Alberto Moravia (1907-90), one of Italy’s foremost modern novelists, talks revealingly about his long career, his experience of Fascism, and about women and sex – concerns that lie at the heart of his writing. Filmed in Rome and on Capri, the programme focuses on his novel 1934, and includes contributions from writer Dacia Maraini and film-maker Bernardo Bertolucci, as well as readings from his work.
The Raphael Quartet plays Beethoven
The acclaimed Dutch string quartet plays two works by Beethoven: The Cavatina movement of String Quartet No. 13 in B flat major Op. 130 and String Quartet in B flat major Op. 133 (Grosse Fuge).
Ben Nicholson
Together with Henry Moore and Barbara Hepworth, Ben Nicholson (1894-1982) shook English art out of the doldrums of the 1930s, helping to bring it back into the mainstream of international development with his uncompromisingly abstract art. This survey of his life and work includes personal observations and reminiscences from artists, friends and associates.
Franz Liszt
The Hungarian piano virtuoso Liszt (1811-86) led an illustrious life between Paris, his base as a performer, Weimar, where he was court musical director, composer and champion of new music, and Rome, where he took minor holy orders, entitling him to be called Abbé. Focusing on the end of his life and his last compositions, in particular La Lugubre Gondola, this film shows that he was not just one of the last great Romantics, but that his final compositions range harmonically far into the future.
Paul Cezanne
Cézanne (1839-1906) had not found success when his father died in 1886. Finding himself a rich man, he went to live in seclusion in Provence, disillusioned and resigned to anonymity. There he took to scrutinising the landscape and made over sixty studies of the Mont Ste. Victoire near Aix, the dominating subject of his later work. Shot on location in the South of France, this film shows his work and tells his story, employing a first person narrative to great effect.
Alexander Tauner
Art director Alexander Trauner talks about his distinguished career in a programme amply illustrated with library material. Having gained his early experience with the great designer Lazare Meerson, he worked with Marcel Carne on Drôle de drame, and it marked the beginning of a lengthy association with the director, encompassing Les Enfants du Paradis. In Hollywood he collaborated with Billy Wilder on several films, including Irma la douce, and in England he was no stranger to Pinewood.
Laurence Olivier
Made in 1982, this two-part film special records the only time Laurence Olivier (1907-89) talked openly for television about a life filled with incident and romance both on and off the stage and screen. His life-story is richly illustrated with film clips and archive material, and there are contributions from friends, including Peggy Ashcroft, Douglas Fairbanks Jnr., John Gielgud, Ralph Richardson, John Osborne, and his wife, the actress Joan Plowright.
Repercussions
“Compulsory viewing for anyone remotely interested in black music” (The Guardian), this series shows off the dazzling diversity of African-American music. To explore its constantly evolving cross-fusion of styles, the film-makers travelled to Gambia to search out the traditional music of the Mandinkas; to the USA to capture the sounds of rhythm and blues, gospel quartets, and the masters of bebop; to the Caribbean to survey the colourful variety of forms blending African and European influences; and, finally, to West Africa, to record the ecstatic polyrhythms of today’s African popular music.
Zuzana Ruzickova: English Harpsichord Music
In this recording, the virtuoso harpsichordist Zuzana Ruzickova plays a selection of sixteenth- and seventeenth-century music, including works by William Byrd, John Bull, William Croft, Richard Farnaby, Thomas Morley and John Mundy.
The King’s Singers’ Madrigal History Tour
In this series, the highly-acclaimed King’s Singers vocal ensemble travels through
Germany, Spain, France, England and Italy to perform a varied selection of madrigals in the
settings which first inspired their composition in the Golden Age of the sixteenth century. An
introductory programme looks at the origins of the madrigal in Italy and traces its development
throughout Europe to become the musical rage of the High Renaissance.