Leonard Bernstein was America’s musical ambassador to the world. This fascinating documentary shows why Bernstein was one of the most influential classical musicians of the last century. He was an inspirational teacher, a brilliant conductor, a fine composer, and an accomplished pianist. In his role as an educator, he found and fascinated an even larger audience of young listeners on television shows such as Omnibus and Young People’s Concerts. As a composer (West Side Story, On the Town etc.) he could bridge gaps and break down barriers in an extraordinarily skilful and yet accessible manner, reaching a large audience worldwide, way beyond classical music. The film includes interviews with Leonard Bernstein’s children, Jamie, Alexander and Nina Bernstein, Gustavo Dudamel, Stephen Sondheim, Kent Nagano, Marin Alsop, Sir Peter Jonas, Christoph Eschenbach, Norman Lebrecht, members of the Vienna Philharmonics, Craig Urquhart, and many others.
Magic Moments of Music – Leonard Bernstein and Krystian Zimerman interpret Brahms
It was a unique coming together in Vienna in 1984 when enigmatic pianist Krystian Zimerman and charismatic maestro Leonard Bernstein stepped onto the stage and in front of the cameras to perform Brahms’ Piano Concerto No. 2. The result was indeed a magic moment of music and a landmark in the career of Krystian Zimerman. In this episode Zimerman gives a rare interview, and for the first time in a TV documentary, speaks in detail about the background to the concert recording and why the collaboration with Leonard Bernstein radically changed the course of his artistic life. Eminent colleagues including Hélène Grimaud and Igor Levit as well as close confidants of Leonard Bernstein such as the conductor Marin Alsop and his former assistant Charlie Harmon also tell us what makes this concert a great moment for them.
Leonard Bernstein – Larger than Life
Leonard Bernstein was America’s ambassador to the world of music. He was one of the most influential musicians of the last century and inspired an entire generation with his music ensembles and symphony orchestras. An influential teacher, a brilliant conductor, a fine composer and an accomplished pianist. A man, who lived five lives and who exuded passion from every pore. This portrait by Georg Wübbolt, director of the awardwinning documentaries on Herbert von Karajan and Sir Georg Solti, covers the whole spectrum of Bernstein’s life: From his world famous TV series Young People’s Concerts to the recording of his Mahler cycle and from the West Side Story to his Chichester Psalms. The film includes interviews with Bernstein’s children as well as with friends and companions such as Stephen Sondheim, Kent Nagano and Christoph Eschenbach.
Maestras – The long journey of women to the podium
Being a female conductor means being an exception. Even today. When a woman stands on the podium she is, in most cases, somehow “the first”: the first to lead a world-class orchestra, the first to conduct the “Last Night of the Proms” in London, the first to win the German Conductor Prize. For decades, this sensational character has been tradition. At the same time it seems that the world of the maestro is now in a state of upheaval. The young Lithuanian conductor Mirga Gražinyte-Tyla, who took over the post of Andris Nelsons in Birmingham this September, said with conviction: “I really believe that something is changing now.” But why is it that there have been so few female conductors in the international music scene? To take a closer look at this phenomenon, the 53-minute film MAESTRAS follows several female conductors. This historical retrospective is supplemented by the memories of Hedy Graber. She is the daughter of Hedy Salquin, the first Swiss female conductor, who in 1955 received a letter from the Hessian Radio with the words: “Dear Mr. Salquin, although you are a woman we are addressing you with “Mr.” Moreover, we don’t have any use for you.”