After over thirty years on the concert stage the pianist Murray Perahia has himself become a legend, one of the most sought-after pianists of our time. This film is not designed to be a conventional portrait. The documentary observes Perahia at work on the interpretation of some pieces by Chopin and Schumann at his holiday home in Switzerland. It shows him as conductor of the famous Academy of St. Martin in the Fields, follows him into the recording studio and a master class in Hanover and finally captures a concert performance at a Warsaw Chopin recital in February 2010. Interviews with Murray Perahia cast light on his approach to music, his personality and the way he has managed to cope with the personal crises that has beset him.
Gloria Estefan – The Standards
Seven-time Grammy® Award-winning international superstar Gloria Estefan performs some of her all-time favorite songs, from the Billie Holiday classic ‘Good Morning Heartache’ and her adaptation of Chaplin’s ‘Smile’ to her wedding song, ‘El Dia Que Me Quieras,’ translated into English for the first time as ‘The Day You Say You Love Me.’ Tracks: Good Morning Heartache / They Can’t Take That Away From Me / What A Difference A Day Makes / I’ve Grown Accustomed To His Face / Eu Sei Que Vou Te Amar / The Day You Say You Love Me Feat. Joshua Bell / Embraceable You / What A Wonderful World / How Long Has This Been Going On Feat. Dave Koz / Sonríe (Smile) Feat. Laura Pausini / The Way You Look Tonight Feat. Dave Koz / You Made Me Love You / Young At Heart
Erwin Schrott – Rojotango
After winning Placido Domingo’s International Voice Competition, Operalia, in 1998, Erwin Schrott became an operatic superstar, burning up the stages of all the important opera houses of the world like Milan, London, Vienna, Berlin and Paris. In “Rojotango”, recorded at the legendary Admiralspalast in Berlin, Erwin Schrott presents a musical journey through the wonderful world of Tango and the music of Latin America through the streets of Buenos Aires, where Tangos, Milongas and other popular melodies -are being played and sung. The programme features a varied and exciting selection of passionate tangos by Astor Piazzolla and Pablo Ziegler as well as evocative Argentinean and Brazilian folk songs. After the highly successful release of his “Rojotango” album, awarded with the German ECHO KLASSIK, Erwin Schrott now presents “Rojotango” live on stage.
Lang Lang – The Highest Level
“The Highest Level“ explores the Berlin recording session of Lang Lang and the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra under the baton of Sir Simon Rattle. The documentary provides insight into processes that are usually veiled: the recording of an album in a league of its own: the preparation of the musicians, the recording in the Philharmonie Berlin, the battle for the perfect sound, the mixing and balancing units during the audio post-production. It is the striking distance to the artists that makes the film an intimate experience. Lang Lang, Sir Simon Rattle, and the musicians of the Berliner Philharmoniker, but of course the audio engineers as well are taking the centre stage. The musical pieces to be recorded are Béla Bartóks Piano Concert No. 2 and Sergei Prokofiev’s Piano Concerto No. 3.
Jerome Robbins‘ NY Export: Opus Jazz
Shot on location in New York City, NY Export: Opus Jazz takes Jerome Robbins‘ 1958 ‘ballet in sneakers’ and re-imagines it for a new generation in this feature-length scripted adaptation. Starring an ensemble cast of New York City Ballet dancers, Opus Jazz won an Audience Award at the 2010 South by Southwest Film Festival, and continues to air successfully on PBS’ Great Performances series. Length: Performance: 45′ min + Documentary: 15′ min.
Yo Yo Ma – The Goat Rodeo Sessions
The Goat Rodeo Sessions is an ambitious and groundbreaking project that brings together four string virtuosos: world-renowned cellist Yo-Yo Ma, fiddler Stuart Duncan, bassist Edgar Meyer and mandolinist Chris Thile. While each artist is a prominent figure in his own music sphere, they have come together as a unified ensemble on a most remarkable and organic cross-genre project. The music, including two tracks with female vocalist Aoife O’Donovan, feels both new and familiar – it’s composed and improvised, uptown and down home, funky and pastoral and above all, uniquely American. A goat rodeo, according to Urban Dictionary, “is about the most polite term used by aviation people (and others in higher risk situations) to describe a scenario that required about 100 things to go right at once if you intend to walk away from it.”
Tracks: Attaboy / Quarter Chicken Dark / Helping Hand / Where’s My Bow? / Here And Heaven (featuring vocals by Aoife O’Donovan & Chris Thile) / Franz And The Eagle / Less is Moi / Hill Justice / No One But You (featuring vocals by Aoife O’Donovan & Chris Thile) / 13:8 / Goat Rodeo // Also available: Making Of: 23′ min. The soundtrack was awarded with
Wagner in Switzerland
This concert is a celebration of Richard Wagner’s 200th anniversary in 2013, featuring famous soloists of the Lucerne Festival Orchestra who perform Wagner’s Siegfried Idyll at his home in Tribschen, Switzerland: The original place, where he composed and world premiered the piece on the staircase in 1870 as a birthday present to his wife Cosima. The program is rounded by the Wagner’s Wesendonck Lieder in the original version for female voice and piano, performed by the exceptional mezzo-soprano Elisabeth Kulman and pianist Eduard Kutrowat on Wagner’s original grand piano. The performance-part is complemented by documentary features offering an insight into Richard Wagner’s life at Tribschen.
Loud, Hard, Magical – The Sound Of Finland
The film takes the audience on a road trip into the unique Finnish music scene: a mixture of melancholy, metal and humour. Bassist and Sibelius descendent Lauri Porra, and the cello quartet Apocalyptica interpret Finnish’s unofficial national anthem ‘Finlandia’ in their own style and in doing so, delve deep into the culture and psyche of this young nation.
The Finns nurture an eclectic mixture of musical styles, they do so with a dark and anarchistic humour, as well as a deeply felt melancholy. The breadth of musical style ranges from Finnish Tango to deafening heavy metal, from all male choirs that shout to a long line of successful Finnish conductors.
Jan Vogler plays Schumann
Jan Vogler presents a revealing reading of Schumann’s Cello Concerto in A minor, Op. 129 with his own orchestra, the Dresden Festival Orchestra, that consists of more than 50 members from Europe’s most renowned early music ensembles, under the baton of its musical director Ivor Bolton. Exploring Schumann’s “original sound”, Jan Vogler plays on gut strings and the orchestra on period instruments. The concerto connects the Dresden Music Festival and its orchestra to the productive Dresden period of Schumann’s work (1844-50) since Schumann composed the cello concerto immediately after he had left the city.
Kurt Masur – Adventures in Listening
Kurt Masur, one of the world’s great Maestros, challenges and teaches the next generation of young musicians and conductors by stretching their limits and transforming their perspectives and abilities. Following master classes around the world over a period of few years, the film is a carefully constructed collage organically interviewing the maestro’s teachings and his personal life experiences. The result is a comprehensive emotional portrait of one of the most respected music conductors of our time.