Eroica

The Life and Loves of Beethoven

January 1937 •French

Lyrical biography of the classical composer, depicted as a romantic hero, an accursed artist.

Four Minutes

June 2006 •German

Jenny is young. Her life is over. She killed someone. And she would do it again. When an 80-year-old piano teacher discovers the girl’s secret, her brutality and her dreams, she decides to transform her pupil into the musical wunderkind she once was.

Mozart's Sister

October 2024 •English

For the first 18 years of her life, Mozart’s sister shared equal billing with her brother. Musical partners and collaborators, Wolfgang Mozart and Maria-Anna Mozart played together before Kings and Queens, and were the talk of Europe. What happened to her? Forced into retirement by age 16 because she was a woman, a stunning new investigation explores why she was retired against her will and the explosive theory: did Maria-Anna Mozart continue to compose in secret?

TÁR

September 2022 •English

As celebrated conductor Lydia Tár starts rehearsals for a career-defining symphony, the consequences of her past choices begin to echo in the present.

Aida - Arena di Verona

November 2013 •Italian

The grand scale and magnificent acoustics of the Roman arena in Verona are ideally suited to the pageantry of Verdi's Egyptian opera, presented here in a staging that is true to the original 1913 production, framed by obelisks and sphinxes and filled with chorus and dancers. Chinese soprano Hui He has won international acclaim for her portrayal of the eponymous slave girl whose forbidden love for the war hero Radamés (Marco Berti, the experienced Verdi tenor) brings death to them both.

Johann Sebastian Bach -The Well Tempered Clavier Book II Sir Andras Schiff

December 2018 •German

In 2018, the Thomanerchor and the Gewandhausorchester Leipzig performed in the Thomaskirche Leibzig under the direction of Gotthold Schwarz together with an internationally renowned ensemble of soloists.

Samuel Barber: Absolute Beauty

March 2017 •English

Known for his mournful "Adagio for Strings," Samuel Barber was never quite fashionable. This acclaimed film is a probing exploration of his music and melancholia. Performance, oral history, musicology, and biography combine to explore the life and music of one of America’s greatest composers. Features Thomas Hampson, Leonard Slatkin, Marin Alsop and many more of the world's leading experts on Barber's music, with tributes from composers Leonard Bernstein, Aaron Copland, Virgil Thomson and William Schuman. The film was broadcast on PBS, and screened at nine film festivals internationally, with three best-of awards. It was named a Recording of the Year 2017 by MusicWeb International.

A World Without Beethoven?

September 2020 •English

"What would the world be like without Beethoven?" That’s the provocative question posed by this music documentary from Deutsche Welle. To answer it, the film explores how Ludwig van Beethoven's innovations continue to have an impact far beyond the boundaries of classical music, 250 years after his birth.

House of Ricordi

December 1954 •Italian

The film covers a hundred years in the lives of the Ricordi family, the Milan publishing house of the title, and the various composers and other historic personalities, whose careers intersected with the growth of the Ricordi house. It beautifully draws the parallel between the great music of the composers, the historic and social upheavals of their times, as well as the "smaller stories" of the successive generations of Ricordi.

Get Out Your Handkerchiefs

January 1978 •French

Solange is seriously depressed, and her kindhearted husband, Raoul, makes it his mission to cure her doldrums. After many failed attempts to cheer her up, Raoul hits upon a possible solution: find his wife a lover. Unfortunately, his choice, Stéphane, proves to be just as ineffectual in restoring her flagging spirits. In the end, the gorgeous Solange finds her own, highly problematic tonic to her troubles in the form of a 13-year-old boy.

Toscanini: The Television Concerts, Vol. 9: Beethoven: Symphony No. 5/Respighi: The Pines of Rome

March 1952 •English

The historic Toscanini television concerts with the NBC Symphony Orchestra. Broadcast #9 was of a concert on March 22, 1952, at Carnegie Hall, featuring Beethoven's 5th Symphony and Respighi's Pines of Rome. (Concerts #8 and #9 were released on "Vol. 5" in the DVD series.)

Copying Beethoven

September 2006 •English

A fictionalised exploration of Beethoven's life in his final days working on his Ninth Symphony. It is 1824. Beethoven is racing to finish his new symphony. However, it has been years since his last success and he is plagued by deafness, loneliness and personal trauma. A copyist is urgently needed to help the composer. A fictional character is introduced in the form of a young conservatory student and aspiring composer named Anna Holtz. The mercurial Beethoven is skeptical that a woman might become involved in his masterpiece but slowly comes to trust in Anna's assistance and in the end becomes quite fond of her. By the time the piece is performed, her presence in his life is an absolute necessity. Her deep understanding of his work is such that she even corrects mistakes he has made, while her passionate personality opens a door into his private world.

Vilém Veverka a Ensemble Opera Diversa

January 2018 •Czech

Renowned Czech oboist in the Janáček Philharmonic Orchestra Ostrava chamber music series. Vilém Veverka, one of the most respected Czech oboists, performs as a soloist with major orchestras and has performed a number of demanding compositions from the second half of the 20th century in European premieres. This time, he will present important works by Czech composers to the audience together with the string orchestra Ensemble Opera Diversa. The highlights of the concert are compositions by Gideon Klein and Pavel Haas, who belong to the so-called Terezín composers. Pavel Haas' Suite for Oboe and Piano, Op. 17, was composed in the autumn of 1939 under the shadow of occupation, and its arrangement for oboe and string orchestra by composer Ondřej Kyas is a reference to the unfinished nature of Haas' composition.

Who plays me, hears my voices

December 2020 •Spanish

"Who plays me, hears my voices”, shows a recent moment in the life of Gaston Lafourcade, a classical pianist and harpsichordist who, at the age of 83, enters a recording studio for the first time in his life to record a solo album and to join his daughter, Natalia Lafourcade, who during a recess period in her career, decides to embark on this adventure as a love letter to her father and as a way to enjoy what brings them together, beyond blood ties: their deep love for music.

Druhý koncert na kurtech

January 2005 •Czech

Třetí koncert na kurtech

January 2007 •Czech

The Eye

February 2008 •English

Violinist Sydney Wells was accidentally blinded by her sister Helen when she was five years old. She submits to a cornea transplantation, and while recovering from the operation, she realizes that she is seeing dead people.

Allegro non troppo

March 1976 •Italian

The film is a parody of Disney's Fantasia, though possibly more of a challenge to Fantasia than parody status would imply. In the context of this film, "Allegro non Troppo" means Not So Fast!, an interjection meaning "slow down" or "think before you act" and refers to the film's pessimistic view of Western progress (as opposed to the optimism of Disney's original).

Humoresque

January 1947 •English

A classical musician from a working class background is sidetracked by his love for a wealthy, neurotic socialite.

Deception

October 1946 •English

After marrying her long lost love, a pianist finds the relationship threatened by a wealthy composer who is besotted with her.