Classical music documentaries
Thu, Mar 21 2013, 10:39AM
Waht are the must-see documentaries on music? I just watched this amazing documentary on the amazing Celibidache, rehearsing with the LSO. Very interesting to see this master at work!
Thu, Mar 21 2013, 4:39PM
#2
RE: Classical music documentaries
Many of Tony Palmer's composer documentaries are excellent - for instance 'O thou Transcendent' (on Vaughan Williams) and 'Towards the Unknown Region' (on Malcolm Arnold). Likewise Christopher Nupen's films on Tchaikovsky and Sibelius.
If you enjoyed the Celibidache documentary then I'm sure you'd enjoy the film from 1970 of Carlos Kleiber rehearsing the Freischutz and Fledermaus overtures. (Pretty basic black-and-white filming, but such personality, and such results!) There have been a couple of recent documentaries on Kleiber, also quite recommendable. The documentary on Abbado 'Hearing the Silence' I thought interesting too.
Thu, Mar 21 2013, 5:35PM
#3
RE: Classical music documentaries
You may find interesting (or good food for thought) the video on Norrington's views on conducting the Romantic composers without vibrato and faster tempi, in his DVD "Norrington-The Romantics".
I always loved the few videos on the life and Art of Leonard Bernstein. Maybe, the "Reflections in Rehearsal and Performance" or the "Gift of Music" might trigger your interest.
Finally, the most intriguing kind of documentaries were the films about and on the life and Art of this maverick of genius, the formidable Glenn Gould. The "Thirty-Two Short Films about Glenn Gould" by Francois Girard or the "Glenn Gould-Hereafter" by Bruno Monsaingeon are worth exploring.
Parla
Fri, Mar 22 2013, 10:20AM
#4
RE: Classical music documentaries
The recently departed Ken Russell made his name with the atmospheric BBC documentary Elgar from 1962. It is obtainable on DVD. Russell followed this up with further documentary films on Delius and Bax but they not as evoctive as the film of Elgar.
Unless your name is Abbie Conant, then you probably just view Celibidache as a shallow pathetic human being.
Moral - If you want to be remembered as 'high art' then don't behave like low life.