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 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.
"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...
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.
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.
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.
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.
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 .
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.
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.
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.
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 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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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
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.
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.
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.
A documentary on Pierre Boulez and his work Eclat . Eclat is a real study of resonance written for fifteen instruments and created in 1965.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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 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.
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 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.
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.
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 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.
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.
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.
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...
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.
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.
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
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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 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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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 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.
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 .
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.
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.
Film 1: The Matchstick Man is an atmospheric profile affording a perceptive and illuminating glimpse into Gyorgy Kurtag's world. A very private man who usually shies away from discussing himself and his work, Kurtag communicates his all-consuming passion for music and deep involvement in the world of sound to director Judit Kele. He is seen teaching and working with musicians - including his wife Marta, Adrienne Csengery or Claudio Abbado conducting the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra. Other contributors to the program include the pianist Zoltan Kocsis , composers Gyorgy Ligeti, Andras Szollosy, Laszlo Vidovsky and Zoltan Jeney , as well as students of Kurtag.
Film 2: The Seventh Door draws a portrait of composer Peter Eotvos , a prominent champion and exponent of modern music. Using new footage, archival films and photos, Judit Kele provides an imaginative insight into the world of this tireless musician and complex personality whose desire is to "make what is heard visible". This documentary also includes interviews with Pierre Boulez and Karlheinz Stockhausen and shows precious footage of Peter Eotvos rehearsing his opera Three Sisters .
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
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.
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?
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Film 1: The Matchstick Man is an atmospheric profile affording a perceptive and illuminating glimpse into Gyorgy Kurtag's world. A very private man who usually shies away from discussing himself and his work, Kurtag communicates his all-consuming passion for music and deep involvement in the world of sound to director Judit Kele. He is seen teaching and working with musicians - including his wife Marta, Adrienne Csengery or Claudio Abbado conducting the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra. Other contributors to the program include the pianist Zoltan Kocsis , composers Gyorgy Ligeti, Andras Szollosy, Laszlo Vidovsky and Zoltan Jeney , as well as students of Kurtag.
Film 2: The Seventh Door draws a portrait of composer Peter Eotvos , a prominent champion and exponent of modern music. Using new footage, archival films and photos, Judit Kele provides an imaginative insight into the world of this tireless musician and complex personality whose desire is to "make what is heard visible". This documentary also includes interviews with Pierre Boulez and Karlheinz Stockhausen and shows precious footage of Peter Eotvos rehearsing his opera Three Sisters .
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.
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.
A series of short films, recorded at the Louisiana Museum of Modern Art in Denmark.
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.
The most extraordinary virtuoso in musical history must surely be Franz Liszt. This documentary, featuring many leading Liszt experts (including Charles Rosen, Leslie Howard, Antonio Pappano and Evgeny Kissin), concentrates on his earlier years when he was travelling across Europe almost non-stop, fuelling the phenomenon described by Heine as "Lisztomania." It was also the time of elopement with Marie, Comtesse d'Agoult, in a move that scandalized polite society as much for its unorthodox nature as for its moral dubiety. These were the years of artistic journeying to which Liszt would one day return in the evocative musical colors of his Annees de pelerinage.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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...
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
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.
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 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.
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...
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.
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.
A series of short films, recorded at the Louisiana Museum of Modern Art in Denmark.
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 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 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.
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....
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.
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 .
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...
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.
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.
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...
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.
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.
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.
The Italian composer Giacomo Puccini is reputed to have once described himself as "a passionate hunter of water birds, texts and women." It was an ironic description of the problems which are said to have accompanied him throughout his life. He was indeed a passionate, yet terrible, hunter. With every opera he wrote, he wore out numerous librettists in the search for the perfect text, because unlike Mozart, he couldn't write a single note before the "script" for a new piece of work was just as he wanted it. And for as long as he lived, he was almost manic in his hunt for and collection of beautiful women.
The film by Andreas Morell looks at Giacomo Puccini's life from the point of view of his manic psychological preoccupation with one subject: women. He makes connections between the women in Puccini's life and those in his operas, looking as he goes at what made Puccini tick. Starting with a characteristic situation in Vienna in 1923 – one year before the composer's death – the film offers an insight into Puccini and reflects a repetitive pattern which spanned almost three decades of his life. As he summarised for his own credo: "I cannot compose without love in my life!"
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.
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.
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.
A series of short films, recorded at the Louisiana Museum of Modern Art in Denmark.
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...
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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...
A drummer-turned-composer, Steve Reich has produced some of the most vibrant, original and interesting music of our time, with influences as varied as Bach, Stravinsky, Miles Davis, John Coltrane, and Balinese and Ghanaian percussion. His technique of phasing (short, repeating patterns moving in and out of phase with each other), used first in It's Gonna Rain of 1965, formed the springboard for his complex and colourful style, with its intoxicating melodic lines and rhythmic patterns. In Phase to Face , we follow Steve Reich as he travels from the Autumn in Normandy festival to Rome (with the Italian musicians of Ars Ludi, the Ready-Made Ensemble, Coro Ha-Kol and Quartetto Prometeo), to Tokyo, to New York, and to Manchester ?EUR" for the world premiere of 2X5 .
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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 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.
A series of short films, recorded at the Louisiana Museum of Modern Art in Denmark.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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...
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.
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.
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.
Eric Schulz reveals in his latest music film a new perspective on the personality and oeuvre of Richard Strauss , who saw himself as the last great composer at the end of an era, "at the end of the rainbow". This carefully researched production presents spectacular hitherto unreleased pictures of Richard Strauss. Among others: a live recording of the premiere of the Olympic Anthem at the Berlin Olympic stadium in 1936. The very first performance of this piece ever to be heard, performed by the Berlin Philharmonic and a choir of 1000 singers conducted by Richard Strauss himself. These spectacular rare pictures are embedded in interviews with relatives, famous musicians and Strauss experts, such as Christian Strauss, Stefan Mickisch and Brigitte Fassbaender.
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.
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.
This video includes historic recordings and interviews of Carl Schuricht, one of the most important conductors of the twentieth century.
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.
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.
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.
Tea recounts how Chinese composer Tan Dun wrote the opera Tea , a tragic love story set against the background of the Japanese tea ceremony. He combines Eastern and Western composition techniques to create unique fusion of music between two great musical traditions. The Tea opera is the door to the mystical world of Chado, the Way of Tea. A world in which the ultimate objective is, as Tan Dun himself states, "To hear colour and to see sound". Beautifully crafted by Franck Scheffer, Tea includes interviews of Tan Dun, librettist Xu Ying and director Pierre Audi, as well as performances with the NHK Symphony Orchestra and the Dutch Chamber Orchestra conducted by Tan Dun.
Broken Silence draws the portraits of five Chinese composers widely known as the founders of Chinese contemporary music : Tan Dun, Chen Qigang, Guo Wenjing, Mo Wuping and Qu Xiasong. Children of Mao's cultural revolution, a troubled time when classical music was forbidden in China, they grew up listening to local folk songs and the Communist Party's revolutionary operas. When China opened in 1978, Tan Dun and his fellow students discovered Beethoven, an experience that will change their lives. Filmed in China, New York, Paris and the Netherlands, Broken Silence won the Grand Prix Visions du Réel in...
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 .
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 series of short films, recorded at the Louisiana Museum of Modern Art in Denmark.
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.
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 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.
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.
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.
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.
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).
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.
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
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.
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.
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.
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 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.
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.
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.
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...
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.
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...
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...
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
