Sir Simon Rattle, one of the most exciting British conductors ever to emerge on to the international music scene, leads a Workshop with the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra. He focuses on the musical and orchestral subtleties of the first movement of Beethoven’s Symphony No. 3 in E flat Op. 55 (Eroica) and the finale of Messiaen’s massive Turangalîla-symphonie, which he describes as one of the most exciting and enthralling works of the twentieth century.
Ed Mcbain
In 1954, Blackboard Jungle – the film of Evan Hunter’s book – scandalised America with its raw, provocative view of post-war adolescence. Hunter changed his name to Ed McBain and built a huge international reputation with his thrillers about New York’s 87th Precinct detective squad. In this programme he talks about his work and is followed on a night-time journey through his New York domain. Dramatised sequences from his books are also included.
Romeo and Juliet Suite
Sir Georg Solti conducts the Bayerischer Rundfunk Symphony Orchestra in a performance of extracts from Prokofiev’s music for the ballet Romeo and Juliet, recorded live from the Herkulessaal, Munich.
Requiem
Mozart’s last work, the Requiem Mass in D minor K626, receives a strong performance from the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra and Chorus under Mozart specialist Sir Colin Davis in a classic recording made in 1984.
This live recording from the Herkulessaal in Munich featthe Maestro conducting the Bavarian Radio Symphony Chorus and Orchestra with the outstanding Peter Schreier, Edith Mathis and Trudeliese Schmidt as well as ever-popular Welsh bass Gwynne Howell.
Marc Chagall
The artist Marc Chagall died in March 1985, at the age of ninety-seven. For nearly eighty years he painted in a unique style that captivated generations of art lovers and both fascinated and infuriated his critics. This programme was made very shortly before Chagall’s death and is the last film made about this great artist during his lifetime. It looks at his work through the eyes of a young English painter whose curiosity about the artist is aroused when he finds he is living in Chagall’s old studio in Paris. The camera follows the young man as he travels through France on the trail of the enigmatic artist.
The Life And Times of Don Luis Bunuel
Buñuel (1906-83) is unquestionably one of the great cinema directors of all time. His fabulously inventive imagination and anarchic spirit were combined with a deeply serious concern about man’s brutality, intolerance and hypocrisy, evident throughout his work. This film examines Bunuel’s career and assesses his importance in the development of European cinema. It includes excerpts from many of his best-known films, including Belle de jour, The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie and That Obscure Object of Desire.
Florilegium
Joseph Banks accompanied Cook on his first voyage of circumnavigation in 1768 and collected over seven hundred hitherto unknown plant species, recorded in drawings by Sydney Parkinson. This film traces that journey of discovery to Madeira, Rio, Tahiti, New Zealand, Australia and Indonesia. It also documents the historic printing of the first full colour edition of Banks’s Florilegium, which, after many misfortunes, finally came to fruition in the 1980s. Written and narrated by Robert Hughes, the programme is a rich mixture of art, history, science and travel.
In Rehearsal: Pierre Boulez
Featuring some of today’s leading conductors in rehearsal, this 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. Pierre Boulez rehearses the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra for a performance of Alban Berg’s Three Pieces for Orchestra Op. 6 and his own composition Notations I-IV . Directed by Felix Breisach 57’
Stamping Ground
An invitation to attend a large gathering of Aboriginal dancers in Australia fuelled Jiri Kylián’s abiding interest in their traditions. Film of his experience there, together with footage of the work it inspired him to undertake with the Nederlands Dans Theater, form an introduction to a studio recording of the stunning ballet that resulted: Stamping Ground. This stunningly innovative and athletic piece of choreography is danced to music by Carlos Chavez.
This performance is also available with a documentary introduction, Road To The Stamping Ground.
Violin Concerto
Recorded live from the Herkulessaal Munich, Sir Colin Davis conducts the Bayerischer Rundfunk Symphony Orchestra, with soloist Gidon Kremer, in a performance of Alban Berg‘s elegiac Violin Concerto. Alban Berg completed this concerto for violin and orchestra in 1935, impelled by the news of the death of Manon Gropius, the beautiful eighteen-yearold daughter of Mahler‘s widow by her second marriage, to the architect Walter Gropius. He dedicated it “to the memory of an angel”.
The secret life of Alban Berg
Alban Berg (1885-1935) lived in the mainstream of well-to-do Austrian society. His marriage to the beautiful Hélène was thought to be made in heaven. But how can this doyen of Viennese respectability be reconciled with the composer who wrote the dark operas Wozzeck and Lulu? In this multi-layered film, director Krišs Rusmanis explores the private world behind the composer’s public image and reveals the double life Berg led, despite his moving protestationsof fidelity and devotion to his wife.