For many music lovers, Christine Schäfer’s Mozart interpretations are a revelation. She has little in common with the routine conventions of her field and her artistry is enourmously powerful as this program featuring concert arias by Mozart, with Abbado conducting the LUCERNE FESTIVAL ORCHESTRA, shows. This TV program is coupled with Mozart’s ‘Haffner’ Symphony, which was originally performed in Salzburg as a serenade to be played by torchlight. Program: Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
‘Misera, dove son!’ – ‘Ah, non son io che parlo,’ K. 369; ‘Ah, lo previdi’ – ‘Ah, t’invola,’ K. 272; ‘Vorrei spiegarvi, oh Dio!,’ K. 418; Symphony in D major, K. 385 ‘Haffner’.
»In my opinion, comrades, we really should end the monotony of this Yeah, Yeah, Yeah or whatever they call it« (SED General Secretary Walter Ulbricht about pop music).
As classical music was considered politically harmless in the former GDR, its education was highly encouraged. The regime quickly discovered its great potential for generating valuable cultural exchange — as well as much needed hard currency. Classical music »made in the GDR« became an export hit for the regime, thanks to, for example, the Staatskapelle Dresden, the Gewandhausorchester Leipzig and renowned artists like Kurt Masur, Peter Schreier, Franz Konwitschny, Kurt Sanderling and Theo Adam. Through case studies of individuals who lived under the system, »Symphony & Socialism« explores the fates of both the privileged and the non-privileged, and delivers insight into the influence of the political system on artistic life. The film includes interviews with contemporary witnesses both from GDR and the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG)
Paul Wittgenstein, Austrian concert pianist, loses his arm at the age of twentyseven, while serving as an officer in the First World War. Nonetheless, he is set on continuing his career. Major composers, such as Ravel and Strauss write concerts for him, from which he gains international acclaim. Forced to leave Austria by the Nazis, he dies in New York in 1961. Paul’s father, Karl Wittgenstein millionaire and chief Austrian “iron and steel baron”, determined to have his five sons follow in his footsteps and become industrialists, he does not permit them to pursue artistic careers. Ultimately, he will pay for his intransigence with the lives of his three eldest children who escape their father’s authority by committing suicide. Finally, Karl Wittgenstein allows his two remaining sons the freedom to choose their own profession. Ludwig, the younger brother of Paul, turns to philosophy. Paul Wittgenstein’s biography is an extraordinary life-affirming story. It is the tale of a man who perseveres in the face of seemingly insurmountable obstacles and prevails.
Haydn’s lifetime saw a series of striking changes in musical style. At the time of his birth and childhood baroque traditions still prevailed. By the end of his life the apparent stability of the classical style was being challenged, notably by Beethoven. Haydn did not simply live through this long development; he was a central part of it. Nele Münchmeyer’s documentary throws light upon Haydn as the ingenious composer and as the private person – the “Libertine” in his private life and the “Servant” as the Kapellmeister of Esterházys’. The film includes excerpts from highly acclaimed performances of Haydn works. Amongst them are: the opera, Armida with the German Soprano Annette Dasch, Arias from Haydn performed by the Freiburger Barockorchester and the Baritone Thomas Quasthoff, performances of “Die Schöpfung” and “Die Jahreszeiten” conducted by Roger Norrington.
Trio celebrated their biggest commercial success in the early 80s during the ‘Neue Deutsche Welle’ (New German Wave). Their signature sound was the programmed Rockbeat from the semi professional Casio-synthesizer, played by Stephan Remmler. Their biggest hit, ‘Da da da’, released in April 1982, was an international success, topping the charts all over Europe, Canada, Brazil, Mexico, Asia. There are more than a hundred cover versions of this song and the song is still frequently used in commercials. The minimalistic concept can be heard at its best on the first album (‘Trio’, 1981). It is considered to be one oft he three most important albums in German pop history. All in all Trio released three studio-albums from 1981 to 1985. They were produced by world-famous musician and Beatles-Collaborator Klaus Voormann who supported their style which reminded him of his work with John Lennon in The Plastic Ono Band. Trio became some kind of cult – and they still are today.
When the First World War broke out in 1914, the musical world did not remain unaffected. Artists inevitably became involved, either as soldiers at the front or as composers of patriotic music or musical memorials to a lost world. The three-part documentary series investigates the (un)known, overt and hidden connections between music, war and revolution. The fates of young rebels such as Arthur Lourié, Nikolai Roslavets, Alexander Mosolov or Leon Theremin reveal much about the once hopeful and tragic entanglement with art and politics to which so many artists fell victim during the First World War, the October Revolution and the early Soviet Union’s cultural life. “Silenced”, the 2nd part rediscovers the long-banished and forgotten Russian composers of the early twentieth century who flirted with futurism, wrote the first twelve-tone chord of musical history or invented the first electronic musical instrument. “Silenced” sheds light upon their tragic stories and their exceptional music. Musicologists, composers, descendants, and musicians illuminate the composers’ fates from their perspective and establish both cultural references as well as the historical and political context.
When the First World War broke out in 1914, the musical world did not remain unaffected. Artists inevitably became involved, either as soldiers at the front or as composers of patriotic music or musical memorials to a lost world. The three-part documentary series investigates the (un)known, overt and hidden connections between music, war and revolution. Beginning with what led to this great human tragedy, each episode addresses different perspectives of the relationship between war and politics. The great seminal catastrophe of 1914 was not merely a historical upheaval for politics and society. Music had also lost ist political innocence. But can music really be political? Already in the 19th century, an increasing number of composers and musicians had started to adopt political agendas and to this day many musicians position themselves politically. Power and Music embarks on a search for the political aspects of music, combining historical examples with the present. The film itself thus deals with various standpoints of music’s political moments and starts a dialogue with renowned artists such as conductor Valery Gergiev, Venezuelan pianist Gabriela Montero or the German-British cellist Anita Lasker-Wallfisch, one of the last survivors of the Women’s Orchestra of Auschwitz.
He is a violinist of the century who is a stranger to entertainment. He is an exception in an industry that is aimed currently at market value, marketing and mass appeal: Gidon Kremer is one of the most exciting artist personalities of our time. Gidon Kremer – Finding your own voice is a calm and thoughtful portrait of the great violinist and intellectual. Over the course of one year, Paul Smaczny accompanied Gidon Kremer with the camera, observing him with his Kremerata Baltica Chamber Orchestra in Paris and his native Riga, and as a soloist in Moscow and Tokyo, as well as encountering him as a socially and politically active person. Gidon Kremer – Finding your own voice seeks to find out what drives a person like Gidon Kremer, what lies behind making music, where the deep meaning of music lies hidden. A film about a great intellectual who sees himself as a mediator of values whose ethos is alien to, indeed contrary to, any form of narcissism and profit-seeking.
Inspired by Bach presents cellist Yo-Yo Ma performing the six Suites for Unaccompanied Cello by J.S. Bach in collaboration with artists from different disciplines, in a set of six films. THE MUSIC GARDEN opens the Yo-Yo Ma: Inspired by Bach series with an exploration of music as interpreted through gardening on a grand scale. The film follows the efforts of Yo-Yo Ma and landscape designer Julie Moir Messervy to create a formal garden, based on J.S. Bach’s First Suite for Unaccompanied Cello, in the centre of Boston.
Inspired by the music to reawaken the nature buried beneath the concrete of a modern city, Yo-Yo and Julie are a study in optimism as they set off to convince politicians, financiers, bureaucrats and planners to join in their great dream.
Inspired by Bach presents cellist Yo-Yo Ma performing the six Suites for Unaccompanied Cello by J.S. Bach in collaboration with artists from different disciplines, in a set of six films. THE SOUND OF THE CARCERI explores the deep relationship between music and architecture through a high-tech “virtual confrontation” between the architecture of Giovanni Battista Piranesi and the music of J.S. Bach. Using a striking and highly contrasted visual style, director François Girard places Yo-Yo Ma within a series of computer-generated, three-dimensional recreations of Piranesi’s well-known prison etchings. Through Yo-Yo Ma’s and music producer Steven Epstein’s struggle to recreate and interact with the imaginary space that Ma performs in, THE SOUND OF THE CARCERI examines the complexity of illusion, of representation and reality.
