Written and presented by Sir Simon Rattle, the foremost British conductor of our day, this series forms a fascinating introduction to, and overview of, the music of the twentieth century. Each of the seven programmes feature over thirty minutes of specially-shot music in performance, with Rattle conducting the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra.
Simon Rattle leads viewers on an exhilarating journey through the music of our time, explaining the chief musical developments from Mahler to the present day. Each programme is illustrated with evocative imagery, archive film and photographs and the featured music is set within the broader context of artistic and social change.
Why “Leaving Home”? The story of twentieth-century music is one of leave-takings in many ways. As a wealth of talented composers searched for new creative responses to the world around them, many made departures from the solid ‘home’ foundations of eighteenth- and nineteenth-century music – tonal harmony, melody, regular rhythm and metre. Many had to literally leave home, displaced by political uphevals. A remarkable diversity of expression developed – not all of the difficult or discordant variety commonly associated with modern music. The range is wide and this series samples the work of over thirty composers, discovering new and challenging sounds as well as some unexpectedly familiar music. It presents an extraordinary kaleidoscope of orchestral images, full of contrasts and surprises.
The first episode in the series describes a great musical culture in decline in turn-of-the-nineteenth-century Vienna. From that decline erupted a musical revolution whose reverberations have continued to this day. The names of Schönberg, Webern and Berg still strike terror into the hearts of many concert-goers, but with Simon Rattle we hear in this music’s brooding power not only the collapse of the old Austro-German order and the rise of Facism, but also the portents of the music to come in the second half of the twentieth century.
The last decade of the twentieth century alone spawned three operas based on the life of the “principe die musici”: Alfred Schnittke’s Gesualdo was premiered in 1995 at the Vienna State Opera; then the following year came Franz Hummel’s opera of the same name, a commission from the city of Kaiserslautern; and in 1998 Salvatore Sciarrino wrote an opera for the Schwetzingen Festival entitled Luci mie traditrici, after a sixteenth century drama about a prince who murders his wife.
So Gesualdo was already the focus of a good deal of interest when the Munich-based director and film producer Werner Herzog also developed an interest in the composer at about this time. Herzog seemed somehow predestined for the job. His preference for eccentric protagonists, amply attested to in films such as Aguirre, Wrath of God and Fitzcarraldo starring Klaus Kinski, went hand in hand with a musical streak that has won him a great deal of admiration since the mid 1980s with regular opera productions at the Bayreuth Festival, the Opera Bastille in Paris and La Scala, Milan. Of course, one was never to expect a creative artist of Herzog’s talents to produce a conventional documentary film.
Charles Aznavour, Juliette Gréco, Petula Clark and Mireille are among the singers who take part in an exploration of the French chanson, looking at its history, its distinctive character, its stars, its enduring popularity and its unique role in French culture. Material drawn from sound and film archives featuring many of the great chansonniers is included, and the final vital ingredient in the programme is Paris, home of the chanson, captured in a melancholy, wintry mood.
Elaine Paige played Grizabella in the première staging of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s musical Cats and shot to stardom overnight when she created the title role in his hugely successful Evita. This music special focuses on Paige’s portrayals of Eva Peron (Evita), Norma Desmond (Sunset Boulevard) and Edith Piaf (Piaf). The cameras follow her to Buenos Aires, Hollywood and Paris to investigate the lives of these charismatic, but very different, women, whose stories are juxtaposed with her own. A wealth of rehearsal and performance footage is included in the programme.
Featuring interviews with Aulis Sallinen, Hans Magnus Enzensberger, Irene Dische and Okko Kamu, this documentary introduces The Palace and also shows the magnificent setting of the Savonlinna Opera Festival, which takes place each summer in the courtyard of the Olavinlinna castle, the best-preserved medieval fortification in the Nordic countries.
Directed by Jarmo Jääskelainen
Dynamic and inspiring, Russian conductor Valéry Gergiev’s dedication to his work and his passion for music are unbounded. In recent years he has revitalised the Kirov Opera and the White Nights Festival in St. Petersburg, created the Mikkeli International Festival in Finland, conducted virtually all of the major international orchestras and become the Principal Conductor of the Rotterdam Philharmonic. This documentary covers the wide spectrum of Gergiev’s musical activities, shows him in rehearsal and performance and includes an in-depth interview.
Shot on location in Vancouver and Los Angeles, this intimate portrait charts k. d. lang’s journey from her childhood in Canada to superstardom. The vocalist gave the cameras unprecedented access to film her as she worked on her album All You Can Eat and she is seen with her long-time collaborator Ben Mink, laying down the type of multi-octave, soaring vocals that have earned her the reputation of being one of the most outstanding popular singers of her generation.
Pavarotti has sold more records, performed for more people and commanded higher fees than any other tenor. This rare television interview was given at his summer home in Pesaro in northern Italy. In a frank and characteristically humorous exchange, he talks about his life, his career and his remarkable talent. The programme features lavish excerpts of Pavarotti in performance and there are contributions from his parents and his first singing teacher.
Thomas Olofsson’s 1999 biopic of the composer Edvard Grieg (1843–1907), entitled What Price Immortality?, was greeted with great interest and international acclaim. The film, which was written by Olofsson himself, along with Ture Rangström und Johanna Olofsson, attempts to give a picture of Edvard Grieg, both as a man and a composer, a figure who still receives less attention outside Scandinavia than he deserves.
The pianist Staffan Scheja plays the role of Edvard Grieg as both performer and composer, playing works such as the piano ballad in G minor, op. 24. The internationally renowned Auryn Quartet plays the initial string quartet in G minor, op. 27.
