Beyoncé and Solange Knowles are the most successful pair of sisters in pop history – and they couldn’t be more different…It takes a long time for Solange to step out of her sister’s shadow musically. A double portrait of two unequal exceptional artists. Beyoncé and Solange Knowles couldn’t be more different: One is arguably the biggest pop star of our time, the other puts her complex artistic aspirations above commercial success. While Beyoncé is systematically built up by her parents to become a megastar, her sister Solange has to fight with all her might for promotion and recognition from her family. It was not until late that she succeeded in stepping out of her sister’s shadow as an independent artist and emancipating herself musically. The film goes on a search for traces in Houston, the hometown of the sisters. Together with companions and friends it sheds light on the lives and careers. As the frontwoman of Destiny’s Child, a band managed by her father, Beyoncé began her stellar career in the late 1990s. After the group breaks up in 2006, Beyoncé launches her solo career with seven studio albums and 32 Grammys to date. Solange, on the other hand, begins her first steps into the limelight in the second row: first as a background dancer for Destiny’s Child, later as a songwriter for her big sister. But she wants more. Her third solo album “A Seat at the Table” brings the longed-for liberation. The album is celebrated by critics, Solange wins her first Grammy. After 30 years in the shadow of her sister, she has won her place at the table.
Music ex machina – AI in Classical Music
Music created with the assistance of artificial intelligence is a well-established secret in the world of pop. Today, AI is also making serious inroads in the classical domain, bringing us to the threshold of a new era in classical music. From the recording of the first samples to the premiere performance at the Semperoper in Dresden, the film accompanies the creation of the opera “Chasing Waterfalls”, which was co-composed by artificial intelligence. We follow the AI as it reconstructs Beethoven’s 10th symphony and watch it perform with Robbie Williams, and we see how pianist Dirk Maassen at the Sony Science Lab in Paris and saxophonist Asya Fateyeva at the Hochschule für Musik Nürnberg interact with AI in real time, and how Spanish professor Eduardo Miranda in Plymouth is using quantum computers to create music entirely from scratch. Experts Kenza Ait Si Abbou and Christian Mio Loclair comment on these fascinating developments as well as the currently highly topical Chat GPT platform.
Magic Moments of Music – Sergiu Celibidache and the Berliner Philharmoniker
It was only through the request of the then Federal President Richard von Weizsäcker that the concert came about in 1992. The legendary Romanian conductor Sergiu Celibidache and the Berlin Philharmonic were to be reconciled. Celibidache had shaped the orchestra in over 400 concerts between 1945 and 1954 after the end of the Second World War. When, after the death of Wilhelm Furtwängler the orchestra chose Herbert von Karajan as his successor instead of Sergiu Celibidache, a dispute arose, and the two eventually parted ways. Celibidache withdrew, deeply offended, and refused any offer of further collaboration. It took 38 years for Sergiu Celibidache to return to the podium of the Berlin Philharmonic. It went down in music history as the so-called ‘reconciliation concert’. Celibidache made it a condition that he would receive twice as many rehearsals as usual. The program included Anton Bruckner’s 7th Symphony. In addition to rehearsal and concert excerpts, the film features Celibidache’s son, Serge Ioan Celebidachi, contemporary witnesses from the Berlin Philharmonic, the orchestra’s horn player Sarah Willis, the young French conductor Marie Jacquot, his last conducting student Rémy Ballot, and the Romanian conductor Cristian Macelaru. They provide insight into Sergiu Celibidache’s personality, working methods, and understanding of music.
Herbert Blomstedt – When Music Resounds, the Soul Is Spoken
The feature-length film portrait When Music Resounds, the Soul Is Spoken To was created between his 90th and 95th birthdays. It accompanies Herbert Blomstedt in his work with selected orchestras, which are representative of the many international ensembles he has either led or with which he still works regularly, and observes the gifted communicator during rehearsals and concerts. Blomstedt vividly conveys his clear interpretive ideas, turning every orchestra rehearsal into an experience. As an exciting discourse on life philosophies, musical life and experiences as a musician, the film is a portrait of an unpretentious artist who has decisively shaped the classical music world for decades and continues to do so to this day.
Samuel Coleridge-Taylor, by Chi-chi Nwanoku
Chi-chi Nwanoku CBE, the double-bassist and founder of the extraordinary Chineke! Orchestra, explores the remarkable and tragic story of Samuel Coleridge-Taylor – one of the greatest composers of the early 20th century (born 1875, died 1912). “He was brilliant, he was British, and he was black.” She asks why he’s been forgotten and questions the ongoing lack of diversity in the world of classical music. World-renowned for his choral work ‘The Song of Hiawatha’, Coleridge-Taylor – a contemporary of Elgar, Holst, and Vaughan-Williams – also enjoyed fame in America for his arrangements of negro spirituals, and was invited to the White House in 1904 by President Theodore Roosevelt – a rare honour for a man of colour so soon after the abolition of slavery in the USA.
John Neumeier – A Life for the Dance
On different levels, the film approaches one of the greatest choreographers of our time: John Neumeier. The film is about his work and about Neumeier personally. Friends and companions share their views and Neumeier’s husband also gives private insights. The joint trip with Neumeier to Chicago and Milwaukee is a journey to his very beginnings and shows the roots and the source of his work up to today. We learn about the path and career of John Neumeier and draw a portrait of a great dancer, a wonderful teacher and a person deeply rooted in art and religion. Complementing the floating camera in the recording of Neumeier’s ballet choreographies during rehearsals, we show current artistic work that captures movement and dance, aesthetics and expression, humanity and commitment to others in an authentic and aesthetic way.
Hope on the Road – Hollywood
World famous violinist Daniel Hope follows the westward journey made to Los Angeles by Jewish artists, many fleeing the Nazis following the outbreak of World War II. Its consequences are seen as seismic for the development of Hollywood, while also defining the musical language of cinema. Erich Korngold (The Adventures of Robin Hood), Franz Waxman (Sunset Boulevard), Miklos Rozsa (Ben Hur) amongst others, had travelled to the west coast of America with little choice – they were avoiding Jewish persecution – but they would go on to shape cinematic music as an art form. Hollywood of that time was newly invigorated by the birth of talking picture, and music moved from something used to distract audience from the silences of the movies, to becoming a key creative element that worked around dialogue. It began to be used to shape and charge emotion, the blueprint of this was created during this turbulent time. In addition to meeting composers of today influenced by the early emigre artists, it is also a chance for Daniel Hope to perform some of this music during his travels, which takes him to the house of writer Thomas Mann, the exile archives of the University of California and the old MGM soundstage where classics like Ben Hur and Gone with the Wind were recorded.
Cosmos Ligeti
The documentary film explores the Austrian-Hungarian composer Györgyi Ligeti, whose sound-intensive choral and orchestral works, influenced by other sciences and cultures, shaped the music of the 20th century like no other. The composer also became known by Stanley Kubrick, who used Ligeti’s compositions in the films 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY, SHINING and EYES WIDE SHUT. The film aims to make the cosmos of Ligeti tangible and to get closer to the always curious and very demanding man Ligeti, who broke the boundaries of music and interpretation. In addition to many companions, Kubrick’s producer and brother-in-law Jan Harlan appears in the film alongside the pianist Cathy Krier.
Hope on the Road – Ireland
Daniel Hope is on a very personal journey: At the wheel of an old Morris Traveller, the internationally acclaimed violinist explores Ireland, Irish music – and the history of his family. His first stop takes Daniel Hope to medieval Kilkenny, where he meets the „Queen of the Irish Harp,“ Siobhan Armstrong. She explains to him how the harp became a symbol of resistance to foreign domination. He continues on to ocean-washed Galway on the west coast, the capital of street music. This is the home of Seán Smyth, fiddler of the band Lunasa and master of Irish folk. And, of course, there‘s Dublin, where Daniel Hope premieres a piece by the long-forgotten Irish composer Ina Boyle with the National Symphony Orchestra. The emotional highlight of the trip is the violinist‘s visit to Waterford. Here, together with his father, the writer Christopher Hope, he sets out to find the last address of his great-grandfather Danny McKenna: „Without this Danny, I might never have discovered the violin for myself. Because it was only because of him that we were entitled to an Irish passport when my father had to leave South Africa because of his opposition to the apartheid regime. And it was only because of that Irish passport that we were able to settle in London, where my mother found a job with Yehudi Menuhin, the violinist of the century.“ Daniel Hope‘s journey through Ireland thus also becomes a journey to his own roots.
Lang Lang: My Favourite Melodies
What are the main features of a touching melody? World famous pianist Lang Lang takes us to a personal journey through his favourite melodies, from Beethoven “Für Elise”, Debussy “Clair de Lune”, J.S. Bach and Johannes Brahms to the most beautiful movies’ soundtracks. Filmed in unique locations in Paris, the Chinese pianist’s performances of Disney pieces such as “The Bare Necessities” from The Jungle Book, the Beauty and the Beast’s “Theme” and The Muppet Show, to Yann Tiersen “Amélie”, are able to captivate the listener’s fantasy and awake some of the best childhood memories.