This DVD celebrates the musical quest of one of the great symphonists of the 20th century as seen through his music, letters, and words of his wife Aino, who was with him for more than 64 years.

Directed by Christopher Nupen.

Nathan Milstein: In Portrait (Some memories of a quiet magician)
and
Nathan Milstein: Master of Invention

plus
Beethoven: 'Kreutzer' Sonata
Bach: Chaconne
Personal introductions by Christopher Nupen

Picture format: NTSC 16:9 and 4:3
Sound format: LPCM Stereo
Region code: 0 (All Regions)
Subtitles: German, Spanish, Finnish, French, Italian
Running time: 225 minutes
No. of DVDs: 2

Christopher Nupen - Winner of the documentary DVD of the Year Award in Cannes in 2005 and 2006

A Christopher Nupen film belonging to a long line of memorable portraits of the great performers. His Jacqueline du Pré portrait has sold over 22,000 copies in two years and his Segovia portrait over 12,000 in one.

This DVD, which contains, among other things, the only portrait film ever made with Nathan Milstein, is the product of a close friendship between a dedicated film-maker and one of the finest violinists of the twentieth century. It was shot in the autumn of the longest career in the history of solo violin playing; 73 years lay between Milstein's first appearance with Glazunov conducting and his last recital in the Berwaldhallen in Stockholm in 1986.That legendary recital provides most of the music for this DVD. Milstein's partner was the French pianist Georges Pludermacher, with whom he had worked for more than 20 years.

Nathan Milstein was an astonishing 82 years old at the time, but still playing as the grandest of Grand Masters and, as probably no other violinist has ever played at 82. This DVD will be of interest to virtually every violinist alive and to most students of the violin.

R E V I E W:

This documentary ends at its beginning, or begins at its end. Its culmination is a fine film of Nathan Milstein’s last concert, recorded in Stockholm in 1986. No-one knew it was to be his last concert, even though he was 82 years old at the time. It very nearly didn’t happen at all, because on the morning it was to be held, Milstein woke with a severe pain in the first finger of his left hand. Soon the injury was to force his retirement after a professional career that had spanned 73 years. Despite his pain, Milstein doesn’t compromise on quality because he knows how important this film will be for posterity. His fluency and inventive fingerings gave him the skill to adapt his fingerings and still play with astonishing virtuosity. Both the Kreutzer and the Chaconne are difficult works, yet Milstein’s interpretation is vivacious and fluid, as if freshly thought through. Even though he’d been playing them all his life, he was, in effect playing them anew - a spontaneous new approach.

This film is a kind of master-class, not merely in demonstrating technical skill, but because it goes further, exploring what made Milstein the man and musician he was. Milstein knew Auer, Glazunov, Piatigorsky, Rachmaninov and Heifetz. Russian music circles in those days were close and intimate. Horowitz invited him for tea one day at his home near what is now Chernobyl. Milstein stayed three years and they became lifelong friends. What’s fascinating is that his anecdotes are first person. His account of playing for a crowd of Soviet workers brims with sharp observation. Later there’s a priceless shot in which Milstein receives an award with Sammy Davis Jnr. Throughout the film are excerpts from music Milstein played or loved. There’s even a list so you can play them in full on your own.

Even more interesting are pithy insights he shares from decades of playing. For example, “Anyone who doesn’t know what invention is should stop playing”. The section where he has dinner with Pinchas Zuckerman was spontaneous, filmed without a script or rehearsals. Much had to be cut from the final film for space reasons – somewhere in the archive must lie further treasures. This unassuming “violinist’s violinist” as Zuckerman calls Milstein, exudes an air of “intense calm … and self-truth” because what he fundamentally believes in is the intrinsic value of music. As Zuckerman puts it, music can leave us “exhausted, exhilarated, uplifted and humble”.

As film, this set may be more conventional than the truly exceptional Sibelius film but that’s no demerit. The Sibelius film was a work of art in its own right, superbly poetic and profound. This is more direct. It’s interesting not just because it preserves Milstein’s technique for posterity, but because it also shows what it means to be a true musician.

-- Anne Ozorio, MusicWeb International

Christopher Nupen Films re-releases the two best films ever made, highlighting Andres Segovia - one of the greatest performing musicians of the twentieth century.

How many people remain in good shape, both mentally and physically, at the age of 106? Alice Sommer Herz is among those exceptional few. She was imprisoned with her 6-year-old son in the Theresienstadt concentration camp and saw unspeakable atrocities.

Classical Music

Christopher Nupen presents a film about the man who made himself the most talked about, the most controversial, the most famous, and the most successful classical solists that the world of music has ever known - Niccolo Paganini.

Tchaikovsky's Women looks at the women both in his private live and in his music. Fate looks at Tchaikovsky's strange relationship with Nadezhda von Meck which was to become the most important attachment of his life, after his mother.

VLADIMIR ASHKENAZY
Master Musician

Includes:
- The Vital Juices are Russian
- Ashkenazy the conductor
- Ashkenazy on musical gifts

Sergei Rachmaninov: Corelli Variations, Op. 42 (with introduction)
Vladimir Askenazy, piano

Picture format: NTSC 16:9 and 4:3
Sound format: Dolby Digital 2.0 and dual mono
Region code: 0 (worldwide)
Subtitles: German, French, Spanish, Italian
Running time: 160 mins
No. of DVDs: 1

R E V I E W:

What comes over most is his dedication to his art.

Part of this film came about by chance as many good things do. Vladimir Ashkenazy (b. 1937) was playing the Op.42 Corelli Variations by Rachmaninov (1873-1943) for the formal performance being filmed by Christopher Nupen. As they were setting up, Ashkenazy started to talk about the music, and what it meant to him. What he was doing was worth capturing into a film on its own, as Ashkenazy, talking spontaneously, was revealing the process by which a musician creates a performance. This is far rarer than one might suppose, and is often taken for granted. So here we have three films in one, the full performance, the extempore conversation and a film from the archives, showing how Ashkenazy, like Rachmaninov before him, came to terms with being Russian in a new environment.

Needless to say, the performance is very good, especially as it takes place in a small auditorium with an appreciative audience. This makes a difference, for it is intimate, introspective music, the composer’s last piece for solo piano. As a pianist, he “spoke” with the piano more than with any other instrument. He was also a man who believed firmly that music should be, above all, emotionally resonant. So Ashkenazy appreciates what it must have meant to the composer. Rachmaninov was forced into exile by the Russian Revolution, and though he had a successful career and moved in émigré circles, he never really settled outside his homeland. His identity was so bound up with being Russian that he never quite recovered from the shock of being uprooted. Even the Russia he’s known was changed. It was as if he were in mourning for a world abruptly destroyed.

As Ashkenazy says, Rachmaninov’s early music was expressive and expansive. “He wants to share with us his enjoyment of the joys of life, he’s generous and open”. As he talks, Ashkenazy plays excerpts from other Rachmaninov pieces, including the Second Symphony to illustrate his point, entirely from memory. The Corelli Variations have “idiomatic eloquence”, but the “Harmony closes in and becomes darker”, as if the composer was drawing into himself rather than being exuberantly open. Ashkenazy plays the main lyrical part, but even this ember of happiness is tinged with melancholy. “There is not a shred of hope”, he comments. The piece was inspired by a legend about a shepherd committing suicide because he lost the one he loved. Perhaps for Rachmaninov, exile was a kind of creative suicide.

Not so for Ashkenazy, fortunately. He left Russia in his youth, so in many ways adjusted more easily. The archive film shows him with his family in Iceland. He’s bought a house, he plays with his kids, all simple, normal things a man does. But the difference is that he’s always touring, and rarely settles. Though his children are Icelandic, he’s Russian to his soul. There’s a difference, only moderated by the fact that Russia itself has changed. What comes over most, though, is his dedication to his art. It’s worth all the sacrifices he’s made, without question. Ashkenazy met Christopher Nupen when he was only 19, newly arrived in the west. He heard one of Nupen's radio prgrammes and asked him to make a radio programme about Scriabin with him, invited him home, and played him the entire Scriabin piano works during the course of several evenings. It was a spontaneous act of generosity, in the spirit of Rachmaninov at his happiest. No wonder he understands the composer and plays him so well.

-- Anne Ozorio, MusicWeb International

JACQUELINE DU PRÉ
A Celebration of Her Unique and Enduring Gift

Includes two Christopher Nupen films – "Who was Jacqueline du Pré?" and "Remembering Jacqueline du Pré."

Special Features:
* A never seen before interview between Christopher Nupen and Jacqueline du Pré, shot on 13 December 1980.
* A 12 minute montage of images of du Pré and Barenboim from the Allegro Films archives.

Picture Format: NTSC 16:9 and 4:3
Sound Format: Dolby Digital Stereo / Mono
Subtitles: German, Spanish, Finnish, French, Italian
Running Time: 205 mins
Region Code: 0 (All Regions)
No. of DVDs: 1

R E V I E W:

This DVD is essential for all wanting to rekindle the joy of the familiar, while encountering a new and intimate portrait of this great and beloved artist.

In 2004 Jacqueline du Pré fans finally saw the DVD release of Christopher Nupen’s iconic film, Jacqueline du Pré and the Elgar Concerto. A year later, he released The Greatest Love and the Greatest Sorrow, a fascinating and personal film about Schubert, which he coupled with the other acclaimed du Pré film, The Trout. Although these films were finally available on DVD, we du Pré admirers, were acutely aware that Christopher Nupen had made two more recent films about Jackie that were not available on general release. These were Remembering Jacqueline du Pré, made in 1994, and Who Was Jacqueline du Pré, made in 1995.

Now, at last this new DVD, Jacqueline du Pré: A Celebration of Her Unique and Enduring Gift, brings together those two later films and also includes some never-before-released material. These rarities have been eagerly awaited, especially one of them, which has only so far been seen on European television. This film, Who Was Jacqueline du Pré, was made in 1995 because, in the words of Mr. Nupen, "if ever there was an artist who did not deserve the total rubbish with which some of the legends have invested her name, it was Jacqueline du Pré".

The film brings together the group of friends we first met years ago playing "The Trout". Back then they were young and full of future, intoxicated with the joy of making music together. Here we see them, years later, luminaries of the international music scene describing the abyss in the world of music — and their personal lives — left behind by Jackie’s absence. This is Jackie as remembered — and missed — by those who knew her intimately. Daniel Barenboim says he had "never met such a musical conversationalist", to which Zubin Mehta adds that, musically, "she gave and took without ever thinking about it". Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau describes her as being completely direct, never hiding "behind a technical perfection … or an impressive mode of expression …"

Why is it important to remember her as a person as well as a musician? Jacqueline du Pré was a phenomenon, a person so full of the joy of life that she inspired everyone about her. If classical music was, mistakenly, seen as something stuffy and old-fashioned, Jackie, with her youth and enthusiasm changed that. Thousands of people must have come to classical music after seeing her play because she was clearly so vivacious. What she gave was so inspiring and unique that it transcends music. This film is about what Jackie gave to those she knew, and to the rest of us. She showed me that it was possible to make every note of music come from your heart, fresh and unique, woven into poetry that seems to have just been born. Since I first launched the Jacqueline du Pré website in 1995, I have heard from hundreds of people from all over the world, telling how she inspired them musically as well as in life. Interest in Jackie, far from diminishing, seems to grow with time.

Remembering Jacqueline du Pré, released in 1994 and quickly out-of-print, was made from previously-seen footage to celebrate what would have been Jackie's 50th birthday on 26 January 1995. We see new facets of the genius first encountered in the early films. We see her more candidly in snippets of duets with her "cello daddy", William Pleeth, or plucking out pop music on the cello and plunking out Kuhlau at the piano. These films were made long before Jackie became world-famous, so the style is completely natural and unforced, rather like an unusually sophisticated home movie, but that's why they are so precious. Jackie is completely natural and at ease. Yet much of that vivacity would never disappear. We see Jackie again later, slightly more mature but just as uninhibited and vital. She’s glamorously dressed in the height of 70s fashion, but she moves like a wild creature, not fully at home in the costume of celebrity. She doesn't even touch a bicycle leant against the curb, but it falls over on its own as she passes – as if even inanimate objects were affected by her presence!

Christopher Nupen, as always, adds compelling bonuses: A complete unreleased first movement of the Brahms Sonata in E minor with Barenboim, with an elegant photo-montage, plus the entire unedited interview with Jackie from 1989, (one almost wants to avert one’s eyes, at times, from the transparency of her struggle). It is powerfully moving, because her illness is evident, but even so, her eyes shine — she's determined to communicate. Nupen left it completely unedited on purpose because he wanted to show how direct and spontaneous Jackie was. Every moment of this footage is precious, because we're seeing the real, untouched Jackie for the last time.

People have asked what all this has to do with her music, why we need to know anything about her that we can't get from recordings. For Jackie, music was about life: playing the cello was the way she expressed what life meant to her. And through the eyes of those she loved and love her still, we see how this life touched and affected so deeply. This is why she was so passionate about being filmed, about showing music as a way of living and of being. She considered it so important that she was willing — even proud — to be filmed, even after playing the cello was in the past for her, music was still her native language.

This DVD is essential for all wanting to rekindle the joy of the familiar, while encountering a new and intimate portrait of this great and beloved artist.

-- Miguel Muelle, MusicWeb International