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Upcoming The Great Composers Documentaries
From the producers of EXHIBITION ON SCREEN. Back by popular demand and marking Beethoven Year 2020, Seventh Art Productions presents an
exclusive worldwide cinema event bringing five films on the world’s most influential composers to the big
screen. The Great Composers sees the critically-acclaimed and award-winning In Search Of series
return to cinemas with each film celebrating the lives of four exceptional musicians and individuals –
Beethoven, Mozart, Chopin and Haydn.
“These extraordinary films are perfect for both first-time music lovers and life-long experts”.
In Search of Beethoven
Coming Soon | Wednesday, March 18 | 7:30 p.m.
200 Seats | $15 or $12 Senior/Student
Narrated by Bafta-nominated actress Juliet Stevenson. In Search of Beethoven addresses the romantic myth that Beethoven was a heroic, tormented figure battling to overcome his tragic fate of deafness and who searched for his ‘immortal beloved’ but remained unmarried. It delves beyond the image of the tortured, bad-tempered, unhinged personality, to reveal someone quite different and far more interesting. In Search of Beethoven brings together the world’s leading performers and experts on Beethoven to reveal new insights into this legendary composer. “It was so terrific, I wept” Mail on Sunday “Superb” The Telegraph “This film will make you rush to a concert hall or the nearest classical music store to savour Beethoven’s compositions” The Telegraph The line-up of performers and interviewees includes Gianandrea Noseda, Sir Roger Norrington, Riccardo Chailly, Claudio Abbado, Fabio Luisi, Frans Brüggen, Ronald Brautigam, Hélène Grimaud, Vadim Repin, Janine Jansen, Paul Lewis, Lars Vogt, and Emanuel Ax among others. The film has been called the best film ever made on Beethoven – and is the choice of the Beethoven Haus (Beethoven’s birthplace) as the ‘go to’ film on Beethoven.
Watch Trailer
Rated (NR)
Seventh Art Productions (2009)
The Great Composers
In Search Of Series
Genre: Documentary
Director: Phil Grabsky
Runtime: 2h 26m
In Search of Mozart
Coming Soon | Tuesday, April 21 | 7:30 p.m.
200 Seats | $15 or $12 Senior/Student
Narrated by Bafta-nominated actress Juliet Stevenson. In Search of Mozart was produced with the world’s leading orchestras and musician and is told through a 25,000-mile journey along every route Mozart followed. This is a detective story that takes us to the heart of genius. Without resorting to docu-drama or visual re-enactment, In Search of Mozart traces the composer’s life through his music and extensive correspondence. From K1a to K626 (Requiem), over 80 works are featured in chronological order, revealing striking parallels between the music and Mozart’s own experiences. Throughout, it is the music that takes centre stage, with the jigsaw of Mozart’s life fitting around it. With rigorous analysis from musicologists and experts such as Jonathan Miller, Cliff Eisen, Nicholas Till, Bayan Northcott and the late Stanley Sadie, a new, vivid impression of the composer emerges. It dispels the many common myths about Mozart’s genius, health, relationships, death and character to present a new image very different from Milos Forman’s Amadeus. On its first release the film played in some cinemas for 6 months and remains many people’s – including classical musicians’ – favourite film on Mozart.
Watch Trailer
Rated (NR)
Seventh Art Productions (2007)
The Great Composers
In Search Of Series
Genre: Documentary
Director: Phil Grabsky
Runtime: 2h 15m
In Search of Chopin
Coming Soon | Tuesday, May 19 | 7:30 p.m.
200 Seats | $15 or $12 Senior/Student
Narrated by Bafta-nominated actress Juliet Stevenson. Chopin’s grave in Paris remains a place of pilgrimage and his music continues to sell out concert halls worldwide – but who exactly was this man who was terrified of public performance, who fled his Polish homeland for Paris never to return, took up with the most notorious transvestite in France, rarely gave public performances and, despite a life of ill-health, wrote some of the deepest and most powerful music ever written? How exactly did a young Polish boy rise to such heady heights? For four years, award-winning Phil Grabsky travelled the globe in his quest to lay bare the life and music of Chopin. Some of the world’s best musicians provide the music, including Leif Ove Andsnes, Daniel Barenboim, Ronald Brautigam and the Orchestra of the 18th Century. Funny, heart-breaking, inspirational – this film has been called the first to really illustrate the true nature of this remarkable and still widely-loved composer.
Watch Trailer
Rated (NR)
Seventh Art Productions (2014)
The Great Composers
In Search Of Series
Genre: Documentary
Director: Phil Grabsky
Runtime: 2h
In Search of Haydn
Coming Soon | Tuesday, June 16
200 Seats | $15 or $12 Senior/Student
Narrated by Bafta-nominated actress Juliet Stevenson. Phil Grabsky’s biographical account of Haydn’s life is a visual and aural extravaganza, including breath-taking performances by some of the world’s most celebrated musicians. By speaking to some of the greatest exponents of Haydn’s music, this film redresses the balance and sheds light on the master and his work. Haydn’s life spanned from the end of the Baroque period to Napoleon’s invasion of Vienna, outliving his younger friend Mozart. He was one of the most prolific composers, producing more than 100 symphonies, 64 quartets, 16 extant operas, 51 piano sonatas and the oratorios ‘The Creation’ and ‘The Seasons’. Through intimate and revealing interviews with experts and detailed extracts from Haydn’s personal recollections, the audience gains tremendous insight not only into Haydn’s music but an appreciation of the artist himself. The emphasis of the film, as with all the ‘In Search Of’ films, is on the performance – and interpretation – of the works of Haydn, the composer both Mozart and Beethoven looked up to.
Watch Trailer
Rated (NR)
Seventh Art Productions (2012)
The Great Composers
In Search Of Series
Genre: Documentary
Director: Phil Grabsky
Runtime: 1h 48m
Concerto: A Beethoven Journey
Coming Soon | Late 2020
200 Seats | $15 or $12 Senior/Student
Tickets on sale later this year.
Narrated by Bafta-nominated actress Juliet Stevenson. Filmed over the course of four years, award-winning director Phil Grabsky follows leading concert pianist Leif Ove Andsnes as he travels the world playing sell-out concerts with the Mahler Chamber Orchestra in an attempt to understand and interpret one of the greatest sets of piano works for piano ever written: Beethoven's five piano concertos.Considered one of the top pianists of the age, Leif Ove Andsnes offers a rare insight into the world of a world-class pianist but, more importantly, against the backdrop of Leif Ove and the Mahler Chamber Orchestra playing these five pieces, the film attempts to peel back the many myths of Beethoven's life to explore how this prodigious talent from Bonn became one of the world's greatest composers by the time he wrote the fifth concerto. Perhaps, above all, it is the fresh new biography of Beethoven that is most revealing.
