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Despite the political and economic chaos of the 19th century - or perhaps because of it - this period produced brilliant literature while setting the stage for the Generation of '98. In this program, respected authorities elaborate on the lives and works of the masters of Romanticism and Realism. Dramatic readings include excerpts from José Espronceda's Canción del Pirata, José Zorrilla's Romances Históricos, and Gustavo Adolfo Bécquer's...
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English
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This first-class documentary biography of Bach shows us the places and the documents of his life: the houses in which he lived, the organs on which he played, the report cards he got in school, and the letters he wrote to excuse his innovations and flatter his employers. The music, superbly performed, is presented chronologically and in the context of Bach's life.
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English
Description
The Romantic movement-a reaction against the orderliness of 18th-century classicism and 19th-century industrialization-strove above all for self-expression. The Romantics composed for themselves and the new bourgeois audiences that now frequented concert halls and were acquiring pianos for their living rooms. Chopin's A-Flat Polonaise is performed in Chopin's house outside Warsaw, Mendelssohn's Elijah and Brahms' Requiem in the halls where they had...
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English
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Music written for public performance in concert halls and theaters required composers to keep abreast of popular styles. Music of Handel, Couperin, Scarlatti, and Rameau is performed by the English Bach Festival, Huddersfield Choral Society, American Boychoir, Academy of Ancient Music, and Wexford Opera Festival. Contents include excerpts from: Handel's Zadok the Priest, Music for the Royal Fireworks, Concerto for Organ in D Minor, Orlando, Messiah;...
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English
Description
This program covers Beethoven, the man who changed the course of music and aligned himself with the forces that changed the course of history. Movements or extracts from the Third, Sixth, and Ninth Symphonies, Quartets Opus 18 and 135, Fidelio, the Appassionata are performed by the Los Angeles, Berlin, and Vienna Philharmonics under Giulini, von Karajan, and Bohm. Contents include excerpts from: Quartet Opus 18 No. 1, Symphony No. 3, Fidelio, Symphony...
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English
Description
This program covers the wealth of music during the age of Elizabeth I in England and its spread from the Church and the courts to the middle classes; the emergence of opera in Italy and France; the celebration of St. Cecilia; Elizabethan madrigals. Music of Byrd, Purcell, Monteverdi, and Lully is performed by Anthony Rooley and the Consort of Musicke, the Taverners Choir, London, and the Zurich Opera. Contents include excerpts from: Morley's Fire,...
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English
Description
The French Revolution ushered in a century of nationalism and political change throughout Europe; composers identified with causes and expressed them in music. Performances include Berlioz' Requiem, conducted by Leonard Bernstein; Wagner's Meistersinger with the Bayreuth Festival Orchestra; Verdi's Requiem with the La Scala Opera Company. Contents include excerpts from: Berlioz' Requiem; Liszt's Legend, Fantasia on Hungarian Folk Themes; Verdi's "Va...
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English
Description
It was in the Bavarian mountains that much of Germany's sense of nationhood and identity was forged. Caspar David Friedrich became the Romantic movement's first great painter, creating perhaps its defining image in Wanderer Above the Sea of Fog. More explicitly nationalistic was the Nazarene Brotherhood, a group of young artists, including Johann Friedrich Overbeck and Philipp Veit, who lived like monks in a deconsecrated monastery. This program also...
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English
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In his idealized yet deeply felt pastoral images, John Constable manifested a uniquely English identification with nature and rural life. This program, created from extensive Tate and National Gallery collections, explores both the aesthetic and subtly political aspects of Constable's work. Eschewing the approach of many art documentaries, the film presents detailed audio commentary from Tate curator Anne Lyles and art historians Michael Rosenthal...
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English
Description
Photography in the 19th century was often a tool of imperial science and exploration, with the photograph a scientific document or an expression or documentation of colonial life. This program draws on the anthropological photographic collections of the Pitt Rivers Museum, Oxford; the Royal Anthropological Institute and Museum of Mankind, London; and the Cambridge University Museum of Anthropology and Archaeology. The program also deals with the work...
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English
Description
1000 Masterpieces from the Great Museums of the World takes us on a fascinating journey through the history of art and provides a deeper insight into the masterpieces of painting. This film explores Kitty Kielland’s “Summer Night,” completed in 1886 and housed in the National Gallery in Oslo.
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English
Description
1000 Masterpieces from the Great Museums of the World takes us on a fascinating journey through the history of art and provides a deeper insight into the masterpieces of painting. This film explores Johann Friedrich Overbeck’s “Germania and Italia,” completed after 1828 and housed in the New Masters Gallery in Dresden.
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English
Description
Canaletto's stated intention was to depict reality as faithfully as possible. In this postcard depiction of Warsaw, used to help reconstruct the city after World War II, the buildings are flattened by the fading light of sunset, anticipating the fire that would later destroy them, while its people, rich and poor, are bathed in the warm light of a new dawn that looks forward to the forging of the Polish nation.
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English
Description
1000 Masterpieces from the Great Museums of the World takes us on a fascinating journey through the history of art and provides a deeper insight into the masterpieces of painting. This film explores Wilhelm von Kobell’s “The Siege of Kosel,” completed in 1808 and housed in the New Pinakothek in Munich.
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English
Description
Andrew Graham-Dixon explores how art in France took a dramatic turn following the French Revolution that ushered in a bold new world. From the execution of King Louis XVI and the rise of Napoleon Bonaparte—a figure who simultaneously repelled and inspired artists of his time—through to the rise of Romanticism and an art of seduction, sex, and high drama, Andrew explores artists including Jacques-Louis David, whose works appeared on the barricades...
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English
Description
This chiaroscuro social painting is a remarkable human record of late nineteenth-century Paris, its inhabitants and its private geography at a time of huge social and moral change. Degas' constant flitting between genres and from back-stage to front of stage enabled him to capture the fleeting nature of existence while creating an everlasting image of Paris.
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English
Description
This is one of Goya's most famous works. A symbol of national independence and identity to the Spanish, it is a tribute to peoples who fight for their freedom. It depicts the Spanish patriots being charged by the Mamelukes—Egyptian mercenaries in the pay of the French army—and eloquently illustrates the shock of the onslaught and the bloody repression of the uprising by the occupier.
18) The Magic mirror
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English
Description
Using only the words of some of the great photographers, this program seeks to trace "the life-line of the species" (in the words of John Szarkowski of the Museum of Modern Art, New York) Selecting their own favorite photos from contemporary works back to 1839, the producers of this program trace the lineage of photography as art and present a glorious parade of great photographs drawn from the great museum collections of the world: the Musee d'Orsay,...
19) The Real thing
Language
English
Description
This program looks at the results achieved when photographers were commissioned to reflect the world or certain aspects of it. It focuses on the Farm Security Administration (whose archives are held by the Library of Congress, Washington) which set out to document America in the 1930s. The program also visits the Canadian Centre for Architecture, Montreal, where photography forms an integral part of the collection; Chris Killip, winner of the 1989...
Language
English
Description
La Fenice - "The Phoenix" - was given its name after reopening in 1792 following a fire that had burned it to the ground. A second blaze destroyed La Fenice in 1836, but it rose from the ashes again to host premieres by Verdi, Wagner, and Stravinsky. Incredibly, a third fire ravished the theater in 1996. This program documents the reconstruction that began in 2001 of La Fenice after the 1996 fire. Wood carvers, painters, sound experts, even cloth...