Bram Stoker’s novel Dracula was first published in 1897. Since then, the Count and his fellow vampires have become some of the most familiar figures in horror movies and stories. This programme explores the social and psychological anxieties which lie behind Stoker’s book and its fascination with death, disease, social order and sexual repression. A wealth of film clips is included.
Montserrat Caballé
Montserrat Caballé is undoubtedly one of the supreme operatic sopranos of the post-war era and her association with the late Freddie Mercury and Queen brought her a huge new audience. This film portrait celebrates her long, distinguished and uniquely varied career. It centres on a major interview with Caballé and features numerous performance extracts. There are also contributions from some of opera’s biggest names, including Dame Joan Sutherland, Placido Domingo and José Carreras.
Sylvie Guillem
Sylvie Guillem is a dance superstar whose breathtaking technique ranks her beside the likes of Nureyev and Baryshnikov. She rarely agrees to interviews but co-operated fully with director Nigel Wattis for this profile. The programme centres on film of Guillem rehearsing and performing a range of pieces, both contemporary and classical, which display her astonishing virtuosity. She talks incisively about working with some of the world’s top choreographers.
Dmitry and Alexander Sitkovetsky
Dmitry Sitkovetsky is well-known in the West as one of the most exciting and respected violinists of his generation. He also has his own string orchestra, directs a Finnish summer music festival and is a brilliant transcriber and arranger of important classical works. Dmitry’s cousin, Alexander (Sasha), is a rock guitarist and an eminent rock/classical composer. This programme, shot on location in Latvia, St. Petersburg, Finland and London, interweaves the stories of the two cousins, charting their lives and careers.
Symphony No. 3 “The Symphony of Sorrowful Songs”
“A towering monument to our world and to the appalling mess we have made of it,” is
how director Tony Palmer describes Henryk Górecki’s phenomenally successful Symphony No. 3.
Taking his cue from Górecki’s remarks about the inspiration for this symphony, Palmer overlays a
performance by the London Sinfonietta and soprano Dawn Upshaw, conducted by David Zinman, with
harrowing footage of man’s crimes against his fellow man – from Auschwitz to Somalia, Iraq and
Sarajevo. The result is an intensely moving and disturbing film.
Douglas Adams
The Hitch-Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy established Douglas Adams (1952-2001) as a hugely successful comic writer. Filmed at his London home as he grappled with book five of the Hitch-Hiker ‘trilogy’, Adams discusses his work and his influences. His love of computers is reflected in the programme and, in addition to broadcast extracts from Hitch-Hiker, Adam’s literary creations invade his house, observing proceedings from their parallel universe.
Julian Barnes
This film profile of one of today’s most critically and commercially successful British novelists includes dramatised scenes from his book Talking It Over, which deals with his perennial themes of love and jealousy. Barnes talks about his work in interview and admits to being obsessed with obsessions.
Ingo Metzmacher conducts Hans Werner Henze’s Requiem
Few modern composers had a more meaningful relationship with both past and (very real) present than Hans Werner Henze – or a more acute ear for beauty. His Requiem of 1993 is simultaneously typical and utterly original: nine wordless concertos for trumpet, piano and a shimmering chamber orchestra, each charged (in Henze’s own words) “with the human fears and problems of our time, with illness and death, love and loneliness”. This film captures the world premiere performance in Frankfurt in February 1993, with Ueli Wiget on piano and the incomparable Håkan Hardenberger on trumpet – a landmark in postwar musical history.
Solti conducts Mendelssohn & Shostakovich
Mendelssohn’s “Italian” Symphony begins with a burst of pure sunlight. Shostakovich’s Tenth opens under altogether darker skies. But both composers are burning to communicate, and for Sir Georg Solti – a conductor who never compromised on energy, integrity or pure, heartfelt commitment to the music he performed – that was enough. In this live recording from the Philharmonie am Gasteig in Munich he conducts one of his favourite orchestras: the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, renowned (then as now) for the lustre of its sound and its profound, instinctive understanding of the symphonic tradition. This is great music making at its most spontaneous – and masterful.
Nederlands Dans Theater 3
According to the ancient Greek legend, Prometheus brought fire and culture to mankind, thus saving the world from being destroyed by Zeus. Through the ages, this story has inspired countless artists, poets and musicians to some of their grandest creations.
Christopher Swann’s film is based on a 1993 televised concert from Berlin’s Philharmonic Hall.
The program features music by Beethoven, Liszt, Skriabin and Nono based on the legend of Prometheus. The four compositions could not be more diverse in style and conception, representing highly different approaches: from the Prometheus as bringer of plague and destruction to the punished Prometheus chained to a rock.
In this film, Christopher Swann stresses a visual approach to this variety of ideas, using a number of modern film techniques to underscore and illustrate the musical presentation.
Performances by the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra under Claudio Abbado are first-rate, although it is the presence of Argerich that will make this DVD an obligatory purchase.