Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #12521 in DVD
• Released on: 2005-08-29
• Rating: Exempt
• Aspect ratio: 1.33:1
• Number of discs: 1
• Formats: Classical, Colour, NTSC
• Original language: English, French, German, Spanish
• Subtitled in: English, French, German, Dutch, Spanish
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 104 minutes

Customer Reviews

Two Masterful Music Documentaries by Frank Scheffer
This DVD combines two marvelous documentaries done by the expert classical music documentarian, Frank Scheffer. The first, called 'Igor Stravinsky: The Finale Chorale,' concerns itself with the 'Symphonies of Wind Instruments' from 1920. 'Symphonies' was written in memory of Stravinsky's friend and colleague, Claude Debussy -- one remembers that the first private performance of 'Sacre de Printemps' was a four-hand version prepared by Stravinsky and with Debussy sight-reading the bass part, reportedly without making any mistakes! -- and it is a paradigm of Stravinsky's mosaic or block style of formal organization. Interviews with Stravinsky's acolyte, Robert Craft, as well as the conductor of a performance of the piece, Reinbert de Leeuw, form the main spoken parts of the documentary. One sees various musicians of the acclaimed Netherlands Wind Ensemble as they rehearse, make reeds, practice by themselves, talk about their experience with the piece. Included is much archival film of the composer at work. The connecting narrative is beautifully written as is the filming and editing of the documentary. 'The Final Chorale' is a masterpiece of documentary film. It dates from 1992 but I had never seen it before and am very grateful now to have done so.

The second film, from 1994, is about Schönberg's 'Five Orchestral Pieces' with much discussion of its meaning to the composer, technical comments about its construction given by both conductor Michael Gielen, who is seen rehearsing and then conducting the Netherlands Radio Philharmonic in a beautiful performance of these path-breaking pieces, and by pianist/musicologist Charles Rosen who makes pithily informed comments about the work and also plays the third piece of Schönberg's Opus 11 'Three Piano Pieces.' The discussion and illustration of Klangfarbenmelodie (Sound-Color Melody), invented for 'Five Orchestral Pieces', is not only communicative in the extreme but beautifully illustrated by musical examples from the third of the pieces. There is much archival film of Schönberg and many closeups of his quite beautiful expressionist paintings.

As an extra, there is also included a brief documentary based primarily on Wagner's 'Ring' that I found confusing but exhilarating, too, largely because of the quick intercutting of scenes and music from a vast array of modern musics. And there are brief trailers of other classical music documentaries from Scheffer, including those on Mahler.

Subtitles in English, French, German, Dutch, and Spanish; most of the spoken narrative and interviews are in spoken English. Sound: Dolby Digital 2.0. TT=104mins

I have always been fascinated -- from many years of attending rehearsals, masterclasses, and seminars -- watching musicians at work. For anyone who, like I, is mesmerized by the process and who is interested in the music of Stravinsky and Schönberg, these two films are must-haves.

Scott Morrison