This portrait of the great Swiss conductor, Ernest Ansermet (1883-1969), draws on a wealth of archive material and the reminiscences of his colleagues and family. As founder and life-long director of the Orchestre de la Suisse Romande, he was instrumental in making the French and Russian repertoire of the twentieth century known to music lovers around the some of Ansermet’s favourite music, played by the orchestra, under Armin Jordan, including pieces by Stravinsky, Debussy and Chabrier. Archive film of Ansermet at work includes footage of him rehearsing and conducting Haydn’s Symphony No. 88 in G, de Falla’s Harpsichord Concerto, Ravel’s La Valse, Rimsky-Korsakov’s Sheherazade and Schumann’s Manfred Overture.
The Hague School
The Dutch painters of The Hague School took the innovative step of leaving their Studios to paint nature in situ. The 1870s and ’80s saw the heyday of the movement, when artists, including Anton Mauve, Jacob Israels, Jacob Marais and Hendrik Mesdag, fled to The Hague to escape the increasing ugliness of urbanisation and to capture in their paintings the beauty of the countryside. This programme explores their work and shows the unique landscape which inspired them.
Song Recital: Liebeslieder Walzer
The Romantic Brahms is well observed in his many lieder, with their typically fluent melodies and rippling accompaniments. The pieces performed in these three programmes bear witness to the tremendous care Brahms took over the composition of these charming and simple settings. Liebeslieder Walzer (R0047.1) Volkslieder (R0047.2) Volkskinderlieder (R0047.3)
Symphony in D
In his ballet Symphony in D Jirí Kylián demonstrates a remarkable ability to create a highly inventive and graceful ballet, which is, at the same time, extremely funny. Set to Joseph Haydn’s Symphony No. 101 in D (Clock) and Symphony No. 73 (The Chase), it is an affectionate send-up of classical ballet poses, and is performed with great wit and style by the Nederlands Dans Theater in this live recording.
Piano Variations
Three ballets by Hans van Manen reflect his choreographic preoccupation with relationships between the sexes. Piano Variations II, to Prokofiev’s Sarcasms Op. 17, shows a couple locked in a cycle of acceptance and rejection. In Piano Variation III, to Satie’s Trois Gnossiennes, a man and a woman succumb to a growing attraction. Piano Variation IV, to Etudes by Debussy, shows a man resisting twelve women, before yielding. This studio recording includes an interview with van Manen.
Satyagraha
From the Staatsoper Stuttgart 1983 Produced and designed by Achim Freyer, Satyagraha is conducted by Dennis Russell Davies. Glass’s opera evokes impressions of Gandhi’s years in South Africa and his development of the philosophy of satyagraha (a Sanskrit word meaning ‘love/strength’) as a political and revolutionary tool. The text is drawn from the great Hindu spiritual treatise, the Bhagavad Gita, and sung in the original Sanskrit – a sacred language which is no longer spoken. This device enhances the ceremonial quality of the work and complements the ritual atmosphere built up by Glass’s hypnotic music.
Masterclass: Jorge Bolet
The legendary Cuban pianist, one of the last representatives of the grand tradition of Romantic piano playing, died in 1990. This masterclass series, made just a few years before his death, starts with a programme in which he talks about his life and work on the concert platforms of the world, illustrating his reminiscences at the keyboard. In three following programmes, Bolet works with up-and-coming young pianists on the movements of Rachmaninov’s formidable Piano Concerto No. 3 in D minor Op. 30. The series concludes with Bolet giving a concert performance of the piece with the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Bryden Thomson.
Cowboy Art
Cowboy Art is a uniquely American genre that has its origins in the work of the two great nineteenth century illustrators of the Wild West, Charles Russell and Frederick Remington. In recent years, it has attracted fresh interest and a whole new generation of Cowboy artists has emerged. Shot on location in Texas and New Mexico, this programme traces the history of representations of the Wild West in art, exploring what it is that makes cowboys and indians so enduringly popular.
Ivo Pogorelich
Piano virtuoso Ivo Pogorelich stepped into the limelight when he was dropped from the finals of the 1980 Warsaw Chopin Competition amid a controversy about his unsuitable dress and unconventional interpretation. Pogorelich has remained in demand on the concert platform and fuelled his reputation as an enfant terrible by marrying his teacher, Alice Kezeradse – twenty years his senior. This programme shows them together, working on Ravel’s Gaspard de la nuit and talking in interview.
Kurt Vonnegut
The American cult satirist achieved international fame with his novel, Slaughterhouse Five, based on his own experiences as a prisoner of war in Dresden during the Allied bombing of 1945. In this survey of his work, filmed on location in New York, Vonnegut explores his obsession with the betrayal of mankind by science and technology. He also gets under the skin of the characters he has created and enters into a dialogue with his fictional alter ego, Kilgore Trout.