With a string of blockbuster ‘screwball’ comedies, writer-director Preston Sturges (1898-1959) was Hollywood’s wonder boy in the early 1940s. Unhappily, his talent faded by the fifties. This programme paints an entertaining and moving portrait of a genius doomed by his own success, combining the reminiscences of colleagues and friends with rare photos and generous footage from his landmark films.
W. Eugene Smith
Smith (1918-78) had a passion for social justice which informed his desire to create photographs that were works of art. The war in the South Pacific and victims of industrial pollution in a Japanese village are just two of the subjects he captured in unforgettable images. In addition to showcasing his stunning photos, this profile uses dramatic reconstruction, archive film, and interviews with his family, friends and colleagues, to get close to this brilliant and complicated American.
Neil Simon
American playwright Neil Simon has enjoyed unprecedented commercial success. This intimate portrait explores the sources of his unique brand of humour and includes interviews with colleagues, among them Jack Lemmon, Walter Matthau and Marsha Mason, as well as Simon himself and his brother Danny. With extracts from stage productions and films, his career is traced from Broadway to Hollywood, giving an overview of his varied dramatic repertoire.
Greek
A Film by Peter Maniura and Jonathan Moore: Turnage’s critically-acclaimed opera, set in London’s backstreets, is a modern version of the Oedipus myth, based on a play by Steven Berkoff. The composer has matched the raw potency of Berkoff’s graphic language and bold imagery with a rasping lyricism and remorseless drumbeat. This powerful television production was adapted by Jonathan Moore from his original stage version. The cast includes Helen Charnock, Fiona Kimm, Quentin Hayes and Richard Suart. Richard Bernas conducts The Almeida Ensemble. (Sung in English)
Alfred Schnittke – Words Return to Music
“Schnittke (1934-98) is now established as one of Russia’s most important twentieth-century composers. This programme features the first major television interview he gave in Moscow for broadcast in the West, when he and his colleagues were able to talk freely in the wake of Gorbachev’s reforms. The film reflects the “unreal reality” he describes by using specially-shot black and white sequences and original performance extracts to create an impressionistic tapestry of biography, music and ideas.
Works featured include Violin Sonata No. 2, Symphony No. 1, Prayer of a Young Man, Three Scenes, Epilogue from Peer Gynt and the Faust Cantata.”
I, Berlioz
Tony Palmer’s film contains a startling kaleidoscope of images reflecting precisely what Berlioz (1803-69) had written in his music: war, destruction, death, sometimes blending seamlessly with great natural beauty, sometimes juxtaposed with erotica. The pictures are underscored by the composer’s powerful and evocative music – mainly from his life’s work, The Trojans. This opera’s failure to convince the musical establishment of its greatness caused Berlioz to die a broken man. The programme, which takes as its source the composer’s letters and memoirs, details his vain attempts to gain recognition for this epic work. Corin Redgrave portrays Berlioz. The soloists are Ludmilla Schemtschuk, Giorgio Lamberti, Agnes Habereder and Anne Sofie Von Otter, and the ensemble, chorus and orchestra of the Zürich Opera House are conducted by Ralf Weikert.
Symphony No.9
For a long time Beethoven was unsure whether he ought to write a choral symphony or not, before deciding to use Schiller’s ‘Ode to Joy’ for the last movement of his 9th symphony. He could not know that this work would be his last symphony, and that ‘nine’ would always be regarded as a ‘fateful number’ for the symphonic works of others. This work received ist first performance in Vienna in 1824, under his own direction (Beethoven was already almost completely deaf by then!).
In 1991 Kurt Masur conducted the choir and orchestra of the Leipzig Gewandhausorchester, whose direction he took over in 1970. The events of 1989 have left Masur and the Gewandhaus orchestra forever linked in people’s memories. The quartet of soloists in this performance consisted of Venceslava Hruba-Freiberger, Doris Soffel, James Wagner and Gwynne Howell.
James Galway
From 1975-85, flautist James Galway was continually in the public eye. He widened the audience for classical music and, to the purists’ horror, added unashamedly popular music to his repertoire. Since then, he has tired of hell-raising and the publicity circus and is more eager than ever to perfect and to communicate his art. Galway talks with disarming frankness about his life and his music and is seen teaching, rehearsing and performing.
Jimi Hendrix
Great Documentary about Jimi Hendrix with Eric Clapton, B.B. King, Mitch Mitchell, Noel Redding, Chas Chandler and Jimi Hendrix. Melvyn Bragg as Presenter.
Alice
Many creative talents have found inspiration in the books of Lewis Carroll, and Glen Tetley’s ballet on this theme is set to music by David Del Tredici. His multi-layered ballet presents many of the famous characters from the Alice books and also speculates on the relationship between Carroll and his real life muse, ten-year-old Alice Liddell. Music, dance and design are combined to great dramatic effect in this specially-staged studio recording, which stars prima ballerina Karen Kain.