Involving three orchestras playing different but related music simultaneously, Stockhausen’s masterpiece is the ultimate in large-scale musical complexity. State-of-the-art sound technology captures Gruppen’s textural richness in this recording of a rare performance of the work. Lighting and colour are used to striking effect. Sir Simon Rattle, John Carewe and Daniel Harding conduct the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra and contribute to an illuminating introduction, which includes film of their preparations and rehearsals.
Leaving Home – Orchestral Music in the Twentieth Century
Written and presented by Sir Simon Rattle, the foremost British conductor of our day, this series forms a fascinating introduction to, and overview of, the music of the twentieth century. Each of the seven programmes feature over thirty minutes of specially-shot music in performance, with Rattle conducting the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra.
Simon Rattle leads viewers on an exhilarating journey through the music of our time, explaining the chief musical developments from Mahler to the present day. Each programme is illustrated with evocative imagery, archive film and photographs and the featured music is set within the broader context of artistic and social change.
Why “Leaving Home”? The story of twentieth-century music is one of leave-takings in many ways. As a wealth of talented composers searched for new creative responses to the world around them, many made departures from the solid ‘home’ foundations of eighteenth- and nineteenth-century music – tonal harmony, melody, regular rhythm and metre. Many had to literally leave home, displaced by political uphevals. A remarkable diversity of expression developed – not all of the difficult or discordant variety commonly associated with modern music. The range is wide and this series samples the work of over thirty composers, discovering new and challenging sounds as well as some unexpectedly familiar music. It presents an extraordinary kaleidoscope of orchestral images, full of contrasts and surprises.
The first episode in the series describes a great musical culture in decline in turn-of-the-nineteenth-century Vienna. From that decline erupted a musical revolution whose reverberations have continued to this day. The names of Schönberg, Webern and Berg still strike terror into the hearts of many concert-goers, but with Simon Rattle we hear in this music’s brooding power not only the collapse of the old Austro-German order and the rise of Facism, but also the portents of the music to come in the second half of the twentieth century.
The Tower of Dreams – The Music of Charles Koechlin
The music of Charles Koechlin (1867-1950) is as various and surprising as the passions which fired him: travel, medieval music, Bach, Socialism, film stars, stereoscopic photography and Rudyard Kipling, to name but a few. This film, a mixture of fact and fantasy, shows the figure of the composer wandering through an imaginary house in which each room reveals a new facet of his many loves.
Sergei Rachmaninov
Fleeing Russia in 1917, Rachmaninov (1873-1943) was forced to set aside composing in order to support his family as a pianist. This film looks at his life in exile and at how this separation from his homeland affected his music. Filming centres on Senar, the villa by Lake Lucerne which Rachmaninov built as a conscious recreation of Ivanovka, his wife’s beloved estate in Russia. His grandson still lives there and, with his co-operation and that of Sofia Satin, his niece, the family archives have been used to piece together a picture of the composer’s life in both Russia and Europe.
Kazimir Malevich
One of the post-Revolution Russian Avant-garde, Malevich (1878-1935) had the misfortune to die in official disfavour. With perestroika, his work resurfaced from storage and the first major retrospective of his work since his death was held at the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam. With film of this exhibition, Barrie Gavin fills the screen with his paintings and uses Malevich’s own vivid writings to tell his story and analyse his art.
An Evening with Francis Poulenc
An enchanting blend of music and documentary, this programme looks at the life, times and work of the French composer Poulenc (1899-1963). The framework for the programme is a reconstruction of a soirée typical of those frequented by fashionable society in the early years of the twentieth century. Poulenc’s work is performed by Paul Crossley (piano), Susan Milan (flute), Thomas Mohr (baritone), Ulrike Sonntag (soprano) and the Aulos Wind Quintet, with Anthony Spiri (piano).
Julian Bream Plays Rodrigo’s Concierto de Aranjuez
This live recording, from St. John’s Smith Square in London, features the celebrated classical guitarist Julian Bream playing Rodrigo’s haunting Concierto de Aranjuez, with the Chamber Orchestra of Europe, conducted by Charles Groves. This piece is a lasting tribute to Spain and to the instrument that has personified and illuminated so beautifully her musical culture.
In Rehearsal: Christoph von Dohnanyi
Featuring some of today’s leading conductors in rehearsal, this series gives a unique
insight into the process of creating great music. The conductors’ very different styles and
methods; the dialogue between an orchestra and an inspired interpreter; the intensity of the
preparations for a concert performance; and the struggle towards perfection are captured in these
revealing audio-visual records. Most episodes include a full run-through of the work rehearsed.
All include interviews with the conductor who is seen at work. Pierre Boulez rehearses the Vienna
Philharmonic Orchestra for a performance of Alban Berg’s Three Pieces for Orchestra Op. 6 and his
own composition Notations I-IV . Directed by Felix Breisach 57’ R7117 Christoph von Dohnányi
rehearses Haydn’s Symphony No. 88 in G with the Philharmonia. Directed by Barrie Gavin 59’ R7116
Sir John Eliot Gardiner works with the Monteverdi Choir and the English Baroque Soloists on J. S.
Bach’s Cantata No. 63. The soloists are Ann Monoyios (soprano), Sara Mingardo (alto), Rufus
Müller (tenor), and Stephan Loges (bass). Directed by Manfred Waffender 59’ R0759 Valéry Gergiev
works with the Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra on Prokofiev’s Scythian Suite Op. 20. Directed by
Rob van den Berg 59′ R7113 Mariss Jansons prepares Bartók’s Miraculous Mandarin Suite with the
Oslo Philharmonic Orchestra. Directed by Morten Thomte 55′ R0756 Zubin Mehta rehearses the Israel
Philharmonic Orchestra for a performance of Richard Strauss’s Till Eulenspiegels lustige Streiche
Op. 28. Directed by Peter Berggren 55′ R7112 Esa-Pekka Salonen rehearses and performs Debussy’s
impressionistic orchestral piece, La Mer, with the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra. Directed
by Peter Berggren 56′ R7115
¡Guitarra!
Celebrated classical guitarist Julian Bream features in this series, playing some of the finest pieces in the repertoire of the Spanish guitar, including compositions by Albéniz, Granados, de Falia, Tárrega and Rodrigo. Filmed on location in Spain, the programmes trace the evolution ot the instrument from 1500 to the present day. Against a backdrop of magnificent buildings and beautiful landscapes, ist music and history form a rich evocation of the country and her people.
Julio Gonzalez
A friend and collaborator of Picasso, admired in the art world of Paris in the 1920s, the Catalan sculptor González (1866-1942) remained detached from the luminaries around him. Adapting the metal-working techniques learned in his youth and welding skills acquired as an employee of Renault, he created a style of abstract metal sculpture seminal to the development of modern art. This film seeks out witnesses to his life and work in Paris, Barcelona and on the Riviera.