At the age of seventy-five, fifty years after he was forced to leave Hungary because of its anti-semitic regime, maestro Solti (1912-97) went back to conduct his country’s State Symphony Orchestra for the very first time. This film records his emotional return to his homeland. It centres on a searching interview about his early life, accompanies him to landmarks of his youth, such as the Franz Liszt Music Academy where he studied, and shows rehearsals for the triumphant concert he gave.
J. M. W. Turner
Master of the landscape genre and one of the finest painters Britain has ever produced, Turner (1775-1851) bequeathed a huge body of his work to the nation. In 1987, a permanent Turner exhibition finally went on display, in a newly-built wing, at London’s Tate Gallery. An exclusive preview of this collection forms the framework for this celebration of the artist’s life and work, which includes contributions from critics and painters – Patrick Heron, Howard Hodgkin and Peter Blake among them.
George V. Higgins
In a series of literary thrillers, starting with The Friends of Eddie Coyle, Higgins (1939-99) drew a convincingly tough, cynical and humorous picture of crime and politics in Boston. His ear for authentically scabrous dialogue was unmatched as he blurred the distinction between the illicit dealings of the underworld and the outwardly respectable goings-on in the city’s State House. This film, shot in Boston, features an interview with Higgins, visits locations he used and dramatises extracts from his novels.
Peter York
In this television lecture, style guru Peter York faces an audience of media folk – experts on fashion, journalism, interiors and exteriors – and gives his lively assessment of
British design.
John Mortimer
For many years, John Mortimer ran two careers in parallel: one as a distinguished barrister, and one as a novelist and writer for stage, cinema, radio and television. This profile examines the way in which Mortimer incorporates his experience into his writing. It focuses on his popular television series, Rumpole of the Bailey, his autobiographical play, Voyage Round My Father, and his novel, Paradise Postponed, which was also made into a television series.
The Death and Life of Garcia Lorca
Spain’s most revered twentieth-century poet and dramatist was born in 1899 and assassinated in 1936 during the early days of the Spanish Civil War. Location filming in Spain traces the sources of his imagery and poetic imagination, and extracts from his poems, plays and letters are intermixed with the story of his life and the events leading up to his brutal murder. His biographer, lan Gibson, also contributes, together with surviving relatives, friends and witnesses.
The Rape of Lucretia
This specially-staged studio recording of the English National Opera’s highly-acclaimed production of Benjamin Britten’s work features outstanding performances by Jean Rigby as Lucretia and Richard Van Allan as Collatinus. Anthony Rolfe Johnson and Kathryn Harries sing the Male and Female Chorus who poignantly comment on the brutal rape of Lucretia by Tarquinius, Prince of Rome. With ist bare scrubbed boards, ist sliding screens – against which the characters sometimes appear in silhouette – and ist high-railed gantry from which the Chorus observe, both Graham Vick’s staging and Russell Craig’s severe designs have a cool, elegant simplicity. With no extraneous movement or gesture to distract the eye, everything is focused with a luminous intensity on the ritualistically compact unfolding of the drama and the inescapable fate of her characters. This ascetic production tellingly matches the austere restraint of Britten’s first chamber opera, scored with sparse texture for a mere twelve instruments, a limitation over which Britten triumphed to produce music of deeply moving intensity.
This innovative production is a fine example of the exciting and imaginative work that is characteristic of the English National Opera.
A Concert of Music by Ludwig van Beethoven
The highlight of the celebrations in March 1987 during the fifth anniversary of the opening of the London Barbican Centre was the concert of the London Symphony Orchestra under Sir George Solti. The special event was held to celebrate the creation of a cultural centre and a residential complex which with ist numerous theatres, cinemas and galleries is the largest of ist kind in Europe and whose new large concert hall has now become the home of the “LSO”. Solti””s programme concept for the evening was to offer variety with a unified theme, an appropriate concept for the place. Solti said “I have selected this Beethoven programme to represent three very different moods – the heavyweight Coriolan overture, the light, Mozart-like first piano concert, and finally the wonderful glorification of dance represented by the seventh symphony.”
Suzanne Vega
In this programme, American singer/song-writer Suzanne Vega talks about her songs, her New York background and the influences on her music. She performs specially-arranged solo versions of Luka, Small Blue Thing and Tom’s Diner and is seen in concert singing Gypsy Cracking, Ironbound/Fancy Poultry, Marlene on the Wall and Black Widow Station.
Underground Art
Since it opened in 1863, the London Underground has been a source of fascination for a colourful assortment of writers, artists, musicians and film-makers. It has been in its time a testing ground for a new form of traction power – electricity, a shelter for thousands during the Blitz, and a setting for films and television programmes. This imaginative journey through its labyrinthine tunnels looks at some of the creative by-products of this subterranean world.