“Music? You can’t destroy that…” Anita Lasker-Wallfisch Why was classical music so important to Hitler and Goebbels? The film centers around two people who represent musical culture during the Third Reich – albeit in very different ways. Wilhelm Furtwängler was a star conductor; Anita Lasker-Wallfisch, the cellist of the infamous Women’s Orchestra of Auschwitz. Both shared a love for the classical German music. The world-famous conductor made a pact with Hitler and his henchmen. The young woman, brought to Auschwitz for being Jewish, was spared death for her musical talent. German music was used to justify the powerful position the Third Reich claimed in the world, and to distract listeners from Nazi crimes. This music documentary by Christian Berger features interviews with musicians like Daniel Barenboim and Christian Thielemann; the children of Wilhelm Furtwängler; and of course 97-year-old survivor Anita Lasker-Wallfisch. Her memories are chilling. Archive film footage, restored and colorized, brings the story to life, and bears witness to an agonizing chapter in history.
Three Tenors – Voices for Eternity
The documentary Three Tenors – Voices for Eternity, tells the story of the most successful concert in the history of classical music, featuring recent interviews with José Carreras, Plácido Domingo, Zubin Mehta, Pavarotti‘s widow Nicoletta Mantovani, Lalo Schifrin, Brian Large, Mario Dradi, Paul Potts, Sir Bryn Terfel, Norman Lebrecht, Didier de Cottignies and many more. Behind-the-scenes-footage, showing the emotional highlights of the first concert and the sequel in Los Angeles offers a fascinating insight into what takes place beyond the spotlight and it includes excerpts from the legendary concert of the Original Three Tenors – José Carreras, Plácido Domingo and Luciano Pavarotti, conducted by Zubin Mehta at the Terme di Caracalla, Rome 1990 on the eve of the Football World Cup..
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.