A spirited woman who loves her freedom: Carmen, the protagonist of Georges Bizet’s much loved opera of the same name, brings a whirlwind of emotions to the world’s biggest sea stage at the Bregenz Festival. The documentary I am Carmen looks behind the scenes of Kasper Holten’s spectacular production and shows British stage designer Es Devlin, responsible for the grandiose Carmen set with an impressive height of 21 metres, and costume designer Anja Vangh Kragh at work. Mezzo-soprano Gaëlle Arquez, who sings her Carmen “as if she had just invented Habanera & Co.” (Tagesspiegel), and festival director Elisabeth Sobotka talk about the opera, discuss the main characters Carmen and Don José and also touch upon the role of women in today’s society.
The Brahms Code
A music documentary with Paavo Järvi and the Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen. The documentary by award winning film director Christian Berger explores the four symphonies by Johannes Brahms. Through the eyes of the musicians and their artistic director Paavo Järvi the viewer experiences the peaks of these romantic masterpieces and receives information for the better understanding.
Sounds Of The Universe
In 2018 the International Baroque Days of Melk Abbey, today one of the internationally most renowned early music festivals, celebrated their 40th anniversary. Director Volker Werner’s documentary focuses on the unique connection between the festival and Melk Abbey. Here a modern cultural institution meets the centuries-old religious living space of the monastery. By including eminent figures like Helmut Pilss, Alexander Hauer and Michael Schade, the documentary takes us on a journey from the present day to the beginnings of the Pentecost concerts and grants an unexpected look behind the scenes.
Karajan – The Maestro and his Festival
Herbert von Karajan is the world’s most famous and commercially most successful conductor ever. Inspired by his wife’s book My Life at His Side, Hannes M. Schalle’s film covers new aspects of Karajan’s career, focusing on the maestro’s work in London, Berlin, New York, Vienna, Salzburg and St Tropez. Shot on these locations, it starts in Nice, France, in 1957, when Eliette and Herbert von Karajan met for the first time. The film follows their life until July 1989 and documents Karajan’s legacy, such as the Salzburg Easter Festival. A very personal story, told by Madame Eliette von Karajan.
Looking for Beethoven – On the Paths of the Beethoven String Quartets
What seems to be the predominant impulse driving this music,” explains viola player Krzysztof Chorzelski of the Belcea Quartet, “is man’s yearning for freedom, the unquenchable desire to expand his limits and to learn the truth about himself in this process Beethoven inspires us as performers to take up this challenge.” The Belcea Quartet’s response to this challenge took place in the Vienna Konzerthaus. The ensemble embarked on the complete cycle of Beethoven string quartets, playing the whole program within twelve days, each concert featuring one work from the early, middle and late quartets.
Making of “Die Jahreszeiten”
“Jubilation!” (Kronen Zeitung) in the Great Festival Hall in Salzburg for Joseph Haydn’s oratorio The Seasons with Nikolaus Harnoncourt conducting the Vienna Philharmonic. The conductor tunes his “Wiener” to peak performance and shows as few others can how “to coax the tenderest expressive pianissimo shiver from the violins and violas into the almost inaudible”, enthuses the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung.
Verdi & Wagner – 6 part documentary series
“Wagner vs. Verdi” illuminates the two composers, the Italian Giuseppe Verdi and the German Richard Wagner from different and very personal angles: Six episodes that explore various aspects of live and work of the two titans of opera: politics, love, music and emotions. Big names of the classical music scene such as conductor Christian Thielemann and singer Rolando Villazón are being interviewed as well as music experts and designated Verdi and Wagner fans and haters. A diverse and entertaining documentary series for newcomers and connoisseurs alike. PART 1: … and the Effects of their Music – Director: Christian Kugler (Length: 26′ – A045500090001) / PART 2: The Chant – Director: Thomas Macho (Length: 27′ – A045500090002) / PART 3: The Revolutionairies – Director: Pepe Pippig (Length: 27′ – A045500090003) / PART 4: …and the Women – Director: Martin Betz (Length: 27′ – A045500090004) / PART 5: The Wagner Religion – Director: Daniel Gerlach (Length: 27′ – A045500090005) / PART 6: Verdi’s World – Director: Anna Schmidt (Length: 27′ – A045500090006) // ALSO AVAILABLE: Wagner Madness! – Director: Martin Schneider (Length: 43′ – A04550010)
A Portrait of Mariss Jansons – Music is the Language of the Heart and Soul
In his film on Latvian conductor Mariss Jansons, Robert Neumüller takes us on a fascinating tour of a life devoted to music. We accompany Jansons as he prepares for his conductorship of the most famous concert in the world, the New Year’s Concert of the Wiener Philharmoniker from the Vienna Musikverein. While historical footage documents important stations of his early career, long-time companions and artists speak about their work with the conductor. We also watch him working with “his” two orchestras, the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra in Munich and the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra in Amsterdam.
The World Of The Ring
Christian Thielemann, the most soughtafter Wagner conductor of our time, looks into the story behind one of the most ambitious opera projects of music history: the genesis and reception of Wagner’s “Der Ring des Nibelungen” – in a four-part documentary by film director Eric Schulz.
BEETHOVEN 9 – Making van Beethoven
A one-of-a-kind musical event is in the making! Christian Thielemann, one of the most recognized conductors of our time, joins forces with the prestigious Wiener Philharmoniker and UNITEL, the world’s leading audiovisual production company for classical music, in a monumental project: BEETHOVEN 9, the recording of all nine symphonies by Ludwig van Beethoven for TV, DVD and New Media: the “Beethoven cycle of the 21st century”! Using the newest technology of our century, UNITEL and Austrian Television (ORF) produce this “super-cycle” in the Golden Hall of Vienna’s Musikverein in HD and 5.0 Surround Sound. BEETHOVEN 9 kicked off in December 2008 with the recording of the First and Second Symphonies. At the rate of two recordings per year, the cycle will be completed by April 2010. The genesis and unfolding of this project will be accompanied by a documentary filmed in HD. Between 2010 and 2013 the orchestra will crown the venture with special event performances of the complete cycle in major cities around the world. These concert cycles will rank among the musical highlights of these years. They will be accompanied by the recordings, which will be released prior to the start of the world tour, when international attention is at its peak. Music lovers can enjoy Beethoven’s symphonies either live in the host cities or on television, Internet or DVD. Live transmission from the Golden Hall is possible already during the recording stage. BEETHOVEN 9 brings to a new climax the longstanding collaboration between Thielemann, who enjoys a sterling reputation as an interpreter of Beethoven and the German Romantics, and the Wiener Philharmoniker, which has been cultivating the music of Beethoven since its founding nearly 170 years ago and is one of the few great orchestras to have preserved its unique sound. UNITEL CLASSICA can look back on more than 40 years of collaboration with the Wiener Philharmoniker and on its pioneering cycles of Beethoven’s symphonic works with Herbert von Karajan and Leonard Bernstein.