This dance portrait celebrates the illustrious career of Canada’s prima ballerina, Karen Kain. Specially-filmed dance extracts from MacMillan’s Romeo and Juliet, Petit’s Proust, Bruhn’s Swan Lake and Feld’s solo, Echo, showcase her superb technique, and she recalls her life in dance and her favourite roles. There are also contributions from fellow dancers, choreographers and critics, including Rudolf Nureyev and Reid Anderson.
L’Histoire du soldat
Jirí Kylián feels a great affinity for Stravinsky, who, like himself, was forced to leave his homeland. He describes the composer’s music drama L’Histoire du soldat as a “”surrealistic fairy tale for grown-up children””. His version of the piece uses the original French version libretto by Charles Ferdinand Ramuz. With scenery and costumes by John MacFarlane, this studio recording features Nacho Duato as the soldier who sells his soul to the Devil for wealth, but is forced to wander the world.
The onset of the First World War and the Russian Revolution of 1917 had drastic consequences for Stravinsky in his Swiss exile: his property was confiscated, and he thereby lost the rights to his works and the associated income, leaving him in a situation which isolated him as an artist. L’Histoire du soldat, with its diversity, its structure, the switching between narration, action, mime and dance, and its elements from tango, English Waltz and Ragtime, could not have been categorised under any genre which existed at the time. It was premiered on 28 September 1918 and in this version is brilliantly reinterpreted by the Nederlands Dans Theater.
Peter Dickinson
A series of major concertos written in the 1980s – one for organ, one for piano and
one for violin – established British composer Peter Dickinson as an important and individual
musical voice. This programme looks at his career and influences, particularly American music,
from Cage to Joplin. The second half of the programme consists of a complete performance of his
composition London Rags, performed by London Brass, for whom it was composed.
Istvan Szabo
In an interview filmed in his native Hungary, one of Europe’s leading directors, Istvan Szabo, talks about his beliefs, his background and his career. His vision is illustrated with extensive clips from his work, from the early award-winning Father to Hanussen. Lighting cameraman Lajos Koltai talks about his collaboration with the film-maker, as does actor Klaus Maria Brandauer, who was critically acclaimed for his performances in Szabo’s Oscar-winning Mephisto and Colonel Redi.
The New World Symphony Orchestra
The New World Symphony, the USA’s first permanent national training orchestra, was the inspiration of the celebrated American conductor, Michael Tilson Thomas. It enables the country’s finest musical graduates to be part of a musical community that lives and works together before they find full-time professional positions. This film joined Tilson Thomas and the orchestra as they prepared for their second concert season.
Choirs and Places Where They Sing
This programme explores the British Choral tradition – the choirs, the composers and the reasons why the British love to sing together. With the help of many choirs and choral societies – from Westminster Abbey to Watford football ground – the programme traces one thousand years of British Choral music. The guide is Simon Preston, organist and master of the choristers at Westminster Abbey.
Edouard Manet
Edouard Manet war ein Flaneur im Paris des 19. Jahrhunderts. Zu Hause im Großbürgertum und befreundet mit Zolá und Baudelaire, wandte er sich von der Historienmalerei zunehmend Szenen des urbanen Lebens zu. Ein Leben lang sehnte er sich nach Anerkennung, doch Werke wie Frühstück im Freien und Olympia lösten nur heftige Skandale aus. Provokante Momentaufnahmen des Alltags schienen zudem nur halbfertig gemalt. Das beeindruckte jene Künstler, die später Impressionisten
genannt wurden. Der Film erzählt von der bewegten Zeit und dem Wirken Manets – eines Wegbereiters der Moderne.
Lenny Henry
Black comedian Lenny Henry is one of the most popular and successful entertainers in the UK today. He has built up an incredibly broad audience, uniting both young and old, black and white in appreciation of his particular brand of humour. This film takes Lenny back to his home town of Dudley in the West Midlands and uses specially-written comedy sketches, featuring his favourite characterisations, to explore his unique comic talent.
Francis Bacon
Francis Bacon (1910-1992) is widely regarded as the greatest British painter of the twentieth century. He took the human figure as his main subject, painting distorted bodies that sit or lie alone in empty rooms. This programme follows Bacon from his studio, where he began work at dawn every day, to his favourite drinking club and gambling Joint in London’s Soho, and explores the way in which the life he led affected his vision of the world.
In Rehearsal: Valery Gergiev
Featuring some of today’s leading conductors in rehearsal, the “In Rehearsal” series gives a unique insight into the process of creating great music. The conductors’ very different styles and methods; the dialogue between an orchestra and an inspired interpreter; the intensity of the preparations for a concert performance; and the struggle towards perfection are captured in these revealing audio-visual records. Most episodes include a full run-through of the work rehearsed. All include interviews with the conductor who is seen at work. Valéry Gergiev works with the Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra on Prokofiev’s Scythian Suite Op. 20. Directed by Rob van den Berg 59′