The best-selling Glory of Gershwin album, master-minded by the great harmonica player Larry Adler and produced by the legendary George Martin, brought together a host of stars to perform Gershwin songs of their choice, among them Elton John, Robert Palmer, Oleta Adams, Lisa Stansfield and Sinead O’Connor. This programme sits in on the recording sessions and canvasses the artists’ thoughts on why Gershwin’s music has such unique and lasting appeal.
Heinrich Schiff
Heinrich Schiff is one of today’s top ranking cellists. In an interview recorded at his home in Austria, he talks about his musicianship, his celebrated career as a performer, to his move towards conducting in becoming the director of England’s Northern Sinfonia, with whom he is seen rehearsing Beethoven and Bartók. Performance extracts include Schiff playing Bach sonatas and Shostakovich’s Cello Concerto No. 2 in G Op. 126.
Anne-Sophie Mutter
This portrait of the protégé of the late Herbert von Karajan – who, when she was only thirteen years old, proclaimed her “the greatest youthful musical talent since the young Menuhin” – shows her in performance, and talking in interview at her home in Kitzbühel about her life and her ideas on music. She is seen in concert at London’s Barbican Centre playing Tchaikovsky’s Violin Concerto in D Op. 35, as well as sonatas by Ravel, Franck, Tartini, Sarasate and Beethoven.
Soitting Image
The Spitting Image puppets feature in this exploration of the way in which caricature affects public figures and people’s perception of them. Talking from their own experience, luminaries drawn from the political arena, the media and the world of sport comment on the positive and negative aspects of the puppets. The originators of Spitting Image, Roger Law and Peter Fluck, producer John Lloyd, and writers Ian Hislop and Nick Newman, talk about their brain-child.
Hockey at the Tate
Since he burst on to the art scene in the mid-1960s, Hockney has become one of the most successful modern British painters and also a populär personality, known for his passionate and skilled advocacy of art. When London’s Tate Gallery staged a major retrospective of his work, Melvyn Bragg joined David Hockney for an exclusive private view of the exhibition and they were filmed discussing pictures from all stages of the artist’s remarkable career.
Colin Mccabe on British Television Today
Colin McCabe looks at the quality and impact of British television in the 1960s and considers ways in which the best traditions and standards of the medium can be preserved. His specially-prepared lecture is amply illustrated with memorable clips.
Toni Morrison
Toni Morrison, winner of the 1993 Nobel Prize for Literature, has established herself as a leading chronicler of the black experience in America and as one of the country’s finest novelists. She talks in interview about her highly-acclaimed novel, Beloved. Based on a true story, it tells how a mother murders her baby rather than have it taken into slavery. Morrison talks about the problems of dealing with such painful material.
Sir Georg Solti
At the age of seventy-five, fifty years after he was forced to leave Hungary because of its anti-semitic regime, maestro Solti (1912-97) went back to conduct his country’s State Symphony Orchestra for the very first time. This film records his emotional return to his homeland. It centres on a searching interview about his early life, accompanies him to landmarks of his youth, such as the Franz Liszt Music Academy where he studied, and shows rehearsals for the triumphant concert he gave.
Barbara Dickson
After many years as a folk singer, Barbara Dickson went on to become one of Britain’s most popular recording and concert artistes. This film shows off the diversity of her vocal talent and she is seen tackling a classical aria for the first time – Gluck’s Che faro senza Euridice from Orfeo ed Euridice.
The Andrew Lloyd Webber Story
Lloyd Webber has achieved unprecedented success in the world of musical entertainment. He talks about his life and his music in an in-depth interview, illustrated with excerpts from his hit shows, including Evita, Cats, and Jesus Christ Superstar, many specially staged for this programme. Elaine Paige, Sarah Brightman and Marti Webb perform Lloyd Webber favourites, and the original production of The Phantom of the Opera is seen in preparation, rehearsal and performance.