Piano virtuoso Cyprien Katsaris plays Debussy’s Clair de lune from the Suite bergamasque, Ravel’s Pavane pour une infante défunte, Saint-Saëns’ The Swan (arranged by Godowsky), Brahms’ Sonata No. 3 in F minor Op. 5 and his own composition to celebrate European unity, Fantasie sur des hymnes. Each performance is introduced by Katsaris, who illustrates his insights into the music at the keyboard.
By the Roadside
A Four-Part Drama Series on the Life of van Gogh Despite the full documentation of his life which exists, van Gogh remains an enigma. Ger Beukenkamp dramatises his story through the experiences of the people who came closest to him – his prostitute lover, his brother and his wife, Gauguin, his fellow asylum in-mates, and those who helped him in the weeks before he committed suicide. Shot on location in Holland, France and Belgium, the series features an excellent cast of Dutch and French actors, with Ids van der Krieke – an astonishing van Gogh look-alike – in the main role. Extensive use is made of the artist’s paintings, and ingenious special effects, together with the hand of an expert forger, re-stage their creation.
La damnation de Faust
This live recording was made at the Royal Albert Hall during one of London’s famous Promenade Concert seasons. Sir Georg Solti conducts the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and Chorus in a magnificent performance of Berlioz’s concert cantata. This feast of Berlioz launched Solti’s farewell tour with the orchestra he had directed for twenty years and was described by The Times as “the unsurpassable culmination of two decades of music-making…one that summarised all that has been most admirable about Solti’s long reign in Chicago.
John Ogdon
In 1962, the British pianist John Ogdon won the Tchaikovsky Competition along with Ashkenazy and embarked on a successful international career. Ten years later he was struck by a crippling mental illness from which he took many years to recover. This programme was made with Ogdon shortly before his tragic death in 1989, as his musical genius was beginning to reassert itself. It focuses on his overriding love for music and concludes with him improvising a new work at the piano.
William Golding
Whether about boys marooned on a desert island (Lord of the Flies), the birth of prehistoric man (The Inheritors), or the building of Salisbury cathedral’s spire (The Spire),
Golding’s novels combine gripping story-telling with a profound examination of the nature of man and the mysterious forces that work upon him. The Nobel Prize-winning author gave this rare television interview in 1989, four years before his death at the age of eighty-one. He focuses on the trilogy of novels spawned by his Booker Prize-winning Rites of Passage, and extensive dramatised extracts from the final part, Fire Down Below, are included.
Christopher Hampton
Christopher Hampton is one of Britain’s most regularly successful playwrights and screen-writers, with plays such as Tales from Hollywood and Les Liaisons Dangereuses winning both popular and critical acclaim. This programme traces his development as a playwright and includes specially-staged extracts from his work. It also considers his film adaptation of Les Liaisons, starring Glenn Close and John Malkovich.
The History of Hamlet
Hamlet is among Shakespeare’s most perennially popular plays and the complex title role is regarded by actors as one of the supreme challenges of their profession. Talking to leading stage directors and actors, this programme looks at the particular appeal of Hamlet. Archive footage shows some of the great Hamlets in action – Richard Burton, John Gielgud, Laurence Olivier, even Sarah Bernhardt in 1899.
Haydn at Esterhaza
Haydn wrote most of his symphonies while he was in the employ of the Esterházy family, whose palace in Hungary was known as the ‘Versailles of the East’. Filmed in the magnificent mirrored great hall of the palace, this programme records a unique attempt to recreate a performance of Haydn’s music as close to the original as possible, Christopher Hogwood conducts the Academy of Ancient Music playing the composer’s Symphonies No. 23 in G, 28 in A, and 29 in E.
Peter Brook
Brook has won international acclaim as the outstanding director of post-war theatre. This film covers the complete spectrum of his career, focusing on seminal productions, including King Lear with Paul Scofield (1962), the controversial Marat-Sade (1964), his magical Midsummer Night’s Dream (1970), Orghast (1971), and The Mahabharata (1985/9). Contributors include leading theatre directors Peter Hall, Jonathan Miller and John Barton, actress Glenda Jackson, writer Jean-Claude Carriere and actors from The Mahabharata, with whom Brook is seen at work.
The Sleeping Beauty
The stylish grandeur of choreographer and artistic director Oleg Vinogradov’s production shows the entire company at its best. The superb tradition in dance continues with Larissa Lezhnina, one of Kirov’s stars at that time, brilliant as Princess Aurora, and Farukh Ruzimatov’s performance in the role of Prince Désiré demonstrates both power and grace. It may be a truism to say Russians interpret Russian music best, but based on this stunning Kirov Ballet performance it’s excitingly and exhilaratingly accurate. From the principal dancers to the last member of the ensemble, the grace and mastery of this world-class company is clearly in evidence. With its perfect fusion of music and choreographic ideas, “The Sleeping Beauty” is the quintessential romantic ballet, and it finds its spiritual home preserved in the outstanding classic traditions of the Kirov Ballet (now Mariinsky Ballet).