Ein deutsches Requiem, Brahm´s majestic masterpiece, in a definite performance: Christian Thielemann and the Münchner Philharmoniker are a synonym for excellence in German late-Romantic repertoire. Soloists Christine Schäfer and Christian Gerhaher also rank among the best in their voice ranges. Through his almost surreal affinity to Brahm´s music, Thielemann has crafted a perfromance that places him among the best interpreters of this work, such as Furtwängler, Karajan or Guilini. “In Thielemann´s hands, this dying fall became the Requiem´s gently expressive high point.” (Süddeutsche Zeitung)
Leonard Bernstein conducts Debussy
With his legendary ability to conjure up magical sonorities, Leonard Bernstein offers his definitive reading of Debussy´s impressionistic sound worlds. His series of concerts with Accademia di Santa Cecilia in Rome was recorded in 1989, the year before his death, and featured three of the French composer´s masterpieces. Images, La Mer and Prélude à l´après-midi d´un faune, in a feast of Mediterranean sesuality.
“Bernstein´s Debussy is neither ethereal nor gelatinous, but uncommonly vital, caught in the full light of the midday sun” (Il Giornale, Rome).
“An unprecedented triumph” (La Stampa, Turin).
Artists and Models
David (1748-1825) saw his art as a weapon for social change. This film traces his career from his youth, as a Student of Boucher, through his heavy involvement in the politics of the French Revolution, to his exile in Brussels. Drawing on the memoirs of his pupil Delecluze and other historical documents, it provides a fascinating insight into the world of late eighteenth-century French society.
Rahsaan Roland Kirk – The Case of the Three Sided Dream
The Case of the Three Sided Dream is the documentary film on the life, music and legacy of multi-instrumentalist Rahsaan Roland Kirk. Kirk was a one of a kind musician, personality, satirist and windmillslayer who despite being blind, becoming paralyzed, and facing America’s racial injustices – did not relent. His life’s work was exploring sound and making music. Beyond that, he was an outspoken activist who started a political movement to get more exposure for Jazz in America – particularly on TV. Dreams were important to Rahsaan. They planted the seed in his mind to play three horns simultaneously. His name came from dreams. When asked about his religious beliefs, he would say, “I’m from the Religion of Dreams”. At the age of 40, at the apex of his career, Rahsaan suffered a stroke, which left him half paralyzed. Despite this, he continued to tour and play music, with the use of only one hand, literally until the day he died. Special Features (20 mins): Joel Dorn talks about Rahsaan “Bright Moments”, performed live in 1977.
Sir Georg Solti – The Making of a Maestro
Sir Georg Solti (1912-27) was one of the twentieth century’s greatest conductors.
This definitive profile, made during the last year of his life, captures the amazing energy and
passion for music of this remarkable man. Filmed with Solti in Budapest, Bavaria, Chicago and
London, and with a wealth of archive footage, it charts his exceptional musical journey. Solti is
seen in rehearsal and performance, and also working with singers Dame Kiri Te Kanawa and Bryn
Terfel.
Parsifal – Search for the Holy Grail
The Grail – the cup which Jesus Christ used at the Last Supper, and which subsequently collected His blood as He bled on the Cross – is one of the most powerful symbols in the last two thousand years of Western culture.
Parsifal, Wagner’ three-act opera, is the most famous work to celebrate the Search for the Grail. First performed in 1882, and written especially for the composer’s revolutionary theatre in Bayreuth, Parsifal has towered above twentieth-century culture, in so far as it became a principal source of inspiration for Hitler.
Tony Palmer’s film centres round a performance of Parsifal, with the unmistakable Placido Domingo in the title role, and conducted by the distinguished Valery Gergiev. The striking documentary, narrated by Domingo himself, offers a description of the plot and explores theories about Parsifal’s origins and considerable sphere of influence.
The music was recorded at the Mariinsky Theatre in St Petersburg and in the gardens of the Villa Rufolo in Ravello, Italy, which had been a principal source of inspiration for Wagner.
This powerful and controversial film provides an invaluable oppurtanity to explore Wagner and his most intense opera.
Sir André Previn – The Kindness of Strangers
Sir André Previn’s success is phenomenal: from Berlin refugee to multi-Oscar-winning film score composer, from renowned jazz pianist to chief conductor of both the London Symphony and the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestras. This film was made with him as his first opera, A Streetcar Named Desire, was being staged at the San Francisco Opera. It follows the production from first rehearsals through to opening night and Previn talks candidly about the experience, relating it to his international life and career.
Elaine Paige
Elaine Paige played Grizabella in the première staging of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s musical Cats and shot to stardom overnight when she created the title role in his hugely successful Evita. This music special focuses on Paige’s portrayals of Eva Peron (Evita), Norma Desmond (Sunset Boulevard) and Edith Piaf (Piaf). The cameras follow her to Buenos Aires, Hollywood and Paris to investigate the lives of these charismatic, but very different, women, whose stories are juxtaposed with her own. A wealth of rehearsal and performance footage is included in the programme.
Edvard Grieg – What Price Immortality?
Thomas Olofsson’s 1999 biopic of the composer Edvard Grieg (1843–1907), entitled What Price Immortality?, was greeted with great interest and international acclaim. The film, which was written by Olofsson himself, along with Ture Rangström und Johanna Olofsson, attempts to give a picture of Edvard Grieg, both as a man and a composer, a figure who still receives less attention outside Scandinavia than he deserves.
The pianist Staffan Scheja plays the role of Edvard Grieg as both performer and composer, playing works such as the piano ballad in G minor, op. 24. The internationally renowned Auryn Quartet plays the initial string quartet in G minor, op. 27.
O Fortuna
No other piece of twentieth-century music has enjoyed such popular acclaim as Orff’s Carmina Burana. But, apart from this composition, his work – operas, ballets, cantatas – is largely ignored. Why? Tony Palmer’s search for the real Carl Orff (1895-1982) looks at the whole range of his music, his educational work and his difficult relationship with the Nazi Party. Interviews with the three wives who survived him and his only child are included. An extraordinary, dark story emerges – of betrayal, disappointment, lies and personal tragedy.