years ago is probably the most important and astonishing event in human history. Until that time throughout the world tyrants and authoritarian religions controlled the lives of most human beings. War was the means of settling disputes. The lives of the majority of people counted for nothing. The Renaissance changed everything and its effect is now felt in every corner of the globe. This film by Malcolm Hossick explores how it began and how it is effecting all our lives today.
The novel is a relatively new art form which has arrived on the scene since the renaissance. However storytelling has always it seems been a part of human culture. This program by Malcolm Hossick traces the development of the novel and how it has come to have a huge impact on our lives.
Walter Scott was a prolific and passionate storyteller who saw an understanding of the past as the key to getting along in the present. His canvas was usually the history of Scotland but his means were such that he found an audience throughout the literary world. He was as much loved in foreign translations as he was in English. The program covers his eventful life and is followed by an overview of his extensive output. Scott was born in Edinburgh in 1771. His father was a successful lawyer. In childhood he contracted polio which lamed him for life. He was not a very successful pupil at Edinburgh High School but went to the university to qualify as a lawyer. Writing poetry and novels soon became the activity for which he became world famous. He died in his beloved home of Abbotsford in the Scottish Borders in 1832.
The program follows the life and times of the great English dramatist William Shakespeare . It emphasizes the classical education he had in the works of the ancient Greeks and Romans as well as his experience of country life which he used so fruitfully in his work. The quality and variety of life in Elizabethan London played a great part in his development and the rise of theaters and a rich cultural life in general is explored. In the end however Shakespeare's own unmatched talent in writing about and expressing the astonishing complexity of human life is what marks him out as probably the greatest writer of all time. Shakespeare was born in the country town of Stratford-upon-Avon.He was educated at the local grammar school. He went to London in 1588 to begin a life in the theater. He was immensely successful and he is now recognized as the greatest dramatist of all time.
George Bernard Shaw was born into a protestant family in Catholic Dublin. His family was slowly sliding down the social ladder. He left school at 15 to become a clerk. Then aged twenty three he went off to London to become a writer. Blessed with a brilliant wit and a capacity for hard work he became the most prominent dramatist of his age. The program covers his life and background. Shaw was born into a protestant family in Catholic Dublin. His family was slowly sliding down the social ladder. He left school at 15 to become a clerk. Then aged twenty three he went off to London to become a writer. Blessed with a brilliant wit and a capacity for hard work he became the most prominent dramatist of his age.
Shelley was born in 1792 in a house in Surrey on the estate of his grandfather Sir Bysshe Shelley. He was educated at Syon House Academy in London and at Eton. In 1810 he went to University College Oxford and published his first poems. He was expelled from Oxford and lived variously in England and Italy where he died in a sailing accident off Leghorn in 1822 when he was thirty. He was much engaged by social politics and this is reflected unusually in his work.
John Steinbeck was one of the most popular writers of the 20th century and several of his books were made into films. This program in the Famous Author series by Malcolm Hossick explores his eventful life. and it is followed by a brief overview of his works.
Stevenson was born in Edinburgh the only child of middle class parents. He went to the University of Edinburgh and took a law degree but in spite of his parents' opposition he was intent on being a writer. He suffered from poor health throughout his life but was successful from early in his career. He died in Samoa celebrated the world over. He wrote many travel books and short stories but is best known for his novels mostly with a background of Scottish history. The program covers his life and times and ends with an overview of his work.
Jonathan Swift was born in Dublin into a well off English protestant family. His father died and he was brought up and given the best possible education at the expense of his uncle. He was not grateful for this and his acid views on man's iniquities were the subject of his many writings. He worked for the English government and as a church administrator but loved and was much beloved by his friends. In Ireland he is seen as the first hero of the struggle against English dominance. This program traces his fascinating life and ends with an overview of his works.
Mark Twain was born Samuel Langhorn Clemens in the small town of Florida Missouri. When he was four his parents moved the family to Hannibal, a larger town not far away on the banks of the Mississippi river. There he had an idyllic childhood which was to form the basis of some of his later novels. He began life as a river pilot then became a gold prospector. He finally began writing under the name Mark Twain and achieved immense success with a wide range of novels and essays on every topic under the sun. He was irreverent and funny, optimistic and charming and unsurprisingly this program by Malcolm Hossick of his hectic and fascinating life is equally rewarding.
Vincent van Gogh was born in 1853 the 5th child of a respected Dutch Protestant priest. Largely self taught he only settled on becoming an artist in his late twenties. He was very practical and knew the difficulties of what he wanted to do. He suffered from depression but in a working career of a dozen or so years he produced some of the best loved paintings of any age.
This program by Malcolm Hossick introduces some of his greatest works and through some of the letters he wrote to his brother and friends we learn of his approach to his work. Uncomplicated, astonishingly talented and extraordinarily confident Van Gogh was a master of his craft and a great believer in human worth. He produced work which touches the heart of all who see it and this is a celebration of the man and his art.
Voltaire was born the son of a prominent lawyer and from his earliest days showed a precocious literary talent. He wrote plays and novels and historical and philosophical works his outspokeness constantly landed him in trouble with the authorities. He became the leading liberal voice of the french enlightenment and he has had a world wide influence ever since. The program traces his fascinating life and ends with an overview of his works.
The poet Walt Whitman was born in a small village in Long Island, New York State in 1819. When he was quite young the family moved to Brooklyn where he received a modest education. He began work as a typesetter. He published his most famous book of poems Leaves of Grass in 1855 and gradually his reputation grew. He died in Camden New Jersey in 1892 already recognized as one of the outstanding voices of the American spirit. The program by Malcolm Hossick covers his life and background and is followed by an overview of his work.
Oscar Wilde was certainly one of the most brilliant writers of comedy for the English stage. The tale of his tragic downfall, caused by the society of his time condemning his private sexual life, has generally overshadowed the importance of his work. This program by Malcolm Hossick follows his early career and attempts to regain the balance between tragic figure and artist. It covers his life and background and ends with an overview of his work.
This program by Malcolm Hossick follows the fascinating life of the novelist Virginia Woolf . She was born in London in 1882. Her father was Leslie Stephen, a writer and literary editor. She was educated privately and in 1912 married Leonard Woolf. He encouraged her to write and they began their own publishing house called the Hogarth Press where they printed her remarkable books.
William Wordsworth was born in Cockermouth in the Lake District in 1770. His father ran the estate of a local landowner and the family lived in a large and comfortable house. He was well educated at the grammar school in nearby Hawkshead and he went to St John's College Cambridge in 1737. He lived most of his life in his beloved Lake District enjoying the fame he achieved as the greatest poet of the romantic age.
William Butler Yeats was born in Dublin. His father was a successful artist and from an early age Yeats determined to be and was soon accepted as a poet. On the London literary scene he was a leading light and in Dublin was instrumental in setting up an Irish Theatre. He became the recognized poet of the Irish struggle for freedom and ended his long life as a senator and venerated patriarch of the new state. The documentary traces his life and ends with an overview of his works.
Zola was born the son of an Italian engineer. He early determined to be a writer and via work with the publishing firm Hachette, he began writing the many realistic novels with which he made his mark. His work was very popular with a wide audience and he was seen as a champion of democracy and the people. He was exiled for the stance he took against the government at the Dreyfus trial. The documentary traces his successful and industrious life and ends with an overview of his works.
The documentary by Felix Breisach shows the conductor from his private side. He touchingly talks about his fears, aging, his relationship with his wife Alice. His brother Philipp Harnoncourt tells of their childhood and youth, his son Franz describes how he sees his father. In addition, there is the instrumental ensemble Concentus Musicus Wien, founded by Harnoncourt, director's theater and Harnoncourt's love of music.
The eclectic career of multi award-winning composer Laurent Petitgirard has seen him become one of France's leading musicians and conductors, as well as taking him into the worlds of opera and ballet. The Journey to the West is a ballet that tells the story of a monk named Xuanzang who is sent on a perilous journey of redemption from China to India in order to seek out the scriptures of truth in the land of Buddha. the ordeals of Xuanzang and his companions are expressed in music that reflects the poetry and spiritual elevation found in this great monument of Chinese literature.
He is often hailed as the greatest composer alive, and John Adams has his finger on the cultural and political pulse of America like few others: fearless in his confrontation of hot topics like imperialism and terrorism within his own works such as Nixon in China and the still-controversial Death of Klinghofer Alice Goodman and Peter Sellars. Through them and the operas themselves, in extensive performance extracts by Willard White. Dawn Upshaw and the late Lorraine Hunt Lieberson, we see a fresh someone who has revitalised both opera and American music for a new age.
Winner of a Grammy Award for the album Talking Timbuktu, on which he played with Ry Cooder and other American luminaries, the legendary African singer and guitarist now invests much of his time, energy and resources in improving agricultural and social conditions in Mali. Film-maker Marc Huraux visited Ali there. Music is an integral part of Ali's life and therefore an integral part of this encounter. Deep, mysterious and utterly compelling, his playing lights up a striking documentary.
Herbert von Karajan's story is the story of the record industry itself, which he was instrumental in creating and sustaining over half a century with hundreds of spectacular and award-winning recordings.
His life and his music-making still provoke extreme reactions; in Gernot Friedel's film, made with the help of the Karajan-Centrum in Salzburg, we see the hypnotic effect he could have upon musicians and listeners alike, we hear him in the repertoire for which he was renowned, and we are taken through a life never less than eventful.
The documentary by Felix Breisach shows the conductor from his private side. He touchingly talks about his fears, aging, his relationship with his wife Alice. His brother Philipp Harnoncourt tells of their childhood and youth, his son Franz describes how he sees his father. In addition, there is the instrumental ensemble Concentus Musicus Wien, founded by Harnoncourt, director's theater and Harnoncourt's love of music.
From the unaccompanied ballads, to lively fiddle tunes, to radio cowboy bands, to square dancing at Moose Hall, The Unbroken Circle traces the path of traditional music in Vermont. Historic photos accompany the words and music of over a dozen Vermont musicians.
Beethoven was born into a musical family in Bonn. He was well taught and generally well educated. With the support of his local ruler he went to Vienna to further his musical studies. He was soon celebrated as a pianist and composer and spent the rest of his life in Vienna supported by generous patrons and free to compose as he wished. In spite of going stone deaf he was able to continue composing, producing some of his greatest works in his later years. The documentary details his life and times and is followed by an overview of his works.
Brahms was born in Hamburg into a poor but musical family. His talent was early recognized and he received devoted and first class tuition. He was discovered by the violinist Joachim and the composer Schumann and he enjoyed amazing success from his very first published work. Brahms never married but settled in Vienna where he came to be recognized as one of the great musical masters of the century.
Begins with Henry James' comfortable boyhood in New York, during which his father moved James and his brother around and back and forth from Europe frequently for the sake of education. He eventually went to Harvard to study law and began writing, but felt uncomfortable with American culture and left for England, where he spent most of the rest of his life.
Richard Strauss' orchestral works contain a wealth of autobiographical allusions. This is equally true of the whimsical tone-poem Till Eulenspiegel , opus 28, which was completed in 1895. Strauss felt badly treated by the public in his home town of Munich, because his neo-Wagnerian opera Guntram had closed after only a single performance. In fact he had already planned a one-act stage work about the pranks of the legendary rascal Till Eulenspiegel and his 'victims', the town of Schilda's narrow-minded petit bourgeois citizens. The openly programmatic composition with its phenomenal audacity and unique demands on orchestral technique simultaneously shocked and delighted his public.
This up-to-date documentary about Felix Mendelssohn is based on the original letters of the composer and his sister Fanny, combined with numerous evocative period images. Through a blend of music and words, the most distinguished Mendelssohn specialists of today guide viewers through the composer's fascinating life and career. The various themes covered include his training, his religious and cultural identity, his journey to Italy, his rediscovery of Bach, his years in Leipzig, the relative neglect of his music following his death, his readmission to the canon of Germany's greatest Romantic composers, and the recent unearthing of many unpublished works.
Bonus:
- Homage to Felix Mendelssohn at the Settimane Musicali al Teatro Olimpico, 2009.
This film is a docufiction on the great Toscanini directed by well-known filmmaker Larry Weinstein, who pushes the boundaries of conventional documentary storytelling by borrowing tools from fiction films, including dramatic reconstructions and historical cinematic stylings. Arturo Toscanini (1867-1957), arguably the greatest and most famous conductor in history, was paradoxically one of the most private. He never granted interviews, and he didn't leave diaries or journals of any kind. But during the last years of his life, his son Walter secretly recorded 150 hours of intimate conversations that Toscanini shared with friends and family who visited his home. TOSCANINI: In His Own Words, is based on these tapes which remained vaulted for more than 50 years. Recreated conversations reveal aspects of the Maestro never seen before. His loves, his opinions about colleagues, his clashes with Mussolini and Hitler, his personal memories of Verdi, Puccini, Furtwangler, and Stokowski, his greatest joys, and the causes of his endemic sadness are all part of his frank conversation. Interwoven throughout the film are many of Toscanini's greatest musical performances.
Featuring Sir Derek Jacobi , Tony Award Winner and Veteran of the London Stage. Who was the man who wrote these plays and poems? Was the author a grain-dealer named William Shakespeare born in Stratford-upon-Avon or Edward de Vere, the 17th Earl of Oxford? Why there was a 400 year-old conspiracy to hide the true author? This program provides a stimulating and controversial point of view that is bound to provoke classroom discussion and independent study of the Authorship issue.
Drawing on original 16th century documents and the Oxford Bible, this film makes a full investigation into the lives of both Edward de Vere and William Shakespeare of Stratford-upon-Avon. Revealing the former as someone already in his own lifetime revered as the best for comedies and the latter as a man who led a double life: prosperous merchant at home, well-paid frontman to the Elizabethan eras greatest poet in London. This documentary also examines modern attitudes of scholars with a vested interest in the Stratfordian myth and their suppression of relevant facts to this very day. Sir Derek Jacobi is a protege of the legendary Lawrence Olivier and was a good friend of Sir John Gielgud. He has starred in Shakespeare roles in London and on Broadway and is a Broadway Tony winner for his performance...
Winner of the Internationaler Musikwettbewerb der ARD 2015, the Carl Nielsen International Competition 2014 and the Kobe International Flute Competition 2013, Mr. Jacot is regularly invited to perform with the Mahler Chamber Orchestra, Orchestra Mozart and the Munchener Kammerorchester.
Born in Geneva, Sebastian Jacot entered the Haute ecole de musique de Geneve at age fifteen, studying in the class of Professor Jacques Zoon and obtaining his Soloist Diploma with Distinction in 2010. Mr. Jacot is currently the 1st Principal Flute at the Gewandhausorchester in Leipzig and has previously held positions as Assistant Principal Flutist at the Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra, Principal Flutist at the Seiji Ozawa Matsumoto Festival-Saito Kinen in Japan and Solo Flutist of the Ensemble Contrechamps in Geneva, Switzerland.
Winner of the Internationaler Musikwettbewerb der ARD 2015, the Carl Nielsen International Competition 2014 and the Kobe International Flute Competition 2013, Mr. Jacot is regularly invited to perform with the Mahler Chamber Orchestra, Orchestra Mozart and the Munchener Kammerorchester.
Born in Geneva, Sebastian Jacot entered the Haute ecole de musique de Geneve at age fifteen, studying in the class of Professor Jacques Zoon and obtaining his Soloist Diploma with Distinction in 2010. Mr. Jacot is currently the 1st Principal Flute at the Gewandhausorchester in Leipzig and has previously held positions as Assistant Principal Flutist at the Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra, Principal Flutist at the Seiji Ozawa Matsumoto Festival-Saito Kinen in Japan and Solo Flutist of the Ensemble Contrechamps in Geneva, Switzerland.
Carlo Gesualdo - beastly murderer and divine composer - is one of the most striking figures in the history of music. Based on his dramatic honour killing, the film tells the story of multifaceted, revolutionary music and the search for forgiveness.
Gesualdo, 47, is the Prince of Venosa, a musical genius and insomniac. Every night he lies awake, haunted by the gruesome act he committed on the 16th of October 1590. Developing from this opening sequence, the documentary tells the story of this extraordinary character, well-illustrated through visits to the original settings in Naples and the village of Gesualdo, as well as enacted scenes.
Through the power of music, the film explores the thin line between fascination and disgust. How is it possible to commit a capital crime, yet write divine music? Are crime and genius interwoven? And can salvation through music be achieved?
Opera evenings can be life-changing. Anyone who saw Callas still talks about her today. And they still exist, the great heroines: singers who pierce our hearts. This film presents three of them, explores what they do, how they do it and what it does to us: Ermonela Jaho , Barbara Hannigan and Asmik Grigorian . Their cultural backgrounds - Albanian, Canadian, Lithuanian - are remarkably diverse, yet they have one thing in common: they give their utmost on stage and hold nothing back. They merge with their stage personae and strive for the full experience.
Hannigan is the analyst. She dissects every role in minute detail and interprets it with icy fire. Her Lulu, her Melisande, her Marie in Zimmermann's Soldaten are beings from a future world: remote, self-assured, modern women. Masculine desire leaves them cold; even when they succumb, they are still in charge. This is similar to Grigorian, who won acclaim for her Salome in Salzburg. Grigorian's Salome is both victim and perpetrator; she enjoys her desire and the deadly spiral into which she is drawn. With Jaho, on the other hand, everything is in the voice; she carries the whole gamut of emotions in it and captivates audiences - as Violetta, Angelica, Ciocio-san - with her vocal acting.
A major force in contemporary music, Pierre Boulez is committed to the expansion and recreation of musical language. This documentary looks at his work, in particular the creation of Repons , which was heralded as the Signal of "a new age of instrumental achievement" (Financial Times). Boulez is seen rehearsing at his Paris laboratory for new music (IRCAM). He talks about his experimentation, the difficulties involved in communicating his ideas, and the post-war composers who have influenced him.
The Latvian conductor Mariss Jansons is recognized as one of the most distinguished musicians of his generation and now belongs to the international elite of his profession. He was the Music Director of the Oslo Philharmonic from 1979 to 2000. Under his guidance, it became established as a front-rank orchestra, touring extensively and becoming a firm favourite at many festivals around the world, noted for its fresh, open sound and Jansons' passionate conducting of the works of Shostakovich, Strauss, Tchaikovsky and Bartok . In this program, Jansons is seen rehearsing Bartok's powerful Miraculous Mandarin Suite with the Oslo Philharmonic and the following performance at the Oslo Concert Hall.
Awarded as the Revelation Lyric Artist in 2004, Lyric Artist of the Years 2007 and 2010 and Album of the Year 2009 at the French Les Victoires de la Musique Classique, Philippe Jaroussky's multiple German ECHO KLASSIK Awards in 2005, 2008, 2011, 2012 and 2015 makes him one of the most celebrated singers and musicians of our time.
Maestro Philippe Jaroussky is the founder and artistic director of the Academie Musicale Philippe Jaroussky and the Ensemble Artaserse, the Baroque orchestra he founded in 2002 after Vinci's Opera of the same title.
Stay attentive to this fantastic new edition of extraordinary masterclasses and performances from La Seine Musicale, exclusively filmed by DakApp!
Nowhere in the world is the myth of Wagner as alive as in Bayreuth, and nowhere are performances of his works followed as closely as those at the Festspielhaus in Bayreuth. But after a decade-long reign as the uncontested ruler of the Wagner Festival, the composer's grandson Wolfgang Wagner has stepped down from his post. A new era is about to begin...
This documentary thematizes the past, present and future of the festival and provides rare insights behind the scenes of the Wagner "workshop." For the first time ever, the film team was able to record in the legendary Bayreuth orchestra pit, giving rise to stunningly candid shots of conductor Christian Thielemann rehearsing Götterdämmerung. A conversation with Wolfgang Wagner recorded especially for this production is presumably the patriarch's last appearance on film as head of the festival. The program also features rehearsals of the new 2008 production of Parsifal with director Stefan Herheim and conductor Daniele Gatti. Members of the Wagner family and leading Wagner interpreters of our time also comment on the unique Wagner aura. The authors have assembled an amazing collection of historical film material and photos on the history of the festival. There are also excerpts from great productions recorded by Unitel...
If George Gershwin's Porgy and Bess - the highest creative achievement in American classical music - embodies a glorious (and controversial) fulfillment of Dvorak's prophecy, there also exists a buried lineage of exceptional compositions of Black composers following in Dvorak's wake. Coming first was his assistant Harry Burleigh whose seminal settings of Deep River are as much compositions as transcriptions. Burleigh's initiative was sealed by singers like Paul Robeson and Marian Anderson. But William Levi Dawson's oracular Negro Folk Symphony , though triumphantly premiered by Leopold Stokowski and his Philadelphia Orchestra in 1934, gathered dust - and Dawson was never to create the symphonic catalogue he seemed destined to undertake.
The commentators include George Shirley, the most legendary name in present-day Black classical music, also Kevin Deas, who sings Burleigh with singular authority, and the conductors Roderick Cox and the late Michael Morgan.
This documentary brings the Russian composer to the present - radically: Based on Tchaikovsky's diaries and letters, director Ralf Pleger discovers an entirely new side and sketches an entirely different profile of the man whose mind and talent brought us Swan Lake .
The film focuses on what it meant for Tchaikovsky, a homosexual man, to have to live his life in a homophobic environment - considerations that are all the more relevant and topical in light of recent developments not only in present day Russia, but also in the light of a still present homophobia in the so-called "liberal" Western countries.
The State Opera is the first film ever made about the Bavarian State Opera, one of the world's oldest, most prestigious and internationally esteemed companies. It charts the course of three operas - Die Meistersinger von Nurnberg , Les Indes galantes and Un ballo in maschera - as they come to life on the stage.
We meet some of the great singers, such as Jonas Kaufmann and Anja Harteros, in performance and behind the scenes, as well as artistic directors past and present, and two of the music directors in Kirill Petrenko and his predecessor Zubin Mehta. As both a celebration and an exploration, this entertaining film is a declaration of love for the operatic form.
This documentary on the unconventional life and ground-breaking music of the Russian pianist and composer Alexander Scriabin (1872-1915) sheds light on the mystical ideas which inspired him. He became consumed by a vision of a union of the arts, a coalescence of music, words, movement, light, colour and ideas, to create transcendent experiences. Contributors to his fascinating exploration of the composer's life and work are musicians Vladimir Ashkenazy and Vladimir Horowitz; conductor Mikhail Pletnev; and Scriabin's daughter, Marina.
The programme draws on Scriabin's writings, archive photographs and documentation, and footage shot in Switzerland, Italy and Moscow. Among a wealth of musical extracts, Scriabin himself is heard playing his Poem Op.32 No. 1 , recorded in 1908 on a Welte Mignon player-piano.
This film is both a memoir of the Berliner Philharmoniker director Claudio Abbado's early years, and a personal introduction to the orchestra. It culminates in a deeply felt introduction to the sections of the orchestra with Abbado leading the Youth Orchestra of a United Europe.
Herbert von Karajan was the only major orchestral conductor to create film – and later video productions – at his own expense. "I am actually born too early," he said, well aware that video's possibilities were still in their infancy. Georg Wubbolt did interviews with Karajan's team: his director of photography, his cutter, his secretary, his producer and musicians of the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra and the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra. This documentary includes outstanding performance material from the Unitel and Telemondial library, as well as unreleased digitally remastered excerpts from the legendary RBB (SFB) and ORF archive. We see Karajan talking about this subject in talk shows and television. It underlines Karajan's appearance as a real Maestro for the Screen from a side unknown to most people, introduced by his closest collaborators.
The film is constructed chronologically. It starts with the very first concert productions in 1957 at NHK in Japan, followed by the impressive cooperation with director Henri-Georges Clouzot in 1965 and ends with Karajan's own film company Telemondial. The Silvesterkonzert 1988 at the Philharmonie in Berlin marks the end of the great era, long before music video entered the entertainment industry.
The mother through the daughter's eyes - a family portrait blending intimate conversations, agreements and disagreements, and shred ties of sounds and blood. This intimate portrait of two musical giants by Martha Argerich's daughter Stephanie has been filmed over two decades and around the world: Warsaw, where Martha Argerich won the Chopin competition first prize; Japan, which hosts a unique Argerich festival; London, where Stephen Kovacevich, Stephanie's father, lives, works and enjoys intensively Indian food; Belgium, where Martha lives in a house filled with pianos and cats; Argentina, which she left at the age of twelve to study in Vienna, but still conceals valuable family treasures; Switzerland, where Stephanie and her sister Lyda are currently living.
A film by Stephanie Argerich herself, Bloody Daughter is made up of documentary sequences focusing on the two characters of Martha and Stephen in their everyday lives, in rehearsal and in performance, the film will be largely given over to intimate, delicious anecdotes, and a few scenes in which the family is reunited.
The State Opera is the first film ever made about the Bavarian State Opera, one of the world's oldest, most prestigious and internationally esteemed companies. It charts the course of three operas - Die Meistersinger von Nurnberg , Les Indes galantes and Un ballo in maschera - as they come to life on the stage.
We meet some of the great singers, such as Jonas Kaufmann and Anja Harteros, in performance and behind the scenes, as well as artistic directors past and present, and two of the music directors in Kirill Petrenko and his predecessor Zubin Mehta. As both a celebration and an exploration, this entertaining film is a declaration of love for the operatic form.
Celebrated in his day not only as a great composer he was also admired as an outstanding pianist who was a peerless interpreter of his own works including the piano concerti and the Rhapsody on a Theme by Paganini .
It is well known that he was in effect the sole pianist capable of performing his most demanding Third Piano Concerto and his performances and recording of the concerto came to be considered as the definitive ones.
The relationship between performance, interpretation, and Rachmaninoff's own life will be addressed in this documentary by the young pianists interviewed. The program explored the evolution of interpretation over the past few decades, hear brief excerpts of recordings by Rachmaninoff as contrasted with contemporary performances by today's well-known young pianists as they comment on the differences (or similarities) of their approach.
This documentary will be the first to explore performance styles and interpretation of the Rachmaninoff piano repertoire. Viewed from a broad perspective the documentary will focus on the danger of how a musician might be bound and stymied by tradition as opposed to being able to use a knowledge of the past to liberate one's approach and infuse the performances with the same sense of improvisatory freedom with which...
This film is about the life of a composer creating in the darkness of a tragic era. As we will see, like most Soviet citizens, Khachaturian hid a complex private life behind a mask of Communist loyalty. Khachaturian was the President of the powerful Composer's Union of the Soviet Union, and as a communist party functionary wielded great influence over the course of Russian music. However, he was also a comrade and personal friend to the dissident composers of the time ?EUR" Shostakovich, Prokofiev, and others. This documentary shows the fine line a man had to tread between being a loyal party functionary on the one hand, and a fighter for artistic freedom on the other.
Virtuosity searches for the musical souls of the most gifted young pianists on the planet as they try to make a name for themselves of the 2013 Van Cliburn International Piano Competition. The pressure on these kids is overwhelming because the stakes are so high: prize money, concert bookings, a recording contract, a career.
At the heart of this story is the courage is takes for 20-year-old to go onstage alone before 2,000 people, and hundreds of thousands more online, and play a unique interpretation of one of the most difficult pieces ever written for the piano. The Competition requires not only a transcendent musical ability, but a mental toughness that must sustain the soloist through three straight weeks of performance. The Cliburn becomes as much a test of character as a musical proving ground.
The Intimacy of Creativity – The Bright Sheng Partnership: Composers Meet Performers in Hong Kong is a pioneering, internationally-acclaimed partnership devoted to promoting an intimate dialogue between composers and performers.
Distinguished composers, together with selected emerging composers from Hong Kong and around the world, present and revise their chamber music compositions after in-depth discussions with world-renowned performers during open discussions. The revised compositions are presented at two world premiere concerts in downtown Hong Kong, preceded by preview concerts on the campus of The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, which hosts the partnership.
For the 2011 inaugural season, artistic director and internationally-acclaimed composer, conductor, and pianist Bright Sheng was joined by distinguished guests Richard Stoltzman, Yehudi Wyner, and the Daedalus Quartet; Hong Kong guest artists Mary Wu, Stephen Chong, and Olivier Nowak; and emerging composers Pedro Faria Gomes, Ted Goldman, Moon Young Ha, Narong Prangcharoen, Matthew Tommasini, and Ming-Hsiu Yen.
The program by Malcolm Hossick explores the astonishing life and work of the 14th century Italian poet Dante . He wrote in everyday Italian and was the first writer to explore the life of the individual in any depth. His ideas have filtered down through the ages and have greatly influenced humanity at large.
The six Englishmen known as The King's Singers enjoy a reputation as one of the world's most sought-after a cappella vocal ensembles. This pre-eminent group has never diminished in virtuosity throughout its thirty-plus year history of sharing one of the widest repertoires imaginable with enthusiastic audiences around the globe. This programme features The King's Singers performing some of their favourite works' a mixture of songs old and new - from Byrd to The Beatles .
Madrigals by Byrd, Weelkes, Lassus, Passereau, Gesualdo and Monteverdi are all included in the excellently varied programme, as well as a traditional spiritual, the ensemble's interpretation of a Duke Ellington composition and the overture to Rossini's Barber of Seville . There are two Beatles' numbers and arrangements of Billy Joel's Lullabye (Goodnight My Angel) and Freddie Mercury's Seaside Rendezvous . The King's Singer's give a superb performance of Paul Drayton's Masterpiece, a musical satire on four hundred years of Western music in nine minutes, with sections ranging from a hgue on the name Johann Sebastian Bach' to an impressionistic rendering of 'Debussy' in fanatically over-pronounced French.
�� will be the 5OOth Anniversary of the birth of Thomas Tallis , the most...
The title is taken from a poem by a 12-year-old girl, Eva Pickova, written in the Theresienstadt concentration camp. Her words provide both the title and the climaxEUR"in a setting for two choruses and orchestra by the American composer Franz Waxman, in his touching work The Song of Terezin.
It is a film is about many things. It is about freedom and captivity, about emancipation, acculturation and assimilation; it is about the roles played by Moses and Felix Mendelssohn in the dream of fruitful, unproblematic integration of the Jews into German society after their liberation from the ghettos; it is about Richard Wagner, his ferociously anti-Semitic essay Das Judenthum in der Musik (The Jews in Music) and his influence on the thinking of the Third Reich but, most of all, it is a film about how much music can mean to people, even in the direst of circumstances, or particularly in the direst circumstances.
Force of Nature Natalia follows a season in the life of dance superstar Natalia Osipova . With unique access to Natalia's personal archive, we follow her preparations for a fifth season as a principal of The Royal Ballet as she continues to champion contemporary dance with some of the world's greatest choreographers. This compelling portrait chronicles the rehearsal process of two new works, The Mother by Arthur Pita, and Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui's Medussa, and follows legendary ballerina and choreographer Natalia Makarova as she directs a revival of her classic production of La Bayadere for The Royal Ballet.
Natalia opens up about her life and history, her childhood in Russia, her time with American Ballet Theatre and her journey to the Royal Opera House. It is an unparalleled opportunity to get up close and personal with the leading ballerina of our generation and understand why critics and audiences all over the world call her a ''force of nature' of the dance world.
Carlos Kleiber, the eccentric and reclusive conductor, was a fabled perfectionist who was known as much for the rarity of his appearances as for the brilliance of his interpretations. Georg Wübbolt's film sheds light on the relationships with his family, including his father and mother, traces the development of Kleiber's career and covers the "mythologizing" that started during the lifetime of the maestro.
Professor Sebastian Klinger praises the positive impact of new technologies in the learning and enjoyment of music today, and how a selective use of Internet can become a great tool for improvement.
Cello Professor at the Hochschule fur Musik, Theater und Medien Hannover and winner of the Deutscher Musikwettbewerb 2001, the Diapason d'Or ( J.S. BACH Cello Suites / OehmsClassics) and the European Rising Star Prize 2002 by the European Concert Hall Organization (ECHO), Sebastian Klinger served as the Solo cellist of the Bayerischer Rundfunk Orchestra for 11 seasons, being one of the youngest principals ever appointed in the history of the orchestra.
Celebrated in his day not only as a great composer he was also admired as an outstanding pianist who was a peerless interpreter of his own works including the piano concerti and the Rhapsody on a Theme by Paganini .
It is well known that he was in effect the sole pianist capable of performing his most demanding Third Piano Concerto and his performances and recording of the concerto came to be considered as the definitive ones.
The relationship between performance, interpretation, and Rachmaninoff's own life will be addressed in this documentary by the young pianists interviewed. The program explored the evolution of interpretation over the past few decades, hear brief excerpts of recordings by Rachmaninoff as contrasted with contemporary performances by today's well-known young pianists as they comment on the differences (or similarities) of their approach.
This documentary will be the first to explore performance styles and interpretation of the Rachmaninoff piano repertoire. Viewed from a broad perspective the documentary will focus on the danger of how a musician might be bound and stymied by tradition as opposed to being able to use a knowledge of the past to liberate one's approach and infuse the performances with the same sense of improvisatory freedom with which...
Krzysztof Komeda – jazz pianist and film composer. With compositions like the lullaby for Rosemary's Baby from Roman Polanski, Komeda succeeded in writing his own chapter in the history of soundtracks. As a jazz musician he gained cult status in Poland. As a film composer he made it into Hollywood's first ranks. But there his career came to a sudden end.
The film essay Komeda - A Soundtrack for a Life is a reflection on Komeda's soundtracks, which changed the common film scores forever. It is a contemporary document about the attitude to life in a time of social, political and cultural change after war, and about the work and exodus of the Polish artist in the 50s and 60s.
This film features interviews with directors who worked with Komeda and who were also his friends, including Roman Polanski, Jerzy Skolimowski, Henning Carlsen, and Andrzej Wajda. His wife, Zofia Komeda, and his sister, Irena Orlowska, also remember him.
Classic Yo-Yo Ma chronicles Ma's unique work process and legendary performances with rarely seen rehearsal and concert footage from throughout his entire career.
In addition to these exquisite musical selections, the program includes newly-taped interviews with Yo-Yo Ma and his friends and colleagues Daniel Barenboim, Emanuel Ax, Tan Dun and Bobby McFerrin. Yo-Yo Ma is world-renowned for his incomparable artistry and range. His discography of nearly fifty albums includes fourteen Grammy Awards. His remarkable talent and limitless interests have created new boundaries for classical music.
The program highlights Ma's unique ability to explore cultures and musical forms outside the Western classical tradition. His diversity is demonstrated not only through richly nuanced interpretations of Bach, Beethoven , and Brahms , but also Piazzolla, Edgar Meyer , American folk music and Tan Dun .
Global Wagner - From Bayreuth to the World is not a biography of Richard Wagner , nor is it a musicological analysis of his work. This is a documentary dedicated solely to the world's fascination with the man, and an exploration of the question as to how such massive hype and world-wide cult following developed around this highly controversial artist. The program is a revealing feature-length study of life with Wagner's legacy from one Bayreuth Festival to the next, and we travel the world to meet devoted Wagnerians and those most intimately involved in commenting on and producing his work today.
The Risør Festival of Chamber Music has firmly established itself as one of the most prestigious and recognized chamber music festivals in the world. Each year, international artists visit the small fishing town in southern Norway and join forces with some of Norway's best musicians for six days of chamber music making. The setting is amongst the most beautiful to be found in Norway, the exquisite coastline architecture and quintessential southern white houses providing an atmosphere of intimacy and calmness.
The founding artistic directors were violist Lars Anders Tomter and pianist Leif Ove Andsnes. In 2011 Andsnes handed over the co-artistic leadership to violinist Henning Kraggerud. The festival takes place in the last week of June each year. The films shown here are produced by Music in Motion (www.musicinmotion.no).
This video contains a Christopher Nupen film about the most charismatic performer in the entire history of Western classical music EUR" also the most talked about, the most controversial, the most famous and the most successful classical soloist that the world of music has ever known.
The story is astonishing, exciting, wildly unusual and, at the end, deeply touching. It is one of the most extraordinary tales in the history of music and it is told with all the Nupen finesse and commitment that have won him DVD of the Year Award four times in the past six years.
In the recording, Christopher Nupen looks at the legend and the strange man who created it with his dazzling combination of technical brilliance, supreme showmanship, Italian melody and unbridled manipulative skill EUR" a man whose extraordinary personality unsettled even the most sophisticated and educated minds and provoked wildly contradictory opinions.
It presents Paganini's music, shot and edited in the style developed by Christopher Nupen and his colleagues for their prize winning DVDs about Sibelius, Schubert and Tchaikovsky and combines it with extracts from Paganini's letters and quotations from both his admirers and his many detractors.
After his first two operas Oberto and Un giorno di regno, Verdi fell into a depression that dissipated only when he was shown the libretto to Nabucco and discovered the chorus "Va, pensiero." The words sung by the Hebrew exiles made an indelible impression on the composer, who also saw the political potential within them: an echo of the Italians' longing for freedom and a unified nation. The work was premiered at the Teatro alla Scala on 9 March 1842 and was an enormous success. The story of the Babylonian king and the captive Israelites struck a patriotic chord in the hearts of the Milan audiences and swiftly carried Verdi's name throughout Italy and the rest of the world. Nabucco has long been at home in the Arena di Verona, and for many, the "Va, pensiero" chorus is, along with the triumphal march from Aida, the very embodiment of the Verona experience. This video production vividly captures this unique experience and provides the viewer with fascinating details that escape many of the Arena's spectators. Stage director Denis Krief casts the work in a sparse modern setting, providing a highly effective showcase for the true heroes of the evening, the singers under conductor Daniel Oren. "Nuanced and temperamental, Daniel Oren's interpretation dazzles with...
This mythological figure of Prometheus symbolises the creativity of man - and Claudio Abbado took this symbol as the Leitmotif of this very unique concert recording: An exploration of the Prometheus myth through the works of four composers, evocatively visualized by television director Christopher Swann, known for directing Leonard Bernstein conducts West Side Story among others.
Featuring Marta Argerich as the solo pianist, the concert was a giant was a giant collaboration of the Berliner Philharmoniker, the Berliner Singkadamie, the Solistenchor Freiburg, and the vocal soloist Ingrid Ade-Jeseman and Monika Bair-Ivenz and speakers Ulrike Krumbiegel and Matthias Schadock.
Carlo Gesualdo - beastly murderer and divine composer - is one of the most striking figures in the history of music. Based on his dramatic honour killing, the film tells the story of multifaceted, revolutionary music and the search for forgiveness.
Gesualdo, 47, is the Prince of Venosa, a musical genius and insomniac. Every night he lies awake, haunted by the gruesome act he committed on the 16th of October 1590. Developing from this opening sequence, the documentary tells the story of this extraordinary character, well-illustrated through visits to the original settings in Naples and the village of Gesualdo, as well as enacted scenes.
Through the power of music, the film explores the thin line between fascination and disgust. How is it possible to commit a capital crime, yet write divine music? Are crime and genius interwoven? And can salvation through music be achieved?
Blame it on the Russian Revolution: it took Sergey Prokofiev (1891–1953) only a few months to write his early opera The Gambler between October 1915 and March 1916, but problems arose during rehearsals in January 1917, and the premiere in St. Petersburg (then Petrograd) had to be cancelled when the first revolution broke out in February. This first version of the work was never heard, since the composer revised the tempestuous score eleven years later, reducing it and eliminating what he considered "padding." The work was premiered in this version in Brussels in 1929.
Based on Dostoyevsky’s novel of the same name, The Gambler is a dark study of human failings and the corruptive power of money. In this work, everyone gambles: the hero Alexey, the General and even the wealthy aunt Babulenka gamble with money; Blanche, the Marquis and Polina – who loves Alexey – gamble with their fellow human beings. The results are humiliation, ruin and self-delusion. But when the Staatskapelle Berlin under world-famous conductor Daniel Barenboim provide the orchestral sound to the full, lustrous voices of Vladimir Ognovenko, Kristine Opolais, Misha Didyk, Stefania Toczyska and their colleagues, there is nothing even remotely dismal about the opera or its...
Russia's whole history has been marked by cycles of bloodshed and especially by the torturing and killing of its own people. There is a pattern of self-destruction that the country does not seem to be able to escape and Russian music endlessly explores the tragic repetitions of its history. Program Four investigates, musically and visually, the legacy of tyranny in Russia.
A brilliant swordsman, athlete, violin virtuoso and composer, Joseph Bologne, Chevalier de Saint-Georges might well lay claim to being the most talented figure in an age of remarkable individuals. The string quartet was still in its infancy in France in the 1770s, but while these pieces are small in scale they are exceptionally rewarding.
Saint-Georges appreciated the intimate nature of this genre, avoiding overt soloistic virtuosity and exploring chamber music timbres, amply demonstrating his rich lyrical gifts and a natural ability to delight performers and audiences alike.
A documentary introduction to Symphony in D shows Jiri Kylian rehearsing the work with students from The Royal Ballet School in London and includes an interview in which the Czech choreographer talks about his exile from his homeland and his career in dance.
The Risør Festival of Chamber Music has firmly established itself as one of the most prestigious and recognized chamber music festivals in the world. Each year, international artists visit the small fishing town in southern Norway and join forces with some of Norway's best musicians for six days of chamber music making. The setting is amongst the most beautiful to be found in Norway, the exquisite coastline architecture and quintessential southern white houses providing an atmosphere of intimacy and calmness.
The founding artistic directors were violist Lars Anders Tomter and pianist Leif Ove Andsnes. In 2011 Andsnes handed over the co-artistic leadership to violinist Henning Kraggerud. The festival takes place in the last week of June each year. The films shown here are produced by Music in Motion (www.musicinmotion.no).
The title is taken from a poem by a 12-year-old girl, Eva Pickova, written in the Theresienstadt concentration camp. Her words provide both the title and the climaxEUR"in a setting for two choruses and orchestra by the American composer Franz Waxman, in his touching work The Song of Terezin.
It is a film is about many things. It is about freedom and captivity, about emancipation, acculturation and assimilation; it is about the roles played by Moses and Felix Mendelssohn in the dream of fruitful, unproblematic integration of the Jews into German society after their liberation from the ghettos; it is about Richard Wagner, his ferociously anti-Semitic essay Das Judenthum in der Musik (The Jews in Music) and his influence on the thinking of the Third Reich but, most of all, it is a film about how much music can mean to people, even in the direst of circumstances, or particularly in the direst circumstances.
This film celebrates the life and music of the artist whom musicologist Nick Strimple describes as 'the only American composer in history who can be called a mystic'. Exploring the relationship of art, nature and spirituality, Shining Night reveals Morten Lauridsen as a composer through the lens of his love for silence and solitude together with his passion for music and literature, with commentaries from other composers, conductors, singers and friends.
Deemed 'a heartening rarity' by the Wall Street Journal, Shining Night directed by Michael Stillwater is the premiere episode in the Song Without Borders documentary series, In Search of The Great Song. Winner of three Best Documentary awards, an Official Selection of 17 Film Festivals, Shining Night is hosted by choirs worldwide with screening events often including performances of Lauridsen's music.
In 1985 Philip Blackburn climbed the stairs to an attic in Iowa City and started trying to make sense of the boxes piled up there. They contained a composer's life's work: scrapbooks, tapes, photos, letters, scores, and film reels - fragile treasures documenting the twentieth century from a most unusual viewpoint, that of perhaps the world's most original musician: Harry Partch.
The idea was to publish them and reveal Harry to the world on his own terms. Not as the crabby, homeless, self-taught microtonal musical weirdo and instrument maker, but as that most American of all artists, a truly independent thinker. With Enclosure 8, the work of bringing them to public attention reaches its apotheosis.
The Enclosures series (named for the extras Partch wanted to add to his life-long letter to the world) started appearing in 1995 with a VHS video of four films made in collaboration with the Chicago-based filmmaker Madeline Tourtelot. Four CDs, two years and one book later, Enclosure 4 appeared featuring his later films: Delusion of the Fury (his culminating ritual-theater work) and a San Diego Public TV documentary, also on VHS. Now the time has come for these to be issued on DVD, extensively restored, resynched and digitally remastered from the extant original prints....
A brilliant swordsman, athlete, violin virtuoso and composer, Joseph Bologne, Chevalier de Saint-Georges might well lay claim to being the most talented figure in an age of remarkable individuals. The string quartet was still in its infancy in France in the 1770s, but while these pieces are small in scale they are exceptionally rewarding.
Saint-Georges appreciated the intimate nature of this genre, avoiding overt soloistic virtuosity and exploring chamber music timbres, amply demonstrating his rich lyrical gifts and a natural ability to delight performers and audiences alike.
In 1985 Philip Blackburn climbed the stairs to an attic in Iowa City and started trying to make sense of the boxes piled up there. They contained a composer's life's work: scrapbooks, tapes, photos, letters, scores, and film reels - fragile treasures documenting the twentieth century from a most unusual viewpoint, that of perhaps the world's most original musician: Harry Partch.
The idea was to publish them and reveal Harry to the world on his own terms. Not as the crabby, homeless, self-taught microtonal musical weirdo and instrument maker, but as that most American of all artists, a truly independent thinker. With Enclosure 8, the work of bringing them to public attention reaches its apotheosis.
The Enclosures series (named for the extras Partch wanted to add to his life-long letter to the world) started appearing in 1995 with a VHS video of four films made in collaboration with the Chicago-based filmmaker Madeline Tourtelot. Four CDs, two years and one book later, Enclosure 4 appeared featuring his later films: Delusion of the Fury (his culminating ritual-theater work) and a San Diego Public TV documentary, also on VHS. Now the time has come for these to be issued on DVD, extensively restored, resynched and digitally remastered from the extant original prints....
Opera evenings can be life-changing. Anyone who saw Callas still talks about her today. And they still exist, the great heroines: singers who pierce our hearts. This film presents three of them, explores what they do, how they do it and what it does to us: Ermonela Jaho , Barbara Hannigan and Asmik Grigorian . Their cultural backgrounds - Albanian, Canadian, Lithuanian - are remarkably diverse, yet they have one thing in common: they give their utmost on stage and hold nothing back. They merge with their stage personae and strive for the full experience.
Hannigan is the analyst. She dissects every role in minute detail and interprets it with icy fire. Her Lulu, her Melisande, her Marie in Zimmermann's Soldaten are beings from a future world: remote, self-assured, modern women. Masculine desire leaves them cold; even when they succumb, they are still in charge. This is similar to Grigorian, who won acclaim for her Salome in Salzburg. Grigorian's Salome is both victim and perpetrator; she enjoys her desire and the deadly spiral into which she is drawn. With Jaho, on the other hand, everything is in the voice; she carries the whole gamut of emotions in it and captivates audiences - as Violetta, Angelica, Ciocio-san - with her vocal acting.
An emancipated slave, the Chevalier de Saint-George managed to elevate himself to the highest spheres of the Enlightened 18th-century French society, thanks to his incredible accomplishments as a fencer, horseman, and musician. From the Guadeloupe where he was born, to Paris and Versailles where he made a name for himself, to Lille that he defended against the royalists during the French Revolution, he quickly became one of the most important characters in both the musical and the military scenes. Through his compositions, testimonies from specialists and secrets shared by some of his best interprets, this film narrates his extraordinary adventures.
No non-Western musical idiom has so impacted on the Western concert tradition as Indonesian gamelan, beginning with the Javanese Pavilion at the 1889 Paris Exposition: an epiphany. Sampling gamelan-inspired works by Debussy, Ravel , and McPhee , the film arrives at a paragon exemplar of cultural fusion - Lou Harrison - and a pair of concertos for violin and piano, unsurpassed by those of any other American. The composer/scholar Bill Alves demonstrates the layered complexity of Javanese gamelan, and how it translates into keyboard textures composed by Harrison for Keith Jarrett. For Harrison's Concerto for Violin and Percussion , tour the 'junk percussion' - including flower pots and washtubs - that Harrison made sing and dance.
Participants include the gamelan scholars Jody Diamond and Sumarsam, and the conductor Dennis Russell Davies, who has long championed Harrison on both sides of the Atlantic.
Music, Mon Amour delves into the secret of a grand passion – the love of music. What makes it irresistible? Why can't we live without music? In Music, Mon Amour we embark on a search for clues – together with the Israeli singer Yasmin Levy, the Japanese violinist Midori and the German composer Helmut Oehring. They reveal their deep love of music and talk of the joy and despair that go with it. Their accounts, intimate and affecting, and from widely differing perspectives, convey their existential and contradictory relationship to music.
Maya Plisetskaya is in every sense an exceptional personality. Like almost no other dancer, the eternal prima ballerina assoluta of the Bolshoi Theatre understood how to combine outstanding dance skills with dramatic expression. There are also very few dancers who can look back on such a long and active career: even on her eightieth birthday in November 2005 she personally gave a stage performance. A homage to her inimitable creative work, this video features fascinating footage of her greatest successes as a ballerina together with an interview in which Maya Plisetskaya describes her life as a dancer - which is simultaneously a whole chapter of Russian history, from Stalin to perestroika.
Presented for the first time in 2010, with the artistic direction of Diemut Poppen and under the initiative of Goethe Institute, Festival Cantabile occurs yearly, during the month of September in the city of Lisbon, and is one of the most important festivals of chamber music in the country.
Festival Cantabile, The art of Chamber Music , offers a variety of classical and modern repertoires to the Portuguese people, in particular habitants of the Lisbon region, connecting periods of time and crossing pieces of classical masters with contemporary composers such as Rihm, Ligeti, Kurtag, Kancheli and the Portuguese Antonio Pinho Vargas and Luis Tinoco .
https://en.cantabilefest.pt/festival-cantabile
Virtuosity searches for the musical souls of the most gifted young pianists on the planet as they try to make a name for themselves of the 2013 Van Cliburn International Piano Competition. The pressure on these kids is overwhelming because the stakes are so high: prize money, concert bookings, a recording contract, a career.
At the heart of this story is the courage is takes for 20-year-old to go onstage alone before 2,000 people, and hundreds of thousands more online, and play a unique interpretation of one of the most difficult pieces ever written for the piano. The Competition requires not only a transcendent musical ability, but a mental toughness that must sustain the soloist through three straight weeks of performance. The Cliburn becomes as much a test of character as a musical proving ground.
Celebrated in his day not only as a great composer he was also admired as an outstanding pianist who was a peerless interpreter of his own works including the piano concerti and the Rhapsody on a Theme by Paganini .
It is well known that he was in effect the sole pianist capable of performing his most demanding Third Piano Concerto and his performances and recording of the concerto came to be considered as the definitive ones.
The relationship between performance, interpretation, and Rachmaninoff's own life will be addressed in this documentary by the young pianists interviewed. The program explored the evolution of interpretation over the past few decades, hear brief excerpts of recordings by Rachmaninoff as contrasted with contemporary performances by today's well-known young pianists as they comment on the differences (or similarities) of their approach.
This documentary will be the first to explore performance styles and interpretation of the Rachmaninoff piano repertoire. Viewed from a broad perspective the documentary will focus on the danger of how a musician might be bound and stymied by tradition as opposed to being able to use a knowledge of the past to liberate one's approach and infuse the performances with the same sense of improvisatory freedom with which...
This film is a docufiction on the great Toscanini directed by well-known filmmaker Larry Weinstein, who pushes the boundaries of conventional documentary storytelling by borrowing tools from fiction films, including dramatic reconstructions and historical cinematic stylings. Arturo Toscanini (1867-1957), arguably the greatest and most famous conductor in history, was paradoxically one of the most private. He never granted interviews, and he didn't leave diaries or journals of any kind. But during the last years of his life, his son Walter secretly recorded 150 hours of intimate conversations that Toscanini shared with friends and family who visited his home. TOSCANINI: In His Own Words, is based on these tapes which remained vaulted for more than 50 years. Recreated conversations reveal aspects of the Maestro never seen before. His loves, his opinions about colleagues, his clashes with Mussolini and Hitler, his personal memories of Verdi, Puccini, Furtwangler, and Stokowski, his greatest joys, and the causes of his endemic sadness are all part of his frank conversation. Interwoven throughout the film are many of Toscanini's greatest musical performances.
Go behind the scenes of Peter Sellars' landmark 1992 production of Messiaen's Saint Francois d'Assise in this documentary directed by Jean-Pierre Gorin. These controversial and ultimately universally acclaimed Salzburg Festival performances of the composer's first and only opera starred Jose van Dam and Dawn Upshaw, joined by the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra and Arnold Schonberg Choir under the baton of Esa-Pekka Salonen.
Commissioned in 1975 by the acclaimed Paris Opera director Rolf Liebermann, Olivier Messiaen composed both the libretto and score of Saint Francois d'Assise by himself over the course of the following four years, selecting Catholic saint and fellow bird lover Francis of Assisi as his opera's protagonist. After its orchestration, the work was rehearsed and premiered in 1983 at the Paris Opera under Messiaen's supervision. While these performances were beloved by audiences, critical reception was mixed, which is perhaps why it took almost ten years before the opera would again enjoy a full scenic production, an honor which it would receive in spades at the 1992 Salzburg Festival.
In his documentary, Jean-Pierre Gorin follows the development of Peter Sellars' Salzburg production from its rehearsals to its premiere. In addition to excerpted video...
With a highly acclaimed performance of Mahler's 3rd Symphony Finnish conductor Esa-Pekka Salonen acquired worldwide fame at the tender age of 25. Within the following years he not only became the musical head of several festivals, but also guest-conductor of the Philharmonia Orchestra London and chief-conductor of the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra.
Salonen's appointment as musical director of the Los Angeles Philharmonic in the year 1992 is definitely one of the highlights in the career of this amazing musician. Together with the LAP the ambitious Finn realized many great concerts and released some fabulous recordings, mostly with 20th century music repertoire.
This program shows Salonen while rehearsing Claude Debussy's La Mer . There is a special connection between La Mer and the conductor, who is fascinated by the countless sound possibilities of the impressionistic work. He used some performances to experiment with the work's score, but admits that only due to long lasting and intense collaboration with the Los Angeles Philharmonic he had had the opportunity to really analyze the different elements of La Mer and to elaborate the whole symphonic composition by assembling the single parts again.
Internationally recognized as one of the greatest violinists of her generation, Maria-Elisabeth Lott made her EMI Warner Classics and Erato debut recording at the age of 11, playing Mozart's own violin with the Mozarteum Orchester Salzburg as the winner of the Mozarteum Salzburg Competition 1998.
Recently appointed Professor of Violin at the Hochschule fur Musik Detmold, Maria-Elisabeth Lott is also an avid chamber music player, regularly performing with musicians such as Emanuel Borok, Daniel Muller-Schott Official Site, Sontraud Speidel, Julien Quentinand Bobby McFerrin. Maria-Elisabeth Lott has performed live for the ARD, ZDF, Deutschland Radio, 3sat, SWR2, BBC Radio 3 and Radio Swiss Classic and for broadcast stations in the USA and Canada.
Among her numerous accolades, she has been awarded with the Karlsruher Kulturstipendium 2014 and the Bruno-Frey-Prize 2013 and is also the recipient of the first Lichtenberger Music Prize from the Herfried Apel Foundation, the Musikforderpreis of Kulturfonds Baden and the "Prix d'espoir" from the European Foundation for Support of Culture.
Alan Lomax said this film "takes us past the solemn facade of clambakes and town meetings into a lively world of all night dances and local musicians who could have helped Daniel Webster play down the devil".
The film includes performances of seven of the finest traditional musicians in the Northeast including Joe Cormier, Jerry Robichaud, Ben Guillemette, Paddy Cronin, Wilfred Guillette, Harold Luce, and Ron West playing in their lively and distinct Acadian, Irish, Cape Breton, and Quebecois styles.
Pierre Boulez has already left an indelible imprint on the international music scene, not only as a composer and conductor but also as a music philosopher and teacher. This documentary, a homage on the occasion of his 85th birthday, shows his invaluable nurturing of young musicians as they come together during the summer for intensive rehearsal weeks. Adopting the perspective of both Pierre Boulez and of the students, the film conveys an infectious enthusiasm for contemporary music, a determination on the part of everybody to do it justice, and a wonderful insight into the legacy that Pierre Boulez passes on to the next generation.
Claudio Abbado - Hearing the Silence conveys an intensely moving view on one of the leading musicians of our time. In several interviews, Abbado talks about artistic, musical and biographical aspects of his life. The film shows excerpts from rehearsals and concerts with some of his favourite orchestras. Statements from colleagues and friends are combined with views from his favourite surroundings and help to characterize the "silent thinker."
Film director Paul Smaczny had a very rare opportunity to get a glimpse of the immensely private personality of Claudio Abbado, described by many in the film as noble and elegant but also as a warm-hearted friend. The musicians all mention his reserved but exact gestures, his respectful way of working in rehearsals and concerts and the atmosphere of co-operation this creates. Cooperation in music making is an aspect that, as Abbado indicates in one of his interviews, is very important to him and one that is at the core of his artistic intentions. The film follows Abbado?EUR(TM)s work with the orchestras with whom he most frequently collaborated, making use of both recent and archival film footage, including clips of him rehearsing and performing works by Beethoven, Brahms, Bruckner, Debussy, Dvorak, Strauss, Stravinsky, and Nono.
Classic Yo-Yo Ma chronicles Ma's unique work process and legendary performances with rarely seen rehearsal and concert footage from throughout his entire career.
In addition to these exquisite musical selections, the program includes newly-taped interviews with Yo-Yo Ma and his friends and colleagues Daniel Barenboim, Emanuel Ax, Tan Dun and Bobby McFerrin. Yo-Yo Ma is world-renowned for his incomparable artistry and range. His discography of nearly fifty albums includes fourteen Grammy Awards. His remarkable talent and limitless interests have created new boundaries for classical music.
The program highlights Ma's unique ability to explore cultures and musical forms outside the Western classical tradition. His diversity is demonstrated not only through richly nuanced interpretations of Bach, Beethoven , and Brahms , but also Piazzolla, Edgar Meyer , American folk music and Tan Dun .
The 128 musicians of the prestigious Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra have cast their votes: their new Principal Conductor will be Sir Simon Rattle.
He succeeds Claudio Abbado to become the sixth Principal Director in the 2002/2003 season.
The Berliner Philharmoniker is the only symphony orchestra world-wide choosing its principal conductor in its own responsibility. The camera has been following the orchestra since 1999 at auditions, concerts and guest performances and shows the various steps, from the groundwork preceding the election until the final counting of votes.
The most extensive documentation ever produced about this leading orchestra also presents the orchestra as a microcosm of the German society at the end of the 20th century. Excerpts from auditions and interviews with the Major conductors our time, statements by members of the orchestra, important agents and soloists working with him, reveal the significance of this new election and convey an atmosphere of expectation and excitement.
A tribute to Jacqueline du Pre to mark the thirtieth anniversary of her death thirty years ago, on 19 October 1987.
The documentary contains archive footage shot during Jacqueline du Pre's lifetime which captures some glorious and professionally filmed live performances. It also remembers both her personality and her music through the memories and tributes of her closest friends and colleagues including Daniel Barenboim, Pinchas Zukerman, Itzhak Perlman, Toby Perlman, Fou Ts'ong, Zubin Mehta, William Pleeth, Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, Hugh Maguire, Elizabeth Wilson, Cynthia Friend, Charles Beare, Suvi Grubb, Dr Len Selby and Clive Barda.
In the music she is accompanied by Daniel Barenboim, Pinchas Zukerman, Gervase de Peyer, Itzhak Perlman, Zubin Mehta, Janet Baker The New Philharmonia Orchestra and the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra.
There is music by Beethoven, Eccles, Couperin, Clementi, Elgar, Brahms, Offenbach and Bruch . The writer and director is Christopher Nupen who was close to Jacqueline du Pre for more than 20 years and made five films with her during her lifetime.
Mischa Maisky has the distinction of being the only cellist in the world to have studied with both Mstislav Rostropovich and Gregor Piatigorsky. Rostropovich has lauded Mischa Maisky as "one of the most outstanding talents of the younger generation of cellists. His playing combines poetry and exquisite delicacy with great temperament and brilliant technique."
What more appropriate venue for Ildebrando Pizzetti's operatic masterwork of 1958 Assassinio nella Cattedrale than the austere, Romanic Basilica di San Nicola in the southern Italian port city of Bari. A striking coincidence: the action of T.S. Eliot's stage play Murder in the Cathedral, on which the opera is based, takes place in December 1170; the Basilica di San Nicola also dates from the 12th century and was consecrated in 1197.
Pizzetti, one of Italy's leading lyrical composers of the first half of the 20th century, composed several operas, of which Assassinio nella Cattedrale is one of his most famous. It unites all the elements of his lyrical style, including a supple arioso treatment of the text that bears echoes of Debussy's Pelleas et Melisande and of Monteverdi and the Florentine monodists, and also powerful, surging choral movements that are even more breathtaking when performed in a church. Pizzetti's religiosity also manifests itself in his choice of T.S. Eliot's modern-day miracle play about St. Thomas Becket, the Archbishop of Canterbury, who returns from a seven-year exile only to be confronted by various torments, including four temptations; he succumbs to the fourth, the temptation of martyrdom.
Internationally acclaimed bass-baritone Ruggero...
Force of Nature Natalia follows a season in the life of dance superstar Natalia Osipova . With unique access to Natalia's personal archive, we follow her preparations for a fifth season as a principal of The Royal Ballet as she continues to champion contemporary dance with some of the world's greatest choreographers. This compelling portrait chronicles the rehearsal process of two new works, The Mother by Arthur Pita, and Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui's Medussa, and follows legendary ballerina and choreographer Natalia Makarova as she directs a revival of her classic production of La Bayadere for The Royal Ballet.
Natalia opens up about her life and history, her childhood in Russia, her time with American Ballet Theatre and her journey to the Royal Opera House. It is an unparalleled opportunity to get up close and personal with the leading ballerina of our generation and understand why critics and audiences all over the world call her a ''force of nature' of the dance world.
The documentary by Felix Breisach shows the conductor from his private side. He touchingly talks about his fears, aging, his relationship with his wife Alice. His brother Philipp Harnoncourt tells of their childhood and youth, his son Franz describes how he sees his father. In addition, there is the instrumental ensemble Concentus Musicus Wien, founded by Harnoncourt, director's theater and Harnoncourt's love of music.
This program looks at one of the archetypal forms of Russian culture, the fairy-tale. An essential part of Russian childhood, these stories with their princesses, heroes and magical characters are also the inspiration of many of the great Russian ballets, operas, symphonic poems and piano works.
Rodrigo at 90 is an intimate portrait of Spain's best known composer of the 20th century. At the age of ninety, he has lived a life filled with as tragedy as joy, and his belief in demons rivals his belief in God - but his art has maintained an outlook which is as sunny as the land whence it comes.
The legendary Concierto de Aranjuez has never been performed with such sensuality and profundity as by guitarist Pepe Romero and the Academy of St. Martin in the Fields conducted by Sir Neville Marriner. Romero's interpretation is influenced by Rodrigo's recounting of the true story behind this masterpiece: the sadness of the loss of an unborn child mixed with joyous earlier memories of his honeymoon in Aranjuez.
Harry Partch (like his friend Anais Nin) considered his life's work to be a letter to the world. His last act was going to be to add the enclosures. He never got around to it. After 20 years of working on the Partch archives, Philip Blackburn has now completed the seven-part Enclosures series as it were on his behalf.
Enclosure 7 is a monumental tribute to the most significant works of this American original and iconoclast. It includes new versions of his late masterworks and never-before-seen footage that bring us closer to the real Harry behind the myth.
The Dreamer That Remains is a documentary produced by Betty Freeman and directed by Stephen Pouliot in 1972. Here is the director's original cut along with his commentary. If you've never seen Partch or his instruments before, this is the place to start.
Delusion of the Fury was his magnum opus; a lifetime of instrument invention and ideas of ritual theater were poured into this giant work. The 1971 film has been resynched and the soundtrack remastered in 5.1 surround sound.
The CBS LPs of this work came with a bonus album of Harry introducing his instruments. Unavailable for years, this recording features this talk along with a slideshow of the instruments.
Revelation in the Courthouse Park was Harry's...
Herbert von Karajan's story is the story of the record industry itself, which he was instrumental in creating and sustaining over half a century with hundreds of spectacular and award-winning recordings.
His life and his music-making still provoke extreme reactions; in Gernot Friedel's film, made with the help of the Karajan-Centrum in Salzburg, we see the hypnotic effect he could have upon musicians and listeners alike, we hear him in the repertoire for which he was renowned, and we are taken through a life never less than eventful.
"In my opinion, comrades, we really should end the monotony of this Yeah, Yeah, Yeah or whatever they call it" (SED General Secretary Walter Ulbricht about pop music).
As classical music was considered politically harmless in the former GDR, its education was highly encouraged. The regime quickly discovered its great potential for generating valuable cultural exchange — as well as much needed hard currency.
Classical music "made in the GDR" became an export hit for the regime, thanks to, for example, the Staatskapelle Dresden, the Gewandhausorchester Leipzig and renowned artists like Kurt Masur, Peter Schreier, Franz Konwitschny, Kurt Sanderling and Theo Adam.
Through case studies of individuals who lived under the system, "Classical Music & Cold War" explores the fates of both the privileged and the non-privileged, and delivers insight into the influence of the political system on artistic life. The film includes interviews with contemporary witnesses both from GDR and the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG).
Kurt Masur, one of the world's greatest maestros, challenges and teaches the next generation of young musicians and conductors by stretching their limits and transforming their perspectives and abilities. Following master classes around the world over a period of few years, the film is a carefully constructed collage organically interviewing the maestro's teachings and his personal life experiences.
The result is a comprehensive emotional portrait of one of the most respected conductors of our time.
One of the world's foremost violinists, Anne-Sophie Mutter is a musical celebrity known even by countless people who rarely listen to classical music. The artist and teacher, who promotes young musicians and commissions new works from contemporary composers, made her spectacular breakthrough under Herbert von Karajan at the 1977 Salzburg Easter Festival. She has since concertized at every major venue throughout the world. In 2008 she was awarded not only the prestigious Ernst von Siemens Music Award, but also the Leipzig Mendelssohn Award. The award ceremony in March 2008 was crowned by a gala concert at Leipzig's Gewandhaus with the Gewandhaus Orchestra under Kurt Masur, at which Mutter performed the Mendelssohn Violin Concerto in E minor Op. 64.
On the occasion of the Mendelssohn Year, Unitel Classica offers the documentary Anne-Sophie Mutter – Encounters with Mendelssohn, in which the artist discusses her affinity to Mendelssohn and explains why she particularly admires the works presented here.
Celebrated in his day not only as a great composer he was also admired as an outstanding pianist who was a peerless interpreter of his own works including the piano concerti and the Rhapsody on a Theme by Paganini .
It is well known that he was in effect the sole pianist capable of performing his most demanding Third Piano Concerto and his performances and recording of the concerto came to be considered as the definitive ones.
The relationship between performance, interpretation, and Rachmaninoff's own life will be addressed in this documentary by the young pianists interviewed. The program explored the evolution of interpretation over the past few decades, hear brief excerpts of recordings by Rachmaninoff as contrasted with contemporary performances by today's well-known young pianists as they comment on the differences (or similarities) of their approach.
This documentary will be the first to explore performance styles and interpretation of the Rachmaninoff piano repertoire. Viewed from a broad perspective the documentary will focus on the danger of how a musician might be bound and stymied by tradition as opposed to being able to use a knowledge of the past to liberate one's approach and infuse the performances with the same sense of improvisatory freedom with which...
This documentary brings the Russian composer to the present - radically: Based on Tchaikovsky's diaries and letters, director Ralf Pleger discovers an entirely new side and sketches an entirely different profile of the man whose mind and talent brought us Swan Lake .
The film focuses on what it meant for Tchaikovsky, a homosexual man, to have to live his life in a homophobic environment - considerations that are all the more relevant and topical in light of recent developments not only in present day Russia, but also in the light of a still present homophobia in the so-called "liberal" Western countries.
Carlo Gesualdo - beastly murderer and divine composer - is one of the most striking figures in the history of music. Based on his dramatic honour killing, the film tells the story of multifaceted, revolutionary music and the search for forgiveness.
Gesualdo, 47, is the Prince of Venosa, a musical genius and insomniac. Every night he lies awake, haunted by the gruesome act he committed on the 16th of October 1590. Developing from this opening sequence, the documentary tells the story of this extraordinary character, well-illustrated through visits to the original settings in Naples and the village of Gesualdo, as well as enacted scenes.
Through the power of music, the film explores the thin line between fascination and disgust. How is it possible to commit a capital crime, yet write divine music? Are crime and genius interwoven? And can salvation through music be achieved?
Unlike the piano, the violin or even the flute, the oboe is a relatively rare instrument for a solo career. And when a soloist such as Albrecht Mayer plays the oboe, one wishes composers had written more works for this sweetly mellow instrument. Critics write about the "divine spark" that inspires his playing, and about the "miraculous oboe" that turns into "an instrument of seduction." With his particularly warm tone and exceptionally broad palette of nuances, it's no surprise that Albrecht Mayer is one of today's most sought-after international oboists.
In this documentary portrait of the oboist, we retrace the musician's impressive career and witness some of its many high points. Mayer embarked on a professional career in 1990, when he joined the Bamberg Symphony Orchestra as solo oboist. Two years later, he made the transition to the absolute top league with his appointment as solo oboist of the Berlin Philharmonic, and since then he has made countless international appearances, playing under such eminent conductors as Abbado, Rattle and Harnoncourt. In addition to his work as a soloist, Mayer also attaches great importance to chamber music. He is a permanent member of the Sabine Meyer Wind Ensemble and also plays with such partners as Thomas Quasthoff, Matthias Goerne...
Steeped in nostalgia, in his Danbury childhood and the New England Transcendentalists with whom he profoundly identified, in the American experience of race which he absorbed from his Abolitionist grandparents, Ives used the past with consummate empathy and brave artistry. A musical Whitman or Melville, he embodies the American trope of the 'self-made genius', heeding Emerson's call to cut the cultural umbilical cord with Europe, forging an original path. The music at hand here includes his Second Symphony (a milestones in culling the vernacular to set beside Huckleberry Finn ), The Housatonic at Stockridge (possibly the most sublime nature reverie in the American orchestral repertoire), and The St Gaudens in Boston Common (a singular ghost dirge in tribute to Colonel Robert Gould Shaw's Black Civil War regiment). Also heard portions of Ive's Concord Sonata performed by Steven Mayer (an interpretation seasoned by a lifetime of advocacy) and half a dozen Ives songs peerlessly sung (in live performance with Paul Sanchez) by William Sharp. The commentators include the Ives scholars J. Peter Burkholder and Judith Tick, and the conductor James Sinclair
Presented for the first time in 2010, with the artistic direction of Diemut Poppen and under the initiative of Goethe Institute, Festival Cantabile occurs yearly, during the month of September in the city of Lisbon, and is one of the most important festivals of chamber music in the country.
Festival Cantabile, The art of Chamber Music , offers a variety of classical and modern repertoires to the Portuguese people, in particular habitants of the Lisbon region, connecting periods of time and crossing pieces of classical masters with contemporary composers such as Rihm, Ligeti, Kurtag, Kancheli and the Portuguese Antonio Pinho Vargas and Luis Tinoco .
https://en.cantabilefest.pt/festival-cantabile
Classic Yo-Yo Ma chronicles Ma's unique work process and legendary performances with rarely seen rehearsal and concert footage from throughout his entire career.
In addition to these exquisite musical selections, the program includes newly-taped interviews with Yo-Yo Ma and his friends and colleagues Daniel Barenboim, Emanuel Ax, Tan Dun and Bobby McFerrin. Yo-Yo Ma is world-renowned for his incomparable artistry and range. His discography of nearly fifty albums includes fourteen Grammy Awards. His remarkable talent and limitless interests have created new boundaries for classical music.
The program highlights Ma's unique ability to explore cultures and musical forms outside the Western classical tradition. His diversity is demonstrated not only through richly nuanced interpretations of Bach, Beethoven , and Brahms , but also Piazzolla, Edgar Meyer , American folk music and Tan Dun .
This video contains a Christopher Nupen film about the most charismatic performer in the entire history of Western classical music EUR" also the most talked about, the most controversial, the most famous and the most successful classical soloist that the world of music has ever known.
The story is astonishing, exciting, wildly unusual and, at the end, deeply touching. It is one of the most extraordinary tales in the history of music and it is told with all the Nupen finesse and commitment that have won him DVD of the Year Award four times in the past six years.
In the recording, Christopher Nupen looks at the legend and the strange man who created it with his dazzling combination of technical brilliance, supreme showmanship, Italian melody and unbridled manipulative skill EUR" a man whose extraordinary personality unsettled even the most sophisticated and educated minds and provoked wildly contradictory opinions.
It presents Paganini's music, shot and edited in the style developed by Christopher Nupen and his colleagues for their prize winning DVDs about Sibelius, Schubert and Tchaikovsky and combines it with extracts from Paganini's letters and quotations from both his admirers and his many detractors.
The 128 musicians of the prestigious Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra have cast their votes: their new Principal Conductor will be Sir Simon Rattle.
He succeeds Claudio Abbado to become the sixth Principal Director in the 2002/2003 season.
The Berliner Philharmoniker is the only symphony orchestra world-wide choosing its principal conductor in its own responsibility. The camera has been following the orchestra since 1999 at auditions, concerts and guest performances and shows the various steps, from the groundwork preceding the election until the final counting of votes.
The most extensive documentation ever produced about this leading orchestra also presents the orchestra as a microcosm of the German society at the end of the 20th century. Excerpts from auditions and interviews with the Major conductors our time, statements by members of the orchestra, important agents and soloists working with him, reveal the significance of this new election and convey an atmosphere of expectation and excitement.
Richard Strauss' orchestral works contain a wealth of autobiographical allusions. This is equally true of the whimsical tone-poem Till Eulenspiegel , opus 28, which was completed in 1895. Strauss felt badly treated by the public in his home town of Munich, because his neo-Wagnerian opera Guntram had closed after only a single performance. In fact he had already planned a one-act stage work about the pranks of the legendary rascal Till Eulenspiegel and his 'victims', the town of Schilda's narrow-minded petit bourgeois citizens. The openly programmatic composition with its phenomenal audacity and unique demands on orchestral technique simultaneously shocked and delighted his public.
Zubin Mehta is undoubtedly one of the great conductors of our time, equally at home in opera houses and on the concert platform. This program records a relaxed interview he gave at his home in Los Angeles, looking back over his career and reflecting on what makes his "mystical profession" such a unique phenomenon.
Mehta's great love of music and his charismatic personality inform this vibrant, music-filled program, which shows him in rehearsal and in performance.
The State Opera is the first film ever made about the Bavarian State Opera, one of the world's oldest, most prestigious and internationally esteemed companies. It charts the course of three operas - Die Meistersinger von Nurnberg , Les Indes galantes and Un ballo in maschera - as they come to life on the stage.
We meet some of the great singers, such as Jonas Kaufmann and Anja Harteros, in performance and behind the scenes, as well as artistic directors past and present, and two of the music directors in Kirill Petrenko and his predecessor Zubin Mehta. As both a celebration and an exploration, this entertaining film is a declaration of love for the operatic form.
This documentary brings the Russian composer to the present - radically: Based on Tchaikovsky's diaries and letters, director Ralf Pleger discovers an entirely new side and sketches an entirely different profile of the man whose mind and talent brought us Swan Lake .
The film focuses on what it meant for Tchaikovsky, a homosexual man, to have to live his life in a homophobic environment - considerations that are all the more relevant and topical in light of recent developments not only in present day Russia, but also in the light of a still present homophobia in the so-called "liberal" Western countries.
American choreographer Agnes de Mille (1909-93) is best-known for her cowboy ballet Rodeo and her choreography for the original Broadway show and film of Oklahoma. A profile, made when this grand old lady of dance was in her seventies, shows her still energetically rehearsing Rodeo with American Ballet Theatre dancers. She talks in interview about her life and influences and her earlier career is illustrated with archive film.
This Christopher Nupen film belongs to a long line of memorable portraits of the great performers. It is the product of a close friendship between a dedicated filmmaker and one of the finest violinists of the twentieth century, and it contains the only portrait film ever made with Nathan Milstein. It was shot in the autumn of the longest career in the history of solo violin playing; seventy-three years lay between Milstein’s first appearance with Glazunov conducting and his last recital in the Berwaldhallen in Stockholm in 1986. That legendary recital provides most of the music for this film. Milstein's partner was the French pianist Georges Pludermacher, with whom he had worked for more than twenty years.
Nathan Milstein was an astonishing eighty-two years old at the time of the recital, yet he still played as the grandest of grand masters, and as surely no other violinist has ever played at that age. This film will be of interest to virtually every student of the violin.
This Christopher Nupen film belongs to a long line of memorable portraits of the great performers. It is the product of a close friendship between a dedicated filmmaker and one of the finest violinists of the twentieth century, and it contains the only portrait film ever made with Nathan Milstein. It was shot in the autumn of the longest career in the history of solo violin playing; seventy-three years lay between MilsteinEUR(TM)s first appearance with Glazunov conducting and his last recital in the Berwaldhallen in Stockholm in 1986. That legendary recital provides most of the music for this film. Milstein's partner was the French pianist Georges Pludermacher, with whom he had worked for more than twenty years.
Nathan Milstein was an astonishing eighty-two years old at the time of the recital, yet he still played as the grandest of grand masters, and as surely no other violinist has ever played at that age. This film will be of interest to virtually every student of the violin.
Walter Scott was a prolific and passionate storyteller who saw an understanding of the past as the key to getting along in the present. His canvas was usually the history of Scotland but his means were such that he found an audience throughout the literary world. He was as much loved in foreign translations as he was in English. The program covers his eventful life and is followed by an overview of his extensive output. Scott was born in Edinburgh in 1771. His father was a successful lawyer. In childhood he contracted polio which lamed him for life. He was not a very successful pupil at Edinburgh High School but went to the university to qualify as a lawyer. Writing poetry and novels soon became the activity for which he became world famous. He died in his beloved home of Abbotsford in the Scottish Borders in 1832.
William Wordsworth was born in Cockermouth in the Lake District in 1770. His father ran the estate of a local landowner and the family lived in a large and comfortable house. He was well educated at the grammar school in nearby Hawkshead and he went to St John's College Cambridge in 1737. He lived most of his life in his beloved Lake District enjoying the fame he achieved as the greatest poet of the romantic age.
Harry Partch (like his friend Anais Nin) considered his life's work to be a letter to the world. His last act was going to be to add the enclosures. He never got around to it. After 20 years of working on the Partch archives, Philip Blackburn has now completed the seven-part Enclosures series as it were on his behalf.
Enclosure 7 is a monumental tribute to the most significant works of this American original and iconoclast. It includes new versions of his late masterworks and never-before-seen footage that bring us closer to the real Harry behind the myth.
The Dreamer That Remains is a documentary produced by Betty Freeman and directed by Stephen Pouliot in 1972. Here is the director's original cut along with his commentary. If you've never seen Partch or his instruments before, this is the place to start.
Delusion of the Fury was his magnum opus; a lifetime of instrument invention and ideas of ritual theater were poured into this giant work. The 1971 film has been resynched and the soundtrack remastered in 5.1 surround sound.
The CBS LPs of this work came with a bonus album of Harry introducing his instruments. Unavailable for years, this recording features this talk along with a slideshow of the instruments.
Revelation in the Courthouse Park was Harry's...
In 1985 Philip Blackburn climbed the stairs to an attic in Iowa City and started trying to make sense of the boxes piled up there. They contained a composer's life's work: scrapbooks, tapes, photos, letters, scores, and film reels - fragile treasures documenting the twentieth century from a most unusual viewpoint, that of perhaps the world's most original musician: Harry Partch.
The idea was to publish them and reveal Harry to the world on his own terms. Not as the crabby, homeless, self-taught microtonal musical weirdo and instrument maker, but as that most American of all artists, a truly independent thinker. With Enclosure 8, the work of bringing them to public attention reaches its apotheosis.
The Enclosures series (named for the extras Partch wanted to add to his life-long letter to the world) started appearing in 1995 with a VHS video of four films made in collaboration with the Chicago-based filmmaker Madeline Tourtelot. Four CDs, two years and one book later, Enclosure 4 appeared featuring his later films: Delusion of the Fury (his culminating ritual-theater work) and a San Diego Public TV documentary, also on VHS. Now the time has come for these to be issued on DVD, extensively restored, resynched and digitally remastered from the extant original prints....
Virtuosity searches for the musical souls of the most gifted young pianists on the planet as they try to make a name for themselves of the 2013 Van Cliburn International Piano Competition. The pressure on these kids is overwhelming because the stakes are so high: prize money, concert bookings, a recording contract, a career.
At the heart of this story is the courage is takes for 20-year-old to go onstage alone before 2,000 people, and hundreds of thousands more online, and play a unique interpretation of one of the most difficult pieces ever written for the piano. The Competition requires not only a transcendent musical ability, but a mental toughness that must sustain the soloist through three straight weeks of performance. The Cliburn becomes as much a test of character as a musical proving ground.
Through his particular combination of scholarship and inspired musicianship, John Eliot Gardiner has won international acclaim as a key figure in the revival of early music. His concert performances and recordings with the ensembles he has founded - the Monteverdi Choir, the English Baroque Soloists and the Orchestra Revolutionnaire et Romantique - are unmistakable, not just for their zest and technical mastery, but as highly personal readings of music from Monteverdi to Verdi and beyond.
When the Fire Burns is a musical documentary portrait shot throughout Spain and Argentina. The film captures the rich sensuality of Manuel de Falla's music. Directed by Larry Weinstein, the film music combines night-time footage of the Alhambra, the Moorish palace and gardens atop the hills of Granada, with a stunning performance of de Falla's masterpiece by pianist Alicia de Larrocha
What more appropriate venue for Ildebrando Pizzetti's operatic masterwork of 1958 Assassinio nella Cattedrale than the austere, Romanic Basilica di San Nicola in the southern Italian port city of Bari. A striking coincidence: the action of T.S. Eliot's stage play Murder in the Cathedral, on which the opera is based, takes place in December 1170; the Basilica di San Nicola also dates from the 12th century and was consecrated in 1197.
Pizzetti, one of Italy's leading lyrical composers of the first half of the 20th century, composed several operas, of which Assassinio nella Cattedrale is one of his most famous. It unites all the elements of his lyrical style, including a supple arioso treatment of the text that bears echoes of Debussy's Pelleas et Melisande and of Monteverdi and the Florentine monodists, and also powerful, surging choral movements that are even more breathtaking when performed in a church. Pizzetti's religiosity also manifests itself in his choice of T.S. Eliot's modern-day miracle play about St. Thomas Becket, the Archbishop of Canterbury, who returns from a seven-year exile only to be confronted by various torments, including four temptations; he succumbs to the fourth, the temptation of martyrdom.
Internationally acclaimed bass-baritone Ruggero...
This program looks at one of the archetypal forms of Russian culture, the fairy-tale. An essential part of Russian childhood, these stories with their princesses, heroes and magical characters are also the inspiration of many of the great Russian ballets, operas, symphonic poems and piano works.
Russia is at once devoutly Christian and deeply pagan. Both faith and magic were stuffed into the deep-freeze by the Soviets. What has emerged since the thaw is inspiring and alarming in equal measure. Program Two shows how the obsession with things spiritual is in all Russian Music
Throughout Russian history there has been a love/hate relationship with her neighbors, oscillating between fear and loathing, envy and imitation. This final program in the series travels from the edge of the one-time empire to the heart of Russia and reveal that the cultural and musical impact of these conflicts has been vast, colorful and searing.
Conductor Franz Welser-Most, director Sven-Eric Bechtolf and singers Laura Aiken, Alfred Muff, Rolf Haunstein, Steve Davislim and Peter Straka contribute to a programme introducing Berg's complex masterpiece.
Force of Nature Natalia follows a season in the life of dance superstar Natalia Osipova . With unique access to Natalia's personal archive, we follow her preparations for a fifth season as a principal of The Royal Ballet as she continues to champion contemporary dance with some of the world's greatest choreographers. This compelling portrait chronicles the rehearsal process of two new works, The Mother by Arthur Pita, and Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui's Medussa, and follows legendary ballerina and choreographer Natalia Makarova as she directs a revival of her classic production of La Bayadere for The Royal Ballet.
Natalia opens up about her life and history, her childhood in Russia, her time with American Ballet Theatre and her journey to the Royal Opera House. It is an unparalleled opportunity to get up close and personal with the leading ballerina of our generation and understand why critics and audiences all over the world call her a ''force of nature' of the dance world.
Several luminaries can claim to have invented the gramophone. Only one man made mass duplication of discs possible - Emil Berliner . As a result, a major new industry came into being.
In this video tracing the evolution of sound recording, his grandson, Oliver, tells the story of his life and his achievement. Caruso and other great performers are heard in early recordings, and contributors, including John Eliot Gardiner, Pierre Boulez, and Anne-Sophie Mutter, comment on the pros and cons of today's advanced technology.
Herbert von Karajan's story is the story of the record industry itself, which he was instrumental in creating and sustaining over half a century with hundreds of spectacular and award-winning recordings.
His life and his music-making still provoke extreme reactions; in Gernot Friedel's film, made with the help of the Karajan-Centrum in Salzburg, we see the hypnotic effect he could have upon musicians and listeners alike, we hear him in the repertoire for which he was renowned, and we are taken through a life never less than eventful.
One of the world's foremost violinists, Anne-Sophie Mutter is a musical celebrity known even by countless people who rarely listen to classical music. The artist and teacher, who promotes young musicians and commissions new works from contemporary composers, made her spectacular breakthrough under Herbert von Karajan at the 1977 Salzburg Easter Festival. She has since concertized at every major venue throughout the world. In 2008 she was awarded not only the prestigious Ernst von Siemens Music Award, but also the Leipzig Mendelssohn Award. The award ceremony in March 2008 was crowned by a gala concert at Leipzig's Gewandhaus with the Gewandhaus Orchestra under Kurt Masur, at which Mutter performed the Mendelssohn Violin Concerto in E minor Op. 64.
On the occasion of the Mendelssohn Year, Unitel Classica offers the documentary Anne-Sophie Mutter – Encounters with Mendelssohn, in which the artist discusses her affinity to Mendelssohn and explains why she particularly admires the works presented here.
Anne-Sophie Mutter is one of the greatest musicians of our age and for the last five decades has appeared at the world's leading concert venues. In addition to premiering 31 new works from leading composers, she is an inspiring mentor, has promoted top young musicians and fostered numerous charitable projects. In this documentary, she meets figures she admires, such as tennis star Roger Federer, as well as Daniel Barenboim, legendary film composer John Williams, and others. Anne-Sophie Mutter talks candidly about her personal life and the demands of her international career. This unprecedented portrait of a socially active artist is supplemented by archive material from her stellar career.
Shelley was born in 1792 in a house in Surrey on the estate of his grandfather Sir Bysshe Shelley. He was educated at Syon House Academy in London and at Eton. In 1810 he went to University College Oxford and published his first poems. He was expelled from Oxford and lived variously in England and Italy where he died in a sailing accident off Leghorn in 1822 when he was thirty. He was much engaged by social politics and this is reflected unusually in his work.
Munich's court theater was the venue for the premiere of Mozart's Idomeneo on 29 January 1781; today, it hosts another premiere of this same work to celebrate the reopening of this sparkling Rococo gem of a theater, now known after its architect as the Cuvilliés Theater. Restored at the cost of over 25 million euros, the theater provides an exultant red, gold and white setting for Mozart's opera seria, which is considered as the first of the seven uncontested masterworks of his dramatic oeuvre.
Drama keynotes Idomeneo, which is drenched in endless despair, the constant threat of death, and the destructive passions of jealousy and hatred. For having saved his life, King Idomeneo promises Neptune to sacrifice the first person he encounters. Unfortunately, this happens to be his son Idamante, who is torn between two women: the Trojan Princess Ilia, whom he loves, and the Greek Princess Elettra, who desperately wants to marry him and ascend the throne.
Mozart's highly expressive music is given a passionate reading by conductor Kent Nagano, who leads his singers and players with brisk energy. The dark, full sound of the Bayerisches Staatsorchester provides lush underpinnings for the bravura arias and glittering coloraturas. In the title role, John Mark Ainsley tackles his...
This program by Malcolm Hossick explores the life and work of the Chinese sage known to the west as Confucius . He did not found a religion and there is nothing about what he said which we have to believe. But the ideas about government and how humans should behave if they wish to live a frutiful life have coloured Chinese life throughout its history. The program explores his background and ideas and how even today Confucius is a powerful force for good in Chinese society.
This program looks at one of the archetypal forms of Russian culture, the fairy-tale. An essential part of Russian childhood, these stories with their princesses, heroes and magical characters are also the inspiration of many of the great Russian ballets, operas, symphonic poems and piano works.
A major force in contemporary music, Pierre Boulez is committed to the expansion and recreation of musical language. This documentary looks at his work, in particular the creation of Repons , which was heralded as the Signal of "a new age of instrumental achievement" (Financial Times). Boulez is seen rehearsing at his Paris laboratory for new music (IRCAM). He talks about his experimentation, the difficulties involved in communicating his ideas, and the post-war composers who have influenced him.
This program looks at one of the archetypal forms of Russian culture, the fairy-tale. An essential part of Russian childhood, these stories with their princesses, heroes and magical characters are also the inspiration of many of the great Russian ballets, operas, symphonic poems and piano works.
Proust wrote a remarkable and very long novel called La Recheche de Temps Perdue, translated usually as Remembrance of Things Past. It's size and reputaiton for density and incomprehensibility mean that not many folk take it on. This is a great pity as once you have started reading it is hard not to be drawn into Proust's world. This is because you will find yourself there in it's huge cast of sensitively drawn characters. The film explores how he did it and is followed by an overview of his work. Proust was born the son of a wealthy Parisian doctor and had an easy entry into the higher echelons of French society. His knowledge of this world was the background to the astonishing series of novels called A La Recherche du Temps Perdu (Remembrance of Things Past). He did not have an early success but by the end of his life it was recognized that his work - sensitive, searching, amusing and amazingly perceptive about how humans work - was in a class of its own. The program traces his unusual life and ends with an overview of his works.
A documentary on Pierre Boulez and his work Eclat . Eclat is a real study of resonance written for fifteen instruments and created in 1965.
This program looks at one of the archetypal forms of Russian culture, the fairy-tale. An essential part of Russian childhood, these stories with their princesses, heroes and magical characters are also the inspiration of many of the great Russian ballets, operas, symphonic poems and piano works.
Blame it on the Russian Revolution: it took Sergey Prokofiev (1891–1953) only a few months to write his early opera The Gambler between October 1915 and March 1916, but problems arose during rehearsals in January 1917, and the premiere in St. Petersburg (then Petrograd) had to be cancelled when the first revolution broke out in February. This first version of the work was never heard, since the composer revised the tempestuous score eleven years later, reducing it and eliminating what he considered "padding." The work was premiered in this version in Brussels in 1929.
Based on Dostoyevsky’s novel of the same name, The Gambler is a dark study of human failings and the corruptive power of money. In this work, everyone gambles: the hero Alexey, the General and even the wealthy aunt Babulenka gamble with money; Blanche, the Marquis and Polina – who loves Alexey – gamble with their fellow human beings. The results are humiliation, ruin and self-delusion. But when the Staatskapelle Berlin under world-famous conductor Daniel Barenboim provide the orchestral sound to the full, lustrous voices of Vladimir Ognovenko, Kristine Opolais, Misha Didyk, Stefania Toczyska and their colleagues, there is nothing even remotely dismal about the opera or its...
The Hazel Wright Organ at Christ Cathedral in Garden Grove, California, is an icon of the musical world with a unique history. This is her story.
The Diocese of Orange and The Gothic Catalog are pleased to present Hazel Is Back: Restoring an Icon , a documentary about the history and restoration of the Hazel Wright Organ.
Hazel, as the organ is affectionately called, is the world's most widely heard pipe organ, with more than 17,000 pipes, over 300 stops and nearly 300 ranks. First built in 1982 and heard worldwide by millions on the Rev. Robert Schuller's Hour of Power broadcast from the former Crystal Cathedral, Hazel now enjoys a renewed musical life following her full restoration in 2022 by Diocese of Orange.
It became a remarkable documentary, a compilation of the different renditions, rehearsals and performances of Roger Norrington with the SWR Stuttgart Radio Symphony Orchestra. In this video, Norrington ventures into Romantic music, featuring a documentary of Tchaikovsky's Pathetique and the music of Richard Wagner. Details of each work are explained and narrated by Roger Norrington himself.
Throughout his adult life, composer Robert Schumann (1810-1856) struggled against a fear of mental disintegration. His Symphony No. 2 in C Major, Op. 61 was written in 1845 while he was recovering from a breakdown and contains an illustration of how his creative daemons, the heroic, high-spirited Florestan, and the brooding, poetic Eusebius, came into conflict in his music, with its combination of power and intimate lyricism. Focusing on the Second Symphony, this film uses a dynamic interaction between rehearsal footage and dramatized sequences to give a penetrating insight into the composer's complex and fractured genius.
The Schumann Encounter finds Sir Roger Norrington in Salzburg to rehearse and perform the Symphony No. 2 with the Camerata Academica, one of Europe's leading chamber orchestras. Snatching some rest before the evening's concert with the Camerata Academica, he is aware of an argument in progress in the adjoining hotel room. He falls asleep only to awake in another reality, transformed into Master Raro the mediator between Florestan and Eusebius, both played by Simon Callow (Amadeus, Shakespeare in Love) who are at odds over the composition of the Second Symphony.
Five Holocaust survivors, a boychoir, and a chamber music group unite to tell the story of the secret concentration camp journal created under the nose of the Nazis.
The uplifting documentary is testament to the way that the drive for creativity cannot be stifled, even under the most challenging conditions. Risking their lives, the teenage residents of Home, a children's concentration camp, created a magazine called Vedem that chronicled their daily lives through essays, poems and pictures. The last boy to remain at Terezin buried all 800 pages, retrieving the manuscript after liberation. In 2010, Music of Remembrance commissioned Vedem , an oratorio based on the boys' experiences, to be performed by the Seattle Boychoir.
After his first two operas Oberto and Un giorno di regno, Verdi fell into a depression that dissipated only when he was shown the libretto to Nabucco and discovered the chorus "Va, pensiero." The words sung by the Hebrew exiles made an indelible impression on the composer, who also saw the political potential within them: an echo of the Italians' longing for freedom and a unified nation. The work was premiered at the Teatro alla Scala on 9 March 1842 and was an enormous success. The story of the Babylonian king and the captive Israelites struck a patriotic chord in the hearts of the Milan audiences and swiftly carried Verdi's name throughout Italy and the rest of the world. Nabucco has long been at home in the Arena di Verona, and for many, the "Va, pensiero" chorus is, along with the triumphal march from Aida, the very embodiment of the Verona experience. This video production vividly captures this unique experience and provides the viewer with fascinating details that escape many of the Arena's spectators. Stage director Denis Krief casts the work in a sparse modern setting, providing a highly effective showcase for the true heroes of the evening, the singers under conductor Daniel Oren. "Nuanced and temperamental, Daniel Oren's interpretation dazzles with...
Force of Nature Natalia follows a season in the life of dance superstar Natalia Osipova . With unique access to Natalia's personal archive, we follow her preparations for a fifth season as a principal of The Royal Ballet as she continues to champion contemporary dance with some of the world's greatest choreographers. This compelling portrait chronicles the rehearsal process of two new works, The Mother by Arthur Pita, and Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui's Medussa, and follows legendary ballerina and choreographer Natalia Makarova as she directs a revival of her classic production of La Bayadere for The Royal Ballet.
Natalia opens up about her life and history, her childhood in Russia, her time with American Ballet Theatre and her journey to the Royal Opera House. It is an unparalleled opportunity to get up close and personal with the leading ballerina of our generation and understand why critics and audiences all over the world call her a ''force of nature' of the dance world.
A tribute to Jacqueline du Pre to mark the thirtieth anniversary of her death thirty years ago, on 19 October 1987.
The documentary contains archive footage shot during Jacqueline du Pre's lifetime which captures some glorious and professionally filmed live performances. It also remembers both her personality and her music through the memories and tributes of her closest friends and colleagues including Daniel Barenboim, Pinchas Zukerman, Itzhak Perlman, Toby Perlman, Fou Ts'ong, Zubin Mehta, William Pleeth, Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, Hugh Maguire, Elizabeth Wilson, Cynthia Friend, Charles Beare, Suvi Grubb, Dr Len Selby and Clive Barda.
In the music she is accompanied by Daniel Barenboim, Pinchas Zukerman, Gervase de Peyer, Itzhak Perlman, Zubin Mehta, Janet Baker The New Philharmonia Orchestra and the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra.
There is music by Beethoven, Eccles, Couperin, Clementi, Elgar, Brahms, Offenbach and Bruch . The writer and director is Christopher Nupen who was close to Jacqueline du Pre for more than 20 years and made five films with her during her lifetime.
This video contains a Christopher Nupen film about the most charismatic performer in the entire history of Western classical music EUR" also the most talked about, the most controversial, the most famous and the most successful classical soloist that the world of music has ever known.
The story is astonishing, exciting, wildly unusual and, at the end, deeply touching. It is one of the most extraordinary tales in the history of music and it is told with all the Nupen finesse and commitment that have won him DVD of the Year Award four times in the past six years.
In the recording, Christopher Nupen looks at the legend and the strange man who created it with his dazzling combination of technical brilliance, supreme showmanship, Italian melody and unbridled manipulative skill EUR" a man whose extraordinary personality unsettled even the most sophisticated and educated minds and provoked wildly contradictory opinions.
It presents Paganini's music, shot and edited in the style developed by Christopher Nupen and his colleagues for their prize winning DVDs about Sibelius, Schubert and Tchaikovsky and combines it with extracts from Paganini's letters and quotations from both his admirers and his many detractors.
Katie Derham introduces highlights from the past ten years at the Royal Ballet in this special, extended edition of Essential Royal Ballet.
Presented on location in Covent Garden at the iconic Royal Opera House, Katie weaves the history of ballet through carefully curated excerpts from the past decade of performances and goes behind the scenes to see what it takes to be a dancer in the company of The Royal Ballet as they prepare to take to the stage.
From the great classics of The Sleeping Beauty and The Nutcracker to the exciting frontiers of contemporary dance, Katie takes us on a romp through the repertory, showcasing the diversity of the UK's biggest ballet company.
With stunning solos, passionate pas de deux and jaw-dropping numbers for the corps de ballet, it is a chance to see your favourite dancers up close, including Carlos Acosta, Marianela Nunez, Natalia Osipova and Steven McRae, alongside rising stars like Francesca Hayward and Matthew Ball, who will introduce their favourite ballets and share stories of their life on the stage.
The ballets featured include the classics Giselle, La Bayadere, Swan Lake, The Sleeping Beauty and The Nutcracker while the 20th-century heritage of the Royal Ballet is explored in works by Frederick Ashton and Kenneth MacMillan...
Music, Mon Amour delves into the secret of a grand passion – the love of music. What makes it irresistible? Why can't we live without music? In Music, Mon Amour we embark on a search for clues – together with the Israeli singer Yasmin Levy, the Japanese violinist Midori and the German composer Helmut Oehring. They reveal their deep love of music and talk of the joy and despair that go with it. Their accounts, intimate and affecting, and from widely differing perspectives, convey their existential and contradictory relationship to music.
Blame it on the Russian Revolution: it took Sergey Prokofiev (1891–1953) only a few months to write his early opera The Gambler between October 1915 and March 1916, but problems arose during rehearsals in January 1917, and the premiere in St. Petersburg (then Petrograd) had to be cancelled when the first revolution broke out in February. This first version of the work was never heard, since the composer revised the tempestuous score eleven years later, reducing it and eliminating what he considered "padding." The work was premiered in this version in Brussels in 1929.
Based on Dostoyevsky’s novel of the same name, The Gambler is a dark study of human failings and the corruptive power of money. In this work, everyone gambles: the hero Alexey, the General and even the wealthy aunt Babulenka gamble with money; Blanche, the Marquis and Polina – who loves Alexey – gamble with their fellow human beings. The results are humiliation, ruin and self-delusion. But when the Staatskapelle Berlin under world-famous conductor Daniel Barenboim provide the orchestral sound to the full, lustrous voices of Vladimir Ognovenko, Kristine Opolais, Misha Didyk, Stefania Toczyska and their colleagues, there is nothing even remotely dismal about the opera or its...
Russia's whole history has been marked by cycles of bloodshed and especially by the torturing and killing of its own people. There is a pattern of self-destruction that the country does not seem to be able to escape and Russian music endlessly explores the tragic repetitions of its history. Program Four investigates, musically and visually, the legacy of tyranny in Russia.
Russia's whole history has been marked by cycles of bloodshed and especially by the torturing and killing of its own people. There is a pattern of self-destruction that the country does not seem to be able to escape and Russian music endlessly explores the tragic repetitions of its history. Program Four investigates, musically and visually, the legacy of tyranny in Russia.
Blame it on the Russian Revolution: it took Sergey Prokofiev (1891–1953) only a few months to write his early opera The Gambler between October 1915 and March 1916, but problems arose during rehearsals in January 1917, and the premiere in St. Petersburg (then Petrograd) had to be cancelled when the first revolution broke out in February. This first version of the work was never heard, since the composer revised the tempestuous score eleven years later, reducing it and eliminating what he considered "padding." The work was premiered in this version in Brussels in 1929.
Based on Dostoyevsky’s novel of the same name, The Gambler is a dark study of human failings and the corruptive power of money. In this work, everyone gambles: the hero Alexey, the General and even the wealthy aunt Babulenka gamble with money; Blanche, the Marquis and Polina – who loves Alexey – gamble with their fellow human beings. The results are humiliation, ruin and self-delusion. But when the Staatskapelle Berlin under world-famous conductor Daniel Barenboim provide the orchestral sound to the full, lustrous voices of Vladimir Ognovenko, Kristine Opolais, Misha Didyk, Stefania Toczyska and their colleagues, there is nothing even remotely dismal about the opera or its...
This video contains a Christopher Nupen film about the most charismatic performer in the entire history of Western classical music EUR" also the most talked about, the most controversial, the most famous and the most successful classical soloist that the world of music has ever known.
The story is astonishing, exciting, wildly unusual and, at the end, deeply touching. It is one of the most extraordinary tales in the history of music and it is told with all the Nupen finesse and commitment that have won him DVD of the Year Award four times in the past six years.
In the recording, Christopher Nupen looks at the legend and the strange man who created it with his dazzling combination of technical brilliance, supreme showmanship, Italian melody and unbridled manipulative skill EUR" a man whose extraordinary personality unsettled even the most sophisticated and educated minds and provoked wildly contradictory opinions.
It presents Paganini's music, shot and edited in the style developed by Christopher Nupen and his colleagues for their prize winning DVDs about Sibelius, Schubert and Tchaikovsky and combines it with extracts from Paganini's letters and quotations from both his admirers and his many detractors.
Two hundred orchestral musicians are playing Orff's Carmina Burana in total darkness. A power cut has hit the Ngiri Ngiri district of Kinshasa, only a few bars before the last section of the work. Kinshasa's power stations and main networks are insufficient to supply electricity to all the 8 million inhabitants of what is Africa's third-largest city. Once again the lights have gone out in the "Salle des fêtes", a kind of open garage where the orchestra practises. But for its members this is no reason to stop rehearsing. Most of them know their parts by heart. Small lapses of memory are compensated for by a talent for improvisation and the grace of God.
After his first two operas Oberto and Un giorno di regno, Verdi fell into a depression that dissipated only when he was shown the libretto to Nabucco and discovered the chorus "Va, pensiero." The words sung by the Hebrew exiles made an indelible impression on the composer, who also saw the political potential within them: an echo of the Italians' longing for freedom and a unified nation. The work was premiered at the Teatro alla Scala on 9 March 1842 and was an enormous success. The story of the Babylonian king and the captive Israelites struck a patriotic chord in the hearts of the Milan audiences and swiftly carried Verdi's name throughout Italy and the rest of the world. Nabucco has long been at home in the Arena di Verona, and for many, the "Va, pensiero" chorus is, along with the triumphal march from Aida, the very embodiment of the Verona experience. This video production vividly captures this unique experience and provides the viewer with fascinating details that escape many of the Arena's spectators. Stage director Denis Krief casts the work in a sparse modern setting, providing a highly effective showcase for the true heroes of the evening, the singers under conductor Daniel Oren. "Nuanced and temperamental, Daniel Oren's interpretation dazzles with...
Anne-Sophie Mutter is one of the greatest musicians of our age and for the last five decades has appeared at the world's leading concert venues. In addition to premiering 31 new works from leading composers, she is an inspiring mentor, has promoted top young musicians and fostered numerous charitable projects. In this documentary, she meets figures she admires, such as tennis star Roger Federer, as well as Daniel Barenboim, legendary film composer John Williams, and others. Anne-Sophie Mutter talks candidly about her personal life and the demands of her international career. This unprecedented portrait of a socially active artist is supplemented by archive material from her stellar career.
Force of Nature Natalia follows a season in the life of dance superstar Natalia Osipova . With unique access to Natalia's personal archive, we follow her preparations for a fifth season as a principal of The Royal Ballet as she continues to champion contemporary dance with some of the world's greatest choreographers. This compelling portrait chronicles the rehearsal process of two new works, The Mother by Arthur Pita, and Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui's Medussa, and follows legendary ballerina and choreographer Natalia Makarova as she directs a revival of her classic production of La Bayadere for The Royal Ballet.
Natalia opens up about her life and history, her childhood in Russia, her time with American Ballet Theatre and her journey to the Royal Opera House. It is an unparalleled opportunity to get up close and personal with the leading ballerina of our generation and understand why critics and audiences all over the world call her a ''force of nature' of the dance world.
The Latvian conductor Mariss Jansons is recognized as one of the most distinguished musicians of his generation and now belongs to the international elite of his profession. He was the Music Director of the Oslo Philharmonic from 1979 to 2000. Under his guidance, it became established as a front-rank orchestra, touring extensively and becoming a firm favourite at many festivals around the world, noted for its fresh, open sound and Jansons' passionate conducting of the works of Shostakovich, Strauss, Tchaikovsky and Bartok . In this program, Jansons is seen rehearsing Bartok's powerful Miraculous Mandarin Suite with the Oslo Philharmonic and the following performance at the Oslo Concert Hall.
Anne Sofie von Otter is widely considered to be the greatest and most versatile mezzo-soprano of her generation. Filmed in Sweden, London, Paris, and Salzburg, this profile combines interviews with performance extracts and archive material, and accompanies Anne Sofie to her idyllic country home for a weekend off.
A framework is provided by one of her career highlights, her performance as Octavian in Richard Strauss's Der Rosenkavalier for Carlos Kleiber. There is footage of her on the operatic stage, in rehearsal, working with her voice coach, and rehearsing lieder.
Classic Yo-Yo Ma chronicles Ma's unique work process and legendary performances with rarely seen rehearsal and concert footage from throughout his entire career.
In addition to these exquisite musical selections, the program includes newly-taped interviews with Yo-Yo Ma and his friends and colleagues Daniel Barenboim, Emanuel Ax, Tan Dun and Bobby McFerrin. Yo-Yo Ma is world-renowned for his incomparable artistry and range. His discography of nearly fifty albums includes fourteen Grammy Awards. His remarkable talent and limitless interests have created new boundaries for classical music.
The program highlights Ma's unique ability to explore cultures and musical forms outside the Western classical tradition. His diversity is demonstrated not only through richly nuanced interpretations of Bach, Beethoven , and Brahms , but also Piazzolla, Edgar Meyer , American folk music and Tan Dun .
This 1985 documentary focuses on conductor Seiji Ozawa and the behind-the-scenes world of the symphony orchestra. It communicates the intensity and passion that Ozawa brings to his work as conductor and teacher, and shows him in the context of his relationship with former masters, current students and family. It also explores the cultural tensions that caused him to leave Japan and begin a career in the West.
Blame it on the Russian Revolution: it took Sergey Prokofiev (1891–1953) only a few months to write his early opera The Gambler between October 1915 and March 1916, but problems arose during rehearsals in January 1917, and the premiere in St. Petersburg (then Petrograd) had to be cancelled when the first revolution broke out in February. This first version of the work was never heard, since the composer revised the tempestuous score eleven years later, reducing it and eliminating what he considered "padding." The work was premiered in this version in Brussels in 1929.
Based on Dostoyevsky’s novel of the same name, The Gambler is a dark study of human failings and the corruptive power of money. In this work, everyone gambles: the hero Alexey, the General and even the wealthy aunt Babulenka gamble with money; Blanche, the Marquis and Polina – who loves Alexey – gamble with their fellow human beings. The results are humiliation, ruin and self-delusion. But when the Staatskapelle Berlin under world-famous conductor Daniel Barenboim provide the orchestral sound to the full, lustrous voices of Vladimir Ognovenko, Kristine Opolais, Misha Didyk, Stefania Toczyska and their colleagues, there is nothing even remotely dismal about the opera or its...
Herbert von Karajan's story is the story of the record industry itself, which he was instrumental in creating and sustaining over half a century with hundreds of spectacular and award-winning recordings.
His life and his music-making still provoke extreme reactions; in Gernot Friedel's film, made with the help of the Karajan-Centrum in Salzburg, we see the hypnotic effect he could have upon musicians and listeners alike, we hear him in the repertoire for which he was renowned, and we are taken through a life never less than eventful.
The Italian Character is the story of one of the most renowned orchestras in the world, enriched by archive material of the last thirty years about the great conductors who have been performing on the most famous stages in Rome. Its present Music Director, Sir Antonio Pappano, an Anglo-American with Beneventian roots, rediscovered an essential part of his Italian origins through conducting the Orchestra dell'Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia. With the personal histories of its members and conductor, The Italian Character allows its audience to gain an insight into a fascinating world that is usually concealed. Simultaneously, it tells the story of a national institution, of a historically unique development, of an approach to life that is characteristic of a country which is loved by many, but sometimes misunderstood and even underrated in its unknown variety. The documentary showcases some of the best soloists and conductors in the world presenting materials collected during their collaboration with the Orchestra di Santa Cecilia such as Yuri Temirkanov, James Conlon, Valery Gergiev, Daniel Harding, Janine Jansen, Lisa Batiashvili, Evgeny Kissin, Denis Matsuev, Stefano Bollani, Lang Lang.
Born in New York to Korean parents, solo cellist Timothy Park studied at The Juilliard School with Jerome Carrington and Fred Sherry and at the Yale University with Aldo Parisot, later moving to Germany to obtain his Master Diploma and Konzertexam from the Musikhochschule Lubeck and the Hochschule fur Musik Hanns Eisler Berlin, where he was a pupil of David Geringas and also worked with Josef Feigelson, Boris Pergamenschikow and Daniel Barenboim.
As a soloist, Mr. Park has performed with ensembles such as the Chamber Orchestra of New York, Detroit Symphony Orchestra, Orquesta Sinfonica de Venezuela, Moscow Radio Symphony Orchestra, Berlin Symphony Orchestra, the Juilliard Orchestra and the Interlochen Center for the Arts Academy Orchestra. He is regularly invited to participate in the Lucerne Festival, Aspen Music Festival and School, Schleswig Holstein Musik Festival, NDR Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Kronberg Academy, the Jerusalem Festival and the festival Pablo Casals in Prades.
An avid chamber musician, Timothy Park is the cellist of the Erlenbusch string quartet, keeping an artistic collaboration with the Staatskapelle Berlin and playing with musicians such as Elena Bashkirova, Levon Chilingirian, Alessio Bax, Vladimir Mendelssohn, Zakhar Bron, Frans Helmerson, Gary...
Walter Scott was a prolific and passionate storyteller who saw an understanding of the past as the key to getting along in the present. His canvas was usually the history of Scotland but his means were such that he found an audience throughout the literary world. He was as much loved in foreign translations as he was in English. The program covers his eventful life and is followed by an overview of his extensive output. Scott was born in Edinburgh in 1771. His father was a successful lawyer. In childhood he contracted polio which lamed him for life. He was not a very successful pupil at Edinburgh High School but went to the university to qualify as a lawyer. Writing poetry and novels soon became the activity for which he became world famous. He died in his beloved home of Abbotsford in the Scottish Borders in 1832.
William Wordsworth was born in Cockermouth in the Lake District in 1770. His father ran the estate of a local landowner and the family lived in a large and comfortable house. He was well educated at the grammar school in nearby Hawkshead and he went to St John's College Cambridge in 1737. He lived most of his life in his beloved Lake District enjoying the fame he achieved as the greatest poet of the romantic age.
In 1985 Philip Blackburn climbed the stairs to an attic in Iowa City and started trying to make sense of the boxes piled up there. They contained a composer's life's work: scrapbooks, tapes, photos, letters, scores, and film reels - fragile treasures documenting the twentieth century from a most unusual viewpoint, that of perhaps the world's most original musician: Harry Partch.
The idea was to publish them and reveal Harry to the world on his own terms. Not as the crabby, homeless, self-taught microtonal musical weirdo and instrument maker, but as that most American of all artists, a truly independent thinker. With Enclosure 8, the work of bringing them to public attention reaches its apotheosis.
The Enclosures series (named for the extras Partch wanted to add to his life-long letter to the world) started appearing in 1995 with a VHS video of four films made in collaboration with the Chicago-based filmmaker Madeline Tourtelot. Four CDs, two years and one book later, Enclosure 4 appeared featuring his later films: Delusion of the Fury (his culminating ritual-theater work) and a San Diego Public TV documentary, also on VHS. Now the time has come for these to be issued on DVD, extensively restored, resynched and digitally remastered from the extant original prints....
Blame it on the Russian Revolution: it took Sergey Prokofiev (1891–1953) only a few months to write his early opera The Gambler between October 1915 and March 1916, but problems arose during rehearsals in January 1917, and the premiere in St. Petersburg (then Petrograd) had to be cancelled when the first revolution broke out in February. This first version of the work was never heard, since the composer revised the tempestuous score eleven years later, reducing it and eliminating what he considered "padding." The work was premiered in this version in Brussels in 1929.
Based on Dostoyevsky’s novel of the same name, The Gambler is a dark study of human failings and the corruptive power of money. In this work, everyone gambles: the hero Alexey, the General and even the wealthy aunt Babulenka gamble with money; Blanche, the Marquis and Polina – who loves Alexey – gamble with their fellow human beings. The results are humiliation, ruin and self-delusion. But when the Staatskapelle Berlin under world-famous conductor Daniel Barenboim provide the orchestral sound to the full, lustrous voices of Vladimir Ognovenko, Kristine Opolais, Misha Didyk, Stefania Toczyska and their colleagues, there is nothing even remotely dismal about the opera or its...
Buffeted by social and political currents, Copland can seem unmoored: a cork in a stream. He was politicised by the Depression - and by the example of Mexico, whose artists galvanized national identity and progressive thought. He wrote a prize winning workers' song and addressed a Communist picnic in Minnesota. Twenty years later, the Red Scare targeted him as a traitor. Can his odyssey be read as a parable illuminating the fate of the American artist?
The film features a re-enactment of Copland's grilling by Senator Joseph McCarthy (played by Edward Gero). It also highlights the most consequential Copland score we don't know: his ingenious music for Lewis Mumford's 1939 World's Fair film The City , itself a complex product of the Popular Front. We reconsider the valedictory Piano Fantasy , in which Copland refreshed his modernist roots - a galvanising performance by Benjamin Pasternack, who also recalls a telling encounter with the composer. Our other commentators include the American historians Michael Kazin and Joseph McCartin, who ponder the tangled legacy of American populism of the left and right.
No non-Western musical idiom has so impacted on the Western concert tradition as Indonesian gamelan, beginning with the Javanese Pavilion at the 1889 Paris Exposition: an epiphany. Sampling gamelan-inspired works by Debussy, Ravel , and McPhee , the film arrives at a paragon exemplar of cultural fusion - Lou Harrison - and a pair of concertos for violin and piano, unsurpassed by those of any other American. The composer/scholar Bill Alves demonstrates the layered complexity of Javanese gamelan, and how it translates into keyboard textures composed by Harrison for Keith Jarrett. For Harrison's Concerto for Violin and Percussion , tour the 'junk percussion' - including flower pots and washtubs - that Harrison made sing and dance.
Participants include the gamelan scholars Jody Diamond and Sumarsam, and the conductor Dennis Russell Davies, who has long championed Harrison on both sides of the Atlantic.
No one did more to expand the audience for opera than tenor Luciano Pavarotti. He reconnected an elite art-form with popular audiences throughout the world, through his unashamed enthusiasm for life and his unique ability to communicate to vast crowds through the simple medium of his magnificent voice, allied to great music. This fascinating documentary film takes the viewer behind the scenes of both Pavarotti's personal life and his appearances at the great opera houses of the world to create a unique portrait of a great and well-loved musician.
Jan Peerce was a great singer, universally acclaimed as one of the outstanding artists of his time, a role model of the American Dream. Beginning with Peerce's roots on the Lower East Side of New York, this film takes us uptown and around the world with him. We view his life through music performance, through interviews with famed concert violinist (and host) Isaac Stern, and through compelling footage, some of which has never been publicly shown before. The documentary celebrates the dynamic, entertaining and witty personality of this legendary singer.
One of the most sought after cello pedagogues, Israeli cellist Amit Peled is a Professor at the Peabody Conservatory of Music of the Johns Hopkins University. From the United States to Europe to the Middle East and Asia, Peled is acclaimed as one of the most exciting instrumentalists on the concert stage today and described as a musician of profound artistry and charismatic stage presence. Peled often surprises audiences with the ways he breaks down barriers between performers and the public, making classical music more accessible to wider audiences.
Tim Smith of the Baltimore Sun reflected on a recent performance: "Peled did a lot of joking in remarks to the audience. His amiable and inviting personality is exactly the type everyone says we'll need more of if classical music is to survive." Peled was chosen among "Musical America's 30 Professionals of the Year 2015 and performs on Pablo Casals?EUR(TM)s own cello, a 1733 Matteo Gofriller loaned to him by the great cellist's widow, Marta.
After over thirty years on the concert stage the pianist Murray Perahia has himself become a legend, one of the most sought-after pianists of our time. This film is not designed to be a conventional portrait. The documentary observes Perahia at work on the interpretation of some pieces by Chopin and Schumann at his holiday home in Switzerland. It shows him as conductor of the famous Academy of St. Martin in the Fields, follows him into the recording studio and a master class in Hanover and finally captures a concert performance at a Warsaw Chopin recital in February 2010. Interviews with Murray Perahia cast light on his approach to music, his personality and the way he has managed to cope with the personal crises that has beset him.
This video is an intimate account of the formative years in the life and career of one of the leading violinists of our time.
Itzhak Perlman fell in love with the sounds of the violin at the age of 3 1/2, but he contracted polio a few months later and was soon to learn that it would be impossible, with his handicap, for him to pursue a high-level career as a violinist.
Not only has he succeeded in doing what the world thought quite impossible, but he has done it on a level that few have matched. It is a heartening story of the spectacular triumph of talent, determination, character and tenacity over seemingly insurmountable odds, producing truly glorious results along the way.
The title is taken from a poem by a 12-year-old girl, Eva Pickova, written in the Theresienstadt concentration camp. Her words provide both the title and the climaxEUR"in a setting for two choruses and orchestra by the American composer Franz Waxman, in his touching work The Song of Terezin.
It is a film is about many things. It is about freedom and captivity, about emancipation, acculturation and assimilation; it is about the roles played by Moses and Felix Mendelssohn in the dream of fruitful, unproblematic integration of the Jews into German society after their liberation from the ghettos; it is about Richard Wagner, his ferociously anti-Semitic essay Das Judenthum in der Musik (The Jews in Music) and his influence on the thinking of the Third Reich but, most of all, it is a film about how much music can mean to people, even in the direst of circumstances, or particularly in the direst circumstances.
Maestro Jerome Pernoo talks about his beginnings, his musical thoughts and how the Stanislavsky's Method for Acting has proved to be the most effective and influential tool for his cello career, his daily musical training and his teaching.
Herbert von Karajan's story is the story of the record industry itself, which he was instrumental in creating and sustaining over half a century with hundreds of spectacular and award-winning recordings.
His life and his music-making still provoke extreme reactions; in Gernot Friedel's film, made with the help of the Karajan-Centrum in Salzburg, we see the hypnotic effect he could have upon musicians and listeners alike, we hear him in the repertoire for which he was renowned, and we are taken through a life never less than eventful.
The eclectic career of multi award-winning composer Laurent Petitgirard has seen him become one of France's leading musicians and conductors, as well as taking him into the worlds of opera and ballet. The Journey to the West is a ballet that tells the story of a monk named Xuanzang who is sent on a perilous journey of redemption from China to India in order to seek out the scriptures of truth in the land of Buddha. the ordeals of Xuanzang and his companions are expressed in music that reflects the poetry and spiritual elevation found in this great monument of Chinese literature.
Opera evenings can be life-changing. Anyone who saw Callas still talks about her today. And they still exist, the great heroines: singers who pierce our hearts. This film presents three of them, explores what they do, how they do it and what it does to us: Ermonela Jaho , Barbara Hannigan and Asmik Grigorian . Their cultural backgrounds - Albanian, Canadian, Lithuanian - are remarkably diverse, yet they have one thing in common: they give their utmost on stage and hold nothing back. They merge with their stage personae and strive for the full experience.
Hannigan is the analyst. She dissects every role in minute detail and interprets it with icy fire. Her Lulu, her Melisande, her Marie in Zimmermann's Soldaten are beings from a future world: remote, self-assured, modern women. Masculine desire leaves them cold; even when they succumb, they are still in charge. This is similar to Grigorian, who won acclaim for her Salome in Salzburg. Grigorian's Salome is both victim and perpetrator; she enjoys her desire and the deadly spiral into which she is drawn. With Jaho, on the other hand, everything is in the voice; she carries the whole gamut of emotions in it and captivates audiences - as Violetta, Angelica, Ciocio-san - with her vocal acting.
The State Opera is the first film ever made about the Bavarian State Opera, one of the world's oldest, most prestigious and internationally esteemed companies. It charts the course of three operas - Die Meistersinger von Nurnberg , Les Indes galantes and Un ballo in maschera - as they come to life on the stage.
We meet some of the great singers, such as Jonas Kaufmann and Anja Harteros, in performance and behind the scenes, as well as artistic directors past and present, and two of the music directors in Kirill Petrenko and his predecessor Zubin Mehta. As both a celebration and an exploration, this entertaining film is a declaration of love for the operatic form.
Everything about Piotr Anderszewski is extraordinary: his talent, his repertoire, his constant questioning of his work as a performer. Any film about this highly unconventional pianist owes it to itself to depart from the beaten path; on the borderline between documentary and fiction, this "road movie" is set against the backdrop of a winter journey by train across Poland with a piano installed on board. Punctuated by Piotr's highly personal reflections, the repertoire consists of essential pieces by Bach, Mozart, Chopin, Beethoven, Schumann and Szymanowski.
Recording the In Rehearsal programme, the cameras were witnessing part of the process of development of a new relationship between an orchestra and its Music Director. Dohnanyi is seen working with the Philharmonia on Haydn's Symphony No. 88 in G for a concert in their 1998 Haydn/Bartok series at London's Royal Festival Hall. It was to be Dohnanyi's first Haydn performance with the orchestra and so the limited time available for preparation was of vital importance. The musician's appreciation of his musically precise and exacting approach is evident in the concentrated atmosphere of rehearsals and also in comments they make about working with the maestro.
Opera evenings can be life-changing. Anyone who saw Callas still talks about her today. And they still exist, the great heroines: singers who pierce our hearts. This film presents three of them, explores what they do, how they do it and what it does to us: Ermonela Jaho , Barbara Hannigan and Asmik Grigorian . Their cultural backgrounds - Albanian, Canadian, Lithuanian - are remarkably diverse, yet they have one thing in common: they give their utmost on stage and hold nothing back. They merge with their stage personae and strive for the full experience.
Hannigan is the analyst. She dissects every role in minute detail and interprets it with icy fire. Her Lulu, her Melisande, her Marie in Zimmermann's Soldaten are beings from a future world: remote, self-assured, modern women. Masculine desire leaves them cold; even when they succumb, they are still in charge. This is similar to Grigorian, who won acclaim for her Salome in Salzburg. Grigorian's Salome is both victim and perpetrator; she enjoys her desire and the deadly spiral into which she is drawn. With Jaho, on the other hand, everything is in the voice; she carries the whole gamut of emotions in it and captivates audiences - as Violetta, Angelica, Ciocio-san - with her vocal acting.
Presented for the first time in 2010, with the artistic direction of Diemut Poppen and under the initiative of Goethe Institute, Festival Cantabile occurs yearly, during the month of September in the city of Lisbon, and is one of the most important festivals of chamber music in the country.
Festival Cantabile, The art of Chamber Music , offers a variety of classical and modern repertoires to the Portuguese people, in particular habitants of the Lisbon region, connecting periods of time and crossing pieces of classical masters with contemporary composers such as Rihm, Ligeti, Kurtag, Kancheli and the Portuguese Antonio Pinho Vargas and Luis Tinoco .
https://en.cantabilefest.pt/festival-cantabile
Force of Nature Natalia follows a season in the life of dance superstar Natalia Osipova . With unique access to Natalia's personal archive, we follow her preparations for a fifth season as a principal of The Royal Ballet as she continues to champion contemporary dance with some of the world's greatest choreographers. This compelling portrait chronicles the rehearsal process of two new works, The Mother by Arthur Pita, and Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui's Medussa, and follows legendary ballerina and choreographer Natalia Makarova as she directs a revival of her classic production of La Bayadere for The Royal Ballet.
Natalia opens up about her life and history, her childhood in Russia, her time with American Ballet Theatre and her journey to the Royal Opera House. It is an unparalleled opportunity to get up close and personal with the leading ballerina of our generation and understand why critics and audiences all over the world call her a ''force of nature' of the dance world.
A tribute to Jacqueline du Pre to mark the thirtieth anniversary of her death thirty years ago, on 19 October 1987.
The documentary contains archive footage shot during Jacqueline du Pre's lifetime which captures some glorious and professionally filmed live performances. It also remembers both her personality and her music through the memories and tributes of her closest friends and colleagues including Daniel Barenboim, Pinchas Zukerman, Itzhak Perlman, Toby Perlman, Fou Ts'ong, Zubin Mehta, William Pleeth, Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, Hugh Maguire, Elizabeth Wilson, Cynthia Friend, Charles Beare, Suvi Grubb, Dr Len Selby and Clive Barda.
In the music she is accompanied by Daniel Barenboim, Pinchas Zukerman, Gervase de Peyer, Itzhak Perlman, Zubin Mehta, Janet Baker The New Philharmonia Orchestra and the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra.
There is music by Beethoven, Eccles, Couperin, Clementi, Elgar, Brahms, Offenbach and Bruch . The writer and director is Christopher Nupen who was close to Jacqueline du Pre for more than 20 years and made five films with her during her lifetime.
Celebrated in his day not only as a great composer he was also admired as an outstanding pianist who was a peerless interpreter of his own works including the piano concerti and the Rhapsody on a Theme by Paganini .
It is well known that he was in effect the sole pianist capable of performing his most demanding Third Piano Concerto and his performances and recording of the concerto came to be considered as the definitive ones.
The relationship between performance, interpretation, and Rachmaninoff's own life will be addressed in this documentary by the young pianists interviewed. The program explored the evolution of interpretation over the past few decades, hear brief excerpts of recordings by Rachmaninoff as contrasted with contemporary performances by today's well-known young pianists as they comment on the differences (or similarities) of their approach.
This documentary will be the first to explore performance styles and interpretation of the Rachmaninoff piano repertoire. Viewed from a broad perspective the documentary will focus on the danger of how a musician might be bound and stymied by tradition as opposed to being able to use a knowledge of the past to liberate one's approach and infuse the performances with the same sense of improvisatory freedom with which...
Maya Plisetskaya is in every sense an exceptional personality. Like almost no other dancer, the eternal prima ballerina assoluta of the Bolshoi Theatre understood how to combine outstanding dance skills with dramatic expression. There are also very few dancers who can look back on such a long and active career: even on her eightieth birthday in November 2005 she personally gave a stage performance. A homage to her inimitable creative work, this video features fascinating footage of her greatest successes as a ballerina together with an interview in which Maya Plisetskaya describes her life as a dancer - which is simultaneously a whole chapter of Russian history, from Stalin to perestroika.
A series of short films, recorded at the Louisiana Museum of Modern Art in Denmark.
The Intimacy of Creativity – The Bright Sheng Partnership: Composers Meet Performers in Hong Kong is a pioneering, internationally-acclaimed partnership devoted to promoting an intimate dialogue between composers and performers.
Distinguished composers, together with selected emerging composers from Hong Kong and around the world, present and revise their chamber music compositions after in-depth discussions with world-renowned performers during open discussions. The revised compositions are presented at two world premiere concerts in downtown Hong Kong, preceded by preview concerts on the campus of The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, which hosts the partnership.
For the 2011 inaugural season, artistic director and internationally-acclaimed composer, conductor, and pianist Bright Sheng was joined by distinguished guests Richard Stoltzman, Yehudi Wyner, and the Daedalus Quartet; Hong Kong guest artists Mary Wu, Stephen Chong, and Olivier Nowak; and emerging composers Pedro Faria Gomes, Ted Goldman, Moon Young Ha, Narong Prangcharoen, Matthew Tommasini, and Ming-Hsiu Yen.
A film by Paul Smaczny and Maria Stodtmeier. Venezuela's unique system of music education takes children from violent slums and turns some of them into world-class musicians. El Sistema shows how Venezuelan visionary Jose Antonio Abreu has changed the lives of hundreds of thousands of children over the past three decades. This lyrical and moving documentary takes us from the rubbish dumps and barrios of Caracas to the world's finest concert halls. Children from streets dominated by the gun battles of gang warfare are taken into music schools, given access to music, and taught through the model of the symphony orchestra how to build a better society. Paul Smaczny and Maria Stodtmeier's film finds hope and joy in unlikely places.
Mr. Pommier began playing piano at the age of four and gave his first public performance at the age of seven, being awarded as a teenager at the International Tchaikovsky competition, the Young Musicians Competition in Berlin and the "Prix de la Guilde des Artistes Solistes Francais's . Mr. Pommier is regularly invited to perform at the most prestigious festivals under the baton of eminent conductors such as Herbert von Karajan, Bernard Haitink, Pierre Boulez, Riccardo Muti, Kurt Masur, Kurt Sanderling, Leonard Slatkin, Edo de Waart, Zubin Mehta and Daniel Barenboim, who conducted Mr. Pommier in the performances of the complete Beethoven's Concertos with the Orchestre de Paris. His chamber music partners include master musicians such as Isaac Stern, Itzhak Perlman, Pinchas Zukerman: Viola, Leonard Rose, Alexander Schneider, Jean-Pierre Louis Rampal, Paul Tortelier, Maurice Bourgue, the Guarneri String Quartet and the Vermeer Quartet.
From the unaccompanied ballads, to lively fiddle tunes, to radio cowboy bands, to square dancing at Moose Hall, The Unbroken Circle traces the path of traditional music in Vermont. Historic photos accompany the words and music of over a dozen Vermont musicians.
Presented for the first time in 2010, with the artistic direction of Diemut Poppen and under the initiative of Goethe Institute, Festival Cantabile occurs yearly, during the month of September in the city of Lisbon, and is one of the most important festivals of chamber music in the country.
Festival Cantabile, The art of Chamber Music , offers a variety of classical and modern repertoires to the Portuguese people, in particular habitants of the Lisbon region, connecting periods of time and crossing pieces of classical masters with contemporary composers such as Rihm, Ligeti, Kurtag, Kancheli and the Portuguese Antonio Pinho Vargas and Luis Tinoco .
https://en.cantabilefest.pt/festival-cantabile
Buffeted by social and political currents, Copland can seem unmoored: a cork in a stream. He was politicised by the Depression - and by the example of Mexico, whose artists galvanized national identity and progressive thought. He wrote a prize winning workers' song and addressed a Communist picnic in Minnesota. Twenty years later, the Red Scare targeted him as a traitor. Can his odyssey be read as a parable illuminating the fate of the American artist?
The film features a re-enactment of Copland's grilling by Senator Joseph McCarthy (played by Edward Gero). It also highlights the most consequential Copland score we don't know: his ingenious music for Lewis Mumford's 1939 World's Fair film The City , itself a complex product of the Popular Front. We reconsider the valedictory Piano Fantasy , in which Copland refreshed his modernist roots - a galvanising performance by Benjamin Pasternack, who also recalls a telling encounter with the composer. Our other commentators include the American historians Michael Kazin and Joseph McCartin, who ponder the tangled legacy of American populism of the left and right.
Hollywood's supreme film composer was a casualty of the standard narrative - as he himself was bitterly aware. Not only were his movie scores high creative accomplishments; Bernard Herrmann was a formidabale - and formidably unfashionable - concert composer whose Clarinet Quintet may be the most beautiful chamber music by an American. His Psycho Narrative , which also sampled, surpasses the Psycho Suite normally heard.
He hones his gift for dramatizing the spoken word as the pre-eminent composer for a genre no longer remembered: the radio drama. Example, Whitman (1944) - a Norman Corwin radio play that deserves to live as a concert work. It also exemplifies how radio, an unprecedented mass medium, once consolidated the American experience, its biggest star being Franklin D. Roosevelt.
The participants include the Whitman scholar Karen Karbiener, the critic Alex Ross, Murray Horwitz on radio lore, and William Sharp on playing Walt Whitman to music by Bernard Herrmann.
Made for the 1939 New York World's Fair ("The World of Tomorrow"), The City is a seminal documentary film distinguished for the organic integration of narration (scripted by city planner Lewis Mumford), cinematography (Ralph Steiner and Willard Van Dyke), and music (Aaron Copland). The score, arguably Copland's highest achievement in film, was also his ticket to Hollywood; it has been called "an astonishing missing link not only in the genesis of Copland's Americana style but in American music and cinema" (Mark Swed, The Los Angeles Times ). As the film contains no dialogue, it is possible to create a fresh soundtrack and discover musical riches inaudible on the original monaural recording. As Copland created no suite from The City, the present video at the same time marks the world premiere recording of this music in its entirety.
Bonus features:
- The City with the original soundtrack (1939) featuring Morris Carnovsky (narrator) and an orchestra conducted by Max Goberman
- Which Playground for your Child: Greenbelt or Gutter? (2000): a documentary film from the Greenbelt Museum featuring interviews with three Greenbelt "pioneers"
- George Stoney in conversation with Joseph Horowitz (2007): a legendary documentary filmmaker revisits The City
This first film in the series keys on Dvorak's prophecy and explores its present-day pertinence. In New York City and Spillville, Iowa, Dvorak boldly chose to regard African Americans and Native Americans as representative Americans. That decision was both acclaimed and ridicules at the time. It remains inspirational. His New World Symphony , still the best-known and best-loved symphonic work conceived on American soil, is saturated with the influence of plantation song, and also with Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's The Song of Hiawatha . This act of appropriation, the film argues, was an act of empathy performed by a great humanitarian.
The musical selections are mainly taken fro the Hiawatha Melodrama , which co-composed with the music historian Michael Beckerman with orchestrations by Angel Gil-Ordonez. It makes Dvorak with Longfellow.
The participating commentators include the music historians Mark Clague and Lorenzo Candelaria, the literary historian Brian Yothers, the conductor JoAnn Falletta, faculty members from Howard University - and also (sagely commenting on cultural appropriation) the bass-baritone Kevin Deas, with whom Horowitz long enjoyed the privilege of performing the spiritual arrangements of Dvorak's assistant Harry Burleigh.
No non-Western musical idiom has so impacted on the Western concert tradition as Indonesian gamelan, beginning with the Javanese Pavilion at the 1889 Paris Exposition: an epiphany. Sampling gamelan-inspired works by Debussy, Ravel , and McPhee , the film arrives at a paragon exemplar of cultural fusion - Lou Harrison - and a pair of concertos for violin and piano, unsurpassed by those of any other American. The composer/scholar Bill Alves demonstrates the layered complexity of Javanese gamelan, and how it translates into keyboard textures composed by Harrison for Keith Jarrett. For Harrison's Concerto for Violin and Percussion , tour the 'junk percussion' - including flower pots and washtubs - that Harrison made sing and dance.
Participants include the gamelan scholars Jody Diamond and Sumarsam, and the conductor Dennis Russell Davies, who has long championed Harrison on both sides of the Atlantic.
Pare Lorentz's The Plow that Broke the Plains (1936) and The River (1937) are landmark American documentary films. Aesthetically, they break new ground in seamlessly marrying pictorial imagery, symphonic music, and poetic free verse, all realized with supreme artistry. Ideologically, they indelibly encapsulate the strivings of Franklin Delano Roosevelt's "New Deal." Virgil Thomson's scores for both films are among the most famous ever composed for the movies. Aaron Copland praised the music for The Plow for its "frankness and openness of feeling," calling it "fresher, more simple, and more personal" than the Hollywood norm. He called the music for The River "a lesson in how to treat Americana."
Bonus Features:
- George Stoney on The Plow and The River
- The New Deal, The River, and Race
- Charles Fussell on Virgil Thomson
- Virgil Thomson on Virgil Thomson (audio only)
- The original ending of The Plow that Broke the Plains
- The original beginning of The Plow that Broke the Plains
The Intimacy of Creativity – The Bright Sheng Partnership: Composers Meet Performers in Hong Kong is a pioneering, internationally-acclaimed partnership devoted to promoting an intimate dialogue between composers and performers.
Distinguished composers, together with selected emerging composers from Hong Kong and around the world, present and revise their chamber music compositions after in-depth discussions with world-renowned performers during open discussions. The revised compositions are presented at two world premiere concerts in downtown Hong Kong, preceded by preview concerts on the campus of The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, which hosts the partnership.
For the 2011 inaugural season, artistic director and internationally-acclaimed composer, conductor, and pianist Bright Sheng was joined by distinguished guests Richard Stoltzman, Yehudi Wyner, and the Daedalus Quartet; Hong Kong guest artists Mary Wu, Stephen Chong, and Olivier Nowak; and emerging composers Pedro Faria Gomes, Ted Goldman, Moon Young Ha, Narong Prangcharoen, Matthew Tommasini, and Ming-Hsiu Yen.
One of the world's foremost violinists, Anne-Sophie Mutter is a musical celebrity known even by countless people who rarely listen to classical music. The artist and teacher, who promotes young musicians and commissions new works from contemporary composers, made her spectacular breakthrough under Herbert von Karajan at the 1977 Salzburg Easter Festival. She has since concertized at every major venue throughout the world. In 2008 she was awarded not only the prestigious Ernst von Siemens Music Award, but also the Leipzig Mendelssohn Award. The award ceremony in March 2008 was crowned by a gala concert at Leipzig's Gewandhaus with the Gewandhaus Orchestra under Kurt Masur, at which Mutter performed the Mendelssohn Violin Concerto in E minor Op. 64.
On the occasion of the Mendelssohn Year, Unitel Classica offers the documentary Anne-Sophie Mutter – Encounters with Mendelssohn, in which the artist discusses her affinity to Mendelssohn and explains why she particularly admires the works presented here.
Andre George Previn's simultaneous world careers as a director, composer and pianist are extremely thrilling and interesting, and they cannot be told in just a few words. The names of his teachers and the artists and orchestras with which he worked belong to the select few of their field in the classic scene.
Previn was born in 1929 in Berlin and emigrated to the United States in 1938 where his family settled in Hollywood. He was awarded the Oscar a total of four times. Along with his work as a director he has also composed orchestra and chamber music as well as two stage entertainments. He however doesn't consider himself as belonging to the musical avant-garde.
This up-to-date documentary about Felix Mendelssohn is based on the original letters of the composer and his sister Fanny, combined with numerous evocative period images. Through a blend of music and words, the most distinguished Mendelssohn specialists of today guide viewers through the composer's fascinating life and career. The various themes covered include his training, his religious and cultural identity, his journey to Italy, his rediscovery of Bach, his years in Leipzig, the relative neglect of his music following his death, his readmission to the canon of Germany's greatest Romantic composers, and the recent unearthing of many unpublished works.
Bonus:
- Homage to Felix Mendelssohn at the Settimane Musicali al Teatro Olimpico, 2009.
Once upon a time there was a king who took great delight in the melody of a little bird outside his window. Then, as winter came, the bird disappeared and the king grew melancholy. Three brave men set out to find one that could sing "the most beautiful song." Did they succeed? What begins as an enchanting fairy tale turns into exciting reality in this documentary on the first edition of baritone Thomas Quasthoff's new international song competition for young singers, Das Lied. With the fairy tale gently articulating the course of the competition, the film sweeps the viewer away on a thrilling "search for singers." Thomas Quasthoff founded this contest to ensure that the Lied, which the baritone calls "the most beautiful form of music making," continues to hold its place in the concert repertoire of the future.
The film accompanies some of the young singers during the competition's three rounds, providing a showcase not only for beautiful voices and poignant Lieder, but also, and above all, for emotions. The hopes and disappointments, the joys and doubts, the tension and exhilaration of the young singers are all captured on film. And it soon emerges that the contest is as stimulating and galvanizing for the jurors as it is for the contestants! Excerpts from the closing gala...
"Domingo creates the magical illusion that Alfano wrote the role especially for him: Domingo de Bergerac" (review of the premiere in the Madrid daily ABC). Placido Domingo's triumph in Valencia's stunningly futuristic theater El Palau de les Arts in February 2007 echoes the overwhelmingly positive reception he obtained at the Metropolitan Opera and the Royal Opera House Covent Garden in this role. A coproduction of the New York, London and Valencia houses, Franco Alfano's little-known 1936 opera Cyrano de Bergerac has been reawakened to life by the great Spanish tenor. Although Alfano (1875-1954) enjoyed a long and prolific career as an opera composer, he is known today above all for having completed Puccini's Turandot. His earlier works not surprisingly reflect Puccini's verismo style, but his later works - including Cyrano de Bergerac - are clearly inspired by Debussy, Ravel and Strauss. Opulent scoring and colorful orchestral effects elegantly underscore the tragic story based on Rostand's famous drama of 1897, which achieved international celebrity in the Oscar-nominated 1990 film adaptation with Gerard Depardieu. Alfano's work faithfully relates the story of the large-nosed soldier poet who pines for the beautiful Roxane and writes her glowing love letters in the...
Herbert von Karajan's story is the story of the record industry itself, which he was instrumental in creating and sustaining over half a century with hundreds of spectacular and award-winning recordings.
His life and his music-making still provoke extreme reactions; in Gernot Friedel's film, made with the help of the Karajan-Centrum in Salzburg, we see the hypnotic effect he could have upon musicians and listeners alike, we hear him in the repertoire for which he was renowned, and we are taken through a life never less than eventful.
What more appropriate venue for Ildebrando Pizzetti's operatic masterwork of 1958 Assassinio nella Cattedrale than the austere, Romanic Basilica di San Nicola in the southern Italian port city of Bari. A striking coincidence: the action of T.S. Eliot's stage play Murder in the Cathedral, on which the opera is based, takes place in December 1170; the Basilica di San Nicola also dates from the 12th century and was consecrated in 1197.
Pizzetti, one of Italy's leading lyrical composers of the first half of the 20th century, composed several operas, of which Assassinio nella Cattedrale is one of his most famous. It unites all the elements of his lyrical style, including a supple arioso treatment of the text that bears echoes of Debussy's Pelleas et Melisande and of Monteverdi and the Florentine monodists, and also powerful, surging choral movements that are even more breathtaking when performed in a church. Pizzetti's religiosity also manifests itself in his choice of T.S. Eliot's modern-day miracle play about St. Thomas Becket, the Archbishop of Canterbury, who returns from a seven-year exile only to be confronted by various torments, including four temptations; he succumbs to the fourth, the temptation of martyrdom.
Internationally acclaimed bass-baritone Ruggero...
The Intimacy of Creativity – The Bright Sheng Partnership: Composers Meet Performers in Hong Kong is a pioneering, internationally-acclaimed partnership devoted to promoting an intimate dialogue between composers and performers.
Distinguished composers, together with selected emerging composers from Hong Kong and around the world, present and revise their chamber music compositions after in-depth discussions with world-renowned performers during open discussions. The revised compositions are presented at two world premiere concerts in downtown Hong Kong, preceded by preview concerts on the campus of The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, which hosts the partnership.
For the 2011 inaugural season, artistic director and internationally-acclaimed composer, conductor, and pianist Bright Sheng was joined by distinguished guests Richard Stoltzman, Yehudi Wyner, and the Daedalus Quartet; Hong Kong guest artists Mary Wu, Stephen Chong, and Olivier Nowak; and emerging composers Pedro Faria Gomes, Ted Goldman, Moon Young Ha, Narong Prangcharoen, Matthew Tommasini, and Ming-Hsiu Yen.
Virtuosity searches for the musical souls of the most gifted young pianists on the planet as they try to make a name for themselves of the 2013 Van Cliburn International Piano Competition. The pressure on these kids is overwhelming because the stakes are so high: prize money, concert bookings, a recording contract, a career.
At the heart of this story is the courage is takes for 20-year-old to go onstage alone before 2,000 people, and hundreds of thousands more online, and play a unique interpretation of one of the most difficult pieces ever written for the piano. The Competition requires not only a transcendent musical ability, but a mental toughness that must sustain the soloist through three straight weeks of performance. The Cliburn becomes as much a test of character as a musical proving ground.
Throughout Russian history there has been a love/hate relationship with her neighbors, oscillating between fear and loathing, envy and imitation. This final program in the series travels from the edge of the one-time empire to the heart of Russia and reveal that the cultural and musical impact of these conflicts has been vast, colorful and searing.
The 128 musicians of the prestigious Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra have cast their votes: their new Principal Conductor will be Sir Simon Rattle.
He succeeds Claudio Abbado to become the sixth Principal Director in the 2002/2003 season.
The Berliner Philharmoniker is the only symphony orchestra world-wide choosing its principal conductor in its own responsibility. The camera has been following the orchestra since 1999 at auditions, concerts and guest performances and shows the various steps, from the groundwork preceding the election until the final counting of votes.
The most extensive documentation ever produced about this leading orchestra also presents the orchestra as a microcosm of the German society at the end of the 20th century. Excerpts from auditions and interviews with the Major conductors our time, statements by members of the orchestra, important agents and soloists working with him, reveal the significance of this new election and convey an atmosphere of expectation and excitement.
Having made his conducting debut with the Berliner Philharmoniker in 1987, Sir Simon Rattle was appointed as Claudio Abbado's successor in 1999. On 7 September 2002, Sir Simon gave his first concert as the orchestra's chief conductor.
Sixteen years later, an era is coming to an end.
How will Sir Simon and the Berliner Philharmoniker shape the end of their era? The claims have been staked, most highs and lows of the relationship have been surpassed. It is the period of the greatest common denominator and the greatest serenity. Echoing an Era finds us amidst the part of the relationship that we will come to miss the most. This gives us the opportunity to comprehend which sides of Sir Simon Rattle's personality have come to define his time with the Berliner Philharmoniker the most.
Three previous volumes of this series were dedicated to La Scala. In this fourth DVD volume, we turn our attention to another beloved and well-known Italian operatic venue: the Arena of Verona, which is able to host more than 20,000 spectators and endowed with acoustics that are quite extraordinary.
This documentary, originally filmed in 16 mm, famed Italian journalist Enzo Biagi interviews the celebrity artists and directors who appeared at the Arena at the beginning of the 1908s, including Sherrill Millnes, Rajna Kabaiwanska, Fiorenza Cossotto, Mirella Freni, Rolando Panerai, Oliviero De Fabritiis, Nicola Martinucci , director Giancarlo Sbragia and set designer Giulio Coletllacci .
The DVD features excerpts from performances of Rigoletto, Aida, La traviata and Nabucco during that period of time.
Shakespeare and the Spanish Connection is a must for students, teachers, and Shakespeare scholars of all ages. Experience the plays of traditional Spanish theater firsthand and see how they parallel many of Shakespeare's most famous works. See how these plays were brought to early California with the founding of the missions, and how many of these plays are still performed and remain an integral part of Spanish culture in modern-day America. See the archetypal stock characters of traditional Spanish theater manifest themselves in Shakespeare's plays from the black hat villain of Don John in Much Ado About Nothing , to the nag of Juliet's Nurse in Romeo and Juliet , and to the foolish braggart Falstaff in Henry IV and Henry V and The Merry Wives of Windsor .
Watch scenes from these well-known characters alongside the scenes of Spanish theater from which they derive their roots. Despite the obvious influence of Spanish theater and culture over many of Shakespeare's works, not one of his plays is actually set in Spain. Romeo and Juliet and Much Ado About Nothing are both set in Italy, while Falstaff had his adventures in Britain. But nevertheless, throughout all of Shakespeare's plays, the influence of Spanish theater and culture is evident.
Celebrate Shakespeare's work in the original setting and open air acoustics for which he wrote his greatest plays. Witness this historically significant production of Much Ado About Nothing, the first recorded Elizabethan production on the newly rebuilt Globe stage in London. Shakespeare's Globe Theatre Restored video documents eighteen months of planning, rehearsal, location work, and post-production by the University of California at Berkeley Shakespeare Program, culminating in the performance of one of Shakespeare's greatest plays.
Visit the fully operational restored Globe Theatre on the Bankside of the river Thames, near its original site and experience how the reconstructed Elizabethan Theatre provides a venue for teaching and studying Shakespeare's plays in the ultimate authentic performance setting.
The Risør Festival of Chamber Music has firmly established itself as one of the most prestigious and recognized chamber music festivals in the world. Each year, international artists visit the small fishing town in southern Norway and join forces with some of Norway's best musicians for six days of chamber music making. The setting is amongst the most beautiful to be found in Norway, the exquisite coastline architecture and quintessential southern white houses providing an atmosphere of intimacy and calmness.
The founding artistic directors were violist Lars Anders Tomter and pianist Leif Ove Andsnes. In 2011 Andsnes handed over the co-artistic leadership to violinist Henning Kraggerud. The festival takes place in the last week of June each year. The films shown here are produced by Music in Motion (www.musicinmotion.no).
Alan Lomax said this film "takes us past the solemn facade of clambakes and town meetings into a lively world of all night dances and local musicians who could have helped Daniel Webster play down the devil".
The film includes performances of seven of the finest traditional musicians in the Northeast including Joe Cormier, Jerry Robichaud, Ben Guillemette, Paddy Cronin, Wilfred Guillette, Harold Luce, and Ron West playing in their lively and distinct Acadian, Irish, Cape Breton, and Quebecois styles.
A behind the scenes look at the stunning dance culture of Bali. Filled with exclusive footage of the worlds most renowned traditional drama and trance performances. From simple village settings to glittering royal courts, this program takes you inside eleven of Bali's most dramatic dances to show how intimately culture, religion and life are inter-twined in Bali. Comes complete with Student Workbook.
FEATURES OF THE PROGRAM: The Art of a People teaches Introduction to Secular Dance, Teruna Jaya, Arja, Joged, Kecak.
A behind the scenes look at the stunning dance culture of Bali. Filled with exclusive footage of the worlds most renowned traditional drama and trance performances. From simple village settings to glittering royal courts, this program takes you inside eleven of Bali's most dramatic dances to show how intimately culture, religion and life are inter-twined in Bali. Comes complete with Student Workbook.
FEATURES OF THE PROGRAM: Upon the Sacred Stage teaches: Introduction to Sacred Dance, Sanghyang Jaran, Calon Arang, Gambuh, Topeng.
Beethoven was born into a musical family in Bonn. He was well taught and generally well educated. With the support of his local ruler he went to Vienna to further his musical studies. He was soon celebrated as a pianist and composer and spent the rest of his life in Vienna supported by generous patrons and free to compose as he wished. In spite of going stone deaf he was able to continue composing, producing some of his greatest works in his later years. The documentary details his life and times and is followed by an overview of his works.
Joseph Haydn was born into a poor family in 18th century Hungary. His huge musical talent brought him into the service of a Prince. Eventually his work was recognized throughout the musical world. The film by Malcolm Hossick describes his fascinating life and the social change he went through. It is followed by a brief overview of his work. Joseph Haydn was born into a simple rural community where his father worked for the local landowner. Joseph's musical talents developed in local church choirs and his fine voice took him to the choir of St Stephen's in Vienna. We follow his career into the the employment of the Esterhazy family where he remained until he was sixty. His international fame as a composer brought him an invitation to London where his career was reborn. The video ends with a brief overview of Haydn's work useful to experienced music lovers and and newcomers alike. On the soundtrack some of his most characteristic compositions are played by members of the Elysium ensemble.
Begins with Henry James' comfortable boyhood in New York, during which his father moved James and his brother around and back and forth from Europe frequently for the sake of education. He eventually went to Harvard to study law and began writing, but felt uncomfortable with American culture and left for England, where he spent most of the rest of his life.
Proust wrote a remarkable and very long novel called La Recheche de Temps Perdue, translated usually as Remembrance of Things Past. It's size and reputaiton for density and incomprehensibility mean that not many folk take it on. This is a great pity as once you have started reading it is hard not to be drawn into Proust's world. This is because you will find yourself there in it's huge cast of sensitively drawn characters. The film explores how he did it and is followed by an overview of his work. Proust was born the son of a wealthy Parisian doctor and had an easy entry into the higher echelons of French society. His knowledge of this world was the background to the astonishing series of novels called A La Recherche du Temps Perdu (Remembrance of Things Past). He did not have an early success but by the end of his life it was recognized that his work - sensitive, searching, amusing and amazingly perceptive about how humans work - was in a class of its own. The program traces his unusual life and ends with an overview of his works.
Rodrigo at 90 is an intimate portrait of Spain's best known composer of the 20th century. At the age of ninety, he has lived a life filled with as tragedy as joy, and his belief in demons rivals his belief in God - but his art has maintained an outlook which is as sunny as the land whence it comes.
The legendary Concierto de Aranjuez has never been performed with such sensuality and profundity as by guitarist Pepe Romero and the Academy of St. Martin in the Fields conducted by Sir Neville Marriner. Romero's interpretation is influenced by Rodrigo's recounting of the true story behind this masterpiece: the sadness of the loss of an unborn child mixed with joyous earlier memories of his honeymoon in Aranjuez.
The Munich-based Rosamunde Quartet made a sensational debut in 1992 and swiftly gained an international reputation as a chamber ensemble noted for its individual style and mastery of a broad repertoire. Unusually, the four musicans Andreas Reiner (first violin), Simon Fordham (second violin), Helmut Nicolai (viola) and Anja Lechner (cello) came together after they had individually established successful careers.
Up until his death in 1996, maestro Sergiu Celibidache was their mentor, friend and critic in this venture, and he continues to be their inspiration. The quartet emulate his single-minded perfectionism; approach music-making, as he did, from a well-founded understanding; and always remember his impatience if he thought they were just playing notes and not music.
This lively and intimate portrait accompanies the ensemble as they rehearse, travel, perform, and also catches each of the musicians off duty. They are seen playing works by both classical and modern composers in sequences which have a contemporary visual impact, and their collaboration with the Argentinean bandoneon master, Dino Saluzzi , is also featured.
Munich's court theater was the venue for the premiere of Mozart's Idomeneo on 29 January 1781; today, it hosts another premiere of this same work to celebrate the reopening of this sparkling Rococo gem of a theater, now known after its architect as the Cuvilliés Theater. Restored at the cost of over 25 million euros, the theater provides an exultant red, gold and white setting for Mozart's opera seria, which is considered as the first of the seven uncontested masterworks of his dramatic oeuvre.
Drama keynotes Idomeneo, which is drenched in endless despair, the constant threat of death, and the destructive passions of jealousy and hatred. For having saved his life, King Idomeneo promises Neptune to sacrifice the first person he encounters. Unfortunately, this happens to be his son Idamante, who is torn between two women: the Trojan Princess Ilia, whom he loves, and the Greek Princess Elettra, who desperately wants to marry him and ascend the throne.
Mozart's highly expressive music is given a passionate reading by conductor Kent Nagano, who leads his singers and players with brisk energy. The dark, full sound of the Bayerisches Staatsorchester provides lush underpinnings for the bravura arias and glittering coloraturas. In the title role, John Mark Ainsley tackles his...
Global Wagner - From Bayreuth to the World is not a biography of Richard Wagner , nor is it a musicological analysis of his work. This is a documentary dedicated solely to the world's fascination with the man, and an exploration of the question as to how such massive hype and world-wide cult following developed around this highly controversial artist. The program is a revealing feature-length study of life with Wagner's legacy from one Bayreuth Festival to the next, and we travel the world to meet devoted Wagnerians and those most intimately involved in commenting on and producing his work today.
Herbert von Karajan's story is the story of the record industry itself, which he was instrumental in creating and sustaining over half a century with hundreds of spectacular and award-winning recordings.
His life and his music-making still provoke extreme reactions; in Gernot Friedel's film, made with the help of the Karajan-Centrum in Salzburg, we see the hypnotic effect he could have upon musicians and listeners alike, we hear him in the repertoire for which he was renowned, and we are taken through a life never less than eventful.
This film is about the life of a composer creating in the darkness of a tragic era. As we will see, like most Soviet citizens, Khachaturian hid a complex private life behind a mask of Communist loyalty. Khachaturian was the President of the powerful Composer's Union of the Soviet Union, and as a communist party functionary wielded great influence over the course of Russian music. However, he was also a comrade and personal friend to the dissident composers of the time ?EUR" Shostakovich, Prokofiev, and others. This documentary shows the fine line a man had to tread between being a loyal party functionary on the one hand, and a fighter for artistic freedom on the other.
The Indomitable Bow is a unique portrait of Mstislav Rostropovich , a formidable personality as well as a complex, deeply political musician constantly engaged in a whirlwind of activities. Including unreleased documents, archive films, interviews and concert performances from this key figure of the 20th century. The Indomitable Bow is a remarkable testimony of the life and work of the legendary Slava
Rehearsal: The Scythian Suite is of particular interest in that Gergiev has a personal affinity with this composition. The Scythians lived in the region of the Caucasus where Gergiev has his roots: Ossetia. The ancient myths associated with these illustrious, blood-thirsty, but highly-cultured tribal nomads are an important part of the heritage of the Ossets. Intimately filmed and informed throughout by Gergiev's infectious passion for his work, this music-filled documentary captures the fascinating dynamics between the galvanic conductor and his orchestra, as he seeks to convey the spirit of the quintessentially Russian piece to Western musicians. Footage of rehearsals and performance are interwoven with comments from Gergiev and Oleg Prokofiev, the composer's son; archive film material of Prokofiev; and examples of Scythian treasures in the Hermitage Museum, to create a picture of the composer and his music. The film gives a unique insight into the chemistry which exists between composer, conductor and orchestra, and the means by which a masterly performance is achieved.
Katie Derham introduces highlights from the past ten years at the Royal Ballet in this special, extended edition of Essential Royal Ballet.
Presented on location in Covent Garden at the iconic Royal Opera House, Katie weaves the history of ballet through carefully curated excerpts from the past decade of performances and goes behind the scenes to see what it takes to be a dancer in the company of The Royal Ballet as they prepare to take to the stage.
From the great classics of The Sleeping Beauty and The Nutcracker to the exciting frontiers of contemporary dance, Katie takes us on a romp through the repertory, showcasing the diversity of the UK's biggest ballet company.
With stunning solos, passionate pas de deux and jaw-dropping numbers for the corps de ballet, it is a chance to see your favourite dancers up close, including Carlos Acosta, Marianela Nunez, Natalia Osipova and Steven McRae, alongside rising stars like Francesca Hayward and Matthew Ball, who will introduce their favourite ballets and share stories of their life on the stage.
The ballets featured include the classics Giselle, La Bayadere, Swan Lake, The Sleeping Beauty and The Nutcracker while the 20th-century heritage of the Royal Ballet is explored in works by Frederick Ashton and Kenneth MacMillan...
The story of the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra is colourful and dramatic, with a reputation worldwide for music-making of the highest quality. This special recording celebrates over sixty years of the Orchestra's history through film and music, charting the high-profile conductors, international performances and turbulent times that have helped to shape the Orchestra as we know it today and to create an ongoing tradition of musical excellence.
Blame it on the Russian Revolution: it took Sergey Prokofiev (1891–1953) only a few months to write his early opera The Gambler between October 1915 and March 1916, but problems arose during rehearsals in January 1917, and the premiere in St. Petersburg (then Petrograd) had to be cancelled when the first revolution broke out in February. This first version of the work was never heard, since the composer revised the tempestuous score eleven years later, reducing it and eliminating what he considered "padding." The work was premiered in this version in Brussels in 1929.
Based on Dostoyevsky’s novel of the same name, The Gambler is a dark study of human failings and the corruptive power of money. In this work, everyone gambles: the hero Alexey, the General and even the wealthy aunt Babulenka gamble with money; Blanche, the Marquis and Polina – who loves Alexey – gamble with their fellow human beings. The results are humiliation, ruin and self-delusion. But when the Staatskapelle Berlin under world-famous conductor Daniel Barenboim provide the orchestral sound to the full, lustrous voices of Vladimir Ognovenko, Kristine Opolais, Misha Didyk, Stefania Toczyska and their colleagues, there is nothing even remotely dismal about the opera or its...
Blame it on the Russian Revolution: it took Sergey Prokofiev (1891–1953) only a few months to write his early opera The Gambler between October 1915 and March 1916, but problems arose during rehearsals in January 1917, and the premiere in St. Petersburg (then Petrograd) had to be cancelled when the first revolution broke out in February. This first version of the work was never heard, since the composer revised the tempestuous score eleven years later, reducing it and eliminating what he considered "padding." The work was premiered in this version in Brussels in 1929.
Based on Dostoyevsky’s novel of the same name, The Gambler is a dark study of human failings and the corruptive power of money. In this work, everyone gambles: the hero Alexey, the General and even the wealthy aunt Babulenka gamble with money; Blanche, the Marquis and Polina – who loves Alexey – gamble with their fellow human beings. The results are humiliation, ruin and self-delusion. But when the Staatskapelle Berlin under world-famous conductor Daniel Barenboim provide the orchestral sound to the full, lustrous voices of Vladimir Ognovenko, Kristine Opolais, Misha Didyk, Stefania Toczyska and their colleagues, there is nothing even remotely dismal about the opera or its...
One of the most sought after cello pedagogues, Israeli cellist Amit Peled is a Professor at the Peabody Conservatory of Music of the Johns Hopkins University. From the United States to Europe to the Middle East and Asia, Peled is acclaimed as one of the most exciting instrumentalists on the concert stage today and described as a musician of profound artistry and charismatic stage presence. Peled often surprises audiences with the ways he breaks down barriers between performers and the public, making classical music more accessible to wider audiences.
Tim Smith of the Baltimore Sun reflected on a recent performance: "Peled did a lot of joking in remarks to the audience. His amiable and inviting personality is exactly the type everyone says we'll need more of if classical music is to survive." Peled was chosen among "Musical America's 30 Professionals of the Year 2015 and performs on Pablo Casals?EUR(TM)s own cello, a 1733 Matteo Gofriller loaned to him by the great cellist's widow, Marta.
Tracing the development of an exceptional musical talent from childhood to the beginnings of musical maturity, Karim Said is a lively fellow with a very endearing gift. He is a true musician, similar in some ways to Edwin Fischer or to Karim's mentor, Daniel Barenboim
Born in Amman, Karim studied percussion with his father and piano with Agnes Victorovna Bashir (alumna of the Gnessin School, Moscow). He has been applauded by established musicians and juries in several countries and already won nine international prizes. His distinguishing characteristics are his naturalness, both in his music and his personality, his humour, his intelligence and a total lack of pretence but, above and beyond these things, it is the way in which his music gets through to his audiences and touches people, that sets him apart.
The program seeks to capture all of these qualities and to watch his youthful progress in a story with which a great many people will be able to identify worldwide.
Russia is at once devoutly Christian and deeply pagan. Both faith and magic were stuffed into the deep-freeze by the Soviets. What has emerged since the thaw is inspiring and alarming in equal measure. Program Two shows how the obsession with things spiritual is in all Russian Music
This program looks at one of the archetypal forms of Russian culture, the fairy-tale. An essential part of Russian childhood, these stories with their princesses, heroes and magical characters are also the inspiration of many of the great Russian ballets, operas, symphonic poems and piano works.
Virtuosity searches for the musical souls of the most gifted young pianists on the planet as they try to make a name for themselves of the 2013 Van Cliburn International Piano Competition. The pressure on these kids is overwhelming because the stakes are so high: prize money, concert bookings, a recording contract, a career.
At the heart of this story is the courage is takes for 20-year-old to go onstage alone before 2,000 people, and hundreds of thousands more online, and play a unique interpretation of one of the most difficult pieces ever written for the piano. The Competition requires not only a transcendent musical ability, but a mental toughness that must sustain the soloist through three straight weeks of performance. The Cliburn becomes as much a test of character as a musical proving ground.
The 128 musicians of the prestigious Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra have cast their votes: their new Principal Conductor will be Sir Simon Rattle.
He succeeds Claudio Abbado to become the sixth Principal Director in the 2002/2003 season.
The Berliner Philharmoniker is the only symphony orchestra world-wide choosing its principal conductor in its own responsibility. The camera has been following the orchestra since 1999 at auditions, concerts and guest performances and shows the various steps, from the groundwork preceding the election until the final counting of votes.
The most extensive documentation ever produced about this leading orchestra also presents the orchestra as a microcosm of the German society at the end of the 20th century. Excerpts from auditions and interviews with the Major conductors our time, statements by members of the orchestra, important agents and soloists working with him, reveal the significance of this new election and convey an atmosphere of expectation and excitement.
Go behind the scenes of Peter Sellars' landmark 1992 production of Messiaen's Saint Francois d'Assise in this documentary directed by Jean-Pierre Gorin. These controversial and ultimately universally acclaimed Salzburg Festival performances of the composer's first and only opera starred Jose van Dam and Dawn Upshaw, joined by the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra and Arnold Schonberg Choir under the baton of Esa-Pekka Salonen.
Commissioned in 1975 by the acclaimed Paris Opera director Rolf Liebermann, Olivier Messiaen composed both the libretto and score of Saint Francois d'Assise by himself over the course of the following four years, selecting Catholic saint and fellow bird lover Francis of Assisi as his opera's protagonist. After its orchestration, the work was rehearsed and premiered in 1983 at the Paris Opera under Messiaen's supervision. While these performances were beloved by audiences, critical reception was mixed, which is perhaps why it took almost ten years before the opera would again enjoy a full scenic production, an honor which it would receive in spades at the 1992 Salzburg Festival.
In his documentary, Jean-Pierre Gorin follows the development of Peter Sellars' Salzburg production from its rehearsals to its premiere. In addition to excerpted video...
With a highly acclaimed performance of Mahler's 3rd Symphony Finnish conductor Esa-Pekka Salonen acquired worldwide fame at the tender age of 25. Within the following years he not only became the musical head of several festivals, but also guest-conductor of the Philharmonia Orchestra London and chief-conductor of the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra.
Salonen's appointment as musical director of the Los Angeles Philharmonic in the year 1992 is definitely one of the highlights in the career of this amazing musician. Together with the LAP the ambitious Finn realized many great concerts and released some fabulous recordings, mostly with 20th century music repertoire.
This program shows Salonen while rehearsing Claude Debussy's La Mer . There is a special connection between La Mer and the conductor, who is fascinated by the countless sound possibilities of the impressionistic work. He used some performances to experiment with the work's score, but admits that only due to long lasting and intense collaboration with the Los Angeles Philharmonic he had had the opportunity to really analyze the different elements of La Mer and to elaborate the whole symphonic composition by assembling the single parts again.
A collection of five authentic dances in the Khmer court repertoire, performed in traditional costume by masters of these dances. The narration provides excellent historical background as introduction to each dance. The dances are filmed so that in each solo and group dance, the hands, feet, and body movements can be seen clearly.
The accompanying traditional music is performed by the Pinn Peat Ensemble , including instruments such as shawms, xylophones, gongs, barrel, drums, metallophone, and small cymbals.
An excellent introduction to the dances of the ancient royal court of Cambodia. The film was produced in conjunction with the Khmer Studies Institute California State University, Northridge.
A collection of five authentic dances in the Khmer court repertoire, performed in traditional costume by masters of these dances. The narration provides excellent historical background as introduction to each dance. The dances are filmed so that in each solo and group dance, the hands, feet, and body movements can be seen clearly.
The accompanying traditional music is performed by the Pinn Peat Ensemble , including instruments such as shawms, xylophones, gongs, barrel, drums, metallophone, and small cymbals.
An excellent introduction to the dances of the ancient royal court of Cambodia. The film was produced in conjunction with the Khmer Studies Institute California State University, Northridge.
Steeped in nostalgia, in his Danbury childhood and the New England Transcendentalists with whom he profoundly identified, in the American experience of race which he absorbed from his Abolitionist grandparents, Ives used the past with consummate empathy and brave artistry. A musical Whitman or Melville, he embodies the American trope of the 'self-made genius', heeding Emerson's call to cut the cultural umbilical cord with Europe, forging an original path. The music at hand here includes his Second Symphony (a milestones in culling the vernacular to set beside Huckleberry Finn ), The Housatonic at Stockridge (possibly the most sublime nature reverie in the American orchestral repertoire), and The St Gaudens in Boston Common (a singular ghost dirge in tribute to Colonel Robert Gould Shaw's Black Civil War regiment). Also heard portions of Ive's Concord Sonata performed by Steven Mayer (an interpretation seasoned by a lifetime of advocacy) and half a dozen Ives songs peerlessly sung (in live performance with Paul Sanchez) by William Sharp. The commentators include the Ives scholars J. Peter Burkholder and Judith Tick, and the conductor James Sinclair
The Italian Character is the story of one of the most renowned orchestras in the world, enriched by archive material of the last thirty years about the great conductors who have been performing on the most famous stages in Rome. Its present Music Director, Sir Antonio Pappano, an Anglo-American with Beneventian roots, rediscovered an essential part of his Italian origins through conducting the Orchestra dell'Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia. With the personal histories of its members and conductor, The Italian Character allows its audience to gain an insight into a fascinating world that is usually concealed. Simultaneously, it tells the story of a national institution, of a historically unique development, of an approach to life that is characteristic of a country which is loved by many, but sometimes misunderstood and even underrated in its unknown variety. The documentary showcases some of the best soloists and conductors in the world presenting materials collected during their collaboration with the Orchestra di Santa Cecilia such as Yuri Temirkanov, James Conlon, Valery Gergiev, Daniel Harding, Janine Jansen, Lisa Batiashvili, Evgeny Kissin, Denis Matsuev, Stefano Bollani, Lang Lang.
Distinguished alumnus of the Sibelius Academy and co-founder of the contemporary music championing Avanti! Chamber Orchestra with Esa-Pekka Salonen, Jukka-Pekka Saraste has served as music director of the Oslo Philharmonic, as well as chief conductor with the Toronto Symphony Orchestra, Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra, Scottish Chamber Orchestra, and other prestigious ensembles.
Sasha Waltz is one of the world's most exciting choreographers. Her work includes provocative one-woman shows, inventive dance comedies, and philosophical dance-drama exploring subjects like the human body, sensuality and transcendence. The international company Sasha Waltz and Guests is renowned for the originality and creativity it has brought to contemporary dance. Brigitte Kramer's biopic lays bare the trials, the tribulations and the triumphs of 20 years in Sasha Waltz's soaring career. It reveals her research and working methods, her self-doubt and self-reflection, and her capacity for joy - including interviews with Waltz and her dancers. Garden of Lust presents extracts from many of the choreographies in rehearsal and performance, and captures astonishing moments on and off stage.
This mythological figure of Prometheus symbolises the creativity of man - and Claudio Abbado took this symbol as the Leitmotif of this very unique concert recording: An exploration of the Prometheus myth through the works of four composers, evocatively visualized by television director Christopher Swann, known for directing Leonard Bernstein conducts West Side Story among others.
Featuring Marta Argerich as the solo pianist, the concert was a giant was a giant collaboration of the Berliner Philharmoniker, the Berliner Singkadamie, the Solistenchor Freiburg, and the vocal soloist Ingrid Ade-Jeseman and Monika Bair-Ivenz and speakers Ulrike Krumbiegel and Matthias Schadock.
In this light-hearted documentary portrait, Christine Schafer reveals how she has come to position herself in the top ranks of today's sopranos while still maintaining her artistic freedom. With razor-sharp wit and intelligence, she describes how she keeps herself grounded in a world that craves celebrities. Among the friends and colleagues who provide insights into her artistry as well as her refreshing normality are conductors Christian Thielemann and Sylvain Cambreling, stage director Christoph Marthaler, music journalist Jurgen Kesting, singer Jose van Dam and others.
Christine Schafer is the anti-diva of the vocal world, a no-nonsense,
down-to-earth singer who transforms her opera roles and lieder recitals into grippingly realistic scenes of universal human drama. When it comes to choosing her repertoire and her roles, she unwaveringly follows her own path and refuses to subject herself to marketing campaigns designed to stamp her as the new heroine of whatever is currently in demand. With a repertoire ranging from early music to contemporary works, Schafer does not need a specialty, and she can even indulge in "light" music with Max Raabe's Palastorchester and hits of the 1920s. Excerpts from concert performances and rehearsals of works by Henry Purcell and George Crumb...
Steeped in nostalgia, in his Danbury childhood and the New England Transcendentalists with whom he profoundly identified, in the American experience of race which he absorbed from his Abolitionist grandparents, Ives used the past with consummate empathy and brave artistry. A musical Whitman or Melville, he embodies the American trope of the 'self-made genius', heeding Emerson's call to cut the cultural umbilical cord with Europe, forging an original path. The music at hand here includes his Second Symphony (a milestones in culling the vernacular to set beside Huckleberry Finn ), The Housatonic at Stockridge (possibly the most sublime nature reverie in the American orchestral repertoire), and The St Gaudens in Boston Common (a singular ghost dirge in tribute to Colonel Robert Gould Shaw's Black Civil War regiment). Also heard portions of Ive's Concord Sonata performed by Steven Mayer (an interpretation seasoned by a lifetime of advocacy) and half a dozen Ives songs peerlessly sung (in live performance with Paul Sanchez) by William Sharp. The commentators include the Ives scholars J. Peter Burkholder and Judith Tick, and the conductor James Sinclair
The celebrated Hungarian pianist, Andras Schiff , plays the Chopin Preludes on an 1860 Pleyel Grand Piano, recorded in the beautiful, meticulously-restored concert hall of the Ancient Conservatoire in Paris, where Chopin himself frequently gave concerts.
The 24 Preludes were partly written in Majorca in the monastery of Valldemosa in the winter of 1838 and 1839, where Chopin went with writer George Sand and her children in an attempt to mend his deteriorating health. Chopin's moods during his stay in Majorca fluctuated wildly from great happiness to profound depression and these moods are reflected in the condensed poetic miniatures of the Preludes which constantly change colour, chameleon-like, from the simple and joyful to the bleak, tormented and desperate.
Sir Andras Schiff , the legendary Hungarian-British pianist and conductor, is one of the most renowned interpreters on today's scene. Born in Budapest, he began piano lessons at the age of five, studying at the Ferenc Liszt Academy with Gyorgy Kurtag and Ferenc Rados and later in London with the period specialist George Malcolm.
Mr. Schiff has received numerous awards and honours, including the Grammy Award, a Gramophone Award, The Royal Philharmonic Society's Gold Medal, the Mozarteum's Foundation Golden Medal and the Royal Academy of Music Bach Prize, being knighted by the Queen Elizabeth of England for his services to music in 2014.
"In my opinion, comrades, we really should end the monotony of this Yeah, Yeah, Yeah or whatever they call it" (SED General Secretary Walter Ulbricht about pop music).
As classical music was considered politically harmless in the former GDR, its education was highly encouraged. The regime quickly discovered its great potential for generating valuable cultural exchange — as well as much needed hard currency.
Classical music "made in the GDR" became an export hit for the regime, thanks to, for example, the Staatskapelle Dresden, the Gewandhausorchester Leipzig and renowned artists like Kurt Masur, Peter Schreier, Franz Konwitschny, Kurt Sanderling and Theo Adam.
Through case studies of individuals who lived under the system, "Classical Music & Cold War" explores the fates of both the privileged and the non-privileged, and delivers insight into the influence of the political system on artistic life. The film includes interviews with contemporary witnesses both from GDR and the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG).
"In my opinion, comrades, we really should end the monotony of this Yeah, Yeah, Yeah or whatever they call it" (SED General Secretary Walter Ulbricht about pop music).
As classical music was considered politically harmless in the former GDR, its education was highly encouraged. The regime quickly discovered its great potential for generating valuable cultural exchange — as well as much needed hard currency.
Classical music "made in the GDR" became an export hit for the regime, thanks to, for example, the Staatskapelle Dresden, the Gewandhausorchester Leipzig and renowned artists like Kurt Masur, Peter Schreier, Franz Konwitschny, Kurt Sanderling and Theo Adam.
Through case studies of individuals who lived under the system, "Classical Music & Cold War" explores the fates of both the privileged and the non-privileged, and delivers insight into the influence of the political system on artistic life. The film includes interviews with contemporary witnesses both from GDR and the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG).
This video includes historic recordings and interviews of Carl Schuricht, one of the most important conductors of the twentieth century.
The documentary by Felix Breisach shows the conductor from his private side. He touchingly talks about his fears, aging, his relationship with his wife Alice. His brother Philipp Harnoncourt tells of their childhood and youth, his son Franz describes how he sees his father. In addition, there is the instrumental ensemble Concentus Musicus Wien, founded by Harnoncourt, director's theater and Harnoncourt's love of music.
Go behind the scenes of Peter Sellars' landmark 1992 production of Messiaen's Saint Francois d'Assise in this documentary directed by Jean-Pierre Gorin. These controversial and ultimately universally acclaimed Salzburg Festival performances of the composer's first and only opera starred Jose van Dam and Dawn Upshaw, joined by the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra and Arnold Schonberg Choir under the baton of Esa-Pekka Salonen.
Commissioned in 1975 by the acclaimed Paris Opera director Rolf Liebermann, Olivier Messiaen composed both the libretto and score of Saint Francois d'Assise by himself over the course of the following four years, selecting Catholic saint and fellow bird lover Francis of Assisi as his opera's protagonist. After its orchestration, the work was rehearsed and premiered in 1983 at the Paris Opera under Messiaen's supervision. While these performances were beloved by audiences, critical reception was mixed, which is perhaps why it took almost ten years before the opera would again enjoy a full scenic production, an honor which it would receive in spades at the 1992 Salzburg Festival.
In his documentary, Jean-Pierre Gorin follows the development of Peter Sellars' Salzburg production from its rehearsals to its premiere. In addition to excerpted video...
This film is about the life of a composer creating in the darkness of a tragic era. As we will see, like most Soviet citizens, Khachaturian hid a complex private life behind a mask of Communist loyalty. Khachaturian was the President of the powerful Composer's Union of the Soviet Union, and as a communist party functionary wielded great influence over the course of Russian music. However, he was also a comrade and personal friend to the dissident composers of the time ?EUR" Shostakovich, Prokofiev, and others. This documentary shows the fine line a man had to tread between being a loyal party functionary on the one hand, and a fighter for artistic freedom on the other.
A collection of five authentic dances in the Khmer court repertoire, performed in traditional costume by masters of these dances. The narration provides excellent historical background as introduction to each dance. The dances are filmed so that in each solo and group dance, the hands, feet, and body movements can be seen clearly.
The accompanying traditional music is performed by the Pinn Peat Ensemble , including instruments such as shawms, xylophones, gongs, barrel, drums, metallophone, and small cymbals.
An excellent introduction to the dances of the ancient royal court of Cambodia. The film was produced in conjunction with the Khmer Studies Institute California State University, Northridge.
Hollywood's supreme film composer was a casualty of the standard narrative - as he himself was bitterly aware. Not only were his movie scores high creative accomplishments; Bernard Herrmann was a formidabale - and formidably unfashionable - concert composer whose Clarinet Quintet may be the most beautiful chamber music by an American. His Psycho Narrative , which also sampled, surpasses the Psycho Suite normally heard.
He hones his gift for dramatizing the spoken word as the pre-eminent composer for a genre no longer remembered: the radio drama. Example, Whitman (1944) - a Norman Corwin radio play that deserves to live as a concert work. It also exemplifies how radio, an unprecedented mass medium, once consolidated the American experience, its biggest star being Franklin D. Roosevelt.
The participants include the Whitman scholar Karen Karbiener, the critic Alex Ross, Murray Horwitz on radio lore, and William Sharp on playing Walt Whitman to music by Bernard Herrmann.
Steeped in nostalgia, in his Danbury childhood and the New England Transcendentalists with whom he profoundly identified, in the American experience of race which he absorbed from his Abolitionist grandparents, Ives used the past with consummate empathy and brave artistry. A musical Whitman or Melville, he embodies the American trope of the 'self-made genius', heeding Emerson's call to cut the cultural umbilical cord with Europe, forging an original path. The music at hand here includes his Second Symphony (a milestones in culling the vernacular to set beside Huckleberry Finn ), The Housatonic at Stockridge (possibly the most sublime nature reverie in the American orchestral repertoire), and The St Gaudens in Boston Common (a singular ghost dirge in tribute to Colonel Robert Gould Shaw's Black Civil War regiment). Also heard portions of Ive's Concord Sonata performed by Steven Mayer (an interpretation seasoned by a lifetime of advocacy) and half a dozen Ives songs peerlessly sung (in live performance with Paul Sanchez) by William Sharp. The commentators include the Ives scholars J. Peter Burkholder and Judith Tick, and the conductor James Sinclair
The Intimacy of Creativity – The Bright Sheng Partnership: Composers Meet Performers in Hong Kong is a pioneering, internationally-acclaimed partnership devoted to promoting an intimate dialogue between composers and performers.
Distinguished composers, together with selected emerging composers from Hong Kong and around the world, present and revise their chamber music compositions after in-depth discussions with world-renowned performers during open discussions. The revised compositions are presented at two world premiere concerts in downtown Hong Kong, preceded by preview concerts on the campus of The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, which hosts the partnership.
For the 2011 inaugural season, artistic director and internationally-acclaimed composer, conductor, and pianist Bright Sheng was joined by distinguished guests Richard Stoltzman, Yehudi Wyner, and the Daedalus Quartet; Hong Kong guest artists Mary Wu, Stephen Chong, and Olivier Nowak; and emerging composers Pedro Faria Gomes, Ted Goldman, Moon Young Ha, Narong Prangcharoen, Matthew Tommasini, and Ming-Hsiu Yen.
In 2017 Iberian and Klavier launch their third album, El Piano del Maestro Alonso , a project to reclaim a musical heritage, dedicated to the unpublished works for piano and 4-hand piano by the famous Granada composer.
The CD album will be presented in two exceptional venues, at
the Palace of Charles V in the Alhambra in Granada, Spain and at the Lago di Como International Music Festival. Concerts in Spain, USA, Canada and Europe will be the stage for this project, which is accompanied by a documentary in which Laura and Manuel trace the young composer's steps in Granada.
This Christopher Nupen film is about the music and the artistic intentions of Pyotr Il'yich Tchaikovsky, one of the greats and a composer with an immediate appeal for many millions of people.
In this film the focus is on Tchaikovsky's concern with his own fate in Manfred and the last three symphonies and his extraordinary relationship with Nadezhda von Meck as told in his revealing correspondence with her.
This Christopher Nupen film is about the music and the artistic intentions of Pyotr Il'yich Tchaikovsky, one of the greats and a composer with an immediate appeal for many millions of people.
The prime focus is Tchaikovsky's lifelong preoccupation with the idea of fate as a controlling influence in our lives.
The women in this film are both the women in his personal life (his mother Alexandra, his governess Fanny Durbach and the Belgian singer Desiree Artot) and the vulnerable young heroines in his early music (Katerina Kabanova in The Storm, Juliet in Romeo and Juliet, Francesca in Francesca da Rimini, Odette in Swan Lake and Tatyana in Evgeny Onegin).
Steeped in nostalgia, in his Danbury childhood and the New England Transcendentalists with whom he profoundly identified, in the American experience of race which he absorbed from his Abolitionist grandparents, Ives used the past with consummate empathy and brave artistry. A musical Whitman or Melville, he embodies the American trope of the 'self-made genius', heeding Emerson's call to cut the cultural umbilical cord with Europe, forging an original path. The music at hand here includes his Second Symphony (a milestones in culling the vernacular to set beside Huckleberry Finn ), The Housatonic at Stockridge (possibly the most sublime nature reverie in the American orchestral repertoire), and The St Gaudens in Boston Common (a singular ghost dirge in tribute to Colonel Robert Gould Shaw's Black Civil War regiment). Also heard portions of Ive's Concord Sonata performed by Steven Mayer (an interpretation seasoned by a lifetime of advocacy) and half a dozen Ives songs peerlessly sung (in live performance with Paul Sanchez) by William Sharp. The commentators include the Ives scholars J. Peter Burkholder and Judith Tick, and the conductor James Sinclair
The mother through the daughter's eyes - a family portrait blending intimate conversations, agreements and disagreements, and shred ties of sounds and blood. This intimate portrait of two musical giants by Martha Argerich's daughter Stephanie has been filmed over two decades and around the world: Warsaw, where Martha Argerich won the Chopin competition first prize; Japan, which hosts a unique Argerich festival; London, where Stephen Kovacevich, Stephanie's father, lives, works and enjoys intensively Indian food; Belgium, where Martha lives in a house filled with pianos and cats; Argentina, which she left at the age of twelve to study in Vienna, but still conceals valuable family treasures; Switzerland, where Stephanie and her sister Lyda are currently living.
A film by Stephanie Argerich herself, Bloody Daughter is made up of documentary sequences focusing on the two characters of Martha and Stephen in their everyday lives, in rehearsal and in performance, the film will be largely given over to intimate, delicious anecdotes, and a few scenes in which the family is reunited.
Russia is at once devoutly Christian and deeply pagan. Both faith and magic were stuffed into the deep-freeze by the Soviets. What has emerged since the thaw is inspiring and alarming in equal measure. Program Two shows how the obsession with things spiritual is in all Russian Music
Virtuosity searches for the musical souls of the most gifted young pianists on the planet as they try to make a name for themselves of the 2013 Van Cliburn International Piano Competition. The pressure on these kids is overwhelming because the stakes are so high: prize money, concert bookings, a recording contract, a career.
At the heart of this story is the courage is takes for 20-year-old to go onstage alone before 2,000 people, and hundreds of thousands more online, and play a unique interpretation of one of the most difficult pieces ever written for the piano. The Competition requires not only a transcendent musical ability, but a mental toughness that must sustain the soloist through three straight weeks of performance. The Cliburn becomes as much a test of character as a musical proving ground.
Russians have always espoused village life. Over the centuries, the traditions of folk culture have been assertion of the Russian identity and the melodies of the country side can be found everywhere in Russian classical music. The first program evokes Russia's rural heart and searches for the origins of the Russian folk-song that is the core of all her music.
The films follow an artistic journey that was not an easy one. Living through the great turning point in Western music, many of Sibelius' concerns were strikingly similar to those of Schoenberg and Stravinsky. Each followed a different path, however, and it is not surprising that their reputations should be caught up in the massive shifts of fashion that characterise the turmoil of twentieth century music.
Christopher Nupen offers an intimate look at what Sibelius himself felt that he was trying to achieve. To quote Nupen: "His music has lasted and I believe that it will continue to last, whatever fashion may do...his voice is inimitable, unmistakable and for me unforgettable. My first encounters with it opened up a whole new world that remains with me."
As with Nupen's films on Respighi, Mussorgsky and Tchaikovsky, the orchestra is the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra conducted by Vladimir Ashkenazy. They are joined in this film by Elisabeth Söderström and Boris Belkin.
The films follow an artistic journey that was not an easy one. Living through the great turning point in Western music, many of Sibelius' concerns were strikingly similar to those of Schoenberg and Stravinsky. Each followed a different path, however, and it is not surprising that their reputations should be caught up in the massive shifts of fashion that characterise the turmoil of twentieth century music.
Christopher Nupen offers an intimate look at what Sibelius himself felt that he was trying to achieve. To quote Nupen: "His music has lasted and I believe that it will continue to last, whatever fashion may do...his voice is inimitable, unmistakable and for me unforgettable. My first encounters with it opened up a whole new world that remains with me."
As with Nupen's films on Respighi, Mussorgsky and Tchaikovsky, the orchestra is the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra conducted by Vladimir Ashkenazy. They are joined in this film by Elisabeth Söderström and Boris Belkin.
A collection of five authentic dances in the Khmer court repertoire, performed in traditional costume by masters of these dances. The narration provides excellent historical background as introduction to each dance. The dances are filmed so that in each solo and group dance, the hands, feet, and body movements can be seen clearly.
The accompanying traditional music is performed by the Pinn Peat Ensemble , including instruments such as shawms, xylophones, gongs, barrel, drums, metallophone, and small cymbals.
An excellent introduction to the dances of the ancient royal court of Cambodia. The film was produced in conjunction with the Khmer Studies Institute California State University, Northridge.
This documentary on the unconventional life and ground-breaking music of the Russian pianist and composer Alexander Scriabin (1872-1915) sheds light on the mystical ideas which inspired him. He became consumed by a vision of a union of the arts, a coalescence of music, words, movement, light, colour and ideas, to create transcendent experiences. Contributors to his fascinating exploration of the composer's life and work are musicians Vladimir Ashkenazy and Vladimir Horowitz; conductor Mikhail Pletnev; and Scriabin's daughter, Marina.
The programme draws on Scriabin's writings, archive photographs and documentation, and footage shot in Switzerland, Italy and Moscow. Among a wealth of musical extracts, Scriabin himself is heard playing his Poem Op.32 No. 1 , recorded in 1908 on a Welte Mignon player-piano.
Solti's professional advancement starts at a time when Germany was on its knees. The film depicts this situation by including historical video documents. Only a couple of hours before his death on 5 September 1997, he made his last corrections for the book. By using a narrator who reads excerpts of his biography, Solti is virtually given a voice in this film. The interview partners add an important dimension to the film. All of them were very well acquainted with Solti and have fascinating stories to tell. In regards to capturing performances, Solti was as productive as Bernstein and Karajan. The archives of the ARD network list about 120 TV productions, interviews, rehearsals. Further rich sources are the archives of BR, HR, SWR, ORF, Unitel and the BBC.
How many people remain in good shape, both mentally and physically, at the age of 106? The answer of course, is very few but, as I write this on her 106th birthday, Alice Sommer Herz is among those exceptional few.
And how many have the gift of forgiveness? And how many are free of hatred? Gigi Sommer has both of those qualities. I have never met anyone else with her depth of perception and natural wisdom.
She was imprisoned, with her six-year-old son, in the Theresienstadt concentration camp and saw unspeakable atrocities. She lost both her mother and her husband in Nazi death camps but she does not hate her persecutors. That is not because they are anything other than monstrous criminals but because she has the wisdom to know that all hatred hurts the soul of the hater, not the hated and Gigi Sommer's inspiring soul is among the things which she has kept intact and unblemished through her hundred and six years.
She was a pianist of distinction, played more than 100 concerts in the Theresienstadt camp and is in no doubt that music saved both her sanity and her life and the lives of many others in those unimaginable circumstances. She elaborates on this theme in the film.
Ask her what she has learned in her long life and she says, "To recognise the difference between what...
The title is taken from a poem by a 12-year-old girl, Eva Pickova, written in the Theresienstadt concentration camp. Her words provide both the title and the climaxEUR"in a setting for two choruses and orchestra by the American composer Franz Waxman, in his touching work The Song of Terezin.
It is a film is about many things. It is about freedom and captivity, about emancipation, acculturation and assimilation; it is about the roles played by Moses and Felix Mendelssohn in the dream of fruitful, unproblematic integration of the Jews into German society after their liberation from the ghettos; it is about Richard Wagner, his ferociously anti-Semitic essay Das Judenthum in der Musik (The Jews in Music) and his influence on the thinking of the Third Reich but, most of all, it is a film about how much music can mean to people, even in the direst of circumstances, or particularly in the direst circumstances.
Twenty-nine of the world's best young pianists converged in Fort Worth, Texas in May 2009 for a once in a lifetime chance at gold in the Thirteenth Van Cliburn International Piano Competition. Emmy-winning director Peter Rosen follows these distinctive personalities during a three-week contest - through intense rehearsals, introspective moments, preconcert rituals, and endearing celebrations. Hailing from 14 countries, competitors were welcomed with Texas-sized hospitality by their host families and immersed in a city best characterized by "Cowboys and Culture." With the performances of Chopin, Liszt, Beethoven, Rachmaninov and other piano masterpieces setting the impassioned tone, the result is an intrinsic view into the world's most prestigious piano competition and a heartwarming story that proves to be a momentous Surprise in Texas.
A documentary on Pierre Boulez and his work Eclat . Eclat is a real study of resonance written for fifteen instruments and created in 1965.
Russia is at once devoutly Christian and deeply pagan. Both faith and magic were stuffed into the deep-freeze by the Soviets. What has emerged since the thaw is inspiring and alarming in equal measure. Program Two shows how the obsession with things spiritual is in all Russian Music
Classic Yo-Yo Ma chronicles Ma's unique work process and legendary performances with rarely seen rehearsal and concert footage from throughout his entire career.
In addition to these exquisite musical selections, the program includes newly-taped interviews with Yo-Yo Ma and his friends and colleagues Daniel Barenboim, Emanuel Ax, Tan Dun and Bobby McFerrin. Yo-Yo Ma is world-renowned for his incomparable artistry and range. His discography of nearly fifty albums includes fourteen Grammy Awards. His remarkable talent and limitless interests have created new boundaries for classical music.
The program highlights Ma's unique ability to explore cultures and musical forms outside the Western classical tradition. His diversity is demonstrated not only through richly nuanced interpretations of Bach, Beethoven , and Brahms , but also Piazzolla, Edgar Meyer , American folk music and Tan Dun .
Harry Partch (like his friend Anais Nin) considered his life's work to be a letter to the world. His last act was going to be to add the enclosures. He never got around to it. After 20 years of working on the Partch archives, Philip Blackburn has now completed the seven-part Enclosures series as it were on his behalf.
Enclosure 7 is a monumental tribute to the most significant works of this American original and iconoclast. It includes new versions of his late masterworks and never-before-seen footage that bring us closer to the real Harry behind the myth.
The Dreamer That Remains is a documentary produced by Betty Freeman and directed by Stephen Pouliot in 1972. Here is the director's original cut along with his commentary. If you've never seen Partch or his instruments before, this is the place to start.
Delusion of the Fury was his magnum opus; a lifetime of instrument invention and ideas of ritual theater were poured into this giant work. The 1971 film has been resynched and the soundtrack remastered in 5.1 surround sound.
The CBS LPs of this work came with a bonus album of Harry introducing his instruments. Unavailable for years, this recording features this talk along with a slideshow of the instruments.
Revelation in the Courthouse Park was Harry's...
Jan Peerce was a great singer, universally acclaimed as one of the outstanding artists of his time, a role model of the American Dream. Beginning with Peerce's roots on the Lower East Side of New York, this film takes us uptown and around the world with him. We view his life through music performance, through interviews with famed concert violinist (and host) Isaac Stern, and through compelling footage, some of which has never been publicly shown before. The documentary celebrates the dynamic, entertaining and witty personality of this legendary singer.
Classic Yo-Yo Ma chronicles Ma's unique work process and legendary performances with rarely seen rehearsal and concert footage from throughout his entire career.
In addition to these exquisite musical selections, the program includes newly-taped interviews with Yo-Yo Ma and his friends and colleagues Daniel Barenboim, Emanuel Ax, Tan Dun and Bobby McFerrin. Yo-Yo Ma is world-renowned for his incomparable artistry and range. His discography of nearly fifty albums includes fourteen Grammy Awards. His remarkable talent and limitless interests have created new boundaries for classical music.
The program highlights Ma's unique ability to explore cultures and musical forms outside the Western classical tradition. His diversity is demonstrated not only through richly nuanced interpretations of Bach, Beethoven , and Brahms , but also Piazzolla, Edgar Meyer , American folk music and Tan Dun .
The State Opera is the first film ever made about the Bavarian State Opera, one of the world's oldest, most prestigious and internationally esteemed companies. It charts the course of three operas - Die Meistersinger von Nurnberg , Les Indes galantes and Un ballo in maschera - as they come to life on the stage.
We meet some of the great singers, such as Jonas Kaufmann and Anja Harteros, in performance and behind the scenes, as well as artistic directors past and present, and two of the music directors in Kirill Petrenko and his predecessor Zubin Mehta. As both a celebration and an exploration, this entertaining film is a declaration of love for the operatic form.
Behind the scenes of the premier of The Helicopter String Quartet he dreamt of it and he did it.
Karlheinz Stockhausen is the composer of the superlative: in everything, he is "the most" (crazy, prolific, demanding, committed, innovative, radical, extravagant, etc.). Born near Cologne in 1928, he left a world that had become too small for him on December 5th, 2007. Before doing so he left three hundred and sixty works which experiment with all genres: serialism, electronics, pointillism, quotations, the collage and the aleotary. He will be remembered as a master of electro-acoustic music and of the spatialisation of sound, as revealed in this documentary dedicated to the world premiere, on June 26th, 1995 at the Holland Festival, of his Helicopter String Quartet.
This is not a joke. Karlheinz Stockhausen dreamt of it and he did it. He wrote a score for a string quartet whose musicians (in this instance the Arditti Quartet) would each play in a helicopter, while their music would be mixed on the ground by Stockhausen and broadcasted in the concert hall. The helicopter rotors are naturally present.
Frank Scheffer enables us to take part in the preparation of this "borderline" experiment: a huge amount of work rehearsing with the participation of the Dutch Navy, who...
Begins with Henry James' comfortable boyhood in New York, during which his father moved James and his brother around and back and forth from Europe frequently for the sake of education. He eventually went to Harvard to study law and began writing, but felt uncomfortable with American culture and left for England, where he spent most of the rest of his life.
The Risør Festival of Chamber Music has firmly established itself as one of the most prestigious and recognized chamber music festivals in the world. Each year, international artists visit the small fishing town in southern Norway and join forces with some of Norway's best musicians for six days of chamber music making. The setting is amongst the most beautiful to be found in Norway, the exquisite coastline architecture and quintessential southern white houses providing an atmosphere of intimacy and calmness.
The founding artistic directors were violist Lars Anders Tomter and pianist Leif Ove Andsnes. In 2011 Andsnes handed over the co-artistic leadership to violinist Henning Kraggerud. The festival takes place in the last week of June each year. The films shown here are produced by Music in Motion (www.musicinmotion.no).
Conductor Franz Welser-Most, director Sven-Eric Bechtolf and singers Laura Aiken, Alfred Muff, Rolf Haunstein, Steve Davislim and Peter Straka contribute to a programme introducing Berg's complex masterpiece.
Paul Wittgenstein, the Austrian concert pianist, lost his arm at the age of twenty-seven while serving as an officer in the First World War. Nonetheless, he was determined to continue his career. Major composers such as Ravel and Strauss wrote pieces for him, and from this he gained international acclaim. Eventually forced to leave Austria by the Nazis, he died in New York in 1961.
Paul's father Karl, millionaire and chief Austrian iron and steel baron, had been determined to have his five sons follow in his footsteps and become industrialists, so he did not permit them to pursue artistic careers. He paid for his intransigence with the lives of his three eldest children, who escaped their father's authority by committing suicide; finally he allowed his two remaining sons the freedom to choose their own profession. Paul chose music, and his younger brother Ludwig turned to philosophy.
Paul Wittgenstein's biography is an extraordinary, life-affirming story. It is the tale of a man who persevered in the face of seemingly insurmountable obstacles and prevailed.
Beethoven was born into a musical family in Bonn. He was well taught and generally well educated. With the support of his local ruler he went to Vienna to further his musical studies. He was soon celebrated as a pianist and composer and spent the rest of his life in Vienna supported by generous patrons and free to compose as he wished. In spite of going stone deaf he was able to continue composing, producing some of his greatest works in his later years. The documentary details his life and times and is followed by an overview of his works.
Brahms was born in Hamburg into a poor but musical family. His talent was early recognized and he received devoted and first class tuition. He was discovered by the violinist Joachim and the composer Schumann and he enjoyed amazing success from his very first published work. Brahms never married but settled in Vienna where he came to be recognized as one of the great musical masters of the century.
This program by Malcolm Hossick follows the improbable life of Emily Dickinson writing very imaginative poetry in the little New England town of Amherst in the middle of the 19th century. Against all the odds her work, largely unpublished during her lifetime was printed and has found an appreciative audience. A brief overview of her work follows.
George Eliot was born Mary Anne Evans in 1819 near the small town of Nuneaton in Warwickshire. Her father ran the estate of the local landowner. She had an excellent education in local schools and took up journalism. She began writing novels when she was over 30 and became one of the most celebrated and influential writers of her age. The program by Malcolm Hossick traces her life and her remarkable achievements in fields until then dominated by men. It is followed by a brief overview of her work.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749-1832) was born in Frankfurt on Main, Germany, into a well-to-do family. He made some attempts to become a lawyer but eventually began writing poetry and novels. He was immediately successful. He joined the court of the Duke of Weimar and from there became accepted as the greatest writer of his age. The film covers his life and background and ends with an overview of his work.
Nathaniel Hawthorne was an American novelist and short story writer who enjoyed considerable success with his romantic tales usually set in in the puritanical world of his home state Massachusetts. He traveled extensively in England and Italy and reflected American views on the old world of Europe. This documentary explores his roots in puritanical culture, his growth at Bowdoin College, his explosion in the literary world, his political appointments and his journey abroad.
Joseph Haydn was born into a poor family in 18th century Hungary. His huge musical talent brought him into the service of a Prince. Eventually his work was recognized throughout the musical world. The film by Malcolm Hossick describes his fascinating life and the social change he went through. It is followed by a brief overview of his work. Joseph Haydn was born into a simple rural community where his father worked for the local landowner. Joseph's musical talents developed in local church choirs and his fine voice took him to the choir of St Stephen's in Vienna. We follow his career into the the employment of the Esterhazy family where he remained until he was sixty. His international fame as a composer brought him an invitation to London where his career was reborn. The video ends with a brief overview of Haydn's work useful to experienced music lovers and and newcomers alike. On the soundtrack some of his most characteristic compositions are played by members of the Elysium ensemble.
Shelley was born in 1792 in a house in Surrey on the estate of his grandfather Sir Bysshe Shelley. He was educated at Syon House Academy in London and at Eton. In 1810 he went to University College Oxford and published his first poems. He was expelled from Oxford and lived variously in England and Italy where he died in a sailing accident off Leghorn in 1822 when he was thirty. He was much engaged by social politics and this is reflected unusually in his work.
It became a remarkable documentary, a compilation of the different renditions, rehearsals and performances of Roger Norrington with the SWR Stuttgart Radio Symphony Orchestra. In this video, Norrington ventures into Romantic music, featuring a documentary of Tchaikovsky's Pathetique and the music of Richard Wagner. Details of each work are explained and narrated by Roger Norrington himself.
This video includes historic recordings and interviews of Carl Schuricht, one of the most important conductors of the twentieth century.
No non-Western musical idiom has so impacted on the Western concert tradition as Indonesian gamelan, beginning with the Javanese Pavilion at the 1889 Paris Exposition: an epiphany. Sampling gamelan-inspired works by Debussy, Ravel , and McPhee , the film arrives at a paragon exemplar of cultural fusion - Lou Harrison - and a pair of concertos for violin and piano, unsurpassed by those of any other American. The composer/scholar Bill Alves demonstrates the layered complexity of Javanese gamelan, and how it translates into keyboard textures composed by Harrison for Keith Jarrett. For Harrison's Concerto for Violin and Percussion , tour the 'junk percussion' - including flower pots and washtubs - that Harrison made sing and dance.
Participants include the gamelan scholars Jody Diamond and Sumarsam, and the conductor Dennis Russell Davies, who has long championed Harrison on both sides of the Atlantic.
In this exclusive profile, Joan Sutherland - La Stupenda - looks back on her remarkable forty-two year career as one of the world's greatest singers. The programme includes film of her final performances in Les Huguenots and Die Fledermaus , a wealth of archive performance extracts and newsreel footage. There are interviews with Joan Sutherland and her husband, the director and conductor Richard Bonynge, and contributions from friends and colleagues, including Luciano Pavarotti, Marilyn Horne, Kiri Te Kanawa, and her biographer, Norma Major.
The films follow an artistic journey that was not an easy one. Living through the great turning point in Western music, many of Sibelius' concerns were strikingly similar to those of Schoenberg and Stravinsky. Each followed a different path, however, and it is not surprising that their reputations should be caught up in the massive shifts of fashion that characterise the turmoil of twentieth century music.
Christopher Nupen offers an intimate look at what Sibelius himself felt that he was trying to achieve. To quote Nupen: "His music has lasted and I believe that it will continue to last, whatever fashion may do...his voice is inimitable, unmistakable and for me unforgettable. My first encounters with it opened up a whole new world that remains with me."
As with Nupen's films on Respighi, Mussorgsky and Tchaikovsky, the orchestra is the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra conducted by Vladimir Ashkenazy. They are joined in this film by Elisabeth Söderström and Boris Belkin.
The films follow an artistic journey that was not an easy one. Living through the great turning point in Western music, many of Sibelius' concerns were strikingly similar to those of Schoenberg and Stravinsky. Each followed a different path, however, and it is not surprising that their reputations should be caught up in the massive shifts of fashion that characterise the turmoil of twentieth century music.
Christopher Nupen offers an intimate look at what Sibelius himself felt that he was trying to achieve. To quote Nupen: "His music has lasted and I believe that it will continue to last, whatever fashion may do...his voice is inimitable, unmistakable and for me unforgettable. My first encounters with it opened up a whole new world that remains with me."
As with Nupen's films on Respighi, Mussorgsky and Tchaikovsky, the orchestra is the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra conducted by Vladimir Ashkenazy. They are joined in this film by Elisabeth Söderström and Boris Belkin.
This Christopher Nupen film is about the music and the artistic intentions of Pyotr Il'yich Tchaikovsky, one of the greats and a composer with an immediate appeal for many millions of people.
In this film the focus is on Tchaikovsky's concern with his own fate in Manfred and the last three symphonies and his extraordinary relationship with Nadezhda von Meck as told in his revealing correspondence with her.
This Christopher Nupen film is about the music and the artistic intentions of Pyotr Il'yich Tchaikovsky, one of the greats and a composer with an immediate appeal for many millions of people.
The prime focus is Tchaikovsky's lifelong preoccupation with the idea of fate as a controlling influence in our lives.
The women in this film are both the women in his personal life (his mother Alexandra, his governess Fanny Durbach and the Belgian singer Desiree Artot) and the vulnerable young heroines in his early music (Katerina Kabanova in The Storm, Juliet in Romeo and Juliet, Francesca in Francesca da Rimini, Odette in Swan Lake and Tatyana in Evgeny Onegin).
Johann Sebastian Bach is now reckoned to be one of the great masters of music. He was not a great innovator but built upon the developments of harmony which had begun with the occurance of the renaissance of learning and an understanding of the world in scientific terms in the centuries before him. He was an astonishingly gifted musician and his life was a tortured journey of success and drawbacks.
Writer, producer and director Malcolm Hossick explores how he worked and lived and assesses the contribution he made to music. It is followed by a brief overview of his huge output. Bach was born in Germany into a talented musical family. His astonishing musical gifts showed at an early age and by his late teens he was organist at the local church and soon moving on to positions in the many small Princely courts which made up Germany at the time. In the German musical world he quickly gained a reputation as a master organist and composer. It was not until almost a century after his death that his greatness was fully recognized outside Germany. The documentary by Malcolm Hossick traces his life and work and ends with an overview of his music.
Beethoven was born into a musical family in Bonn. He was well taught and generally well educated. With the support of his local ruler he went to Vienna to further his musical studies. He was soon celebrated as a pianist and composer and spent the rest of his life in Vienna supported by generous patrons and free to compose as he wished. In spite of going stone deaf he was able to continue composing, producing some of his greatest works in his later years. The documentary details his life and times and is followed by an overview of his works.
Brahms was born in Hamburg into a poor but musical family. His talent was early recognized and he received devoted and first class tuition. He was discovered by the violinist Joachim and the composer Schumann and he enjoyed amazing success from his very first published work. Brahms never married but settled in Vienna where he came to be recognized as one of the great musical masters of the century.
Joseph Haydn was born into a poor family in 18th century Hungary. His huge musical talent brought him into the service of a Prince. Eventually his work was recognized throughout the musical world. The film by Malcolm Hossick describes his fascinating life and the social change he went through. It is followed by a brief overview of his work. Joseph Haydn was born into a simple rural community where his father worked for the local landowner. Joseph's musical talents developed in local church choirs and his fine voice took him to the choir of St Stephen's in Vienna. We follow his career into the the employment of the Esterhazy family where he remained until he was sixty. His international fame as a composer brought him an invitation to London where his career was reborn. The video ends with a brief overview of Haydn's work useful to experienced music lovers and and newcomers alike. On the soundtrack some of his most characteristic compositions are played by members of the Elysium ensemble.
Begins with Henry James' comfortable boyhood in New York, during which his father moved James and his brother around and back and forth from Europe frequently for the sake of education. He eventually went to Harvard to study law and began writing, but felt uncomfortable with American culture and left for England, where he spent most of the rest of his life.
Classic Yo-Yo Ma chronicles Ma's unique work process and legendary performances with rarely seen rehearsal and concert footage from throughout his entire career.
In addition to these exquisite musical selections, the program includes newly-taped interviews with Yo-Yo Ma and his friends and colleagues Daniel Barenboim, Emanuel Ax, Tan Dun and Bobby McFerrin. Yo-Yo Ma is world-renowned for his incomparable artistry and range. His discography of nearly fifty albums includes fourteen Grammy Awards. His remarkable talent and limitless interests have created new boundaries for classical music.
The program highlights Ma's unique ability to explore cultures and musical forms outside the Western classical tradition. His diversity is demonstrated not only through richly nuanced interpretations of Bach, Beethoven , and Brahms , but also Piazzolla, Edgar Meyer , American folk music and Tan Dun .
Russians have always espoused village life. Over the centuries, the traditions of folk culture have been assertion of the Russian identity and the melodies of the country side can be found everywhere in Russian classical music. The first program evokes Russia's rural heart and searches for the origins of the Russian folk-song that is the core of all her music.
Romeo and Juliet - The Tragic Lovers, offers insight, commentary and staged performances of Shakespeares famous tragedy of star-crossed lovers. As a companion to the literary interpretation, actual dramatic scenes filmed in Verona, Italy are used as Shakespeare had intended in his original play.
Scholar and host, James Bride, introduces factual information about Shakespeares play by referencing a digitally enhanced version of the Prologue. Gary Taylor, Editor of the Oxford Editions of Shakespeares Complete Works, offers an engaging dialogue about the historical background of exotic Verona, use of boy actors, staging challenges and 16th Century sacred and secular attitudes that influenced the writing of the play. Additionally, Judith Annozine covers the humor in this play providing insight into the characters and role of the Nurse and Mercutio in advancing the action.
This program is an enormously valuable historical, literary and dramatic analysis of the essence of Macbeth showing how the significant parts of the drama tie together with scenes from the play.
Hosts, Rebecca Flynn and Gary Taylor introduce Macbeth The Tragic Pair using the stunning backdrop of the Scottish Highlands to lift the veil covering the language, plot, themes, geographical and historical background to The Tragedy of Macbeth, first published in 1623.
Macbeth is the shortest and most compressed in language, action and character development of the Shakespeare tragedies. At a heath near Forres, 3 Weird Sisters (witches) meet with the King of Scotland (Duncan) and his General Macbeth, hailing Macbeth with a triple prophecy that ends with a promise that Macbeth with be king. After events occur supporting these prophecies, the ambitious Macbeth and Lady Macbeth work together to murder the King in their castle (Inverness). In time, the Tragic Pair are haunted by guilt, paranoia and isolation with Lady Macbeth taking her own life and Macbeth fighting to the last, even though he realizes the three witches had issued false and misleading prophecies. Both die and Scotland returns to normalcy with Duncans son, Malcolm crowned at Scone, Scotland.
This up-to-date documentary about Felix Mendelssohn is based on the original letters of the composer and his sister Fanny, combined with numerous evocative period images. Through a blend of music and words, the most distinguished Mendelssohn specialists of today guide viewers through the composer's fascinating life and career. The various themes covered include his training, his religious and cultural identity, his journey to Italy, his rediscovery of Bach, his years in Leipzig, the relative neglect of his music following his death, his readmission to the canon of Germany's greatest Romantic composers, and the recent unearthing of many unpublished works.
Bonus:
- Homage to Felix Mendelssohn at the Settimane Musicali al Teatro Olimpico, 2009.
Classic Yo-Yo Ma chronicles Ma's unique work process and legendary performances with rarely seen rehearsal and concert footage from throughout his entire career.
In addition to these exquisite musical selections, the program includes newly-taped interviews with Yo-Yo Ma and his friends and colleagues Daniel Barenboim, Emanuel Ax, Tan Dun and Bobby McFerrin. Yo-Yo Ma is world-renowned for his incomparable artistry and range. His discography of nearly fifty albums includes fourteen Grammy Awards. His remarkable talent and limitless interests have created new boundaries for classical music.
The program highlights Ma's unique ability to explore cultures and musical forms outside the Western classical tradition. His diversity is demonstrated not only through richly nuanced interpretations of Bach, Beethoven , and Brahms , but also Piazzolla, Edgar Meyer , American folk music and Tan Dun .
Explore Europe's most spectacular cities and landscapes while luxuriating in the great classical music composed within their precincts. Viewers will learn about the lives of the master musicians, the cities they lived in, and how their work reflects the very same surroundings we see today.
Renowned actor, writer and classical music specialist Simon Callow presents a spectacular continental odyssey with a soundtrack by Mozart, Bach, Beethoven, Vivaldi, Puccini, Grieg, Sibelius, Smetana, Tchaikovsky and others.
Vivaldi's Venice, the Salzburg of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, the fjords of Norway evoked in music by Edvard Grieg, and the Vienna that waltzed to Johann Strauss have never looked - or sounded - better.
A collection of five authentic dances in the Khmer court repertoire, performed in traditional costume by masters of these dances. The narration provides excellent historical background as introduction to each dance. The dances are filmed so that in each solo and group dance, the hands, feet, and body movements can be seen clearly.
The accompanying traditional music is performed by the Pinn Peat Ensemble , including instruments such as shawms, xylophones, gongs, barrel, drums, metallophone, and small cymbals.
An excellent introduction to the dances of the ancient royal court of Cambodia. The film was produced in conjunction with the Khmer Studies Institute California State University, Northridge.
In 2017 Iberian and Klavier launch their third album, El Piano del Maestro Alonso , a project to reclaim a musical heritage, dedicated to the unpublished works for piano and 4-hand piano by the famous Granada composer.
The CD album will be presented in two exceptional venues, at
the Palace of Charles V in the Alhambra in Granada, Spain and at the Lago di Como International Music Festival. Concerts in Spain, USA, Canada and Europe will be the stage for this project, which is accompanied by a documentary in which Laura and Manuel trace the young composer's steps in Granada.
In 1985 Philip Blackburn climbed the stairs to an attic in Iowa City and started trying to make sense of the boxes piled up there. They contained a composer's life's work: scrapbooks, tapes, photos, letters, scores, and film reels - fragile treasures documenting the twentieth century from a most unusual viewpoint, that of perhaps the world's most original musician: Harry Partch.
The idea was to publish them and reveal Harry to the world on his own terms. Not as the crabby, homeless, self-taught microtonal musical weirdo and instrument maker, but as that most American of all artists, a truly independent thinker. With Enclosure 8, the work of bringing them to public attention reaches its apotheosis.
The Enclosures series (named for the extras Partch wanted to add to his life-long letter to the world) started appearing in 1995 with a VHS video of four films made in collaboration with the Chicago-based filmmaker Madeline Tourtelot. Four CDs, two years and one book later, Enclosure 4 appeared featuring his later films: Delusion of the Fury (his culminating ritual-theater work) and a San Diego Public TV documentary, also on VHS. Now the time has come for these to be issued on DVD, extensively restored, resynched and digitally remastered from the extant original prints....
Russia's whole history has been marked by cycles of bloodshed and especially by the torturing and killing of its own people. There is a pattern of self-destruction that the country does not seem to be able to escape and Russian music endlessly explores the tragic repetitions of its history. Program Four investigates, musically and visually, the legacy of tyranny in Russia.
Russia is at once devoutly Christian and deeply pagan. Both faith and magic were stuffed into the deep-freeze by the Soviets. What has emerged since the thaw is inspiring and alarming in equal measure. Program Two shows how the obsession with things spiritual is in all Russian Music
Russians have always espoused village life. Over the centuries, the traditions of folk culture have been assertion of the Russian identity and the melodies of the country side can be found everywhere in Russian classical music. The first program evokes Russia's rural heart and searches for the origins of the Russian folk-song that is the core of all her music.
Throughout Russian history there has been a love/hate relationship with her neighbors, oscillating between fear and loathing, envy and imitation. This final program in the series travels from the edge of the one-time empire to the heart of Russia and reveal that the cultural and musical impact of these conflicts has been vast, colorful and searing.
This program looks at one of the archetypal forms of Russian culture, the fairy-tale. An essential part of Russian childhood, these stories with their princesses, heroes and magical characters are also the inspiration of many of the great Russian ballets, operas, symphonic poems and piano works.
Nowhere in the world is the myth of Wagner as alive as in Bayreuth, and nowhere are performances of his works followed as closely as those at the Festspielhaus in Bayreuth. But after a decade-long reign as the uncontested ruler of the Wagner Festival, the composer's grandson Wolfgang Wagner has stepped down from his post. A new era is about to begin...
This documentary thematizes the past, present and future of the festival and provides rare insights behind the scenes of the Wagner "workshop." For the first time ever, the film team was able to record in the legendary Bayreuth orchestra pit, giving rise to stunningly candid shots of conductor Christian Thielemann rehearsing Götterdämmerung. A conversation with Wolfgang Wagner recorded especially for this production is presumably the patriarch's last appearance on film as head of the festival. The program also features rehearsals of the new 2008 production of Parsifal with director Stefan Herheim and conductor Daniele Gatti. Members of the Wagner family and leading Wagner interpreters of our time also comment on the unique Wagner aura. The authors have assembled an amazing collection of historical film material and photos on the history of the festival. There are also excerpts from great productions recorded by Unitel...
Global Wagner - From Bayreuth to the World is not a biography of Richard Wagner , nor is it a musicological analysis of his work. This is a documentary dedicated solely to the world's fascination with the man, and an exploration of the question as to how such massive hype and world-wide cult following developed around this highly controversial artist. The program is a revealing feature-length study of life with Wagner's legacy from one Bayreuth Festival to the next, and we travel the world to meet devoted Wagnerians and those most intimately involved in commenting on and producing his work today.
No non-Western musical idiom has so impacted on the Western concert tradition as Indonesian gamelan, beginning with the Javanese Pavilion at the 1889 Paris Exposition: an epiphany. Sampling gamelan-inspired works by Debussy, Ravel , and McPhee , the film arrives at a paragon exemplar of cultural fusion - Lou Harrison - and a pair of concertos for violin and piano, unsurpassed by those of any other American. The composer/scholar Bill Alves demonstrates the layered complexity of Javanese gamelan, and how it translates into keyboard textures composed by Harrison for Keith Jarrett. For Harrison's Concerto for Violin and Percussion , tour the 'junk percussion' - including flower pots and washtubs - that Harrison made sing and dance.
Participants include the gamelan scholars Jody Diamond and Sumarsam, and the conductor Dennis Russell Davies, who has long championed Harrison on both sides of the Atlantic.
This video contains a Christopher Nupen film about the most charismatic performer in the entire history of Western classical music EUR" also the most talked about, the most controversial, the most famous and the most successful classical soloist that the world of music has ever known.
The story is astonishing, exciting, wildly unusual and, at the end, deeply touching. It is one of the most extraordinary tales in the history of music and it is told with all the Nupen finesse and commitment that have won him DVD of the Year Award four times in the past six years.
In the recording, Christopher Nupen looks at the legend and the strange man who created it with his dazzling combination of technical brilliance, supreme showmanship, Italian melody and unbridled manipulative skill EUR" a man whose extraordinary personality unsettled even the most sophisticated and educated minds and provoked wildly contradictory opinions.
It presents Paganini's music, shot and edited in the style developed by Christopher Nupen and his colleagues for their prize winning DVDs about Sibelius, Schubert and Tchaikovsky and combines it with extracts from Paganini's letters and quotations from both his admirers and his many detractors.
Maya Plisetskaya is in every sense an exceptional personality. Like almost no other dancer, the eternal prima ballerina assoluta of the Bolshoi Theatre understood how to combine outstanding dance skills with dramatic expression. There are also very few dancers who can look back on such a long and active career: even on her eightieth birthday in November 2005 she personally gave a stage performance. A homage to her inimitable creative work, this video features fascinating footage of her greatest successes as a ballerina together with an interview in which Maya Plisetskaya describes her life as a dancer - which is simultaneously a whole chapter of Russian history, from Stalin to perestroika.
He is often hailed as the greatest composer alive, and John Adams has his finger on the cultural and political pulse of America like few others: fearless in his confrontation of hot topics like imperialism and terrorism within his own works such as Nixon in China and the still-controversial Death of Klinghofer Alice Goodman and Peter Sellars. Through them and the operas themselves, in extensive performance extracts by Willard White. Dawn Upshaw and the late Lorraine Hunt Lieberson, we see a fresh someone who has revitalised both opera and American music for a new age.
This film is about the life of a composer creating in the darkness of a tragic era. As we will see, like most Soviet citizens, Khachaturian hid a complex private life behind a mask of Communist loyalty. Khachaturian was the President of the powerful Composer's Union of the Soviet Union, and as a communist party functionary wielded great influence over the course of Russian music. However, he was also a comrade and personal friend to the dissident composers of the time ?EUR" Shostakovich, Prokofiev, and others. This documentary shows the fine line a man had to tread between being a loyal party functionary on the one hand, and a fighter for artistic freedom on the other.
Blame it on the Russian Revolution: it took Sergey Prokofiev (1891–1953) only a few months to write his early opera The Gambler between October 1915 and March 1916, but problems arose during rehearsals in January 1917, and the premiere in St. Petersburg (then Petrograd) had to be cancelled when the first revolution broke out in February. This first version of the work was never heard, since the composer revised the tempestuous score eleven years later, reducing it and eliminating what he considered "padding." The work was premiered in this version in Brussels in 1929.
Based on Dostoyevsky’s novel of the same name, The Gambler is a dark study of human failings and the corruptive power of money. In this work, everyone gambles: the hero Alexey, the General and even the wealthy aunt Babulenka gamble with money; Blanche, the Marquis and Polina – who loves Alexey – gamble with their fellow human beings. The results are humiliation, ruin and self-delusion. But when the Staatskapelle Berlin under world-famous conductor Daniel Barenboim provide the orchestral sound to the full, lustrous voices of Vladimir Ognovenko, Kristine Opolais, Misha Didyk, Stefania Toczyska and their colleagues, there is nothing even remotely dismal about the opera or its...
Explore Europe's most spectacular cities and landscapes while luxuriating in the great classical music composed within their precincts. Viewers will learn about the lives of the master musicians, the cities they lived in, and how their work reflects the very same surroundings we see today.
Renowned actor, writer and classical music specialist Simon Callow presents a spectacular continental odyssey with a soundtrack by Mozart, Bach, Beethoven, Vivaldi, Puccini, Grieg, Sibelius, Smetana, Tchaikovsky and others.
Vivaldi's Venice, the Salzburg of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, the fjords of Norway evoked in music by Edvard Grieg, and the Vienna that waltzed to Johann Strauss have never looked - or sounded - better.
Simon Callow details the dreams, dramas and musical triumphs of composers such as Handel, Chopin, Liszt, Rachmaninov, Shostakovich, Elgar, Holst, Debussy, Ravel, Richard Strauss, Resphigi and Rossini to name just a few.
The Intimacy of Creativity – The Bright Sheng Partnership: Composers Meet Performers in Hong Kong is a pioneering, internationally-acclaimed partnership devoted to promoting an intimate dialogue between composers and performers.
Distinguished composers, together with selected emerging composers from Hong Kong and around the world, present and revise their chamber music compositions after in-depth discussions with world-renowned performers during open discussions. The revised compositions are presented at two world premiere concerts in downtown Hong Kong, preceded by preview concerts on the campus of The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, which hosts the partnership.
For the 2011 inaugural season, artistic director and internationally-acclaimed composer, conductor, and pianist Bright Sheng was joined by distinguished guests Richard Stoltzman, Yehudi Wyner, and the Daedalus Quartet; Hong Kong guest artists Mary Wu, Stephen Chong, and Olivier Nowak; and emerging composers Pedro Faria Gomes, Ted Goldman, Moon Young Ha, Narong Prangcharoen, Matthew Tommasini, and Ming-Hsiu Yen.
The Risør Festival of Chamber Music has firmly established itself as one of the most prestigious and recognized chamber music festivals in the world. Each year, international artists visit the small fishing town in southern Norway and join forces with some of Norway's best musicians for six days of chamber music making. The setting is amongst the most beautiful to be found in Norway, the exquisite coastline architecture and quintessential southern white houses providing an atmosphere of intimacy and calmness.
The founding artistic directors were violist Lars Anders Tomter and pianist Leif Ove Andsnes. In 2011 Andsnes handed over the co-artistic leadership to violinist Henning Kraggerud. The festival takes place in the last week of June each year. The films shown here are produced by Music in Motion (www.musicinmotion.no).
After a few years rest and some at-home unofficial rehabilitation Horowitz was ready to begin performing again. Horowitz recorded the material on this production in his own living room. We see a rejuvinated, different Horowitz, someone in much more control than in the 1982 and 1983 recitals. The only thing lacking in Horowitz's performance from this point on was preparation; Horowitz admittedly did not practice very much and it shows.
This film is a docufiction on the great Toscanini directed by well-known filmmaker Larry Weinstein, who pushes the boundaries of conventional documentary storytelling by borrowing tools from fiction films, including dramatic reconstructions and historical cinematic stylings. Arturo Toscanini (1867-1957), arguably the greatest and most famous conductor in history, was paradoxically one of the most private. He never granted interviews, and he didn't leave diaries or journals of any kind. But during the last years of his life, his son Walter secretly recorded 150 hours of intimate conversations that Toscanini shared with friends and family who visited his home. TOSCANINI: In His Own Words, is based on these tapes which remained vaulted for more than 50 years. Recreated conversations reveal aspects of the Maestro never seen before. His loves, his opinions about colleagues, his clashes with Mussolini and Hitler, his personal memories of Verdi, Puccini, Furtwangler, and Stokowski, his greatest joys, and the causes of his endemic sadness are all part of his frank conversation. Interwoven throughout the film are many of Toscanini's greatest musical performances.
Daniil Trifonov is 23 years old. Among several prizes he has won both the Tchaikovsky and Rubinstein competitions but is respected by many leading musicians for something much more than the prizes. His is not just another remarkable piano talent, Trifonov is a supergifted musician for whom composing, improvising and performing flow seamlessly into each other in a way that is very, very rare. He has taken his own 17-minute piano sonata on tour and gave the first performance of his first piano Concerto in Cleveland, Ohio, in April of 2014.
A Christopher Nupen film with Daniil Trifonov - pianist, composer, Russian and a magician at the keyboard. The astonishing musical gifts of Daniil Trifonov have to be seen and heard to be believed. How many have won both the Rubinstein and Tchaikovsky competitions in the same year - at the age of 20 - and then played a hundred and ten concerts in the following 12 months? Knowledgeable critics and leading musicians are saying that the world has not seen his like in more than fifty years.
Trifonov is immensely appealing. In addition to his astonishing musical gifts - as both pianist and composer - he is modest and unassuming, highly intelligent, generously co-operative and a pleasure to work with. An ideal subject for an intimate portrait film at the start of his career - a genre which employed with such happy results several times in the past with artists who were soon to become world famous. The films contributed a great deal to that.
The cameras are all close to Trifonov on the stage - even in the live concert performances - which involves the viewer and adds a dramatic quality that is seldom achieved in television relays. The films include five minutes shot at the Cleveland Institute in Ohio, during the first performance of Trifonov's recently composed first piano...
Celebrated in his day not only as a great composer he was also admired as an outstanding pianist who was a peerless interpreter of his own works including the piano concerti and the Rhapsody on a Theme by Paganini .
It is well known that he was in effect the sole pianist capable of performing his most demanding Third Piano Concerto and his performances and recording of the concerto came to be considered as the definitive ones.
The relationship between performance, interpretation, and Rachmaninoff's own life will be addressed in this documentary by the young pianists interviewed. The program explored the evolution of interpretation over the past few decades, hear brief excerpts of recordings by Rachmaninoff as contrasted with contemporary performances by today's well-known young pianists as they comment on the differences (or similarities) of their approach.
This documentary will be the first to explore performance styles and interpretation of the Rachmaninoff piano repertoire. Viewed from a broad perspective the documentary will focus on the danger of how a musician might be bound and stymied by tradition as opposed to being able to use a knowledge of the past to liberate one's approach and infuse the performances with the same sense of improvisatory freedom with which...
Twenty-nine of the world's best young pianists converged in Fort Worth, Texas in May 2009 for a once in a lifetime chance at gold in the Thirteenth Van Cliburn International Piano Competition. Emmy-winning director Peter Rosen follows these distinctive personalities during a three-week contest - through intense rehearsals, introspective moments, preconcert rituals, and endearing celebrations. Hailing from 14 countries, competitors were welcomed with Texas-sized hospitality by their host families and immersed in a city best characterized by "Cowboys and Culture." With the performances of Chopin, Liszt, Beethoven, Rachmaninov and other piano masterpieces setting the impassioned tone, the result is an intrinsic view into the world's most prestigious piano competition and a heartwarming story that proves to be a momentous Surprise in Texas.
A documentary revealing the powers of music to provide hope to people in difficult circumstances, redemption and hope are its theme. The film depicts the life journey of the blind pianist Noboyuki Tsujii and his extraordinary ability to communicate and connect with audiences all over the world.
In his Parisian living room, music critic Andre Tubeuf (1930-2021) tells, with his knowledge, his language and his memory, the story of the German Lied. From Mozart and Beethoven to Mahler and Strauss, through Schubert, Schumann, Brahms and Wolf , a major part of the European culture and of music history is reborn before our eyes and ears.
Featuring Episode 1 entitled Mozart and Beethoven - The Lied's Dawn from a series of seven episodes filmed by Martin Mirabel.
This film is about the life of a composer creating in the darkness of a tragic era. As we will see, like most Soviet citizens, Khachaturian hid a complex private life behind a mask of Communist loyalty. Khachaturian was the President of the powerful Composer's Union of the Soviet Union, and as a communist party functionary wielded great influence over the course of Russian music. However, he was also a comrade and personal friend to the dissident composers of the time ?EUR" Shostakovich, Prokofiev, and others. This documentary shows the fine line a man had to tread between being a loyal party functionary on the one hand, and a fighter for artistic freedom on the other.
He is often hailed as the greatest composer alive, and John Adams has his finger on the cultural and political pulse of America like few others: fearless in his confrontation of hot topics like imperialism and terrorism within his own works such as Nixon in China and the still-controversial Death of Klinghofer Alice Goodman and Peter Sellars. Through them and the operas themselves, in extensive performance extracts by Willard White. Dawn Upshaw and the late Lorraine Hunt Lieberson, we see a fresh someone who has revitalised both opera and American music for a new age.
Go behind the scenes of Peter Sellars' landmark 1992 production of Messiaen's Saint Francois d'Assise in this documentary directed by Jean-Pierre Gorin. These controversial and ultimately universally acclaimed Salzburg Festival performances of the composer's first and only opera starred Jose van Dam and Dawn Upshaw, joined by the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra and Arnold Schonberg Choir under the baton of Esa-Pekka Salonen.
Commissioned in 1975 by the acclaimed Paris Opera director Rolf Liebermann, Olivier Messiaen composed both the libretto and score of Saint Francois d'Assise by himself over the course of the following four years, selecting Catholic saint and fellow bird lover Francis of Assisi as his opera's protagonist. After its orchestration, the work was rehearsed and premiered in 1983 at the Paris Opera under Messiaen's supervision. While these performances were beloved by audiences, critical reception was mixed, which is perhaps why it took almost ten years before the opera would again enjoy a full scenic production, an honor which it would receive in spades at the 1992 Salzburg Festival.
In his documentary, Jean-Pierre Gorin follows the development of Peter Sellars' Salzburg production from its rehearsals to its premiere. In addition to excerpted video...
In 2017 Iberian and Klavier launch their third album, El Piano del Maestro Alonso , a project to reclaim a musical heritage, dedicated to the unpublished works for piano and 4-hand piano by the famous Granada composer.
The CD album will be presented in two exceptional venues, at
the Palace of Charles V in the Alhambra in Granada, Spain and at the Lago di Como International Music Festival. Concerts in Spain, USA, Canada and Europe will be the stage for this project, which is accompanied by a documentary in which Laura and Manuel trace the young composer's steps in Granada.
Go behind the scenes of Peter Sellars' landmark 1992 production of Messiaen's Saint Francois d'Assise in this documentary directed by Jean-Pierre Gorin. These controversial and ultimately universally acclaimed Salzburg Festival performances of the composer's first and only opera starred Jose van Dam and Dawn Upshaw, joined by the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra and Arnold Schonberg Choir under the baton of Esa-Pekka Salonen.
Commissioned in 1975 by the acclaimed Paris Opera director Rolf Liebermann, Olivier Messiaen composed both the libretto and score of Saint Francois d'Assise by himself over the course of the following four years, selecting Catholic saint and fellow bird lover Francis of Assisi as his opera's protagonist. After its orchestration, the work was rehearsed and premiered in 1983 at the Paris Opera under Messiaen's supervision. While these performances were beloved by audiences, critical reception was mixed, which is perhaps why it took almost ten years before the opera would again enjoy a full scenic production, an honor which it would receive in spades at the 1992 Salzburg Festival.
In his documentary, Jean-Pierre Gorin follows the development of Peter Sellars' Salzburg production from its rehearsals to its premiere. In addition to excerpted video...
Explore Europe's most spectacular cities and landscapes while luxuriating in the great classical music composed within their precincts. Viewers will learn about the lives of the master musicians, the cities they lived in, and how their work reflects the very same surroundings we see today.
Renowned actor, writer and classical music specialist Simon Callow presents a spectacular continental odyssey with a soundtrack by Mozart, Bach, Beethoven, Vivaldi, Puccini, Grieg, Sibelius, Smetana, Tchaikovsky and others.
Vivaldi's Venice, the Salzburg of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, the fjords of Norway evoked in music by Edvard Grieg, and the Vienna that waltzed to Johann Strauss have never looked - or sounded - better.
Carlo Gesualdo - beastly murderer and divine composer - is one of the most striking figures in the history of music. Based on his dramatic honour killing, the film tells the story of multifaceted, revolutionary music and the search for forgiveness.
Gesualdo, 47, is the Prince of Venosa, a musical genius and insomniac. Every night he lies awake, haunted by the gruesome act he committed on the 16th of October 1590. Developing from this opening sequence, the documentary tells the story of this extraordinary character, well-illustrated through visits to the original settings in Naples and the village of Gesualdo, as well as enacted scenes.
Through the power of music, the film explores the thin line between fascination and disgust. How is it possible to commit a capital crime, yet write divine music? Are crime and genius interwoven? And can salvation through music be achieved?
Herbert von Karajan's story is the story of the record industry itself, which he was instrumental in creating and sustaining over half a century with hundreds of spectacular and award-winning recordings.
His life and his music-making still provoke extreme reactions; in Gernot Friedel's film, made with the help of the Karajan-Centrum in Salzburg, we see the hypnotic effect he could have upon musicians and listeners alike, we hear him in the repertoire for which he was renowned, and we are taken through a life never less than eventful.
Claudio Abbado - Hearing the Silence conveys an intensely moving view on one of the leading musicians of our time. In several interviews, Abbado talks about artistic, musical and biographical aspects of his life. The film shows excerpts from rehearsals and concerts with some of his favourite orchestras. Statements from colleagues and friends are combined with views from his favourite surroundings and help to characterize the "silent thinker."
Film director Paul Smaczny had a very rare opportunity to get a glimpse of the immensely private personality of Claudio Abbado, described by many in the film as noble and elegant but also as a warm-hearted friend. The musicians all mention his reserved but exact gestures, his respectful way of working in rehearsals and concerts and the atmosphere of co-operation this creates. Cooperation in music making is an aspect that, as Abbado indicates in one of his interviews, is very important to him and one that is at the core of his artistic intentions. The film follows Abbado?EUR(TM)s work with the orchestras with whom he most frequently collaborated, making use of both recent and archival film footage, including clips of him rehearsing and performing works by Beethoven, Brahms, Bruckner, Debussy, Dvorak, Strauss, Stravinsky, and Nono.
Herbert von Karajan's story is the story of the record industry itself, which he was instrumental in creating and sustaining over half a century with hundreds of spectacular and award-winning recordings.
His life and his music-making still provoke extreme reactions; in Gernot Friedel's film, made with the help of the Karajan-Centrum in Salzburg, we see the hypnotic effect he could have upon musicians and listeners alike, we hear him in the repertoire for which he was renowned, and we are taken through a life never less than eventful.
For the first time we have received the unique and wonderful opportunity to give a close-up and detailed account on the insides of this institution. For one whole season, we were permitted to be a part of every decision-making process and performance so that you might have the chance to dive into the working world of this world-renowned orchestra.
What does it take and what are the motivations to become a member of the Vienna Philharmonic? What are the emotions one might feel upon looking back at over forty years of music? What is the Philharmonic’s secret to success? Interviews with the musicians, conductors, and people in the background give us answers to these questions and many more. How does a tour organization work? What are the necessary preparations, and how does one make sure that everything has been taken care of?
Experience the full range, from the rehearsals all the way to the international concerts. From Tokyo to New York, and from the Salzburg pageants to the Wiener Staatsoper, you will receive complete accounts from behind the scenes in unseen detail. This documentary provides insider information on the exciting, emotional, and unique world of the Wiener Philharmoniker.
In this biographical and musical road movie by Andy Sommer, Antoine Wagner, a young photographer living in New York, heads to Switzerland on the trail of his great-great-greand father, the renowned composer Richard Wagner .
Wagner spent several years in Switzerland - first as a political exile then as an artist who had become famous. Antoine Wagner returns to the sites where his ancestor had lived, meeting historians, musicologists, musicians and enlightened amateurs. He also sets off on a mountaineering expedition in contact with a grandiose, violent Nature, exploring those landscapes that Wagner so admired and which were a profound source of inspiration for him.
Global Wagner - From Bayreuth to the World is not a biography of Richard Wagner , nor is it a musicological analysis of his work. This is a documentary dedicated solely to the world's fascination with the man, and an exploration of the question as to how such massive hype and world-wide cult following developed around this highly controversial artist. The program is a revealing feature-length study of life with Wagner's legacy from one Bayreuth Festival to the next, and we travel the world to meet devoted Wagnerians and those most intimately involved in commenting on and producing his work today.
The documentary follows the life of Melville was born in New York, USA. His father was a prosperous business man but the economic climate changed and the business failed. The family moved to his mother's home in New Albany and he went to Albany Academy. At twenty he went to sea and returned to write very popular books about his adventures. His success did not last and he died in obscurity. His work was rediscovered in the early 20th century.
Opera evenings can be life-changing. Anyone who saw Callas still talks about her today. And they still exist, the great heroines: singers who pierce our hearts. This film presents three of them, explores what they do, how they do it and what it does to us: Ermonela Jaho , Barbara Hannigan and Asmik Grigorian . Their cultural backgrounds - Albanian, Canadian, Lithuanian - are remarkably diverse, yet they have one thing in common: they give their utmost on stage and hold nothing back. They merge with their stage personae and strive for the full experience.
Hannigan is the analyst. She dissects every role in minute detail and interprets it with icy fire. Her Lulu, her Melisande, her Marie in Zimmermann's Soldaten are beings from a future world: remote, self-assured, modern women. Masculine desire leaves them cold; even when they succumb, they are still in charge. This is similar to Grigorian, who won acclaim for her Salome in Salzburg. Grigorian's Salome is both victim and perpetrator; she enjoys her desire and the deadly spiral into which she is drawn. With Jaho, on the other hand, everything is in the voice; she carries the whole gamut of emotions in it and captivates audiences - as Violetta, Angelica, Ciocio-san - with her vocal acting.
Conductor Franz Welser-Most, director Sven-Eric Bechtolf and singers Laura Aiken, Alfred Muff, Rolf Haunstein, Steve Davislim and Peter Straka contribute to a programme introducing Berg's complex masterpiece.
Alan Lomax said this film "takes us past the solemn facade of clambakes and town meetings into a lively world of all night dances and local musicians who could have helped Daniel Webster play down the devil".
The film includes performances of seven of the finest traditional musicians in the Northeast including Joe Cormier, Jerry Robichaud, Ben Guillemette, Paddy Cronin, Wilfred Guillette, Harold Luce, and Ron West playing in their lively and distinct Acadian, Irish, Cape Breton, and Quebecois styles.
The West-Eastern Divan Orchestra left its significant mark on the programming of the Salzburg Festival 2007. The symphonic concerts in the Grosses Festspielhaus, the chamber music concerts in the Mozarteum and the "School for Listening" workshops in the Great University Hall under the guidance of Daniel Barenboim turned out to be another highlight of the politically ambitious project that started in 1999 as a workshop for chamber music.
This documentary provides an insight into the rehearsals of the musicians, covers political discussions and shows the legendary West-Eastern Divan Orchestra - Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra soccer match. The final tour concert in the sold-out Berliner Philharmonie forms the grand finale.
He is often hailed as the greatest composer alive, and John Adams has his finger on the cultural and political pulse of America like few others: fearless in his confrontation of hot topics like imperialism and terrorism within his own works such as Nixon in China and the still-controversial Death of Klinghofer Alice Goodman and Peter Sellars. Through them and the operas themselves, in extensive performance extracts by Willard White. Dawn Upshaw and the late Lorraine Hunt Lieberson, we see a fresh someone who has revitalised both opera and American music for a new age.
Anne-Sophie Mutter is one of the greatest musicians of our age and for the last five decades has appeared at the world's leading concert venues. In addition to premiering 31 new works from leading composers, she is an inspiring mentor, has promoted top young musicians and fostered numerous charitable projects. In this documentary, she meets figures she admires, such as tennis star Roger Federer, as well as Daniel Barenboim, legendary film composer John Williams, and others. Anne-Sophie Mutter talks candidly about her personal life and the demands of her international career. This unprecedented portrait of a socially active artist is supplemented by archive material from her stellar career.
This program provides an overview of the historical development of Long Sleeve Dance , a dance form dating back to the 7th century B.C.E, a time that is known as the Spring-and-Autumn period in Chinese history. It introduces a handful of codified language of Long Sleeve Dance.
Highlighted are the Long Sleeve dance performances titled The Colors of Water choreographed by WANG Yukun and MIAO Xiaolong and Zhao Jun Departs the Frontier choreographed by JIANG Huaxuan. In Zhao Jun Departs the Frontier, LIU Min, a nationally acclaimed dance master, employs exquisite language of Long Sleeve to convey the conflicted emotions of ZHAO Jun (one of The Four Beauties known in Chinese History) as she Leaves her homeland and lavish lifestyle for the grasslands of the remote north as part of peace treaty. The dance tells an ancient story of loyalty, heroism and self-sacrifice for the common good.
Neighboring with the Dai group, Aini group lives primarily in and around mountains and canyons at an altitude of twenty-five to eighty hundred feet. They are famous for their production of Pu Er Tea. Dancing and singing are second nature to the Aini people. In this program, while listening to the folk song titled Magical Village by famous Aini singer MI Xian , the audience will enjoy Ainis cultural traditions of tea brewing and folk dancing by girls clapping to the rhythm and wearing spectacular ceremonial costumes.
Anne-Sophie Mutter is one of the greatest musicians of our age and for the last five decades has appeared at the world's leading concert venues. In addition to premiering 31 new works from leading composers, she is an inspiring mentor, has promoted top young musicians and fostered numerous charitable projects. In this documentary, she meets figures she admires, such as tennis star Roger Federer, as well as Daniel Barenboim, legendary film composer John Williams, and others. Anne-Sophie Mutter talks candidly about her personal life and the demands of her international career. This unprecedented portrait of a socially active artist is supplemented by archive material from her stellar career.
This video contains a Christopher Nupen film about the most charismatic performer in the entire history of Western classical music EUR" also the most talked about, the most controversial, the most famous and the most successful classical soloist that the world of music has ever known.
The story is astonishing, exciting, wildly unusual and, at the end, deeply touching. It is one of the most extraordinary tales in the history of music and it is told with all the Nupen finesse and commitment that have won him DVD of the Year Award four times in the past six years.
In the recording, Christopher Nupen looks at the legend and the strange man who created it with his dazzling combination of technical brilliance, supreme showmanship, Italian melody and unbridled manipulative skill EUR" a man whose extraordinary personality unsettled even the most sophisticated and educated minds and provoked wildly contradictory opinions.
It presents Paganini's music, shot and edited in the style developed by Christopher Nupen and his colleagues for their prize winning DVDs about Sibelius, Schubert and Tchaikovsky and combines it with extracts from Paganini's letters and quotations from both his admirers and his many detractors.
Explore Europe's most spectacular cities and landscapes while luxuriating in the great classical music composed within their precincts. Viewers will learn about the lives of the master musicians, the cities they lived in, and how their work reflects the very same surroundings we see today.
Renowned actor, writer and classical music specialist Simon Callow presents a spectacular continental odyssey with a soundtrack by Mozart, Bach, Beethoven, Vivaldi, Puccini, Grieg, Sibelius, Smetana, Tchaikovsky and others.
Vivaldi's Venice, the Salzburg of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, the fjords of Norway evoked in music by Edvard Grieg, and the Vienna that waltzed to Johann Strauss have never looked - or sounded - better.
A series of short films, recorded at the Louisiana Museum of Modern Art in Denmark.
Paul Wittgenstein, the Austrian concert pianist, lost his arm at the age of twenty-seven while serving as an officer in the First World War. Nonetheless, he was determined to continue his career. Major composers such as Ravel and Strauss wrote pieces for him, and from this he gained international acclaim. Eventually forced to leave Austria by the Nazis, he died in New York in 1961.
Paul's father Karl, millionaire and chief Austrian iron and steel baron, had been determined to have his five sons follow in his footsteps and become industrialists, so he did not permit them to pursue artistic careers. He paid for his intransigence with the lives of his three eldest children, who escaped their father's authority by committing suicide; finally he allowed his two remaining sons the freedom to choose their own profession. Paul chose music, and his younger brother Ludwig turned to philosophy.
Paul Wittgenstein's biography is an extraordinary, life-affirming story. It is the tale of a man who persevered in the face of seemingly insurmountable obstacles and prevailed.
Impressed with how European music could have a "German sound," a "French sound," and so on, Aaron Copland returned from his years in Paris to New York City, intent on capturing the essence of the "American sound."
This documentary presents an artful blending of the life and music of one of America's great modern composers. The many milestones in Copland's long career are discussed by his biographer, Howard Pollock, while stirring images of Copland's native city are set to selections of his music as performed by the Frankfurt Radio Symphony Orchestra. FRSO conductor Hugh Wolff provides astute commentary. Many interviews with Copland are included, along with a historic recording of Clarinet Concerto with Benny Goodman playing and Copland conducting.
This program by Malcolm Hossick follows the fascinating life of the novelist Virginia Woolf . She was born in London in 1882. Her father was Leslie Stephen, a writer and literary editor. She was educated privately and in 1912 married Leonard Woolf. He encouraged her to write and they began their own publishing house called the Hogarth Press where they printed her remarkable books.
Carlo Gesualdo - beastly murderer and divine composer - is one of the most striking figures in the history of music. Based on his dramatic honour killing, the film tells the story of multifaceted, revolutionary music and the search for forgiveness.
Gesualdo, 47, is the Prince of Venosa, a musical genius and insomniac. Every night he lies awake, haunted by the gruesome act he committed on the 16th of October 1590. Developing from this opening sequence, the documentary tells the story of this extraordinary character, well-illustrated through visits to the original settings in Naples and the village of Gesualdo, as well as enacted scenes.
Through the power of music, the film explores the thin line between fascination and disgust. How is it possible to commit a capital crime, yet write divine music? Are crime and genius interwoven? And can salvation through music be achieved?
The Intimacy of Creativity – The Bright Sheng Partnership: Composers Meet Performers in Hong Kong is a pioneering, internationally-acclaimed partnership devoted to promoting an intimate dialogue between composers and performers.
Distinguished composers, together with selected emerging composers from Hong Kong and around the world, present and revise their chamber music compositions after in-depth discussions with world-renowned performers during open discussions. The revised compositions are presented at two world premiere concerts in downtown Hong Kong, preceded by preview concerts on the campus of The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, which hosts the partnership.
For the 2011 inaugural season, artistic director and internationally-acclaimed composer, conductor, and pianist Bright Sheng was joined by distinguished guests Richard Stoltzman, Yehudi Wyner, and the Daedalus Quartet; Hong Kong guest artists Mary Wu, Stephen Chong, and Olivier Nowak; and emerging composers Pedro Faria Gomes, Ted Goldman, Moon Young Ha, Narong Prangcharoen, Matthew Tommasini, and Ming-Hsiu Yen.
Russia's whole history has been marked by cycles of bloodshed and especially by the torturing and killing of its own people. There is a pattern of self-destruction that the country does not seem to be able to escape and Russian music endlessly explores the tragic repetitions of its history. Program Four investigates, musically and visually, the legacy of tyranny in Russia.
The Intimacy of Creativity – The Bright Sheng Partnership: Composers Meet Performers in Hong Kong is a pioneering, internationally-acclaimed partnership devoted to promoting an intimate dialogue between composers and performers.
Distinguished composers, together with selected emerging composers from Hong Kong and around the world, present and revise their chamber music compositions after in-depth discussions with world-renowned performers during open discussions. The revised compositions are presented at two world premiere concerts in downtown Hong Kong, preceded by preview concerts on the campus of The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, which hosts the partnership.
For the 2011 inaugural season, artistic director and internationally-acclaimed composer, conductor, and pianist Bright Sheng was joined by distinguished guests Richard Stoltzman, Yehudi Wyner, and the Daedalus Quartet; Hong Kong guest artists Mary Wu, Stephen Chong, and Olivier Nowak; and emerging composers Pedro Faria Gomes, Ted Goldman, Moon Young Ha, Narong Prangcharoen, Matthew Tommasini, and Ming-Hsiu Yen.
This program in the Famous Author series by Malcolm Hossick tries to uncover the astonishing life of Daniel Defoe who wrote Robinson Crusoe , one of the earliest novels to achieve world wide success. Defoe was a dissenting Christian when deviation from the norm was dangerous. He made a fortune making bricks just after London burned down: he was a very active government spy and he was one of the busiest writers ever. What a man! The film is followed by an overview of his works.
Professor Zemtsov recollects the memories of his beginnings, the maternal influence and his family heritage in his love for music as well as how he believes in the interaction between the strengths of the Russian music tradition and the Western factual approach as complementary and beneficial in today's musical education.
Twenty-nine of the world's best young pianists converged in Fort Worth, Texas in May 2009 for a once in a lifetime chance at gold in the Thirteenth Van Cliburn International Piano Competition. Emmy-winning director Peter Rosen follows these distinctive personalities during a three-week contest - through intense rehearsals, introspective moments, preconcert rituals, and endearing celebrations. Hailing from 14 countries, competitors were welcomed with Texas-sized hospitality by their host families and immersed in a city best characterized by "Cowboys and Culture." With the performances of Chopin, Liszt, Beethoven, Rachmaninov and other piano masterpieces setting the impassioned tone, the result is an intrinsic view into the world's most prestigious piano competition and a heartwarming story that proves to be a momentous Surprise in Texas.
Maya Plisetskaya is in every sense an exceptional personality. Like almost no other dancer, the eternal prima ballerina assoluta of the Bolshoi Theatre understood how to combine outstanding dance skills with dramatic expression. There are also very few dancers who can look back on such a long and active career: even on her eightieth birthday in November 2005 she personally gave a stage performance. A homage to her inimitable creative work, this video features fascinating footage of her greatest successes as a ballerina together with an interview in which Maya Plisetskaya describes her life as a dancer - which is simultaneously a whole chapter of Russian history, from Stalin to perestroika.
"Domingo creates the magical illusion that Alfano wrote the role especially for him: Domingo de Bergerac" (review of the premiere in the Madrid daily ABC). Placido Domingo's triumph in Valencia's stunningly futuristic theater El Palau de les Arts in February 2007 echoes the overwhelmingly positive reception he obtained at the Metropolitan Opera and the Royal Opera House Covent Garden in this role. A coproduction of the New York, London and Valencia houses, Franco Alfano's little-known 1936 opera Cyrano de Bergerac has been reawakened to life by the great Spanish tenor. Although Alfano (1875-1954) enjoyed a long and prolific career as an opera composer, he is known today above all for having completed Puccini's Turandot. His earlier works not surprisingly reflect Puccini's verismo style, but his later works - including Cyrano de Bergerac - are clearly inspired by Debussy, Ravel and Strauss. Opulent scoring and colorful orchestral effects elegantly underscore the tragic story based on Rostand's famous drama of 1897, which achieved international celebrity in the Oscar-nominated 1990 film adaptation with Gerard Depardieu. Alfano's work faithfully relates the story of the large-nosed soldier poet who pines for the beautiful Roxane and writes her glowing love letters in the...
A tribute to Jacqueline du Pre to mark the thirtieth anniversary of her death thirty years ago, on 19 October 1987.
The documentary contains archive footage shot during Jacqueline du Pre's lifetime which captures some glorious and professionally filmed live performances. It also remembers both her personality and her music through the memories and tributes of her closest friends and colleagues including Daniel Barenboim, Pinchas Zukerman, Itzhak Perlman, Toby Perlman, Fou Ts'ong, Zubin Mehta, William Pleeth, Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, Hugh Maguire, Elizabeth Wilson, Cynthia Friend, Charles Beare, Suvi Grubb, Dr Len Selby and Clive Barda.
In the music she is accompanied by Daniel Barenboim, Pinchas Zukerman, Gervase de Peyer, Itzhak Perlman, Zubin Mehta, Janet Baker The New Philharmonia Orchestra and the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra.
There is music by Beethoven, Eccles, Couperin, Clementi, Elgar, Brahms, Offenbach and Bruch . The writer and director is Christopher Nupen who was close to Jacqueline du Pre for more than 20 years and made five films with her during her lifetime.
The title is taken from a poem by a 12-year-old girl, Eva Pickova, written in the Theresienstadt concentration camp. Her words provide both the title and the climaxEUR"in a setting for two choruses and orchestra by the American composer Franz Waxman, in his touching work The Song of Terezin.
It is a film is about many things. It is about freedom and captivity, about emancipation, acculturation and assimilation; it is about the roles played by Moses and Felix Mendelssohn in the dream of fruitful, unproblematic integration of the Jews into German society after their liberation from the ghettos; it is about Richard Wagner, his ferociously anti-Semitic essay Das Judenthum in der Musik (The Jews in Music) and his influence on the thinking of the Third Reich but, most of all, it is a film about how much music can mean to people, even in the direst of circumstances, or particularly in the direst circumstances.
