These recordings, filmed in March and April 1974 for the BBC, occurred at the tail end of the old performance era and the very start of the new. Vladimir Ashkenazy was a graduate of the same Soviet school of piano playing that produced Sviatoslav Richter, Emil Gilels, Lazar Berman and a host of others of that era. There are simularities that unite them, including a broad romanticism, a degree of Lisztian showmanship coupled with periods of introspection, powerful technique that occasionally borders on pounding and an intellectual streak that produces some deeply insightful playing. Ashkenazy was younger than the others, more modern in his playing.
In the 19th century, Romantic composer/pianist Franz Liszt tries to end his hedonistic ways but keeps getting sucked back in by his seductive fellow composer Richard Wagner.
The Summer Night Concert of The Vienna Philharmonic is the world's biggest annual classical open-air concert set in the magical Schönbrunn Palace Baroque park in Vienna.
"Four Ways to Say Farewell" is a personal introduction to Mahler and his Ninth Symphony, during which Leonard Bernstein is seen and heard rehearsing the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra.
Leonard Bernstein made these recordings during his wonderfully productive collaboration with the Wiener Philharmoniker in the mid-1970s when he was at the peak of his career.
The Waldbühne in Berlin, one of the most appealing outdoor amphitheatres on the European continent, is the home of the Berliner Philharmoniker’s summer concerts.
Mozart’s Requiem – his final and unfinished masterpiece – is an extraordinary work. Discover the piece at the Salzburg Festival in the hands of conductor Teodor Currentzis, the ensemble musicAeterna, Anna Prohaska (soprano), Katharina Magiera (contralto), Mauro Peter (tenor), and Tareq Nazmi (bass).
Almost any recording of a Mozart symphony by Austrian conductor Karl Bohm (1894-1981) is a sure thing: excellent sound, and sensible, solid, non-sentimental interpretation.
Like many of John Adams’ operas, Doctor Atomic is based on recent world historical events—here, the effusive Robert Oppenheimer, “father of the atomic bomb,” anxiously awaits the bomb’s first test in Los Alamos, New Mexico.
Filmed on tour at Berlin's Philharmonie, this account of the valedictory Ninth Symphony is an intense interpretation, expressing Bernstein's conviction that modern man had at last caught up with the message encoded in Mahler's last completed work.
For Mahlerites, his symphonies are much more than musical performances--they can be an emotional or spiritual journey through the struggles, fears, and triumphs of life.
Popular movie trailers from 1974
These some of the most viewed trailers for movies released in 1974:
In this movie a writer comes to stay at an island resort and gets involved with a teenage lolita who is there with her parents and rather malicious best friend.
Allied to a four-year Daily Mirror campaign by John Pilger that helped achieve compensation for many of the forgotten and mostly working class victims of the notorious drug prescribed to women during pregnancy.
A collage film, a dialogue between mother and the unborn child, the film can be seen as a personal self-analysis by René Paquot, who dreamily delivers his conflicts with maternal, medical and religious authority.
Directed by Sam Pillsbury, this 1974 film observes Ralph Hotere — one of New Zealand’s greatest artists — at a moment when excitement is gathering about his work.
John Pilger returns to Vietnam in 1974. America had withdrawn its ground forces at the beginning of the previous year, he reports, yet the war had not ended.
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Have you watched Beethoven Piano Concertos 1-5 yet? What did you think about it?
