Info:
Duration: 59’ 00”
Narration by Christopher Nupen
Year of production: 1978
Also featuring:
Vladimir Ashkenazy
Philharmonia Orchestra of London
Toby Perlman
Pinchas Zukerman
Lawrence Foster
Although he was still in his early thirties when this film was made, Itzhak Perlman’s virtuosity was already something of a legend and he was soon to become one of the most popular figures on the international concert stage. This film played a major part in that success. His rare combination of astonishing technical virtuosity and light-hearted ebullience have since won him a particularly affectionate following, but he wears his success very easily and describes himself as basically a family man and his relationship with his family as the most important thing in his life.
This film, which was shot over a period of three years, shows Itzhak Perlman at home in New York with his family, on tour in Europe with Pinchas Zukerman, playing Sarasate’s “Zigeunerweisen” with the Philharmonia Orchestra of London, conducted by Lawrence Foster, in the recording studios with Vladimir Ashkenazy, recording Beethoven sonatas, playing Scott Joplin in Wuppertal with Bruno Canino, solo Bach at a BBC Lunchtime Concert in St John’s, Smith Square, London, a Beethoven Trio with Vladimir Ashkenazy and Lynn Harrell in concert at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden and rehearsing, performing and teaching at the Aspen Music School in Colorado, where he goes regularly with his entire family.
This film is an intimate portrait of this entertaining and many-faceted artist and it includes music by Bazzini, Sarasate, Beethoven, Scott Joplin, Bach and Vivaldi with a number of performances shot on stage in true concert conditions, where the artist is at his best and most revealing.
Our Films on DVD
This DVD is an intimate account of the formative years in the life and career of one of the leading violinists of our time.
Itzhak Perlman fell in love with the sounds of the violin at the age of 3½ but contracted polio a few months later and was soon to learn that it would be impossible, with his handicap, for him to pursue a high-level career as a violinist.
Not only has he succeeded in doing what the world thought quite impossible but he has done it on a level that few have matched. It is a heartening story of the spectacular triumph of talent, determination, character and tenacity over seemingly insurmountable odds, producing truly glorious results along the way.
The DVD contains the much-admired portrait film Itzhak Perlman: Virtuoso Violinist (I Know I Played Every Note) together with The Trout Remembered, Jacqueline du Pré Remembered (made especially for this DVD) and two complete Bach Partitas, E major and D minor, filmed live at a memorable recital at St John's, Smith Square, in London.
This DVD presents Vladimir Ashkenazy as pianist, conductor, musical guide and master musician - an intimate and engaging view of one of the world's most quietly successful musicians.
It contains the portrait film Vladimir Ashkenazy: The Vital Juices Are Russian, shot in 1968 when Ashkenazy moved with his wife and son from London to Iceland, an important turning point in his life and career.
Since that film was made, Ashkenazy the pianist (possibly the most frequently recorded pianist in history, his discography runs to 56 pages), has also become an international conductor of the highest rank and we include a montage of sequences from our composer films with Ashkenazy as conductor. It also contains a short interview with Ashkenazy who talks, in his modest but penetrating way, about musical gifts and their origins.
The DVD ends with a film about Rachmaninov's Corelli Variations. In it Ashkenazy discusses the piece at length, with great affection and some telling musical insights. It ends with a complete performance of the piece, filmed at a public concert in Lugano.
The two very different films on this DVD celebrate, in different ways, the extraordinary quest of Andrés Segovia. He was an Andalusian, par excellence, who, in his childhood, fell in love with the beauties of the Alhambra and the melancholy voices of the Spanish guitar and, within the space of 20 years, had taught himself the instrument, revolutionised the technique and elevated the guitar to the highest levels of the international concert platform - an achievement unique in the history of Western music.
The titles of the films are, Segovia at Los Olivos, which we shot in his new home on the Costa del Sol in Andalucia when the Grand Master was 75 and, Andrés Segovia: The Song of the Guitar which we shot in Granada and the glorious Palaces of the Alhambra, when he was 84.
Near the end of his life Segovia said that the first of them was the best thing that he ever did for television. The second won the Prix du Public at the Besançon Festival in 1977.
Music by Bach, Granados, Torroba, Llobet, Tarrega, Castelnuovo-Tedesco, Scarlatti, Ponce, Rameau, Sor, Aguado, Chopin and Albeniz.
