This studio recording features Oscar Peterson, with Niels Pedersen on bass and Martin Drew on drums, playing a piece specially-commissioned from Peterson for the programme. The music takes as its theme the Easter story, and the great jazz pianist talks about how he adapted his unique style to the composition of a religious work.
Barry Tuckwell: Master of the Horn
The celebrated Australian horn player, Barry Tuckwell, traces how one of the earliest primitive instruments developed the form and sound it has today and became an important part of the symphony orchestra. Accompanied by the English Chamber Orchestra, he is seen performing works by Telemann, Schumann, Beethoven, Britten and Mozart.
Stephen Sondheim
With shows including A Little Night Music, Company and Sweeney Todd, Sondheim established himself as the foremost music dramatist of his generation. In this programme, he describes the key processes involved in song writing, and works with students from the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London on the interpretation of some of his most memorable songs.
Claudio Arrau
This profile of the great Chilean pianist, who died in 1991 at the age of eighty-eight, was made in 1984. Throughout his long career his interpretations remained unparalleled in their depth of feeling, virtuosity and fidelity to the text. In the film he talks about his life and work and performs pieces by Beethoven (‘Appassionata’ Sonata No. 23 Op. 57 in F minor), Chopin (Ballade No. 3 in A flat), Debussy (L’Isle joyeuse), Liszt (Petrarch Sonnet No. 104) and Schubert (Klavierstück in E flat minor, D946), describing his feelings for these composers.
Ralph Vaughan Williams – A Symphonic Portrait
Ralph Vaughan Williams (1872-1958) was a quintessentially English, strongly individual and very personal composer. Ken Russell’s delightful and original tribute to this great man of twentieth-century music uses extracts from his nine symphonies to sketch the story of his life. Vivid memories of Vaughan Williams are recounted by his widow, Ursula, and others who knew him.
Catherine Cookson
Catherine Cookson (1906-98) was a writer who won a huge popular following and many of her books have been successfully dramatised for television. This programme employs an innovative combination of film and video techniques to evoke her struggle to survive an impoverished upbringing in the slums of East Jarrow. Cookson confronts her past which led to a massive and terrifying nervous breakdown many years afterwards. She talks candidly about her life and the experiences that underlie her fiction.
In Rehearsal: Christoph von Dohnanyi
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’ R7117 Christoph von Dohnányi
rehearses Haydn’s Symphony No. 88 in G with the Philharmonia. Directed by Barrie Gavin 59’ R7116
Sir John Eliot Gardiner works with the Monteverdi Choir and the English Baroque Soloists on J. S.
Bach’s Cantata No. 63. The soloists are Ann Monoyios (soprano), Sara Mingardo (alto), Rufus
Müller (tenor), and Stephan Loges (bass). Directed by Manfred Waffender 59’ R0759 Valéry Gergiev
works with the Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra on Prokofiev’s Scythian Suite Op. 20. Directed by
Rob van den Berg 59′ R7113 Mariss Jansons prepares Bartók’s Miraculous Mandarin Suite with the
Oslo Philharmonic Orchestra. Directed by Morten Thomte 55′ R0756 Zubin Mehta rehearses the Israel
Philharmonic Orchestra for a performance of Richard Strauss’s Till Eulenspiegels lustige Streiche
Op. 28. Directed by Peter Berggren 55′ R7112 Esa-Pekka Salonen rehearses and performs Debussy’s
impressionistic orchestral piece, La Mer, with the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra. Directed
by Peter Berggren 56′ R7115
John Piper
English artist John Piper (1903-92) is best known for his romantic pictures of the country’s architectural heritage and landscape. This film surveys his long career – his early abstract paintings, his work as a war artist, his return to representational art – and explores a talent which was expressed in watercolours, oils, ceramics, stained glass, tapestry and opera designs.
Roger Daltrey
Having rocketed to fame in the 1960s as lead singer of The Who, Roger Daltrey went on to make a name as a film actor. Featuring his music and extensive Clips from his screen appearances, this profile looks at his career and at how he copes with success. It also focuses on his portrayal of the villain Macheath in Jonathan Miller’s television production of The Beggar’s Opera.
Eduardo Paolozzi
Five Themes and Variations in the Work of Eduardo Paolozzi This film on one of Britain’s major contemporary scuiptors surveys his evolving creativity since the 1940s. Paolozzi’s art and his obsessions are explored under five headings: Surrealism, Classicism, Waste, Ethnography and Time. He is seen at his work bases in London and Munich and through the eyes of associates.