Presented by one of the world's leading pianists, this series of short films journeys through the history of piano music from Johann Sebastian Bach to Frederic Chopin . Directed by award-winning film maker Phil Grabsky.
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.
Presented by one of the world's leading pianists, this series of short films journeys through the history of piano music from Johann Sebastian Bach to Frederic Chopin . Directed by award-winning film maker Phil Grabsky.
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.
Anne Sofie von Otter is widely considered to be the greatest and most versatile mezzo-soprano of her generation. Filmed in Sweden, London, Paris, and Salzburg, this profile combines interviews with performance extracts and archive material, and accompanies Anne Sofie to her idyllic country home for a weekend off.
A framework is provided by one of her career highlights, her performance as Octavian in Richard Strauss's Der Rosenkavalier for Carlos Kleiber. There is footage of her on the operatic stage, in rehearsal, working with her voice coach, and rehearsing lieder.
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.
Winner of a Grammy Award for the album Talking Timbuktu, on which he played with Ry Cooder and other American luminaries, the legendary African singer and guitarist now invests much of his time, energy and resources in improving agricultural and social conditions in Mali. Film-maker Marc Huraux visited Ali there. Music is an integral part of Ali's life and therefore an integral part of this encounter. Deep, mysterious and utterly compelling, his playing lights up a striking documentary.
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.
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’s work with the orchestras with whom he most frequently collaborated, making use of both recent and archival film footage, including clips of him rehearsing and performing works by Beethoven, Brahms, Bruckner, Debussy, Dvorak, Strauss, Stravinsky, and Nono.
The 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.
Kurt Masur, one of the world's greatest maestros, challenges and teaches the next generation of young musicians and conductors by stretching their limits and transforming their perspectives and abilities. Following master classes around the world over a period of few years, the film is a carefully constructed collage organically interviewing the maestro's teachings and his personal life experiences.
The result is a comprehensive emotional portrait of one of the most respected conductors of our time.
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.
Unlike the piano, the violin or even the flute, the oboe is a relatively rare instrument for a solo career. And when a soloist such as Albrecht Mayer plays the oboe, one wishes composers had written more works for this sweetly mellow instrument. Critics write about the "divine spark" that inspires his playing, and about the "miraculous oboe" that turns into "an instrument of seduction." With his particularly warm tone and exceptionally broad palette of nuances, it's no surprise that Albrecht Mayer is one of today's most sought-after international oboists.
In this documentary portrait of the oboist, we retrace the musician's impressive career and witness some of its many high points. Mayer embarked on a professional career in 1990, when he joined the Bamberg Symphony Orchestra as solo oboist. Two years later, he made the transition to the absolute top league with his appointment as solo oboist of the Berlin Philharmonic, and since then he has made countless international appearances, playing under such eminent conductors as Abbado, Rattle and Harnoncourt. In addition to his work as a soloist, Mayer also attaches great importance to chamber music. He is a permanent member of the Sabine Meyer Wind Ensemble and also plays with such partners as Thomas Quasthoff, Matthias Goerne...
Russia's whole history has been marked by cycles of bloodshed and especially by the torturing and killing of its own people. There is a pattern of self-destruction that the country does not seem to be able to escape and Russian music endlessly explores the tragic repetitions of its history. Program Four investigates, musically and visually, the legacy of tyranny in Russia.
Russia is at once devoutly Christian and deeply pagan. Both faith and magic were stuffed into the deep-freeze by the Soviets. What has emerged since the thaw is inspiring and alarming in equal measure. Program Two shows how the obsession with things spiritual is in all Russian Music
Russians have always espoused village life. Over the centuries, the traditions of folk culture have been assertion of the Russian identity and the melodies of the country side can be found everywhere in Russian classical music. The first program evokes Russia's rural heart and searches for the origins of the Russian folk-song that is the core of all her music.
Throughout Russian history there has been a love/hate relationship with her neighbors, oscillating between fear and loathing, envy and imitation. This final program in the series travels from the edge of the one-time empire to the heart of Russia and reveal that the cultural and musical impact of these conflicts has been vast, colorful and searing.
This program looks at one of the archetypal forms of Russian culture, the fairy-tale. An essential part of Russian childhood, these stories with their princesses, heroes and magical characters are also the inspiration of many of the great Russian ballets, operas, symphonic poems and piano works.
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.
One of the world's foremost violinists, Anne-Sophie Mutter is a musical celebrity known even by countless people who rarely listen to classical music. The artist and teacher, who promotes young musicians and commissions new works from contemporary composers, made her spectacular breakthrough under Herbert von Karajan at the 1977 Salzburg Easter Festival. She has since concertized at every major venue throughout the world. In 2008 she was awarded not only the prestigious Ernst von Siemens Music Award, but also the Leipzig Mendelssohn Award. The award ceremony in March 2008 was crowned by a gala concert at Leipzig's Gewandhaus with the Gewandhaus Orchestra under Kurt Masur, at which Mutter performed the Mendelssohn Violin Concerto in E minor Op. 64.
On the occasion of the Mendelssohn Year, Unitel Classica offers the documentary Anne-Sophie Mutter – Encounters with Mendelssohn, in which the artist discusses her affinity to Mendelssohn and explains why she particularly admires the works presented here.
Presented by one of the world's leading pianists, this series of short films journeys through the history of piano music from Johann Sebastian Bach to Frederic Chopin . Directed by award-winning film maker Phil Grabsky.
To reveal the talent of unknown young singers by sending them on a tour of the world's leading venues: this is the aim of "Le Jardin des Voix," the academy of Les Arts Florissants founded by William Christie. We share moments of grace, uncertainty and disappointment as the film follows the jury through the auditioning process. Then, a year later, we find the ten winners at the Theatre de Caen for three weeks of intensive rehearsal with some of the leading figures from today's Baroque music scene.
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 story of the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra is colourful and dramatic, with a reputation worldwide for music-making of the highest quality. This special recording celebrates over sixty years of the Orchestra's history through film and music, charting the high-profile conductors, international performances and turbulent times that have helped to shape the Orchestra as we know it today and to create an ongoing tradition of musical excellence.
Nowhere in the world is the myth of Wagner as alive as in Bayreuth, and nowhere are performances of his works followed as closely as those at the Festspielhaus in Bayreuth. But after a decade-long reign as the uncontested ruler of the Wagner Festival, the composer's grandson Wolfgang Wagner has stepped down from his post. A new era is about to begin...
This documentary thematizes the past, present and future of the festival and provides rare insights behind the scenes of the Wagner "workshop." For the first time ever, the film team was able to record in the legendary Bayreuth orchestra pit, giving rise to stunningly candid shots of conductor Christian Thielemann rehearsing Götterdämmerung. A conversation with Wolfgang Wagner recorded especially for this production is presumably the patriarch's last appearance on film as head of the festival. The program also features rehearsals of the new 2008 production of Parsifal with director Stefan Herheim and conductor Daniele Gatti. Members of the Wagner family and leading Wagner interpreters of our time also comment on the unique Wagner aura. The authors have assembled an amazing collection of historical film material and photos on the history of the festival. There are also excerpts from great productions recorded by Unitel...
The outstanding tenors of the 78 era: comprising thirteen episodes, each with a biographical and a musical focus, features bel canto singers captured on black and white sound film. Backed up with footage, much of which is shown here for the very first time, the individual artists are profiled and their exceptional talents demonstrated in representative recordings. Part I: Enrico Caruso, Beniamino Gigli, Tito Schipa, Richard Tauber, Leo Slezak, Joseph Schmidt.
Presented by one of the world's leading pianists, this series of short films journeys through the history of piano music from Johann Sebastian Bach to Frederic Chopin . Directed by award-winning film maker Phil Grabsky.
The Black Church is the treasure-house of black culture, a port in stormy seas, an engine for change, its music a conduit for the release of sentiments of sheer joy, sheer pain and the redeeming poetry of sacrifice.
Black Faith is in three parts:
A Mighty Voice - on the early history of Caribbean Christianity and the effects of immigration on faith and style of worship.
The Blood of Jesus - the Pentecostals form the largest group of black chuches and this episode explores their beliefs, forms of service and their place in society.
Last Boat to Salvation - looks at the attraction of the West African churches in the UK, how they are redefining the notion of holiness. It also touches on the interface between religious and political goals and agendas.
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.
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.
In this remarkable film, Denis Sneguirev invites us to witness the rescue and revival of Moscow's legendary Bolshoi Theatre. In a mix of 3D images, animation, documentary footage and interviews, he recounts the history of the Bolshoi from its origins to the present day. Hitherto unknown archival material takes viewers back to a time when stars like Ulanova, Maximova, Plisetskaya, Vasiliev or Grigorovich graced the Bolshoi stage. Here we watch the teams of architechts engineers and construction workers labouring day and night to rebuild the theatre in the course of a colossal venture Russia's media dubbed the "construction project of the century."
The Russian pianist Boris Berezovsky is one of the most virtuous piano interpreters of our times. One can tell that for him the borders of keyboard possibilities have not yet been reached. Boris Berezovsky brought attention to himself with his daring dexterity at the 1990 International Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow. He won the Gold Medal straight off. The film accompanies Boris Berezovsky on his musical journey. The artist Boris Berezovsky drives through the Yekaterinburg, as a passionate player he goes to the casino and improvises along with a little band in a Jazz Club.
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...
Featuring one of the finest voices of recent time, this documentary accompanies Montserrat Caballe on a journey to some of the most important places in her life. We witness her in conversation and in numerous historic performances, and through the testimonies of friends and fellow musicians we gain a deeper understanding of Montserrat the person and Caballé the artist.
This up-to-date documentary about Felix Mendelssohn is based on the original letters of the composer and his sister Fanny, combined with numerous evocative period images. Through a blend of music and words, the most distinguished Mendelssohn specialists of today guide viewers through the composer's fascinating life and career. The various themes covered include his training, his religious and cultural identity, his journey to Italy, his rediscovery of Bach, his years in Leipzig, the relative neglect of his music following his death, his readmission to the canon of Germany's greatest Romantic composers, and the recent unearthing of many unpublished works.
Bonus:
- Homage to Felix Mendelssohn at the Settimane Musicali al Teatro Olimpico, 2009.
This video includes historic recordings and interviews of Carl Schuricht, one of the most important conductors of the twentieth century.
Carlos Kleiber, the eccentric and reclusive conductor, was a fabled perfectionist who was known as much for the rarity of his appearances as for the brilliance of his interpretations. Georg Wübbolt's film sheds light on the relationships with his family, including his father and mother, traces the development of Kleiber's career and covers the "mythologizing" that started during the lifetime of the maestro.
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.
Several luminaries can claim to have invented the gramophone. Only one man made mass duplication of discs possible - Emil Berliner . As a result, a major new industry came into being.
In this video tracing the evolution of sound recording, his grandson, Oliver, tells the story of his life and his achievement. Caruso and other great performers are heard in early recordings, and contributors, including John Eliot Gardiner, Pierre Boulez, and Anne-Sophie Mutter, comment on the pros and cons of today's advanced technology.
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 Munich-based Rosamunde Quartet made a sensational debut in 1992 and swiftly gained an international reputation as a chamber ensemble noted for its individual style and mastery of a broad repertoire. Unusually, the four musicans Andreas Reiner (first violin), Simon Fordham (second violin), Helmut Nicolai (viola) and Anja Lechner (cello) came together after they had individually established successful careers.
Up until his death in 1996, maestro Sergiu Celibidache was their mentor, friend and critic in this venture, and he continues to be their inspiration. The quartet emulate his single-minded perfectionism; approach music-making, as he did, from a well-founded understanding; and always remember his impatience if he thought they were just playing notes and not music.
This lively and intimate portrait accompanies the ensemble as they rehearse, travel, perform, and also catches each of the musicians off duty. They are seen playing works by both classical and modern composers in sequences which have a contemporary visual impact, and their collaboration with the Argentinean bandoneon master, Dino Saluzzi , is also featured.
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.
In this light-hearted documentary portrait, Christine Schafer reveals how she has come to position herself in the top ranks of today's sopranos while still maintaining her artistic freedom. With razor-sharp wit and intelligence, she describes how she keeps herself grounded in a world that craves celebrities. Among the friends and colleagues who provide insights into her artistry as well as her refreshing normality are conductors Christian Thielemann and Sylvain Cambreling, stage director Christoph Marthaler, music journalist Jurgen Kesting, singer Jose van Dam and others.
Christine Schafer is the anti-diva of the vocal world, a no-nonsense,
down-to-earth singer who transforms her opera roles and lieder recitals into grippingly realistic scenes of universal human drama. When it comes to choosing her repertoire and her roles, she unwaveringly follows her own path and refuses to subject herself to marketing campaigns designed to stamp her as the new heroine of whatever is currently in demand. With a repertoire ranging from early music to contemporary works, Schafer does not need a specialty, and she can even indulge in "light" music with Max Raabe's Palastorchester and hits of the 1920s. Excerpts from concert performances and rehearsals of works by Henry Purcell and George Crumb...
The Risør Festival of Chamber Music has firmly established itself as one of the most prestigious and recognized chamber music festivals in the world. Each year, international artists visit the small fishing town in southern Norway and join forces with some of Norway's best musicians for six days of chamber music making. The setting is amongst the most beautiful to be found in Norway, the exquisite coastline architecture and quintessential southern white houses providing an atmosphere of intimacy and calmness.
The founding artistic directors were violist Lars Anders Tomter and pianist Leif Ove Andsnes. In 2011 Andsnes handed over the co-artistic leadership to violinist Henning Kraggerud. The festival takes place in the last week of June each year. The films shown here are produced by Music in Motion (www.musicinmotion.no).
Explore Europe's most spectacular cities and landscapes while luxuriating in the great classical music composed within their precincts. Viewers will learn about the lives of the master musicians, the cities they lived in, and how their work reflects the very same surroundings we see today.
Renowned actor, writer and classical music specialist Simon Callow presents a spectacular continental odyssey with a soundtrack by Mozart, Bach, Beethoven, Vivaldi, Puccini, Grieg, Sibelius, Smetana, Tchaikovsky and others.
Vivaldi's Venice, the Salzburg of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, the fjords of Norway evoked in music by Edvard Grieg, and the Vienna that waltzed to Johann Strauss have never looked - or sounded - better.
Simon Callow details the dreams, dramas and musical triumphs of composers such as Handel, Chopin, Liszt, Rachmaninov, Shostakovich, Elgar, Holst, Debussy, Ravel, Richard Strauss, Resphigi and Rossini to name just a few.
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.
"In my opinion, comrades, we really should end the monotony of this Yeah, Yeah, Yeah or whatever they call it" (SED General Secretary Walter Ulbricht about pop music).
As classical music was considered politically harmless in the former GDR, its education was highly encouraged. The regime quickly discovered its great potential for generating valuable cultural exchange — as well as much needed hard currency.
Classical music "made in the GDR" became an export hit for the regime, thanks to, for example, the Staatskapelle Dresden, the Gewandhausorchester Leipzig and renowned artists like Kurt Masur, Peter Schreier, Franz Konwitschny, Kurt Sanderling and Theo Adam.
Through case studies of individuals who lived under the system, "Classical Music & Cold War" explores the fates of both the privileged and the non-privileged, and delivers insight into the influence of the political system on artistic life. The film includes interviews with contemporary witnesses both from GDR and the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG).
From award-winning director Phil Grabsky comes this fresh new look at Monet - possibly the world's favorite artist - through his own words.
Using letters and other private writings I, Claude Monet reveals new insight into the man who painted Impression, Sunrise, the picture that gave birth to impressionism, and who became perhaps the most influential artist of the 19th and early 20th centuries. Claude Monet's life is a gripping tale about a man who, behind his sun-dazzled canvases, suffered from feelings of depression, loneliness, even suicide. Subsequently, his flourishing art and his love of gardening led to a blossoming of Monet's humour, insight and love of life.
Shot on location in Paris, London, Normandy and Venice I, Claude Monet is a cinematic immersion into some of the most loved and iconic scenes in Western Art.
Ten years ago, Russia's Wonder Children documented the struggles and triumphs of four extraordinary piano prodigies. Now, in Competitors, the cameras return to discover how their lives and careers have developed, and whether time has brought the lasting success they all desired. As aspiring soloists they experience intense competition, gruelling practice sessions and professional setbacks, yet all these pianists have remained true to their art. "you have to love the music, not yourself in the music," explains the youngest, Irina. "Or rather, the music in you."
Leif Ove Andsnes is undoubtedly one of the best pianists of our age. This exquisite and revealing film goes behind the scenes of his ambitious plan to dedicate four years to performing and recording Beethoven's five famous piano concertos.
Leif Ove Andsnes and the Mahler Chamber Orchestra play to sell out crowds around the world and the film captures that journey, the film also builds up a fresh and revealing biography of Beethoven, presenting a much-misunderstood man in a new light.
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 – 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.
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 behind the scenes look at the stunning dance culture of Bali. Filled with exclusive footage of the worlds most renowned traditional drama and trance performances. From simple village settings to glittering royal courts, this program takes you inside eleven of Bali's most dramatic dances to show how intimately culture, religion and life are inter-twined in Bali. Comes complete with Student Workbook.
FEATURES OF THE PROGRAM: The Art of a People teaches Introduction to Secular Dance, Teruna Jaya, Arja, Joged, Kecak.
A behind the scenes look at the stunning dance culture of Bali. Filled with exclusive footage of the worlds most renowned traditional drama and trance performances. From simple village settings to glittering royal courts, this program takes you inside eleven of Bali's most dramatic dances to show how intimately culture, religion and life are inter-twined in Bali. Comes complete with Student Workbook.
FEATURES OF THE PROGRAM: Upon the Sacred Stage teaches: Introduction to Sacred Dance, Sanghyang Jaran, Calon Arang, Gambuh, Topeng.
Harry Partch (like his friend Anais Nin) considered his life's work to be a letter to the world. His last act was going to be to add the enclosures. He never got around to it. After 20 years of working on the Partch archives, Philip Blackburn has now completed the seven-part Enclosures series as it were on his behalf.
Enclosure 7 is a monumental tribute to the most significant works of this American original and iconoclast. It includes new versions of his late masterworks and never-before-seen footage that bring us closer to the real Harry behind the myth.
The Dreamer That Remains is a documentary produced by Betty Freeman and directed by Stephen Pouliot in 1972. Here is the director's original cut along with his commentary. If you've never seen Partch or his instruments before, this is the place to start.
Delusion of the Fury was his magnum opus; a lifetime of instrument invention and ideas of ritual theater were poured into this giant work. The 1971 film has been resynched and the soundtrack remastered in 5.1 surround sound.
The CBS LPs of this work came with a bonus album of Harry introducing his instruments. Unavailable for years, this recording features this talk along with a slideshow of the instruments.
Revelation in the Courthouse Park was Harry's...
This mythological figure of Prometheus symbolises the creativity of man - and Claudio Abbado took this symbol as the Leitmotif of this very unique concert recording: An exploration of the Prometheus myth through the works of four composers, evocatively visualized by television director Christopher Swann, known for directing Leonard Bernstein conducts West Side Story among others.
Featuring Marta Argerich as the solo pianist, the concert was a giant was a giant collaboration of the Berliner Philharmoniker, the Berliner Singkadamie, the Solistenchor Freiburg, and the vocal soloist Ingrid Ade-Jeseman and Monika Bair-Ivenz and speakers Ulrike Krumbiegel and Matthias Schadock.
In 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...
Born in England, of German parents, Frederick Delius (1862-1934) traveled throughout his life to America, Scandinavia, Germany, France and Italy. Although ranked as one of the leading English composers, he was inspired by the foreign landscapes he visited.
Discovering Delius looks at the early life and work of the young cosmopolitan composer. Several champions of Delius' music - conductor Charles Mackerras, cellist Julian Lloyd Webber, violinist Tasmin Little, baritone Thomas Hampson and the Brindisi Quartet - are seen rehearsing, performing and discussing his work.
The music chosen focuses on the landmarks of Delius's creativity and reveals every aspect of his compositional style and includes extracts from the film of A Village Romeo and Juliet, featuring Thomas Hampson; A Mass of Life from the 1992 Brighton Festival; Sir Charles Mackerras and the Welsh National Opera rehearsing and performing The Song of the High Hills and movements from the Florida Suite.
Tasmin Little discusses, rehearses and performs the Concerto for Violin and Piano ; the Sonata for Cello and Piano is performed by Julian Lloyd Webber; and the Brindisi Quartet rehearses and performs Late Swallows from the String Quartet.
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.
In 2017 Iberian and Klavier launch their third album, El Piano del Maestro Alonso , a project to reclaim a musical heritage, dedicated to the unpublished works for piano and 4-hand piano by the famous Granada composer.
The CD album will be presented in two exceptional venues, at
the Palace of Charles V in the Alhambra in Granada, Spain and at the Lago di Como International Music Festival. Concerts in Spain, USA, Canada and Europe will be the stage for this project, which is accompanied by a documentary in which Laura and Manuel trace the young composer's steps in Granada.
A film by Paul Smaczny and Maria Stodtmeier. Venezuela's unique system of music education takes children from violent slums and turns some of them into world-class musicians. El Sistema shows how Venezuelan visionary Jose Antonio Abreu has changed the lives of hundreds of thousands of children over the past three decades. This lyrical and moving documentary takes us from the rubbish dumps and barrios of Caracas to the world's finest concert halls. Children from streets dominated by the gun battles of gang warfare are taken into music schools, given access to music, and taught through the model of the symphony orchestra how to build a better society. Paul Smaczny and Maria Stodtmeier's film finds hope and joy in unlikely places.
How many people remain in good shape, both mentally and physically, at the age of 106? The answer of course, is very few but, as I write this on her 106th birthday, Alice Sommer Herz is among those exceptional few.
And how many have the gift of forgiveness? And how many are free of hatred? Gigi Sommer has both of those qualities. I have never met anyone else with her depth of perception and natural wisdom.
She was imprisoned, with her six-year-old son, in the Theresienstadt concentration camp and saw unspeakable atrocities. She lost both her mother and her husband in Nazi death camps but she does not hate her persecutors. That is not because they are anything other than monstrous criminals but because she has the wisdom to know that all hatred hurts the soul of the hater, not the hated and Gigi Sommer's inspiring soul is among the things which she has kept intact and unblemished through her hundred and six years.
She was a pianist of distinction, played more than 100 concerts in the Theresienstadt camp and is in no doubt that music saved both her sanity and her life and the lives of many others in those unimaginable circumstances. She elaborates on this theme in the film.
Ask her what she has learned in her long life and she says, "To recognise the difference between what...
The 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.
The mother through the daughter's eyes - a family portrait blending intimate conversations, agreements and disagreements, and shred ties of sounds and blood. This intimate portrait of two musical giants by Martha Argerich's daughter Stephanie has been filmed over two decades and around the world: Warsaw, where Martha Argerich won the Chopin competition first prize; Japan, which hosts a unique Argerich festival; London, where Stephen Kovacevich, Stephanie's father, lives, works and enjoys intensively Indian food; Belgium, where Martha lives in a house filled with pianos and cats; Argentina, which she left at the age of twelve to study in Vienna, but still conceals valuable family treasures; Switzerland, where Stephanie and her sister Lyda are currently living.
A film by Stephanie Argerich herself, Bloody Daughter is made up of documentary sequences focusing on the two characters of Martha and Stephen in their everyday lives, in rehearsal and in performance, the film will be largely given over to intimate, delicious anecdotes, and a few scenes in which the family is reunited.
This 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.
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.
Fifteen singers, two countries and the music of Mozart. The stage was set for an incredible journey between two music schools - Louisville, Kentucky and Katowice, Poland - thousands of miles apart in both distance and language to put on a show! The show, Marriage of Figaro, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's comic opera, would be the language that would unite both casts. Extensive filming throughout the production's three-month period not only provides insight into the rigorous schedule of its performers but also highlights behind-the-scenes footage of the talented team responsible for bringing the house to its feet!
Presented by one of the world's leading pianists, this series of short films journeys through the history of piano music from Johann Sebastian Bach to Frederic Chopin . Directed by award-winning film maker Phil Grabsky.
The Risør Festival of Chamber Music has firmly established itself as one of the most prestigious and recognized chamber music festivals in the world. Each year, international artists visit the small fishing town in southern Norway and join forces with some of Norway's best musicians for six days of chamber music making. The setting is amongst the most beautiful to be found in Norway, the exquisite coastline architecture and quintessential southern white houses providing an atmosphere of intimacy and calmness.
The founding artistic directors were violist Lars Anders Tomter and pianist Leif Ove Andsnes. In 2011 Andsnes handed over the co-artistic leadership to violinist Henning Kraggerud. The festival takes place in the last week of June each year. The films shown here are produced by Music in Motion (www.musicinmotion.no).
Sasha Waltz is one of the world's most exciting choreographers. Her work includes provocative one-woman shows, inventive dance comedies, and philosophical dance-drama exploring subjects like the human body, sensuality and transcendence. The international company Sasha Waltz and Guests is renowned for the originality and creativity it has brought to contemporary dance. Brigitte Kramer's biopic lays bare the trials, the tribulations and the triumphs of 20 years in Sasha Waltz's soaring career. It reveals her research and working methods, her self-doubt and self-reflection, and her capacity for joy - including interviews with Waltz and her dancers. Garden of Lust presents extracts from many of the choreographies in rehearsal and performance, and captures astonishing moments on and off stage.
The date is 2 May 1957. Stalin died only four years before and perestroika is still a long way off. However, the Canadian pianist Glenn Gould, who is just 24, arrives in Moscow for an exceptional tour: he is the first North American musician to play behind the iron curtain. Witness accounts from musicians such as Ashkenazy and Rostropovitch, the original recordings of his concerts in Moscow and Leningrad, as well a recording that had never been released before of his lecture-recital in Leningrad make this an invaluable documentary revealing a whole side of Glenn Gould's past few people are aware of.
Milan's La Scala theatre as told by the protagonists of its golden years.
Enzo Biagi was one of the Italy's most famous and beloved journalists. His fondness of the prestigious Milanese venue led to the programmes presented now but was made in 1981 to 1982. Documenting the La Scala productions of those years, Biagi entered the theatre during the rehearsals and interviewed not only the conductors, singers and directors of the time, but also some of the great stars of the past.
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.
This twelve-part series explores the lives and works of some of art history's most influential great artists, from Piero della Francesca and Holbein to Goya and Constable .
Shot in ten countries, in over forty churches and galleries, Tim Marlow looks in detail at these great artists, their work and the world in which they lived. With uncomplicated and accessible analysis of some of art history's most famous masterpieces, the series gets to the bottom of why these artists are considered amongst the greatest of all time.
This twelve-part series explores the lives and works of some of art history's most influential great artists, from Piero della Francesca and Holbein to Goya and Constable .
Shot in ten countries, in over forty churches and galleries, Tim Marlow looks in detail at these great artists, their work and the world in which they lived. With uncomplicated and accessible analysis of some of art history's most famous masterpieces, the series gets to the bottom of why these artists are considered amongst the greatest of all time.
This twelve-part series explores the lives and works of some of art history's most influential great artists, from Piero della Francesca and Holbein to Goya and Constable .
Shot in ten countries, in over forty churches and galleries, Tim Marlow looks in detail at these great artists, their work and the world in which they lived. With uncomplicated and accessible analysis of some of art history's most famous masterpieces, the series gets to the bottom of why these artists are considered amongst the greatest of all time.
This twelve-part series explores the lives and works of some of art history's most influential great artists, from Piero della Francesca and Holbein to Goya and Constable .
Shot in ten countries, in over forty churches and galleries, Tim Marlow looks in detail at these great artists, their work and the world in which they lived. With uncomplicated and accessible analysis of some of art history's most famous masterpieces, the series gets to the bottom of why these artists are considered amongst the greatest of all time.
This twelve-part series explores the lives and works of some of art history's most influential great artists, from Piero della Francesca and Holbein to Goya and Constable .
Shot in ten countries, in over forty churches and galleries, Tim Marlow looks in detail at these great artists, their work and the world in which they lived. With uncomplicated and accessible analysis of some of art history's most famous masterpieces, the series gets to the bottom of why these artists are considered amongst the greatest of all time.
A film by Reiner E. Moritz, this exploration of Handel's operas focuses on this production of Rinaldo , setting the work in the context of the composer's overall operatic output and achievement.
The Risør Festival of Chamber Music has firmly established itself as one of the most prestigious and recognized chamber music festivals in the world. Each year, international artists visit the small fishing town in southern Norway and join forces with some of Norway's best musicians for six days of chamber music making. The setting is amongst the most beautiful to be found in Norway, the exquisite coastline architecture and quintessential southern white houses providing an atmosphere of intimacy and calmness.
The founding artistic directors were violist Lars Anders Tomter and pianist Leif Ove Andsnes. In 2011 Andsnes handed over the co-artistic leadership to violinist Henning Kraggerud. The festival takes place in the last week of June each year. The films shown here are produced by Music in Motion (www.musicinmotion.no).
Herbert von Karajan's story is the story of the record industry itself, which he was instrumental in creating and sustaining over half a century with hundreds of spectacular and award-winning recordings.
His life and his music-making still provoke extreme reactions; in Gernot Friedel's film, made with the help of the Karajan-Centrum in Salzburg, we see the hypnotic effect he could have upon musicians and listeners alike, we hear him in the repertoire for which he was renowned, and we are taken through a life never less than eventful.
After 500 years Bosch's paintings still shock and fascinate us. Delve into the vivid imagination of this true visionary.
Who was Hieronymus Bosch? Why do his strange and fantastical paintings resonate with people now more than ever? How does he bridge the medieval and Renaissance worlds? Where did his unconventional and timeless creations come from? Discover the answers to these questions and more with this remarkable new film from Exhibition on Screen directed by David Bickerstaff.
The Curious World of Hieronymus Bosch features the exhibition Hieronymus Bosch - Visions of Genius at Het Noordbrabants Museum in the southern Netherlands, which brought the majority of Bosch's paintings and drawings together for the first time to his home town of Den Bosch and attracted almost half a million art lovers from all over the world. With his fascinating life revealed plus the details and stories within his works seen like never before, don't miss this cinematic exploration of a great creative genius.
After a few years rest and some at-home unofficial rehabilitation Horowitz was ready to begin performing again. Horowitz recorded the material on this production in his own living room. We see a rejuvinated, different Horowitz, someone in much more control than in the 1982 and 1983 recitals. The only thing lacking in Horowitz's performance from this point on was preparation; Horowitz admittedly did not practice very much and it shows.
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.
This video is an intimate account of the formative years in the life and career of one of the leading violinists of our time.
Itzhak Perlman fell in love with the sounds of the violin at the age of 3 1/2, but he contracted polio a few months later and was soon to learn that it would be impossible, with his handicap, for him to pursue a high-level career as a violinist.
Not only has he succeeded in doing what the world thought quite impossible, but he has done it on a level that few have matched. It is a heartening story of the spectacular triumph of talent, determination, character and tenacity over seemingly insurmountable odds, producing truly glorious results along the way.
Milan's la Scala theatre as told by the protagonists of its golden years, interviewed by the renowned Italian journalist Enzo Biagi . A series originally produced on 16mm film, now restored and offered to the public at large by Accasfilm.
Jan Peerce was a great singer, universally acclaimed as one of the outstanding artists of his time, a role model of the American Dream. Beginning with Peerce's roots on the Lower East Side of New York, this film takes us uptown and around the world with him. We view his life through music performance, through interviews with famed concert violinist (and host) Isaac Stern, and through compelling footage, some of which has never been publicly shown before. The documentary celebrates the dynamic, entertaining and witty personality of this legendary singer.
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.
In Search of Beethoven has brought together the world's leading performers and experts on Beethoven to reveal new insights into this legendary composer. The line-up of performers and interviewees includes Gianandrea Noseda, Sir Roger Norrington, Riccardo Chailly, Claudio Abbado, Fabio Luisi, Frans Brüggen, Ronald Brautigam, Hélène Grimaud, Vadim Repin, Janine Jansen, Paul Lewis, Lars Vogt, and Emanuel Ax among others. The film is narrated by Juliet Stevenson and young RSC actor David Dawson.
As with the Mozart film, In Search of Beethoven takes a comprehensive look at the composer's life through his musical output. Having created a blueprint with In Search of Mozart , Phil Grabsky documents each piece of music chronologically, marrying it to Beethoven's biography and letters.
Phil Grabsky travelled across Europe and North America to interview historians and musicians between rehearsals and performances. He managed to film a remarkable 55 performances for the film - and has once again captured the raw energy of these world-class artists. It includes exclusive footage of Claudio Abbado's critically-acclaimed performance of Beethoven's opera Fidelio. There are further performances from Frans Brüggen's Orchestra of the 18th Century, the Salzburg Camerata with Sir Roger...
Phil Grabsky brings us the music and life story of Frederic Chopin , considered one of the greatest composers of all time. For four years Grabsky traveled the globe recording performances by world class musicians and conversing with respected historians and musicologists in a quest to discover new insights in Chopin, the man and his musical genius.
Joseph Haydn is the composer that Mozart and Beethoven revered, yet he is somewhat overlooked. In this eagerly-awaited documentary, award-winning filmmaker Phil Grabsky goes in search of one of the greatest composers of all.
As with his two previous international hits (In Search of Mozart, In Search of Beethoven), Grabsky's biographical account of the life of Haydn is a visual and aural extravaganza, including breathtaking performances by some of the world's most celebrated musicians: Alison Balsom, Sir Roger Norrington, The Endellion String Quartet, Gianandrea Noseda, Ronald Brautigam, Christophe Rousset and Les Talens Lyriques, Emanuel Ax, The Classical Opera Company, Sophie Bevan, and The Orchestra of the 18th Century with Frans Brüggen, among others.
Through intimate and revealing interviews with experts, detailed extracts from personal accounts and beautiful location footage, Grabsky offers tremendous insight into not only Haydn's music but the man himself.
Made to celebrate the 250th anniversary of Mozart's birth, In Search of Mozart is a detective story that takes us to the heart of genius.
Produced with the world's leading orchestras and musicians, the prolific composer's story is told through a 25,000 mile journey along every route Mozart followed.
Without resorting to docudrama or visual reenactment, In Search of Mozart traces his life through his music and extensive correspondence. From K.1a to K.626 (Requiem), over 80 works are featured, revealing striking parallels between the music and Mozart's own experiences.
But it is the music that takes centre stage, with the jigsaw of Mozart's life fitting snugly around it. With rigorous analysis from musicologists and experts such as Jonathan Miller, Cliff Eisen, Nicholas Till, Bayan Northcott and the late Stanley Sadie, a new, vivid impression of the composer emerges. It dispels the many common myths about Mozart's genius, health, relationships, death and character to present a new image very different from Milos Forman's Amadeus.
Narrated by Juliet Stevenson and with Mozart voiced by Samuel West, the series features interviews and performances with over 70 of the greatest exponents of Mozart's music.
Discover the kinds of plays performed at Stratford in Shakespeares youth along with an introduction to the Royal Shakespeare Theatre. Shakespeares London Years 1591-1613: British presenter, Rebecca Flynn, offers a horseback journey into London and a walking tour over a dozen London sites that conjure up the presence of William Shakespeare during his London years.
This program follows the trail and visits eighteen major sites associated with Shakespeare and his plays which include - the Tower of London; St. Pauls Cathedral; the Middle Temple for law students; George Tavern, a venue for outdoor plays; Southwark Cathedral, where his brother Edmund Shakespeare is buried; and the London Globe Theatre site.
Shakespeares Stratford Years 1564-1590 - This program conjures up the presence of William Shakespeare during his Stratford years by taking you on a walking, biking, and rowing journey around Warwickshire. It features the baptismal font and tomb at Trinity church, Shakespeares Birthplace, the King Edward VI Grammar School he attended, Anne Hathaways Cottage, Shottery, Wilmcote, Kenilworth Castle, the Mary Arden Farm, and many other important locations.
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.
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.
Not since Paganini had there been such a magician on the violin. The first modern violin virtuoso, about whom Itzhak Perlman says in the film, "When I spoke with him, I thought, 'I can't believe it. I'm talking with God.'" A musical wunderkind, he went on to set the standard in violin playing for nearly a century. This film portrays an artist for whom only perfection would do, so well known in popular culture that his name became shorthand for excellence for everyone from Jack Benny, to The Muppets, to Woody Allen.
Heifetz was a legendary but mysterious figure whose story embodies the dual nature of artistic genius: the paradox of how a mortal man lives with immortal gifts - gifts he must honor, but which extract a life-long price. Is the man and the artist the same person? What is the price each pays? And who was the man behind the music?
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.
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.
Haydn's lifetime saw a series of striking changes in musical style. At the time of his birth and childhood Baroque traditions still prevailed. By the end of his life the apparent stability of the Classical style was being challenged, notably by Beethoven. Haydn did not simply live through this long development; he was a central part of it. Nele Munchmeyer's documentary throws light upon Haydn as the ingenious composer and as the private person – the "Libertine" in his private life and the "Servant" as the Kapellmeister of the Esterhazys.
The film includes excerpts from highly acclaimed performances of Haydn works. Amongst them are the opera Armida with the German soprano Annette Dasch, arias from Haydn performed by the Freiburger Barockorchester and the baritone Thomas Quasthoff, and performances of Die Schopfung and Die Jahreszeiten conducted by Roger Norrington.
The ghettos of Kinshasa - the devastated capital of a country politically and economically adrift - are filled with many gifted, yet impoverished musicians. Their outstanding talent, humour and vital energy are their on means of survival. Amongst them, Jupiter Bokondji, the charismatic leader of the band "Okwess International," acts as our narrator and guide. This local Don Quixote introduces us to the Kinshasa music scene - teenage rappers, handicapped bluesmen, street children, griots ans guitar craftsmen - and describe his 20-year struggle to bring his music out of the ghetto.
Tracing the development of an exceptional musical talent from childhood to the beginnings of musical maturity, Karim Said is a lively fellow with a very endearing gift. He is a true musician, similar in some ways to Edwin Fischer or to Karim's mentor, Daniel Barenboim
Born in Amman, Karim studied percussion with his father and piano with Agnes Victorovna Bashir (alumna of the Gnessin School, Moscow). He has been applauded by established musicians and juries in several countries and already won nine international prizes. His distinguishing characteristics are his naturalness, both in his music and his personality, his humour, his intelligence and a total lack of pretence but, above and beyond these things, it is the way in which his music gets through to his audiences and touches people, that sets him apart.
The program seeks to capture all of these qualities and to watch his youthful progress in a story with which a great many people will be able to identify worldwide.
Profile of dancer-choreographer Karole Armitage , much of it in her own words. The program begins with a discussion of her evening-length work The predators' ball: hucksters of the soul , which she presented in several versions between 1994 and 1996.
Looking back upon her career, Armitage describes her beginnings as a ballet dancer, and her discovery of the work of Merce Cunningham, whose company she joined. She discusses her own choreography and its aims, her establishment of her own company in the 1980s, her move to France, and her appointment to the directorship of Maggio Danza in Florence, and compares audience and critical reactions to her innovations in the U.S. and Europe. Additional insights are offered by her friend Joan Juliet Buck; dance historian Sally Sommer; Armitage's husband, the painter David Salle; and fashion designer Christian Lacroix.
The Risør Festival of Chamber Music has firmly established itself as one of the most prestigious and recognized chamber music festivals in the world. Each year, international artists visit the small fishing town in southern Norway and join forces with some of Norway's best musicians for six days of chamber music making. The setting is amongst the most beautiful to be found in Norway, the exquisite coastline architecture and quintessential southern white houses providing an atmosphere of intimacy and calmness.
The founding artistic directors were violist Lars Anders Tomter and pianist Leif Ove Andsnes. In 2011 Andsnes handed over the co-artistic leadership to violinist Henning Kraggerud. The festival takes place in the last week of June each year. The films shown here are produced by Music in Motion (www.musicinmotion.no).
Presented by one of the world's leading pianists, this series of short films journeys through the history of piano music from Johann Sebastian Bach to Frederic Chopin . Directed by award-winning film maker Phil Grabsky.
Presented by one of the world's leading pianists, this series of short films journeys through the history of piano music from Johann Sebastian Bach to Frederic Chopin . Directed by award-winning film maker Phil Grabsky.
Presented by one of the world's leading pianists, this series of short films journeys through the history of piano music from Johann Sebastian Bach to Frederic Chopin . Directed by award-winning film maker Phil Grabsky.
Presented by one of the world's leading pianists, this series of short films journeys through the history of piano music from Johann Sebastian Bach to Frederic Chopin . Directed by award-winning film maker Phil Grabsky.
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 – Shostakovich, Prokofiev, and others. This documentary shows the fine line a man had to tread between being a loyal party functionary on the one hand, and a fighter for artistic freedom on the other.
A collection of five authentic dances in the Khmer court repertoire, performed in traditional costume by masters of these dances. The narration provides excellent historical background as introduction to each dance. The dances are filmed so that in each solo and group dance, the hands, feet, and body movements can be seen clearly.
The accompanying traditional music is performed by the Pinn Peat Ensemble , including instruments such as shawms, xylophones, gongs, barrel, drums, metallophone, and small cymbals.
An excellent introduction to the dances of the ancient royal court of Cambodia. The film was produced in conjunction with the Khmer Studies Institute California State University, Northridge.
Two hundred orchestral musicians are playing Orff's Carmina Burana in total darkness. A power cut has hit the Ngiri Ngiri district of Kinshasa, only a few bars before the last section of the work. Kinshasa's power stations and main networks are insufficient to supply electricity to all the 8 million inhabitants of what is Africa's third-largest city. Once again the lights have gone out in the "Salle des fêtes", a kind of open garage where the orchestra practises. But for its members this is no reason to stop rehearsing. Most of them know their parts by heart. Small lapses of memory are compensated for by a talent for improvisation and the grace of God.
Krzysztof Komeda – jazz pianist and film composer. With compositions like the lullaby for Rosemary's Baby from Roman Polanski, Komeda succeeded in writing his own chapter in the history of soundtracks. As a jazz musician he gained cult status in Poland. As a film composer he made it into Hollywood's first ranks. But there his career came to a sudden end.
The film essay Komeda - A Soundtrack for a Life is a reflection on Komeda's soundtracks, which changed the common film scores forever. It is a contemporary document about the attitude to life in a time of social, political and cultural change after war, and about the work and exodus of the Polish artist in the 50s and 60s.
This film features interviews with directors who worked with Komeda and who were also his friends, including Roman Polanski, Jerzy Skolimowski, Henning Carlsen, and Andrzej Wajda. His wife, Zofia Komeda, and his sister, Irena Orlowska, also remember him.
This video includes historic recordings and interviews of Carl Schuricht, one of the most important conductors of the twentieth century.
In this exclusive profile, Joan Sutherland - La Stupenda - looks back on her remarkable forty-two year career as one of the world's greatest singers. The programme includes film of her final performances in Les Huguenots and Die Fledermaus , a wealth of archive performance extracts and newsreel footage. There are interviews with Joan Sutherland and her husband, the director and conductor Richard Bonynge, and contributions from friends and colleagues, including Luciano Pavarotti, Marilyn Horne, Kiri Te Kanawa, and her biographer, Norma Major.
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.
Three previous volumes of this series were dedicated to La Scala. In this fourth DVD volume, we turn our attention to another beloved and well-known Italian operatic venue: the Arena of Verona, which is able to host more than 20,000 spectators and endowed with acoustics that are quite extraordinary.
This documentary, originally filmed in 16 mm, famed Italian journalist Enzo Biagi interviews the celebrity artists and directors who appeared at the Arena at the beginning of the 1908s, including Sherrill Millnes, Rajna Kabaiwanska, Fiorenza Cossotto, Mirella Freni, Rolando Panerai, Oliviero De Fabritiis, Nicola Martinucci , director Giancarlo Sbragia and set designer Giulio Coletllacci .
The DVD features excerpts from performances of Rigoletto, Aida, La traviata and Nabucco during that period of time.
The Risør Festival of Chamber Music has firmly established itself as one of the most prestigious and recognized chamber music festivals in the world. Each year, international artists visit the small fishing town in southern Norway and join forces with some of Norway's best musicians for six days of chamber music making. The setting is amongst the most beautiful to be found in Norway, the exquisite coastline architecture and quintessential southern white houses providing an atmosphere of intimacy and calmness.
The founding artistic directors were violist Lars Anders Tomter and pianist Leif Ove Andsnes. In 2011 Andsnes handed over the co-artistic leadership to violinist Henning Kraggerud. The festival takes place in the last week of June each year. The films shown here are produced by Music in Motion (www.musicinmotion.no).
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.
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 РReflections , 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 d̩but, 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
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.
The Risør Festival of Chamber Music has firmly established itself as one of the most prestigious and recognized chamber music festivals in the world. Each year, international artists visit the small fishing town in southern Norway and join forces with some of Norway's best musicians for six days of chamber music making. The setting is amongst the most beautiful to be found in Norway, the exquisite coastline architecture and quintessential southern white houses providing an atmosphere of intimacy and calmness.
The founding artistic directors were violist Lars Anders Tomter and pianist Leif Ove Andsnes. In 2011 Andsnes handed over the co-artistic leadership to violinist Henning Kraggerud. The festival takes place in the last week of June each year. The films shown here are produced by Music in Motion (www.musicinmotion.no).
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 РReflections , 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 d̩but, 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
Presented by one of the world's leading pianists, this series of short films journeys through the history of piano music from Johann Sebastian Bach to Frederic Chopin . Directed by award-winning film maker Phil Grabsky.
This up-to-date documentary about Felix Mendelssohn is based on the original letters of the composer and his sister Fanny, combined with numerous evocative period images. Through a blend of music and words, the most distinguished Mendelssohn specialists of today guide viewers through the composer's fascinating life and career. The various themes covered include his training, his religious and cultural identity, his journey to Italy, his rediscovery of Bach, his years in Leipzig, the relative neglect of his music following his death, his readmission to the canon of Germany's greatest Romantic composers, and the recent unearthing of many unpublished works.
Bonus:
- Homage to Felix Mendelssohn at the Settimane Musicali al Teatro Olimpico, 2009.
This 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.
Presented by one of the world's leading pianists, this series of short films journeys through the history of piano music from Johann Sebastian Bach to Frederic Chopin . Directed by award-winning film maker Phil Grabsky.
Presented by one of the world's leading pianists, this series of short films journeys through the history of piano music from Johann Sebastian Bach to Frederic Chopin . Directed by award-winning film maker Phil Grabsky.
No one did more to expand the audience for opera than tenor Luciano Pavarotti. He reconnected an elite art-form with popular audiences throughout the world, through his unashamed enthusiasm for life and his unique ability to communicate to vast crowds through the simple medium of his magnificent voice, allied to great music. This fascinating documentary film takes the viewer behind the scenes of both Pavarotti's personal life and his appearances at the great opera houses of the world to create a unique portrait of a great and well-loved musician.
Conductor Franz Welser-Most, director Sven-Eric Bechtolf and singers Laura Aiken, Alfred Muff, Rolf Haunstein, Steve Davislim and Peter Straka contribute to a programme introducing Berg's complex masterpiece.
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.
This program is an enormously valuable historical, literary and dramatic analysis of the essence of Macbeth showing how the significant parts of the drama tie together with scenes from the play.
Hosts, Rebecca Flynn and Gary Taylor introduce Macbeth The Tragic Pair using the stunning backdrop of the Scottish Highlands to lift the veil covering the language, plot, themes, geographical and historical background to The Tragedy of Macbeth, first published in 1623.
Macbeth is the shortest and most compressed in language, action and character development of the Shakespeare tragedies. At a heath near Forres, 3 Weird Sisters (witches) meet with the King of Scotland (Duncan) and his General Macbeth, hailing Macbeth with a triple prophecy that ends with a promise that Macbeth with be king. After events occur supporting these prophecies, the ambitious Macbeth and Lady Macbeth work together to murder the King in their castle (Inverness). In time, the Tragic Pair are haunted by guilt, paranoia and isolation with Lady Macbeth taking her own life and Macbeth fighting to the last, even though he realizes the three witches had issued false and misleading prophecies. Both die and Scotland returns to normalcy with Duncans son, Malcolm crowned at Scone, Scotland.
Herbert von Karajan was the only major orchestral conductor to create film – and later video productions – at his own expense. "I am actually born too early," he said, well aware that video's possibilities were still in their infancy. Georg Wubbolt did interviews with Karajan's team: his director of photography, his cutter, his secretary, his producer and musicians of the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra and the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra. This documentary includes outstanding performance material from the Unitel and Telemondial library, as well as unreleased digitally remastered excerpts from the legendary RBB (SFB) and ORF archive. We see Karajan talking about this subject in talk shows and television. It underlines Karajan's appearance as a real Maestro for the Screen from a side unknown to most people, introduced by his closest collaborators.
The film is constructed chronologically. It starts with the very first concert productions in 1957 at NHK in Japan, followed by the impressive cooperation with director Henri-Georges Clouzot in 1965 and ends with Karajan's own film company Telemondial. The Silvesterkonzert 1988 at the Philharmonie in Berlin marks the end of the great era, long before music video entered the entertainment industry.
Making War Horse is the story of how Michael Morpurgo's children's novel became of the most popular and acclaimed productions in the National Theatre's history.
From its early development in the NT Studio, see how Handspring Puppet Company created the groundbreaking techniques that brought a lifelike horse to the stage. Behind the scenes and into the rehearsal room, featuring interviews with the cast and creative team, Making War Horse documents this unique theatrical collaboration and the creation of a stage classic.
Featuring archival footage of Marius Constant and interviews with directors George Rothman and Anthony Korf, this video traces Riverside Symphony's longstanding engagement with Constant's music.
This Christopher Nupen film belongs to a long line of memorable portraits of the great performers. It is the product of a close friendship between a dedicated filmmaker and one of the finest violinists of the twentieth century, and it contains the only portrait film ever made with Nathan Milstein. It was shot in the autumn of the longest career in the history of solo violin playing; seventy-three years lay between Milstein’s first appearance with Glazunov conducting and his last recital in the Berwaldhallen in Stockholm in 1986. That legendary recital provides most of the music for this film. Milstein's partner was the French pianist Georges Pludermacher, with whom he had worked for more than twenty years.
Nathan Milstein was an astonishing eighty-two years old at the time of the recital, yet he still played as the grandest of grand masters, and as surely no other violinist has ever played at that age. This film will be of interest to virtually every student of the violin.
This Christopher Nupen film belongs to a long line of memorable portraits of the great performers. It is the product of a close friendship between a dedicated filmmaker and one of the finest violinists of the twentieth century, and it contains the only portrait film ever made with Nathan Milstein. It was shot in the autumn of the longest career in the history of solo violin playing; seventy-three years lay between MilsteinâEUR(TM)s first appearance with Glazunov conducting and his last recital in the Berwaldhallen in Stockholm in 1986. That legendary recital provides most of the music for this film. Milstein's partner was the French pianist Georges Pludermacher, with whom he had worked for more than twenty years.
Nathan Milstein was an astonishing eighty-two years old at the time of the recital, yet he still played as the grandest of grand masters, and as surely no other violinist has ever played at that age. This film will be of interest to virtually every student of the violin.
The films follow an artistic journey that was not an easy one. Living through the great turning point in Western music, many of Sibelius' concerns were strikingly similar to those of Schoenberg and Stravinsky. Each followed a different path, however, and it is not surprising that their reputations should be caught up in the massive shifts of fashion that characterise the turmoil of twentieth century music.
Christopher Nupen offers an intimate look at what Sibelius himself felt that he was trying to achieve. To quote Nupen: "His music has lasted and I believe that it will continue to last, whatever fashion may do...his voice is inimitable, unmistakable and for me unforgettable. My first encounters with it opened up a whole new world that remains with me."
As with Nupen's films on Respighi, Mussorgsky and Tchaikovsky, the orchestra is the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra conducted by Vladimir Ashkenazy. They are joined in this film by Elisabeth Söderström and Boris Belkin.
The mother through the daughter's eyes - a family portrait blending intimate conversations, agreements and disagreements, and shred ties of sounds and blood. This intimate portrait of two musical giants by Martha Argerich's daughter Stephanie has been filmed over two decades and around the world: Warsaw, where Martha Argerich won the Chopin competition first prize; Japan, which hosts a unique Argerich festival; London, where Stephen Kovacevich, Stephanie's father, lives, works and enjoys intensively Indian food; Belgium, where Martha lives in a house filled with pianos and cats; Argentina, which she left at the age of twelve to study in Vienna, but still conceals valuable family treasures; Switzerland, where Stephanie and her sister Lyda are currently living.
A film by Stephanie Argerich herself, Bloody Daughter is made up of documentary sequences focusing on the two characters of Martha and Stephen in their everyday lives, in rehearsal and in performance, the film will be largely given over to intimate, delicious anecdotes, and a few scenes in which the family is reunited.
This 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.
The spectacular sculptures and paintings of Michelangelo seem so familiar to us, but what do we really know about this renaissance genius? Who was this ambitious and passionate man?
A virtuoso craftsman, Michelangelo's artistry is evident in everything he touched. Beautiful and diverse works such as the towering statue of David, the deeply moving Pieta in the Papal Basilica of St. Peter and his tour-de-force, the Sistine Chapel ceiling still leave us breathless today.
Spanning his 89 years, Michelangelo - Love and Death , takes a cinematic journey from the print and drawing rooms of Europe, through the great chapels and museums of Florence, Rome and the Vatican to explore the tempestuous life of Michelangelo. We go in search of a greater understanding of this most charismatic figure, his relationship with his contemporaries and his valuable artistic legacy. Through expert commentary and Michelangelo's own words, this film takes a fresh look at an enigmatic man whose life is celebrated in every mark and every stroke he made.
A giant artistic force and universally loved, discover why Michelangelo is without a doubt one of the greatest artists of the Renaissance - and perhaps of all time.
Milan's La Scala theatre as told by the protagonists of its golden years.
Enzo Biagi was one of the Italy's most famous and beloved journalists. His fondness of the prestigious Milanese venue led to the programmes presented now but was made in 1981 to 1982. Documenting the La Scala productions of those years, Biagi entered the theatre during the rehearsals and interviewed not only the conductors, singers and directors of the time, but also some of the great stars of the past.
After over thirty years on the concert stage the pianist Murray Perahia has himself become a legend, one of the most sought-after pianists of our time. This film is not designed to be a conventional portrait. The documentary observes Perahia at work on the interpretation of some pieces by Chopin and Schumann at his holiday home in Switzerland. It shows him as conductor of the famous Academy of St. Martin in the Fields, follows him into the recording studio and a master class in Hanover and finally captures a concert performance at a Warsaw Chopin recital in February 2010. Interviews with Murray Perahia cast light on his approach to music, his personality and the way he has managed to cope with the personal crises that has beset him.
The West-Eastern Divan Orchestra left its significant mark on the programming of the Salzburg Festival 2007. The symphonic concerts in the Grosses Festspielhaus, the chamber music concerts in the Mozarteum and the "School for Listening" workshops in the Great University Hall under the guidance of Daniel Barenboim turned out to be another highlight of the politically ambitious project that started in 1999 as a workshop for chamber music.
This documentary provides an insight into the rehearsals of the musicians, covers political discussions and shows the legendary West-Eastern Divan Orchestra - Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra soccer match. The final tour concert in the sold-out Berliner Philharmonie forms the grand finale.
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....
Music, Mon Amour delves into the secret of a grand passion – the love of music. What makes it irresistible? Why can't we live without music? In Music, Mon Amour we embark on a search for clues – together with the Israeli singer Yasmin Levy, the Japanese violinist Midori and the German composer Helmut Oehring. They reveal their deep love of music and talk of the joy and despair that go with it. Their accounts, intimate and affecting, and from widely differing perspectives, convey their existential and contradictory relationship to music.
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.
This is a spirited visit to some of the old dances in New England and with the callers and musicians who make them happen. It features Phil Johnson calling squares in Lebanon, Maine with the Maple Sugar Band; John Campbell and Norman MacEachern at the Canadian American Victory Club in Watertown, MA; William Chaisson and Joe Cormier at the French American Victory Club in Waltham, MA; and Arcade Richard and Victor Albert in Leominster, MA, doing quadrilles; and Charlie Mitchell at the Blue Goose in Northport, Maine, doing contra dances.
Alan Lomax said this film "takes us past the solemn facade of clambakes and town meetings into a lively world of all night dances and local musicians who could have helped Daniel Webster play down the devil".
The film includes performances of seven of the finest traditional musicians in the Northeast including Joe Cormier, Jerry Robichaud, Ben Guillemette, Paddy Cronin, Wilfred Guillette, Harold Luce, and Ron West playing in their lively and distinct Acadian, Irish, Cape Breton, and Quebecois styles.
The Risør Festival of Chamber Music has firmly established itself as one of the most prestigious and recognized chamber music festivals in the world. Each year, international artists visit the small fishing town in southern Norway and join forces with some of Norway's best musicians for six days of chamber music making. The setting is amongst the most beautiful to be found in Norway, the exquisite coastline architecture and quintessential southern white houses providing an atmosphere of intimacy and calmness.
The founding artistic directors were violist Lars Anders Tomter and pianist Leif Ove Andsnes. In 2011 Andsnes handed over the co-artistic leadership to violinist Henning Kraggerud. The festival takes place in the last week of June each year. The films shown here are produced by Music in Motion (www.musicinmotion.no).
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
The documentary by Felix Breisach shows the conductor from his private side. He touchingly talks about his fears, aging, his relationship with his wife Alice. His brother Philipp Harnoncourt tells of their childhood and youth, his son Franz describes how he sees his father. In addition, there is the instrumental ensemble Concentus Musicus Wien, founded by Harnoncourt, director's theater and Harnoncourt's love of music.
The world is going to see increasingly less of legendary conductor Nikolaus Harnoncourt, who celebrates his 80th birthday in December 2009. So the time is right for a comprehensive portrait of one the most important conductors of our time.
Harnoncourt - the captivator. One immediately comes under the spell of his admirable intensity, his humorous comparisons, his wit and his brilliant rhetoric. It's nearly impossible not to succumb to his fascinating congeniality. Even his critics are captivated!
The film also draws parallels between Nikolaus Harnoncourt and Joseph
Haydn, who in their popularity and diversity are both unique. Besides great concerts in Eisenstadt and Esterháza, Harnoncourt conducts Haydn's famous opera Il mondo della Luna at the stunning Theater an der Wien. In his inimitable way Harnoncourt presents his own picture of Haydn, which is different from anything we have known before.
Presented by one of the world's leading pianists, this series of short films journeys through the history of piano music from Johann Sebastian Bach to Frederic Chopin . Directed by award-winning film maker Phil Grabsky.
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.
Milan's la Scala theatre as told by the protagonists of its golden years, interviewed by the renowned Italian journalist Enzo Biagi . A series originally produced on 16mm film, now restored and offered to the public at large by Accasfilm.
With this unique programme, Hangzi Wang takes us into the 'fairy-tale world of the accordion' in works by Danish composers that explore both the darkness and luminosity of Hans Christian Andersen's famous stories.
Performed by up and coming artist, Hangzi Wang, is the accordion's best perfect ambassador. Praised for her engaging stage presence and performances that are technically and musically brilliant, her career has already taken her around the globe with performances in Europe and Asia. As First Prize winner of the Young Concert Artists International
Auditions in New York, she is now introducing US audiences to the accordion with recitals throughout the country, including debuts in New York at Carnegie Hall's Zankel Hall and in Washington, DC at the Kennedy Center. Other distinctions include first prizes in several music competitions around the world.
This 1985 documentary focuses on conductor Seiji Ozawa and the behind-the-scenes world of the symphony orchestra. It communicates the intensity and passion that Ozawa brings to his work as conductor and teacher, and shows him in the context of his relationship with former masters, current students and family. It also explores the cultural tensions that caused him to leave Japan and begin a career in the West.
This video contains a Christopher Nupen film about the most charismatic performer in the entire history of Western classical music âEUR" also the most talked about, the most controversial, the most famous and the most successful classical soloist that the world of music has ever known.
The story is astonishing, exciting, wildly unusual and, at the end, deeply touching. It is one of the most extraordinary tales in the history of music and it is told with all the Nupen finesse and commitment that have won him DVD of the Year Award four times in the past six years.
In the recording, Christopher Nupen looks at the legend and the strange man who created it with his dazzling combination of technical brilliance, supreme showmanship, Italian melody and unbridled manipulative skill âEUR" a man whose extraordinary personality unsettled even the most sophisticated and educated minds and provoked wildly contradictory opinions.
It presents Paganini's music, shot and edited in the style developed by Christopher Nupen and his colleagues for their prize winning DVDs about Sibelius, Schubert and Tchaikovsky and combines it with extracts from Paganini's letters and quotations from both his admirers and his many detractors.
Paul Wittgenstein, the Austrian concert pianist, lost his arm at the age of twenty-seven while serving as an officer in the First World War. Nonetheless, he was determined to continue his career. Major composers such as Ravel and Strauss wrote pieces for him, and from this he gained international acclaim. Eventually forced to leave Austria by the Nazis, he died in New York in 1961.
Paul's father Karl, millionaire and chief Austrian iron and steel baron, had been determined to have his five sons follow in his footsteps and become industrialists, so he did not permit them to pursue artistic careers. He paid for his intransigence with the lives of his three eldest children, who escaped their father's authority by committing suicide; finally he allowed his two remaining sons the freedom to choose their own profession. Paul chose music, and his younger brother Ludwig turned to philosophy.
Paul Wittgenstein's biography is an extraordinary, life-affirming story. It is the tale of a man who persevered in the face of seemingly insurmountable obstacles and prevailed.
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 – Shostakovich, Prokofiev, and others. This documentary shows the fine line a man had to tread between being a loyal party functionary on the one hand, and a fighter for artistic freedom on the other.
The 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.
Presented by one of the world's leading pianists, this series of short films journeys through the history of piano music from Johann Sebastian Bach to Frederic Chopin . Directed by award-winning film maker Phil Grabsky.
Presented by one of the world's leading pianists, this series of short films journeys through the history of piano music from Johann Sebastian Bach to Frederic Chopin . Directed by award-winning film maker Phil Grabsky.
Presented by one of the world's leading pianists, this series of short films journeys through the history of piano music from Johann Sebastian Bach to Frederic Chopin . Directed by award-winning film maker Phil Grabsky.
Presented by one of the world's leading pianists, this series of short films journeys through the history of piano music from Johann Sebastian Bach to Frederic Chopin . Directed by award-winning film maker Phil Grabsky.
Everything about Piotr Anderszewski is extraordinary: his talent, his repertoire, his constant questioning of his work as a performer. Any film about this highly unconventional pianist owes it to itself to depart from the beaten path; on the borderline between documentary and fiction, this "road movie" is set against the backdrop of a winter journey by train across Poland with a piano installed on board. Punctuated by Piotr's highly personal reflections, the repertoire consists of essential pieces by Bach, Mozart, Chopin, Beethoven, Schumann and Szymanowski.
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.
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 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 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.
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.
Remembering Jacqueline du Pré focuses on her music. The first half is filmed mostly in rehearsal situations where she is at her most revealing and exuberant. The second half features performances at the highest level, including the closing five minutes of the Elgar Cello Concerto in the legendary Philharmonia/Barenboim performance of 1967.
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.
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.
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.
Romeo and Juliet - The Tragic Lovers, offers insight, commentary and staged performances of Shakespeares famous tragedy of star-crossed lovers. As a companion to the literary interpretation, actual dramatic scenes filmed in Verona, Italy are used as Shakespeare had intended in his original play.
Scholar and host, James Bride, introduces factual information about Shakespeares play by referencing a digitally enhanced version of the Prologue. Gary Taylor, Editor of the Oxford Editions of Shakespeares Complete Works, offers an engaging dialogue about the historical background of exotic Verona, use of boy actors, staging challenges and 16th Century sacred and secular attitudes that influenced the writing of the play. Additionally, Judith Annozine covers the humor in this play providing insight into the characters and role of the Nurse and Mercutio in advancing the action.
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.
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....
Milan's La Scala theatre as told by the protagonists of its golden years.
Enzo Biagi was one of the Italy's most famous and beloved journalists. His fondness of the prestigious Milanese venue led to the programmes presented now but was made in 1981 to 1982. Documenting the La Scala productions of those years, Biagi entered the theatre during the rehearsals and interviewed not only the conductors, singers and directors of the time, but also some of the great stars of the past.
Sean O Se's long and illustrious career as "a giant of Irish music" has touched all bases in the Irish music business. His unique, unforgettable tenor voice was nurtured in a family of singers. Sean's voice first reached a wide audience in Ireland in the 1960s working with composer Sean O Riada in the group Ceoltoiri Chualann which catapulted Irish traditional music onto the concert stage and into the international arena. The film explores Sean's musical life within the contexts of his deep attachment to the Irish language, West Cork and the Beara peninsula, and his passion for his career in teaching and education administration in Cork City. The film features live performances and interviews with longtime associates from the worlds of music and education.
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.
Shadows in Paradise portrays the vibrant atmosphere of the Los Angeles German-speaking exile community during the 1930s and 1940s, revealing their struggles, frustrations and achievements. By 1939 tens of thousands of intellectuals and radicals were exiled from Europe; eighty percent of them were Jewish. The many emigres who settled in southern California, such as Arnold Schoenberg, Erich Wolfgang Korngold, Ernst Krenek, Thomas Mann, Bertolt Brecht and Fritz Lang, briefly transformed the area into one of the capitals of world culture, and profoundly altered the horizons of American music, literature and the arts.
Shakespeare and the Spanish Connection is a must for students, teachers, and Shakespeare scholars of all ages. Experience the plays of traditional Spanish theater firsthand and see how they parallel many of Shakespeare's most famous works. See how these plays were brought to early California with the founding of the missions, and how many of these plays are still performed and remain an integral part of Spanish culture in modern-day America. See the archetypal stock characters of traditional Spanish theater manifest themselves in Shakespeare's plays from the black hat villain of Don John in Much Ado About Nothing , to the nag of Juliet's Nurse in Romeo and Juliet , and to the foolish braggart Falstaff in Henry IV and Henry V and The Merry Wives of Windsor .
Watch scenes from these well-known characters alongside the scenes of Spanish theater from which they derive their roots. Despite the obvious influence of Spanish theater and culture over many of Shakespeare's works, not one of his plays is actually set in Spain. Romeo and Juliet and Much Ado About Nothing are both set in Italy, while Falstaff had his adventures in Britain. But nevertheless, throughout all of Shakespeare's plays, the influence of Spanish theater and culture is evident.
Celebrate Shakespeare's work in the original setting and open air acoustics for which he wrote his greatest plays. Witness this historically significant production of Much Ado About Nothing, the first recorded Elizabethan production on the newly rebuilt Globe stage in London. Shakespeare's Globe Theatre Restored video documents eighteen months of planning, rehearsal, location work, and post-production by the University of California at Berkeley Shakespeare Program, culminating in the performance of one of Shakespeare's greatest plays.
Visit the fully operational restored Globe Theatre on the Bankside of the river Thames, near its original site and experience how the reconstructed Elizabethan Theatre provides a venue for teaching and studying Shakespeare's plays in the ultimate authentic performance setting.
This film celebrates the life and music of the artist whom musicologist Nick Strimple describes as 'the only American composer in history who can be called a mystic'. Exploring the relationship of art, nature and spirituality, Shining Night reveals Morten Lauridsen as a composer through the lens of his love for silence and solitude together with his passion for music and literature, with commentaries from other composers, conductors, singers and friends.
Deemed 'a heartening rarity' by the Wall Street Journal, Shining Night directed by Michael Stillwater is the premiere episode in the Song Without Borders documentary series, In Search of The Great Song. Winner of three Best Documentary awards, an Official Selection of 17 Film Festivals, Shining Night is hosted by choirs worldwide with screening events often including performances of Lauridsen's music.
World-famous choreographer and dancer Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui uses the body - movement - as the principal vehicle for is ideas. The result is there in performances, intimist or otherwise, in which the body is displayed to an audience. Here, in four different settings - Belgium, China, Corsica, India - we make the acquaintance of one of the most prolific and likeable figures on today's dance scene. In the course of interviews and excerpts from his performances Cherkaoui reveals his passion for the dance, spirituality, his childhood and his family
Solti's professional advancement starts at a time when Germany was on its knees. The film depicts this situation by including historical video documents. Only a couple of hours before his death on 5 September 1997, he made his last corrections for the book. By using a narrator who reads excerpts of his biography, Solti is virtually given a voice in this film. The interview partners add an important dimension to the film. All of them were very well acquainted with Solti and have fascinating stories to tell. In regards to capturing performances, Solti was as productive as Bernstein and Karajan. The archives of the ARD network list about 120 TV productions, interviews, rehearsals. Further rich sources are the archives of BR, HR, SWR, ORF, Unitel and the BBC.
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.
Filmmakers Marshall Blackwell and Norman Whiteburn make their feature directorial debut with this documentary on the stepping culture. A modernized version of what is know as the African gumboot dance, stepping was adopted by African-American fraternities and sororities, eventually evolving into an essential element of the black college experience. Stepping is a high energy montage of dance, jazz and military movements.
Today, stepping has become a movement amongst the youth all across the globe and has become more than just stomping the yard - it's an art form that is taking the world by storm. This documentary contains some of the most explosive step moves ever taped! Stepping The Documentary is an official selection of the 2008 Pan African American Film and Arts Festival.
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 – for the world premiere of 2X5 .
Sviatoslav Richter (1915-1997), one of the greatest pianists of all time, breaks his life-long silence and allows himself to be interviewed for this autobiographical film. We see his life on an epic scale as he evokes his wild childhood, his encounters with the great names in the musical world, his debuts and his activities as a concert artist in the Soviet Union, a country tortured by troubles, war and terror. By turns acerbic, captivating, lucid, always unexpected, he reveals himself here with disarming candour, full of humour. Previously unseen archive footage and a wealth of performance extracts complete this portrait of an artist who refused to conform, one of the giants of the 20th century.
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.
In this episode of the In Rehearsal and Performance series, Sir Roger Norrington shares his fresh and clear view of Mozart's Symphony No. 39 with the audience. His approach to the repertoire of the Classical period and his work on score, subtleties in sound, orchestration and even the seating and playing styles of the orchestra members can be followed in the present recording.
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 recording provides us with a portrait of a man whose conducting technique contrasts fascinatingly with that of the other conductors in our In Rehearsal and Performance series . Sir Georg Solti's rehearsal and performance of Wagner's Tannhauser Overture with the Stuttgart Sudfunk Symphony Orchestra is a fine illustration of this conductor's insistence on absolute precision, his energetic style and his close familiarity with the score.
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).
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...
Celebrating the 200th birthday of Fryderyk Chopin, this major co-production not only tells the story of the composer's brief life but brings together some of the world's greatest pianists playing excerpts from some of his best-known works. It includes appearances by Arthur Rubinstein, rare footage of Martha Argerich, Krystian Zimerman and Evgeny Kissin in their early days, as well as Garrick Ohlsson (winner of the 1970 Chopin International Competition) who also provides his own perceptive observations on Chopin's genius.
In the fifties, Pierre Henry provoked a scandal by inventing Musique concrete with Pierre Schaeffer. Music was no longer written with notes on a score for instrumentalists but was based on sounds and noises from our environment, collected, edited and transformed by machines. A radical innovator, he composed several "hits" that mark their time: Symphonie pour un homme seul, Messe pour le temps present and Dixieme Remix among others.
Today, young musicians from all over the world and, strangely enough, electronic buff DJs claim to be followers of his fabulous work in fashioning sound. In Pierre Henry: The Art of Sounds, we follow him as he brandishes his boom on which two microphones are mounted in search of a sound in the Coulee Verte, in Paris. As the journey unfolds we are brought fourty years back to Bordeaux where people are leaving the "concert couche" ("lying down concert") with reactions from the audience.
Taking its lead from French artists like Renoir and Monet, the American impressionist movement followed its own path which over a forty-year period reveals as much about America as a nation as it does about its art as a creative power-house. It's a story closely tied to a love of gardens and a desire to preserve nature in a rapidly urbanizing nation. Traveling to studios, gardens and iconic locations throughout the United States, UK and France, this mesmerizing film is a feast for the eyes.
In 1886, the French art dealer Paul Durand-Ruel brought a selection of his huge stock of impressionist paintings to New York, changing the course of art in America forever. American artists flocked to the French village of Giverny, home to the master impressionist Claude Monet, and cheered the French new wave: painting outdoors with a new found brilliance and vitality. As Europe recoiled against the work of Monet, Degas and Renoir, Americans embraced it and created their own style of impressionism.
The timing of Durand-Ruel's transformative visit was perfect. As America steamed into the Industrial Age, urban reformers fought to create public parks and gardens: patches of beauty amid smokestacks and ash heaps. These gardens provided unlimited inspiration for artists and a never-ending...
In granting us the rare privilege of entry, the Beijing Opera School offers access to the age-old art from of traditional Chinese opera. Based on a typical day for students and their teachers, the film lets us follow them through dawn-to-dusk activities that include acrobatics, classes in singing, music and dance, makeup sessions, schoolwork, rehearsals and performances. This is a total immersion in an establishment where discipline is, in many respects, that of a military academy.
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
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!"
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...
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.
Dunhuang Dance is a form of Chinese dance that draws sources from body movements depicted in artifacts found in Dunhuang Mogao Caves. Located in Gansu Province of China, along the Silk Route, at the crossroads of trade as well as religious, cultural and intellectual influences, the seven hundred and thirty five caves are famous for their statues and fresco paintings, spanning 1,000 year of Buddhist art. Thousand Hand Guan Yin, a representative of Dunhuang Dance featured in this program is a contemporary creation conceived by the renowned Chinese choreographer, ZHANG Jigang, and produced by the China Disabled Performing Art Troupe. In this dance, a group of hearing-impaired dancers effectively utilize their body language to communicate the magic of "thousand hands" and hints at the deep meaning of Buddhism, its luminescence and boundless love.
This program provides an overview of the historical development of Long Sleeve Dance , a dance form dating back to the 7th century B.C.E, a time that is known as the Spring-and-Autumn period in Chinese history. It introduces a handful of codified language of Long Sleeve Dance.
Highlighted are the Long Sleeve dance performances titled The Colors of Water choreographed by WANG Yukun and MIAO Xiaolong and Zhao Jun Departs the Frontier choreographed by JIANG Huaxuan. In Zhao Jun Departs the Frontier, LIU Min, a nationally acclaimed dance master, employs exquisite language of Long Sleeve to convey the conflicted emotions of ZHAO Jun (one of The Four Beauties known in Chinese History) as she Leaves her homeland and lavish lifestyle for the grasslands of the remote north as part of peace treaty. The dance tells an ancient story of loyalty, heroism and self-sacrifice for the common good.
Neighboring with the Dai group, Aini group lives primarily in and around mountains and canyons at an altitude of twenty-five to eighty hundred feet. They are famous for their production of Pu Er Tea. Dancing and singing are second nature to the Aini people. In this program, while listening to the folk song titled Magical Village by famous Aini singer MI Xian , the audience will enjoy Ainis cultural traditions of tea brewing and folk dancing by girls clapping to the rhythm and wearing spectacular ceremonial costumes.
In this program, the ethereal voice of Buren Bayaer (a legendary Inner Mongolian Singer), along with the images of yurts and running horses, brings the audience to an otherworldly setting of Inner Mongolia. Inner Mongolians, in general, are known to excel at horse riding. The span of the great plain has cultivated the openness and strength in this ethnic group and nurtured their vigorous, bold and energetic dances. Distinguished Inner Mongolian dancers, Dun E Er and Si Qin Hua, demonstrate traditional Mongolian Horse Dance, Chopstick Dance and Bowl Dance. It features Leaping Horses choreographed by MA Yue of China Central University for Nationalities, a contemporary stage dance presentation inspired by Mongolian horse dance tradition. An interview with MA Yue provides an insight into the conceptual and artistic choices made in the creation of this dance piece.
Located in the southwest region of China, Dai people enjoy mild weather and beautiful landscapes of mountains and lakes. While the water splashing and dragon boating events held in their annual spring festival showcase the close ties between their culture and the land, the water running in the rivers and lakes has often been the inspiration for their dance creations. The dance presentation titled Playing with Water allows the audience to experience vicariously the heat of the sunlight and the crystal clear water streaming though the river. This dance captures the unique body movements of Dai Dance that reflects the cordial and gentle nature of this ethnic group.
Han is the largest ethnic group in China, whose people inhabit the middle and eastern regions of the country. Hans folk dance tradition started on the streets in the 5th century as ritual events. Nowadays, this tradition named Yangko flourishes everywhere, on the streets, in classrooms and on stages.
This program showcases a myriad of Yangko forms, both on and off stage, including Northeastern Yanko, Shandong Yanko and Shanbei Yanko, each has its distinctive features. The stage presentations of the Northeastern Yanko titled Happy Snow choreographed by WANG Xiaoyan and performed by MING Li of Shanghai Theatre Academy and the Shandong Yanko named Blossoms of Mountain Flowers choreographed by CHI Hong and MIAO Xiaolong and performed/produced by the Dance Department of Shanghai Normal University are stunning examples of this dance form.
Living on the Plateau, at an average elevation of over 12 thousand feet above sea level, the Tibetan people are known to be compassionate, bold, candid and devout. Most Tibetans practice Tibetan Buddhism. Just as the distinctive geographical and weather conditions in the region have influenced their dance movements, Tibetans sacred religious beliefs and political climate have also had an impact.
This program combines both Tibetan folk dance and stage dance performances of The Song of the Emancipated Serfs choreographed by XU Xiaoping of China Central University for Nationalities and Tibetan Mystery choreographed by YANG Liping (also lead dancer). In addition, Madam Yang provides insight into her artistic and casting choices for Tibetan Mystery.
This film is both a memoir of the Berliner Philharmoniker director Claudio Abbado's early years, and a personal introduction to the orchestra. It culminates in a deeply felt introduction to the sections of the orchestra with Abbado leading the Youth Orchestra of a United Europe.
The Intimacy of Creativity – The Bright Sheng Partnership: Composers Meet Performers in Hong Kong is a pioneering, internationally-acclaimed partnership devoted to promoting an intimate dialogue between composers and performers.
Distinguished composers, together with selected emerging composers from Hong Kong and around the world, present and revise their chamber music compositions after in-depth discussions with world-renowned performers during open discussions. The revised compositions are presented at two world premiere concerts in downtown Hong Kong, preceded by preview concerts on the campus of The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, which hosts the partnership.
For the 2011 inaugural season, artistic director and internationally-acclaimed composer, conductor, and pianist Bright Sheng was joined by distinguished guests Richard Stoltzman, Yehudi Wyner, and the Daedalus Quartet; Hong Kong guest artists Mary Wu, Stephen Chong, and Olivier Nowak; and emerging composers Pedro Faria Gomes, Ted Goldman, Moon Young Ha, Narong Prangcharoen, Matthew Tommasini, and Ming-Hsiu Yen.
The Italian Character is the story of one of the most renowned orchestras in the world, enriched by archive material of the last thirty years about the great conductors who have been performing on the most famous stages in Rome. Its present Music Director, Sir Antonio Pappano, an Anglo-American with Beneventian roots, rediscovered an essential part of his Italian origins through conducting the Orchestra dell'Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia. With the personal histories of its members and conductor, The Italian Character allows its audience to gain an insight into a fascinating world that is usually concealed. Simultaneously, it tells the story of a national institution, of a historically unique development, of an approach to life that is characteristic of a country which is loved by many, but sometimes misunderstood and even underrated in its unknown variety. The documentary showcases some of the best soloists and conductors in the world presenting materials collected during their collaboration with the Orchestra di Santa Cecilia such as Yuri Temirkanov, James Conlon, Valery Gergiev, Daniel Harding, Janine Jansen, Lisa Batiashvili, Evgeny Kissin, Denis Matsuev, Stefano Bollani, Lang Lang.
The six Englishmen known as The King's Singers enjoy a reputation as one of the world's most sought-after a cappella vocal ensembles. This pre-eminent group has never diminished in virtuosity throughout its thirty-plus year history of sharing one of the widest repertoires imaginable with enthusiastic audiences around the globe. This programme features The King's Singers performing some of their favourite works' a mixture of songs old and new - from Byrd to The Beatles .
Madrigals by Byrd, Weelkes, Lassus, Passereau, Gesualdo and Monteverdi are all included in the excellently varied programme, as well as a traditional spiritual, the ensemble's interpretation of a Duke Ellington composition and the overture to Rossini's Barber of Seville . There are two Beatles' numbers and arrangements of Billy Joel's Lullabye (Goodnight My Angel) and Freddie Mercury's Seaside Rendezvous . The King's Singer's give a superb performance of Paul Drayton's Masterpiece, a musical satire on four hundred years of Western music in nine minutes, with sections ranging from a hgue on the name Johann Sebastian Bach' to an impressionistic rendering of 'Debussy' in fanatically over-pronounced French.
�� will be the 5OOth Anniversary of the birth of Thomas Tallis , the most...
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...
"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...
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...
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...
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...
Once upon a time there was a king who took great delight in the melody of a little bird outside his window. Then, as winter came, the bird disappeared and the king grew melancholy. Three brave men set out to find one that could sing "the most beautiful song." Did they succeed? What begins as an enchanting fairy tale turns into exciting reality in this documentary on the first edition of baritone Thomas Quasthoff's new international song competition for young singers, Das Lied. With the fairy tale gently articulating the course of the competition, the film sweeps the viewer away on a thrilling "search for singers." Thomas Quasthoff founded this contest to ensure that the Lied, which the baritone calls "the most beautiful form of music making," continues to hold its place in the concert repertoire of the future.
The film accompanies some of the young singers during the competition's three rounds, providing a showcase not only for beautiful voices and poignant Lieder, but also, and above all, for emotions. The hopes and disappointments, the joys and doubts, the tension and exhilaration of the young singers are all captured on film. And it soon emerges that the contest is as stimulating and galvanizing for the jurors as it is for the contestants! Excerpts from the closing gala...
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 conductor Rudolf Barshai was one of the greatest musicians of the twentieth century. The Moscow Chamber Orchestra founded by Barshai in the late 1950s took the world by storm. Among the orchestra's collaborators were Sviatoslav Richter, David Oistrakh, Emil Gilels, Yehudi Menuhin. In 1977, at the peak of his career, Barshai emigrated to the West to perform works banned in the USSR. He led orchestras in Israel, Britain, Canada, France, Switzerland, and Japan. A master of orchestration, whom Shostakovich – his mentor and friend – trusted to arrange his quartets into chamber symphonies. Barshai considered his greatest achievements in life the ending to Bach's Art of Fugue and a version of Mahler's Tenth Symphony. The film, shot in Switzerland in 2010, is the maestro's confessional monologue, recorded a month before his death.
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.
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
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...
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
Featuring Sir Derek Jacobi , Tony Award Winner and Veteran of the London Stage. Who was the man who wrote these plays and poems? Was the author a grain-dealer named William Shakespeare born in Stratford-upon-Avon or Edward de Vere, the 17th Earl of Oxford? Why there was a 400 year-old conspiracy to hide the true author? This program provides a stimulating and controversial point of view that is bound to provoke classroom discussion and independent study of the Authorship issue.
Drawing on original 16th century documents and the Oxford Bible, this film makes a full investigation into the lives of both Edward de Vere and William Shakespeare of Stratford-upon-Avon. Revealing the former as someone already in his own lifetime revered as the best for comedies and the latter as a man who led a double life: prosperous merchant at home, well-paid frontman to the Elizabethan eras greatest poet in London. This documentary also examines modern attitudes of scholars with a vested interest in the Stratfordian myth and their suppression of relevant facts to this very day. Sir Derek Jacobi is a protege of the legendary Lawrence Olivier and was a good friend of Sir John Gielgud. He has starred in Shakespeare roles in London and on Broadway and is a Broadway Tony winner for his performance...
From the unaccompanied ballads, to lively fiddle tunes, to radio cowboy bands, to square dancing at Moose Hall, The Unbroken Circle traces the path of traditional music in Vermont. Historic photos accompany the words and music of over a dozen Vermont musicians.
The portrait film, Vladimir Ashkenazy: The Vital Juices Are Russian , includes sequences with Itzhak Perlman, Daniel Barenboim, Edo de Waart and the Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra. It features music by Beethoven, Chopin, César Franck and Stravinsky.
Vladimir Ashkenazy has had a particular affection for the music of Rachmaninoff throughout his professional life, and his performances have long had the ring both of authenticity and of deep commitment. This is not surprising in a Russian-born and Russian-trained musician of Ashkenazy's stature, but it is worth remembering that for many years after his emigration from the Soviet Union his interest in Russian music was somewhat eclipsed by his concern to master the music of the Western European traditions.
Presented by one of the world's leading pianists, this series of short films journeys through the history of piano music from Johann Sebastian Bach to Frederic Chopin . Directed by award-winning film maker Phil Grabsky.
For the first time we have received the unique and wonderful opportunity to give a close-up and detailed account on the insides of this institution. For one whole season, we were permitted to be a part of every decision-making process and performance so that you might have the chance to dive into the working world of this world-renowned orchestra.
What does it take and what are the motivations to become a member of the Vienna Philharmonic? What are the emotions one might feel upon looking back at over forty years of music? What is the Philharmonic’s secret to success? Interviews with the musicians, conductors, and people in the background give us answers to these questions and many more. How does a tour organization work? What are the necessary preparations, and how does one make sure that everything has been taken care of?
Experience the full range, from the rehearsals all the way to the international concerts. From Tokyo to New York, and from the Salzburg pageants to the Wiener Staatsoper, you will receive complete accounts from behind the scenes in unseen detail. This documentary provides insider information on the exciting, emotional, and unique world of the Wiener Philharmoniker.
This film is a docufiction on the great Toscanini directed by well-known filmmaker Larry Weinstein, who pushes the boundaries of conventional documentary storytelling by borrowing tools from fiction films, including dramatic reconstructions and historical cinematic stylings. Arturo Toscanini (1867-1957), arguably the greatest and most famous conductor in history, was paradoxically one of the most private. He never granted interviews, and he didn't leave diaries or journals of any kind. But during the last years of his life, his son Walter secretly recorded 150 hours of intimate conversations that Toscanini shared with friends and family who visited his home. TOSCANINI: In His Own Words, is based on these tapes which remained vaulted for more than 50 years. Recreated conversations reveal aspects of the Maestro never seen before. His loves, his opinions about colleagues, his clashes with Mussolini and Hitler, his personal memories of Verdi, Puccini, Furtwangler, and Stokowski, his greatest joys, and the causes of his endemic sadness are all part of his frank conversation. Interwoven throughout the film are many of Toscanini's greatest musical performances.
A documentary revealing the powers of music to provide hope to people in difficult circumstances, redemption and hope are its theme. The film depicts the life journey of the blind pianist Noboyuki Tsujii and his extraordinary ability to communicate and connect with audiences all over the world.
Milan's La Scala theatre as told by the protagonists of its golden years.
Enzo Biagi was one of the Italy's most famous and beloved journalists. His fondness of the prestigious Milanese venue led to the programmes presented now but was made in 1981 to 1982. Documenting the La Scala productions of those years, Biagi entered the theatre during the rehearsals and interviewed not only the conductors, singers and directors of the time, but also some of the great stars of the past.
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....
...
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.
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.
A colleague of Mendelssohn, the Schumann's and Brahms, the virtuoso violinist Joseph Joachim was himself a composer of note. It is a tour de force by a highly gifted twenty year old. The Opus 11 Violin Concerto is a Classical three movements frequently coloured by Hungarian inflections, most strikingly in the 'gypsy finale' which calls for astonishing technical control, immense stamina and fiery abandon from the soloist. Suyoen Kim is the Winner of the 2006 Hannover International Violin Competition.
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.
Virtuosity searches for the musical souls of the most gifted young pianists on the planet as they try to make a name for themselves of the 2013 Van Cliburn International Piano Competition. The pressure on these kids is overwhelming because the stakes are so high: prize money, concert bookings, a recording contract, a career.
At the heart of this story is the courage is takes for 20-year-old to go onstage alone before 2,000 people, and hundreds of thousands more online, and play a unique interpretation of one of the most difficult pieces ever written for the piano. The Competition requires not only a transcendent musical ability, but a mental toughness that must sustain the soloist through three straight weeks of performance. The Cliburn becomes as much a test of character as a musical proving ground.
In 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.
Max Lorenz was at the height of his career as a heldentenor in 1941. As a homosexual with a Jewish wife in Nazi Germany, he would have faced deportation. However, as Hitler's favourite tenor and a symbol of his times, he was protected by Hitler and Göring. This gripping, well-researched documentary was nominated for the FIPA festival, and it boasts original footage of Max Lorenz, Haus Wahnfried and Hitler's visits to Bayreuth (including the first coloured picture of the Fuhrer). Includes interviews with great artists such as Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau and René Kollo.
Presented by one of the world's leading pianists, this series of short films journeys through the history of piano music from Johann Sebastian Bach to Frederic Chopin . Directed by award-winning film maker Phil Grabsky.
The title is taken from a poem by a 12-year-old girl, Eva Pickova, written in the Theresienstadt concentration camp. Her words provide both the title and the climaxâEUR"in a setting for two choruses and orchestra by the American composer Franz Waxman, in his touching work The Song of Terezin.
It is a film is about many things. It is about freedom and captivity, about emancipation, acculturation and assimilation; it is about the roles played by Moses and Felix Mendelssohn in the dream of fruitful, unproblematic integration of the Jews into German society after their liberation from the ghettos; it is about Richard Wagner, his ferociously anti-Semitic essay Das Judenthum in der Musik (The Jews in Music) and his influence on the thinking of the Third Reich but, most of all, it is a film about how much music can mean to people, even in the direst of circumstances, or particularly in the direst circumstances.
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.
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
Who was Jacqueline du Pré? focuses on her personality as seen through the people who knew her best. It sets the record straight, corrects some of the more distorted myths and keeps this vibrant personality alive in the world in the way only film can do.
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....
In 2008 Mark Andre was assigned by the Staatsoper Stuttgart to write an opera, to be directed by Jossie Wieler and Sergio Morabito.
The subject was to be a tale that had fascinated the composer since he was a little child: the disappearance of Jesus of Nazareth. The main character of the opera, written by Mark Andre over the course of 7 years, is Johannes Reuchlin , a 15th-century Christian scholar of the Jewish Kabbala.
The film follows Mark Andrew during his journey to Israel in 2011, during the sound research in the Experimentalstudio of the SWR in Freiburg in 2013 and during the final rehearsal in the Staatsoper Stuttgart in Spring 2014
Zubin Mehta is undoubtedly one of the great conductors of our time, equally at home in opera houses and on the concert platform. This program records a relaxed interview he gave at his home in Los Angeles, looking back over his career and reflecting on what makes his "mystical profession" such a unique phenomenon.
Mehta's great love of music and his charismatic personality inform this vibrant, music-filled program, which shows him in rehearsal and in performance.
111 cyclist reach famed opera house Teatro Colon to welcome Mauricio Kagel , one of the great composers of the 20th Century, who was born in Argentina, but left the country and settled in Germany in 1957. However, his adventurous music remained an inspiration to a number of forward-thinking Argentinean musicians, and in 2006 he returned to Buenos Aires for a Kagel festival where he was to direct a major concert by Buenos Aires Philharmonic, but also worked with a group of young and eager musicians advocated to his repertoire, the Ensamble Suden . Filmmaker Gaston Solnicki was on hand to capture Kagel's visit on film, and the documentary suden chronicles the composer's efforts in working directlt with the musicians as well reflecting the situation of modern music in Argentina as such. The documentation surprises for its capacity to captivate even those who are not interested in contemporary music.
