Symphonic televisions > Schubert: Die Winterreise (Widescreen)

Schubert: Die Winterreise (Widescreen)

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Acclaimed Czech Filmmaker Petr Weigl directs this deeply affecting dramatization of Franz Schubert's masterwork "Die Winterreise" ("The Winter Journey") with a heart-rending vocal interpretation by mezzo soprano Brigitte Fassbaender. "Die Winterreise" is not an opera but a cycle of songs drawn from a series of poems and has been called Schubert's greatest legacy in a remarkably prolific career.
Completed on Schubert's deathbed, the songs tell a number of emotionally charged, interwoven stories liking the characters, who travel together by carriage on a bleak winter's day in the early 1800s. Weigl created his film with an eye toward conceptual expression of theme and mood ather than merely illustrating the events of the stories.
At times the visual imagery in the film literally follows the words and music.
At other times, the images are more abstract, serving as a counterpoint or even flow independently of the musical work.
The music, as well as the visuals, evoke feeling of fear, grief, loneliness, unrequited love and futility.
Backed by a rhythmic, somber piano score, the vocalist narrates and serves as the voices of the various travelers in this haunting masterpiece. Schubert is widely hailed as the first of the Romantic composers and a great master of the German "lied," or song, composing roughly six hundred in his short lifetime.
He was equally adept, though not as prolific, in writing virtually every other contemporary form:
opera, chorale, chamber music and symphonic works.
It was his belief, at the end of his life, tat his talent was grossly unappreciated, and commentators believe that his inspired him to set the melancholic poems of school teacher Wilhelm Muller to music.
Schubert died at the age of thirty-one, and most of his works were not published and many not performed until years, even decades, later.

Classical Music in America: A History of Its Rise and Fall

An award-winning scholar and leading authority on American symphonic culture argues that classical music in the United States is peculiarly performance-driven, and he traces a musical trajectory rising to its peak at the close of the 19th century and receding after World War I. Classical Music in America: A History of Its Rise and Fall
Symphonic televisions > Classical Music in America: A History of Its Rise and Fall

Dvorak and His World by Michael Beckerman, ISBN 0691000972

Antonin Dvorak made his famous trip to the United States one hundred years ago, but despite an enormous amount of attention from scholars and critics since that time, he remains an elusive figure. Comprising both interpretive essays and a selection of fascinating documents that bear on Dvorak's career and music, this volume addresses fundamental questions about the composer while presenting an argument for a radical reappraisal.

The essays, which make up the first part of the book, begin with Leon Botstein's inquiry into the reception of Dvorak's work in German-speaking Europe, in England, and in America. Commenting on the relationship between Dvorak and Brahms, David Beveridge offers the first detailed portrait of perhaps the most interesting artistic friendship of the era. Joseph Horowitz explores the context in which the "New World" Symphony was premiered a century ago, offering an absorbing account of New York musical life at that time. In discussing Dvorak as a composer of operas,...

Dvorak and His World by Michael Beckerman, ISBN 0691000972

Symphonic televisions > Dvorak and His World by Michael Beckerman, ISBN 0691000972

Jacqueline Du Pre by Elizabeth Wilson, ISBN 155970490X

She was beautiful. She was a musical genius. She was married to another prodigious musician, the conductor and pianist Daniel Barenboim. Their fairy-tale marriage turned them into a royal musical couple. In this definitive biography, Elizabeth Wilson, herself a cellist who knew Jacqueline du Pre in her playing days, charts du Pre's meteoric career from her early identification with the sound of the cello to the achievement of her stardom by her early twenties, when she became a legend virtually overnight. For over a decade Jacqueline du Pre performed the cello repertory with all the best symphonic orchestras to standing-room-only houses around the world, and during those years she also recorded the entire cello literature. At the age of twenty-seven, however, Jackie was felled at the height of her career by multiple sclerosis. She died in 1987, leaving behind a rich and extraordinary musical legacy, and renowned as one of the best-loved musicians of the century. The author details Jackie's... Jacqueline Du Pre by Elizabeth Wilson, ISBN 155970490X
Symphonic televisions > Jacqueline Du Pre by Elizabeth Wilson, ISBN 155970490X

The Purpose and Power of Love and Marriage

Probably no other dimension of human experience has been pondered, discussed, debated, analyzed, and dreamed about more than the nature of true love. Love is everywhere -- in songs and in books, on televisions and on movie screens. The Purpose and Power of Love and Marriage
Symphonic televisions > The Purpose and Power of Love and Marriage

Rollerball (Full Frame, Widescreen)

The year is 2018. There are no wars. There is no crime. There is only...the Game. In a world where ruthless corporations reign supreme, this vicious and barbaric "sport" is the only outlet for the pent-up anger and frustrations of the masses. Tuned to their televisions, the people watch "Rollerball": a brutal mutation of football, motocross and hockey. Jonathan E. (James Caan, "Misery") is the champion player - a man too talented for his own good. The Corporation has taken away the woman Jonathan loves (Maud Adams, "Octopussy") but they can't take away his soul - even if diabolical corporate head (John Houseman, "The Paper Chase") tells him he'd better retire...or suffer the old-fashioned way. With its surrealistic imagery and tense action sequences, "Rollerball" grips you by the heart - and never lets you go!

Feature-Length Audio Commentary By Director Norman Jewison, Featurette With Behind-The-Scenes Footage And Interviews With Jewison, New Dolby Digital 5. Rollerball (Full Frame, Widescreen)
Symphonic televisions > Rollerball (Full Frame, Widescreen)

Symphonie Fantastique and Harold in Italy in Full Score by Hector Berlioz, ISBN 0486246574

Complete, authoritative scores of two Romantic symphonic masterpieces show extra-musical themes of "program music"--and intuitive genius, Shakespearean passion of Berlioz. Includes Symphonie Fantastique "program." Breitkopf & Hartel, Leipzig, 1900-1910 edition. Symphonie Fantastique and Harold in Italy in Full Score by Hector Berlioz, ISBN 0486246574
Symphonic televisions > Symphonie Fantastique and Harold in Italy in Full Score by Hector Berlioz, ISBN 0486246574