He is the most performed contemporary composer in the world. And yet he rarely ventures out in public, prefers to keep quiet about his music, feels at home in the forests of Estonia and generates therewith – perhaps involuntarily – the impression of a recluse, which is attributed to him again and again: Arvo Pärt. In The Lost Paradise, we follow him over a period of one year in his native Estonia, to Japan and the Vatican. The documentary is framed by the stage production of Adam’s Passion, a music theater piece based on the Biblical story of the fall of Adam featuring three key works by Arvo Pärt. The world-renowned director Robert Wilson has brought this work to the stage in a former submarine factory in Tallinn. Tracing their creative process, the film offers rare and personal insights into the worlds of two of the most fascinating personalities in the international arts and music scene.
The Three Tenors – The Birth of a Legend
Excitement after a spectacular open-air concert. At the 1990 Football World Cup, the three tenors, José Carreras, Plácido Domingo and Luciano Pavarotti met the first time together with the conductor Zubin Mehta for an extraordinary musical experience. Six thousand excited live viewers and one billion watching on television. The beginning of a new era of classical music. In the following years, the 3 Tenors held audiences around the world under their spell in over thirty performances. They helped to bring about an unexpected flourishing of classical music. The concert in the Caracalla Baths of Rome was the Birth of a Legend. The programme interweaves performance and background information, including previously unseen material.
Vocal Perfection – The Tenor Nicolai Gedda
The Swedish-born lyrical tenor Nicolai Gedda is considered one of the greatest tenors of the 20th Century. From the time of his debut in 1952 right through his unprecedented career for half a century, he took the world’s stages by storm and recorded more than 200 albums which made him the most recorded tenor in history.
Arvo Pärt – Adam’s Passion
Adam’s Passion is the moving first collaboration between two “masters of slow motion who harmonize perfectly with each other” (Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung). In the spectacular setting of a former submarine factory, American director and universal artist Robert Wilson creates a poetic visual world in which the mystical musical language of the Estonian composer Arvo Pärt can cast its meditative spell. Three of Pärt’s major works – Adam’s Lament, Tabula rasa, and Miserere, as well as Sequentia, a new work composed especially for this production – are brought together here using light, space, and movement to create a tightly-woven Gesamtkunstwerk in which the artistic visions of these two great artists mirror each other.
Peace ‘n’ Pop
From the anti Vietnam protests up to the struggle for civil rights, and Yoko Ono´s and John Lennon´s “Bed Peace”. The resistance of Britain´s music establishment against the Falkland war, and pop culture´s reaction on the “War on Terror“ – This two-part documentary tells the story of the pacifistic inflections in western pop culture.
Exclusive interviews and music by o.a. Pink, Bob Dylan, Joan Baez, Dixie Chicks, Asaf Avidan, Joshua Redman, Nneka, The Avener, La Canaille, Ed Sheeran. Ken Follett, Hanif Kureishi, Nitin Sawhney, New Model Army and many more.
Rattle conducts Haydn and Mozart
At this summer’s Lucerne Festival, Sir Simon Rattle and the Berliner Philharmoniker presented a new Haydn symphony that never existed before: Rattle gathered together ten of the most original and avant-garde-like instrumental movements by Joseph Haydn to fashion a “Symphonie imaginaire,” a new Haydn symphony that never existed before. In addition to this astonishing Haydn Pasticcio, Rattle conducted Mozart’s Sinfonia concertante for violin, viola and orchestra, soloists were Daishin Kashimoto (violin) and Amihai Grosz (viola).
J.S. Bach: Christmas Oratorio – Ballet by John Neumeier
“Rejoice, exult” – John Neumeier turns Bach’s Christmas Oratorio into an experience that confronts us all with the most basic questions of trust, hope, faith, doubt and self-sacrifice: “My choreography is not a religious undertaking. We perform to Bach’s music, for a few hours unifying individuals of many different cultural and religious backgrounds. For me, the basic human values expressed through the choreography are always the most important thing. Therefore, in my ballet, Mary is known simply as ‘the Mother’ and Joseph as ‘her Husband’.” “Once again it is impossible not to be impressed by the flawless technique of the ensemble … When at the end Lloyd Riggins tap-dances his way across the stage like Fred Astaire, the Christmas Oratorio is complete” (Süddeutsche Zeitung).
I’m a creative animal – Barbara Hannigan
She crosses boundaries and loves to explore new territory. Barbara Hannigan is one of the most fascinating and multi-facetted artistic personalities of our time. She sets new standards as a singer, conductor, and performance artist. The intimate portrait “I’m a creative animal” takes the viewer into the world of an exceptional musician – a world of both passion and discipline. Her performances possess a breathtaking intensity because of her exquisite vocal technique and virtuosity, musical and theatrical expressivity, and uncompromising engagement.
TSO & Savatage at Wacken Open Air 2015
In 1986, introduced to each other by executives at Atlantic Records, two special men met for the very first time. The actually unlikely pair hit it off and, from then on, formed a team that would eventually write and release album classics like „Hall Of The Mountain King“, „Streets“, and „Dead Winter Dead“. The constant strive to push the boundaries of rock and metal evolved into the formation of the band Savatage, that soon was considered to be the world‘s first progressive metal band. Beyond that, it was the duo‘s vision, to raise the dynamics of progressive rock to a new level. By taking the best from the two worlds of rock and classical music and putting it together with multiple singers they were able to act without any musical limits – Trans-Siberian Orchestra was born. The two said men, Paul O‘Neill and Jon Oliva together on one stage – and here in Wacken, they will show us their past, their present and their future. Trans-Siberian Orchestra is performing live on stage at Wacken 2015, followed immediately by a Savatage reunion gig, that also marks their first live perfor¬mance in over a decade. Furthermore, these is the only live appearances of both bands in Europe in 2015!
Dream Theater at Wacken Open Air 2015
Dream Theater is an American progressive metal and progressive rock band formed in 1985. The band is well known for the technical proficiency of its instrumentalists, who have won many awards from music instruction magazines. Dream Theater has sold over two million albums in the United States alone and over ten million albums around the world. Sharing stages with musical titans Deep Purple, Iron Maiden, Porcupine Tree, Megadeth and Emerson, Lake & Palmer (to name a few) has contributed to the rightful perception of Dream Theater as one of rock’s greatest live acts. Petrucci and Myung have known each other since before they were in high school. They assembled what would become one of the world’s most impressive musical collectives together with fellow Berklee College of Music student Mike Portnoy.