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.
Shirley Verrett
The cameras followed Shirley Verrett during the course of a year to capture a glimpse into the life of one of opera’s great stars. She is seen rehearsing with Domingo, performing at top opera houses in roles she has made her own – Iphigénie, Tosca, Dalila, Carmen – and talking on subjects ranging from her religious upbringing and experiences of being black, to her health, diet, style and family. She performs blues and gospel numbers specially for the programme.
Johann Sebastian Bach: The Cantor of St.Thomas’s
“Too operatic and too long!” – one opinion of Bach’s music, on his appointment to his last, longest and most famous post as Cantor of Leipzig’s Thomasschule. Brian Cox portrays Bach (1685-1750) in a film based on the records of his employers, the City Council – the story of his fight to defend position, status and, above all else, his music. Performances, in authentic style, are directed by Sir Roger Norrington.
The music content of the film includes excerpts from: The Art of Fugue, the St. Matthew Passion, Fugue in C Minor for Organ, Cantatas No. 131, 71 and 123, Passacaglia in C Minor for Organ, Sonata for Violin and Harpsichord in E Minor, Brandenburg Concerto No. 4, Invention for Harpsichord No. 5 in E Flat, Sonata No. 1, the St. John Passion, The Wedding Cantata, Mass in B Minor and The Musical Offering.
Olivier Messiaen
French composer Olivier Messiaen (1908-1992) is a key figure in the evolution of twentieth-century classical music. In this definitive profile, made when he was nearly eighty, Messiaen talks about his life, his music and the mainsprings of his work – a deep love of nature and a fervent Christian faith. He is seen improvising on the organ at the St. Trinité church in Paris, and the programme includes specially-recorded extracts from several of his major works.
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.
Repercussions
“Compulsory viewing for anyone remotely interested in black music” (The Guardian), this series shows off the dazzling diversity of African-American music. To explore its constantly evolving cross-fusion of styles, the film-makers travelled to Gambia to search out the traditional music of the Mandinkas; to the USA to capture the sounds of rhythm and blues, gospel quartets, and the masters of bebop; to the Caribbean to survey the colourful variety of forms blending African and European influences; and, finally, to West Africa, to record the ecstatic polyrhythms of today’s African popular music.
Franz Liszt
The Hungarian piano virtuoso Liszt (1811-86) led an illustrious life between Paris, his base as a performer, Weimar, where he was court musical director, composer and champion of new music, and Rome, where he took minor holy orders, entitling him to be called Abbé. Focusing on the end of his life and his last compositions, in particular La Lugubre Gondola, this film shows that he was not just one of the last great Romantics, but that his final compositions range harmonically far into the future.
Masterclass: Jorge Bolet
The legendary Cuban pianist, one of the last representatives of the grand tradition of Romantic piano playing, died in 1990. This masterclass series, made just a few years before his death, starts with a programme in which he talks about his life and work on the concert platforms of the world, illustrating his reminiscences at the keyboard. In three following programmes, Bolet works with up-and-coming young pianists on the movements of Rachmaninov’s formidable Piano Concerto No. 3 in D minor Op. 30. The series concludes with Bolet giving a concert performance of the piece with the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Bryden Thomson.
The King’s Singers’ Madrigal History Tour
In this series, the highly-acclaimed King’s Singers vocal ensemble travels through
Germany, Spain, France, England and Italy to perform a varied selection of madrigals in the
settings which first inspired their composition in the Golden Age of the sixteenth century. An
introductory programme looks at the origins of the madrigal in Italy and traces its development
throughout Europe to become the musical rage of the High Renaissance.
Ernest Ansermet
This portrait of the great Swiss conductor, Ernest Ansermet (1883-1969), draws on a wealth of archive material and the reminiscences of his colleagues and family. As founder and life-long director of the Orchestre de la Suisse Romande, he was instrumental in making the French and Russian repertoire of the twentieth century known to music lovers around the some of Ansermet’s favourite music, played by the orchestra, under Armin Jordan, including pieces by Stravinsky, Debussy and Chabrier. Archive film of Ansermet at work includes footage of him rehearsing and conducting Haydn’s Symphony No. 88 in G, de Falla’s Harpsichord Concerto, Ravel’s La Valse, Rimsky-Korsakov’s Sheherazade and Schumann’s Manfred Overture.