Composer documentaries

[Tony]

Any composer documentaries you'd recommend?

I'm about to watch one on Erik Satie -- Things seen to the right and left

EuroArts have just uploaded one on John Cage -- How to get out of the cage (2012)

[graham]

Post by Tony
Any composer documentaries you'd recommend?
I'm about to watch one on Erik Satie -- Things seen to the right and left
http://youtu.be/4LYRufaWpbk
EuroArts have just uploaded one on John Cage -- How to get out of the cage (2012)
http://youtu.be/UaNGeuDuXl4

The classic BBC Elgar:

There are also several on Britten, not all positive!

[Oscar]

Ken Russell's Lisztomania (1975) starring Roger Daltrey is insanely great. I saw it at the American Cinematgequr at the Egyptian Theatre in 2010. Ken Russell flew in from England for the double-feature (Tommy was the main draw, although I prefer Altered States), and gave a nice chat. He was old and frail and I knew it was a special occasion. He died the next year.

As far as documentaries go, I seldom don't enjoy a Tony Palmer film. Just watched one of my faves a fortnight ago: Ginger Baker's Africa from 1971. Will watch it again soon!

[Tony]

Ken Russell's....

Thanks. I'm familiar with Ken Russell, who's a great director and made several wonderful films about composers (The Debussy Film).

As a tangent to this thread about documentaries, are there other notable directors like Russell who created films on composers?

[Bozo]

Post by Tony
Any composer documentaries you'd recommend?

Not video, but BBC Radio 3 does a daily "Composer of the Week" series, 4-5 programs on a composer.This week it's Bizet : http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b08t43w5

[Kerrison]

Post by Tony
Any composer documentaries you'd recommend?

There's another fascinating "Portrait of Elgar" documentary that features a very youthful Simon Rattle ...

[Tony]

And to swing the thread around the other way, I'm planning to watch composer Mauricio Kagel's film Ludwig van

[Kerrison]

Post by Tony
And to swing the thread around the other way, I'm planning to watch composer Mauricio Kagel's film Ludwig van
http://youtu.be/7l8vPWFIgxI

You Tube is choc-a-bloc with these old TV programmes and is thus a great archive of classical music. Here is one documentary entitled "A Dream of Italy" in which Vladimir Ashkenazy and the Swedish Radio Orchestra play the music of Respighi. Over the opening credits you hear the beautiful slow middle section of the Toccata for Piano and Orchestra ... and how often do you hear that work in the concert hall these days? ...

[Tony]

Post by Kerrison
You Tube is choc-a-bloc with these old TV programmes and is thus a great archive of classical music. Here is one documentary entitled "A Dream of Italy" in which Vladimir Ashkenazy and the Swedish Radio Orchestra play the music of Respighi. Over the opening credits you hear the beautiful slow middle section of the Toccata for Piano and Orchestra ... and how often do you hear that work in the concert hall these days? ...
http://youtu.be/8T1v-Gt1eiA

Thanks. That channel is Christopher Nupen's. He's made a few videos on Ashkenazy (piano recitals) and apparently many other classical musicians too.

[Bozo]

Over the opening credits you hear the beautiful slow middle section of the Toccata for Piano and Orchestra >... and how often do you hear that work in the concert hall these days? ...

Agreed. I enjoy this Sherbakov Naxos cd as well as one of his playing solo piano music of Respighi :

http://tinyurl.com/y7bw257v

[Dana John Hill]

Post by Bozo

On Friday, June 16, 2017 at 2:56:09 AM UTC-5, Kerrison wrote: Over
the opening credits you hear the beautiful slow middle section of
the Toccata for Piano and Orchestra >... and how often do you hear
that work in the concert hall these days? ...

Agreed. I enjoy this Sherbakov Naxos cd as well as one of his playing
http://tinyurl.com/y7bw257v

Yes! I purchased this CD in a big lot with many other Naxos discs, and
had little notion of what to expect going in. On first play it grabbed
me. I thought the music and performance quite exciting. It's well worth
its very modest cost.

Dana

[Al Eisner]

Post by Kerrison

Post by Tony
And to swing the thread around the other way, I'm planning to watch composer Mauricio Kagel's film Ludwig van
http://youtu.be/7l8vPWFIgxI

You Tube is choc-a-bloc with these old TV programmes and is thus a great archive of classical music. Here is one documentary entitled "A Dream of Italy" in which Vladimir Ashkenazy and the Swedish Radio Orchestra play the music of Respighi. Over the opening credits you hear the beautiful slow middle section of the Toccata for Piano and Orchestra ... and how often do you hear that work in the concert hall these days? ...
http://youtu.be/8T1v-Gt1eiA

I recall a fascinating life of Verdi done as a mini-series on TV back in
(probably) the 80's. I think this summarizes it:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Life_of_Verdi_(miniseries)
My recollections are quite favorable for the biography (and, as I recall,
for the subtext about coffee!), although one shouldn't expect
top-notch performances of the music. The series was made in Italian,
but stars Ronald Pickup.

While youtube has references to this, the full episodes are available only
for sale. If you look up "The Life of Verdi" at Amazon, there is a recent
DVD of the whole series, but some of the reviewers pan its quality.
However, Amazon also offers streaming of the 7 English-language episodes
for $3 each, so that could provide a nice way to sample it.

[Al Eisner]

Post by Al Eisner

Post by Kerrison

Post by Tony
And to swing the thread around the other way, I'm planning to watch
composer Mauricio Kagel's film Ludwig van
http://youtu.be/7l8vPWFIgxI

You Tube is choc-a-bloc with these old TV programmes and is thus a great
archive of classical music. Here is one documentary entitled "A Dream of
Italy" in which Vladimir Ashkenazy and the Swedish Radio Orchestra play the
music of Respighi. Over the opening credits you hear the beautiful slow
middle section of the Toccata for Piano and Orchestra ... and how often do
you hear that work in the concert hall these days? ...
http://youtu.be/8T1v-Gt1eiA

I recall a fascinating life of Verdi done as a mini-series on TV back in
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Life_of_Verdi_(miniseries)
My recollections are quite favorable for the biography (and, as I recall,
for the subtext about coffee!), although one shouldn't expect
top-notch performances of the music. The series was made in Italian,
but stars Ronald Pickup.

To clarify: the performances are from Italian recordings, and pefectly
fine for the purpose.

Post by Al Eisner
While youtube has references to this, the full episodes are available only
for sale. If you look up "The Life of Verdi" at Amazon, there is a recent
DVD of the whole series, but some of the reviewers pan its quality. However,
Amazon also offers streaming of the 7 English-language episodes
for $3 each, so that could provide a nice way to sample it.

If you search at youtube for "The Life of Verdi" you can find some short
excerpts. And the original, with Italian narration, appears to be
entirely available at youtube.

[Kerrison]

Here are a few more ...

From Christopher Nupen ...Sibelius in two parts ...

The Early Years ...

Maturity and Silence ...

Actually, you only have to tap the name of a composer in the You Tube 'search' field plus the word 'documentary' and you are presented with loads of them, as in "Puccini documentary" ...

https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=Puccini+documentary

Or Tchaikovsky ...

https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=Tchaikovsky+documentary

Or Verdi ...

https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=Verdi+documentary

Etc., etc. ... The list is endless, the composer choice is yours!

[Tony]

Post by Kerrison
From Christopher Nupen ...Sibelius in two parts ...

Thank you, I will watch those.

Post by Kerrison
Actually, you only have to tap the name of a composer in the You Tube 'search' field plus the word 'documentary' and you are presented with loads of them,
Etc., etc. ... The list is endless, the composer choice is yours!

Yes that's precisely why I started this thread, so I wouldn't have to watch all of them. If you know of a good documentary....

[Al Eisner]

Post by Tony

Post by Kerrison
From Christopher Nupen ...Sibelius in two parts ...

Thank you, I will watch those.

Post by Kerrison
Actually, you only have to tap the name of a composer in the You Tube 'search' field plus the word 'documentary' and you are presented with loads of them,
Etc., etc. ... The list is endless, the composer choice is yours!

Yes that's precisely why I started this thread, so I wouldn't have to watch all of them. If you know of a good documentary....

Well, my recommendation was based on having seen it (albeit more than
30 years ago).

[number_six]

Post by Tony
Any composer documentaries you'd recommend?

I recommend "The Stations of Bach" -- think it's on youtube.

There's an excellent Khachaturian documentary, and there's Shostakovich Against Stalin. Also the Theremin - Electronic Odyssey.

See Ken Russell's Mahler biopic -- though it's hardly a documentary!!

I have not yet seen, but sent for a dvd called Michael Nyman - Composer in Progress. It has documentary plus concert on second disk.

Also have a Takemitsu dvd I haven't watched yet.