Dynamic and inspiring, Russian conductor Valéry Gergiev’s dedication to his work and his passion for music are unbounded. In recent years he has revitalised the Kirov Opera and the White Nights Festival in St. Petersburg, created the Mikkeli International Festival in Finland, conducted virtually all of the major international orchestras and become the Principal Conductor of the Rotterdam Philharmonic. This documentary covers the wide spectrum of Gergiev’s musical activities, shows him in rehearsal and performance and includes an in-depth interview.
Luciano Pavarotti
Pavarotti has sold more records, performed for more people and commanded higher fees than any other tenor. This rare television interview was given at his summer home in Pesaro in northern Italy. In a frank and characteristically humorous exchange, he talks about his life, his career and his remarkable talent. The programme features lavish excerpts of Pavarotti in performance and there are contributions from his parents and his first singing teacher.
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.
John Eliot Gardiner
Sir John Eliot Gardiner is one of the world’s most highly-regarded conductors of operatic and orchestral music. He first made his name in the field of Early Music, then, in 1990, he founded the Orchestre Révolutionnaire et Romantique, a period instrument orchestra dedicated to playing classical and Romantic music. This programme focuses on Gardiner’s work with this orchestra, which brings a new and exciting perspective to some of the best-loved symphonic music.
Jordi Savall
Jordi Savall, the internationally-acclaimed Catalan musician, is a pre-eminent exponent of medieval, Renaissance and baroque music interpretation, and is widely credited with the rebirth of the viola da gamba. His schedule of performances is intense, but he still finds time to teach and to continue his musical research. All these aspects of his work are illuminated in this documentary, which includes a rich variety of performance and rehearsal extracts, exemplifying the musical eclecticism of this exceptional practitioner.
Christian Lindberg: A Trombone Odyssey
Swedish trombonist Christian Lindberg has won new recognition for the trombone as a solo instrument and now commands an international following. His passion for his instrument and his natural exuberance radiate from his playing. At the centre of this lively documentary is a record of the genesis of Anders Hillborg’s composition Strange Dances and Singing Water, a trombone concerto written specially for Lindberg.
Classic Widows
Classic Widows features four extraordinary women who are championing the music of their late composer-husbands: Susana Walton, globetrotting widow of William Walton; Bertha Stevens, whose husband, a contemporary of Walton’s, died in relative obscurity; Xenia Frankel, who was left £50,000 in debt on the death of her husband Benjamin; and Humphrey Searle’s widow. The programme features specially chosen selections from all the composers’ works, performed by the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Richard Hickox.
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.
Karol Szymanowski – Song of the Night
This semi-dramatised film delves into the vivid and exotic imagination of the Polish composer Szymanowski (1882-1937). Though dogged by ill health and misfortune, his whole life was a search to find his own creative voice and to develop and contribute to an authentic Polish musical culture. Szymanowski’s music is performed by the Warsaw National Philharmonic, conducted by Kazimierz Kord. Among those interviewed is the late Witold Lutoslawski.
Vladimir Ashkenazy on Rachmaninov
In this programme the celebrated pianist and conductor Vladimir Ashkenazy, a champion of his compatriot Rachmaninov (1873-1943), urges a fuller appreciation of the composer’s music. Filmed at Ivanovka, the country house south of Moscow where Rachmaninov wrote many of his works, the programme makes extensive use of archive footage and stills. It draws on his writings and features several sound recordings of him playing his own compositions. Ashkenazy also plays and conducts music by Rachmaninov.