Boogie woogie became a craze in 1940s America, having started as a piano form in the logging camps of Texas and Louisiana in the twenties. With a vintage parade of classic clips featuring the great exponents of boogie woogie – including Meade Lux Lewis, Albert Ammons and Pete Johnson – this programme gives a history of the distinctive style which energised popular music. As a climax, two of today’s leading Boogie artists, Big Joe Duskin and Axel Zwingenberger, stage a special jam session.
Itzhak Perlman
One of the world’s greatest violinists, Itzhak Perlman is also known for his wit and good humour. This film was shot on location in New York, where Perlman talks about his career and how he copes with the effects of the childhood polio which left him crippled. He talks in depth about the art of playing the violin and demonstrates his skill, tackling pieces by Paganini and Bach.
Vladimir Ashkenazy
Vladimir Ashkenazy is one of the world’s most accomplished and charismatic musicians, renowned as both a pianist and a conductor. He left Russia in 1963 to escape the restrictions imposed on individual expression pre-perestroika, and, in this film he talks revealingly about his life, work and motivations. Specially-recorded musical illustrations include passages of Chopin, Beethoven, Rachmaninov and Brahms.
Karl Amadeus Hartmann
This profile of the German composer Karl Amadeus Hartmann (1905-63) combines documentary and Performance footage. It looks at his championship of new music with the Musica Viva concerts he organised in Munich after 1945, and includes extensive excerpts from his opera Des Simplicius Simplicissimus Jugend, as well as his Symphonies No. 6 and No. 8.
The Beauty Queens
One of the most profound and far-reaching social changes of the twentieth century was the enfranchisement and liberation of women. This, in turn, removed the Stigma that only fallen women adorned themselves with cosmetics. Beauty became a multinational billion-dollar business. The Beauty Queens looks at this huge industry and its power for social change, focusing on the lives and achievements of three exceptional women who helped shape its development: Helena Rubinstein, Elizabeth Arden and Estee Lauder.
Elisabeth Schwarzkopf
One of the greatest sopranos of the post-war decades, Schwarzkopf won acclaim on the operatic stage and as a lieder singer. Her career was moulded by Walter Legge, an innovative British recording executive who became her husband. He guided her towards her best repertoire – Mozart and Richard Strauss. In this film, which includes rare archive footage of Schwarzkopf in performance, she talks about her life and work and is seen conducting a masterclass on Hugo Wolf songs.
Vienna 1900
At the turn of the nineteenth century Vienna appeared to be one of Europe’s most affluent and cultured capitals but, behind its elegant façade, a young generation of artists, musicians, writers and thinkers was struggling to escape the strait-jacket of the old Austrian Empire and its frivolous trappings. This film looks at the traumatic re-birth of Vienna and at the pioneers of a new age – Klimt, Schiele, Loos, Zweig, Kraus, Schoenberg, Hofmannsthal and Freud, among them.
Domenico Scarlatti
The Italian composer and harpsichordist wrote over five hundred compositions for his pupil and patron Maria Barbara of Braganza, daughter of King John V of Portugal, who became Queen of Spain. The celebrated keyboard player George Malcolm talks in interview about this self-effacing man and demonstrates the power and originality of his work at the harpsichord. He also gives a performance of Scarlatti’s Salve Regina with the English Chamber Orchestra, conducted by Jennifer Smith.
Siobhan Davies
Siobhan Davies is one of Britain’s most notable contemporary choreographers. This film follows her through the process of creating a piece for the highly individual dancers of the Second Stride company. The result is Silent Partners, an intensely dramatic and passionate work, which is seen both in rehearsal and in performance.
Karole Armitage
Acclaimed as one of the most exciting and accomplished dancers and choreographers of her generation, Karole Armitage presents this programme surveying her career. It features lengthy excerpts from her works plus location footage from Rhode Island, where she is seen rehearsing her ballet Romance for an American television recording. The programme also includes rare black and white archive material showing Balanchine and Merce Cunningham in rehearsal.