Classic Widows features four extraordinary women who are championing the music of their late composer-husbands: Susana Walton, globetrotting widow of William Walton; Bertha Stevens, whose husband, a contemporary of Walton’s, died in relative obscurity; Xenia Frankel, who was left £50,000 in debt on the death of her husband Benjamin; and Humphrey Searle’s widow. The programme features specially chosen selections from all the composers’ works, performed by the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Richard Hickox.
The Secret Life of Sir Arnold Bax
The English composer Sir Arnold Bax (1883-1953) wrote intensely picturesque and romantic music. Ken Russell’s film takes up Bax’s story in the late 1940s, when the composer had just written the score for Lean’s film of Oliver Twist. It dramatises an imaginary affair with a cinema usherette-cum-fan-dancer – a composite of the many flirtations Bax indulged in – and concerns the artist’s struggle to maintain his ideals, loyalty and vision. Russell himself plays Bax and his portrait of a sad old man whose music has fallen out of favour is true and moving. The cast also includes Glenda Jackson.
The Strange Affliction of Anton Bruckner
Master of the music biopic, Ken Russell explores the psyche of Anton Bruckner (1824-96) and the extraordinary music he wrote, by focusing on his recovery from numeromania, an obsession with numbers. The onset of this mental illness began when the Austrian composer, on the brink of committing suicide by throwing himself off a bridge, instead began to count what he saw in the panorama below him. Subsequently, he entered a lunatic asylum and was cured in three months.
The Mystery of Dr Martinu
This Ken Russell’s biopic about Bohuslav Martinu (1890-1959) takes the form of a psychological detective story. Using a kaleidoscope of images and references, Russell searches out the Czech composer’s influences and obsessions, and traces his quest for a true voice. He conjures up Martinu’s inner-life and dreams and dramatises episodes with his wife and colleagues in Czechoslovakia, Paris and the USA. Patrick Ryecart features as Martinu and Hannah King as Slava.
Russell on Russell
Ken Russell’s tongue-in-cheek biopic – entitled Portrait of an Enfant Terrible – is his critique of his own career. The controversial film-maker traces his own life, covering his beginnings as an infant prodigy, his finest hours in the Battle of Britain and his life in entertainment. Lavishly illustrated with clips, the programme displays all the idiosyncracies viewers have come to expect from Russell: irreverence, theatricality and an ever-surprising visual inventiveness.
Ken Russel’s ABC of British Music
Asked to make a programme about British music, one of his greatest passions, Russell came up with this video A to Z. His shamelessly personal selection of music – the best and the worst – ranges from Britten to The Beatles and from Purcell to Punk. The items come in a variety of forms, including specially-recorded performances, archive film, pop videos and television clips, and link man Russell also comes in many guises – butler, nun, undertaker and Hell’s Angel, among others!
Ralph Vaughan Williams – A Symphonic Portrait
Ralph Vaughan Williams (1872-1958) was a quintessentially English, strongly individual and very personal composer. Ken Russell’s delightful and original tribute to this great man of twentieth-century music uses extracts from his nine symphonies to sketch the story of his life. Vivid memories of Vaughan Williams are recounted by his widow, Ursula, and others who knew him.
Ken Russell’s View of The Planets, Op.32
The Planets by Gustav Holst is one of the best-loved pieces of twentieth-century music. Ken Russell has taken a brilliant recording of this work, with Eugene Ormandy conducting the Philadelphia Orchestra, and illustrated the music with passages from a mass of documentary material. In true Russell style, his view of The Planets is provocative, entertaining and wonderfully watchable.