Remembering Jacqueline Du Pre

Evgeny Igorevich Kissin was born in Moscow on the 10th of October 1971. He started to play the piano at the age of two, as soon as he was tall enough to reach the keyboard and he has not looked back from that day to this. His is a very rare story of continued success that has had the simultaneous blessing of critics, the public and musicians alike. This film by Christopher Nupen shows Kissin in preparation, interview, rehearsal and performance, with several dazzling performances shot live on stage, in true concert conditions. It also contains all the encores from Kissin's memorable Promenade concert at the Royal Albert Hall, London, in August, 1997—the first Prom concert by a soloist, it attracted the biggest audience in all the 103 year history, very nearly six thousand people. The music is by Liszt, Gluck, Haydn, Beethoven, Schubert, Paganini, Kissin himself and Chopin, the composer for whom Kissin feels the closest affinity.

A re-release of two of Christopher Nupen's most cherished Jacqueline du Pré films. The first is a portrait film which was epoch-making when it premiered; the second is a performance film which was described by the French opera and film director Jean-Pierre Ponelle as the most successful translation of musical performance onto the screen that he had ever seen.

Christopher Nupen's record of the concert given by five young musicians in the new Queen Elizabeth Hall at London's South Bank, in 1969. The Trout is an exuberant explosion of youthful enjoyment in music: first from Schubert himself, who wrote his famous Trout quintet when he was 22 years old, and then from five young artists of the highest rank. They pick up the spirit of Schubert's music magnificently, both in preparation and rehearsal, and in their 1969 performance of the work, which has become one of the most remembered ever given. Includes personal introductions by Christopher Nupen and Jacqueline du Pré and features the legendary 1969 performance of The Trout with Daniel Barenboim, Itzhak Perlman, Jacqueline du Pré, Pinchas Zukerman and Zubin Mehta.

Documentary film about Vladimir Ashkenazy's and Daniel Barenboim's 1966 performance of Mozart's Concerto for 2 Pianos in E-flat major with the English Chamber Orchestra, featuring the full performance as well as biographical information and a look at the rehearsal process.

The struggles of the world’s Jewish people over the course of several centuries are expressed and explored through the music they inspired in this documentary from the BBC and Opus Arte. We Want the Light brings together harrowing tales from Holocaust survivors with performances of music by such legendary composers as Mahler, Bach, Mendelssohn, and Brahms. Interviews with: Alice Sommer Herz, Jacques Stroumsa, Evgeny Kissin, Vladimir Ashkenazy, Zubin Mehta, Itzhak Perlman, Pinchas Zukerman, Toby Perlman, Michael Haas, Elyakim Ha’etzni, Norman Lebrecht, Margaret Brearley, Paul Lawrence Rose, Daniel Barenboim, Yirmiyahu Yovel, Uri Toeplitz & Anita Lasker-Wallfisch. Featuring: Gürzenich-Orchester Köln, Cologne Cathedral Children’s Choir & Cologne Opera Chorus.

Documentary about Soviet-born pianist Vladimir Ashkenazy.

Documentary on the life and career of violinist Itzhak Perlman, including interviews, archival footage, and concert performances.

Pollini plays flawlessly, with the greatest finesse and sensitivity, very much in tune with each composer's personal style. His performances are exemplary in every respect. The video and audio are quite acceptable, given their 1970s vintage. Böhm and Abbado are at home in this repertoire, and the Wiener Philharmoniker in excellent form, notwithstanding a few strange noises coming from the horns.

The Greatest Love and the Greatest Sorrow is a film which sets out to bring the viewer closer, not to the details of Schubert's life, but to the spirit of what he was trying to express with what he called his creative gift and with which he tried "to brighten the world". The film begins with the funeral of Beethoven, at which Schubert was a torch-bearer, His story is told almost entirely in music written in the twenty months that remained to him after that date, together with quotations from Schubert's letters, diaries and the words that he chose to set in some of his songs. Includes personal introductions by Christopher Nupen and Jacqueline du Pré and features the legendary 1969 performance of The Trout with Daniel Barenboim, Itzhak Perlman, Jacqueline du Pré, Pinchas Zukerman and Zubin Mehta.

In this stunning film by Christopher Nupen, Segovia returns to the Granada of his youth, site of his personal and musical formation. The world-famous Alhambra—empty of tourists, between midnight and 4 AM—plays host to a deeply moving selection of Segovia’s signature pieces, many in his own arrangements, all imbued with the meditative, profoundly soulful qualities that lifted him to the pinnacle of artistry and helped him redefine what was considered possible for guitarists.

Documentary and concert recording by Christopher Nupen

Yo-Yo Ma narrates a documentary about the remarkable cellist Jacqueline du Pré, whose life and career were cut short by multiple sclerosis.

From his home in Granada, pioneering guitarist Andres Segovia looks back on his 60-year music career and his contribution to Western music.

In April 1981 violinist Gidon Kremer performed Vivaldi's Four Seasons leading the English Chamber Orchestra recorded in the baroque library of the monastery in Polling, near Munich. It is, as one would expect from a master violinist, a superbly insightful performance. The sound is resonant and satisfying although surely not true 5.1, and those who wish to have this music on video might well investigate it.

Documentary about pianist and Holocaust survivor Alice Sommer Herz. In the concentration camps she played more than 100 concerts, and credits music for saving her life.

A documentary portrait of famed Ukrainian-American violinist Nathan Milstein (1903–92), covering his life and career through conversations with the artist and with some of his notable students, interspersed with brief performances and followed by two concert performances.