Great Composers

J.S. Bach occupies a pivotal place in the history of music. His compositions represent both the height of the Baroque and the beginning of the Modern Age of music. Filmed in Leipzig, London and America this documentary, both fascinating and authoritative, features specially-filmed extracts with John Eliot Gardiner conducting the Monteverdi Choir and English Baroque Soloists, performing the Mass in B minor, András Schiff playing the Goldberg Variations, Jacques Loussier improvising on the Toccata and Fugue in D minor as well as demonstrations by Ton Koopman, Tini Mathot, Joanna MacGregor and the Thomanerchor of Leipzig. Biographical and critical commentary is provided by leading Bach scholars, Christoph Wolff and Robert Marshall, while Charles Rosen and Jonathan Miller discuss Bach’s masterpiece the St Matthew Passion.

Sorting out the fact and fiction that surround Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart can prove to be a difficult task, since the great composer's legacy of work is constantly entangled in the mythology about his life. Exploring the maestro's personal relationships, the film attempts to uncover the real Mozart by presenting excerpts from the film Amadeus and insight from figures such as Charles Rosen, Imogen Cooper and Jonathan Miller.

For many people, musicians and laymen alike, Beethoven is the most admired composer in the history of Western classical music – not only because of the intellectual rigour of his music, but also its expressive power. Beethoven’s struggle to resist being defeated by his deafness has a parallel in his music. This programme explores all aspects of Beethoven’s life, the music and the man, his views on life, politics and the French Revolution. Contributors include conductors Nikolaus Harnoncourt and Michael Tilson Thomas, pianist Vladimir Ashkenazy, violinist Peter Cropper from The Lindsays, musicologist Charles Rosen, sociologist Tia de Nora, director Sir Peter Hall, Beethoven expert John Suchet and Beethoven scholars Barry Cooper, Bill Meredith, Basil Deane and William Kinderman.

Musical genius, political hero and racist demon, the life of Richard Wagner reads like the ultimate Boys-own story. The Ring cycle is regarded as one of the finest achievements of the human soul. This documentary examines the connections between Wagner’s own spiritual vision and his art, including coded anti-Semitic references in his music and the techniques he used to mesmerise his audience. It is filmed in Switzerland, Italy and King Ludwig’s Bavaria. Musicians include the world’s greatest and most controversial performers: Daniel Barenboim, Roger Norrington, Siegfried Jerusalem, Deborah Polaski, Graham Clarke, Falk Struckmann with contributions from Wagner experts John Deathridge and Barry Millington as well as Stephen Hawking, George Steiner and Edward Said. Excerpts include The Ring, Rienzi, The Flying Dutchman, Lohengrin, Tannhäuser, Tristan und Isolde and Parsifal.

Tchaikovsky’s musical scores are lyrical, romantic and deeply emotional. This film endeavours to put the composer in context alongside Tolstoy as one of the most celebrated Russians of his time, examining his continuing significance in Russia today, and visiting locations which were important in Tchaikovsky’s life. His life is scoured to reveal an abortive marriage, his true feelings about homosexuality and how this may have been expressed in his music. Contributors include pianists Mikhail Rudy and Yevgeni Kissin, violinist Maxim Vengerov, conductor Valery Gergiev, ballerina Natalia Makarova, opera director Graham Vick and the Tchaikovsky-loving tram driver, Valentina.

Mahler was scarcely recognised as a great composer until the middle of the 1960s, when his music started to make a massive impact. In 1991, thirty recordings of his symphonies were released in one month. This film explores Mahler’s life: his childhood, surrounded by tragedy and abuse; his driven adulthood, torn between life as a composer and conductor, and his passionate and pained love-life. This programme examines his music, the supreme expression of philosophical enquiry in music, embracing religion, hihilism, humanism, the revolutionary and the mundane. Reconstructions, archive footage, radio interviews, artefacts, private scores, letters, contracts and sculptures are used, along with interviews with many prominent artists and writers. The documentary is set in Vienna, Budapest, Hamburg and the Czech Republic.

Puccini is today the most popular of opera composers, but not necessarily the most respected. From humble origins in the town of Lucca in Tuscany, he rose from the Milan conservatoire to compose some of the greatest Italian operas. His love of his home and its local lake, his serial infidelities, his unhappy marriage, his obsession with hunting and his final illness are told alongside the story of his music. Interviewees include Puccini’s grand-daughter Simonetta Puccini, opera producer and actor Simon Callow, experts Julian Budden, William Ashbrook, Leonardo Pinzauti, Alan Sievwright and conductor Sir Charles Mackerras. The programme contains extracts from his operas, sung by José Cura, Leontina Vaduva and Julia Migenes, with conductor Richard Buckley and the BBC Phiharmonic.