Classical Music Composers
Classical music composer biographies
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- DirectorMilos FormanStarsF. Murray AbrahamTom HulceElizabeth BerridgeThe life, success and troubles of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, as told by Antonio Salieri, the contemporaneous composer who was deeply jealous of Mozart's talent and claimed to have murdered him.Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791)
Classical Era - DirectorJan KounenStarsAnna MouglalisMads MikkelsenElena MorozovaParis 1913. Coco Chanel is infatuated with the rich and handsome Boy Capel, but she is also compelled by her work. Igor Stravinsky's The Rite of Spring is about to be performed. The revolutionary dissonances of Igor's work parallel Coco's radical ideas. She wants to democratize women's fashion; he wants to redefine musical taste. Coco attends the scandalous first performance of The Rite in a chic white dress. The music and ballet are criticized as too modern, too foreign. Coco is moved but Igor is inconsolable. Paris 1920, Coco is newly wealthy and successful but grief-stricken after Boy's death in a car crash. Igor, following the Russian Revolution is now a penniless refugee living in exile in Paris. Coco is introduced to Igor by Diaghilev, impresario of the Ballets Russes. The attraction between them is instant and electric. Coco invites Igor along with his wife - now sick with consumption - together with his four children and a menagerie of birds to stay at her new villa, Bel Respiro, in Garches.Igor Stravinsky (1882-1971)
20th century - DirectorBernard RoseStarsGary OldmanJeroen KrabbéIsabella RosselliniThe life and death of the legendary Ludwig van Beethoven. Besides all the work he is known for, the composer once wrote a famous love letter to a nameless beloved, and the movie tries to find out who this beloved was--not easy, as Beethoven has had many women in his life.Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827)
Classical and Romantic eras - DirectorKen RussellStarsRichard ChamberlainGlenda JacksonMax AdrianPiano teacher Peter Ilych Tchaikovsky struggles against his homosexuality by marrying, but unfortunately he chooses a nymphomaniac whom he cannot satisfy.Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky (1840-1893)
Late Romantic period - DirectorIgor TalankinStarsInnokentiy SmoktunovskiyAntonina ShuranovaKirill LavrovThe life and work of Russian composer Pyotr Ilyich Tschaikovsky is shown through his relationship with aristocratic art connoisseur Nadezhda Filaretovna von Meck.Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky (1840-1893)
Late Romantic period - DirectorKen RussellStarsRoger DaltreySara KestelmanPaul NicholasComposer and pianist Franz Liszt (Roger Daltrey) attempts to overcome his hedonistic life-style while repeatedly being drawn back into it by the many women in his life and fellow composer Richard Wagner (Paul Nicholas).Franz Liszt (1811-1886)
- DirectorJames LapineStarsJudy DavisHugh GrantMandy PatinkinIn 1830s France, pianist/composer Frédéric Chopin is pursued romantically by the determined, individualistic woman who uses the name George Sand.Frédéric Chopin (1810-1849)
Romantic Era - DirectorCarmine GalloneStarsGabriele FerzettiMärta TorénNadia GrayThis biographical story of Puccini (Gabriele Ferzetti) spans his creative life from early student days to the height of success, including his early flop Madame Butterfly and his incomplete Turandot. Along the way he encounters three women who change his life, including a sexy, beautiful singer (Nadia Gray) whom he drops for a small town girl (Märta Torén), and a servant girl who commits suicide over him.Giacomo Puccini (1858-1924)
Late Romantic period - DirectorAlain CorneauStarsGérard DepardieuJean-Pierre MarielleAnne BrochetThe story of Monsieur de Sainte Colombe, fierce and somber man, grand master of the viola da gamba and professor of Marin Marais, prestigious musician in the court of Louis XIV.Marin Marais (1656-1728)
Baroque era - DirectorWilliam DieterleStarsYvonne De CarloCarlos ThompsonRita GamThe life and career of German composer Richard Wagner.Richard Wagner (1813-1883)
Romantic era - DirectorCarl FroelichWilliam WauerStarsGiuseppe BecceOlga EnglManny ZienerThe story of the great German composer, from his childhood through his great triumphs in orchestral and operatic music.Richard Wagner (1813-1883)
Romantic era - DirectorKen RussellStarsRobert PowellGeorgina HaleLee MontagueComposer Gustav Mahler's (Robert Powell) life, told in a series of flashbacks as he and his wife (Georgina Hale) discuss their failing marriage during a train journey.Gustav Mahler (1860-1911)
Late Romantic period - DirectorAgnieszka HollandStarsEd HarrisDiane KrugerMatthew GoodeA fictionalized account of the last year of Beethoven's life.
- DirectorJulien DuvivierVictor FlemingJosef von SternbergStarsLuise RainerFernand GraveyMiliza KorjusIn 1845 Vienna, Johann Strauss II (Fernand Gravey) - 'Jonahi' to his friends - would rather write and perform waltzes than anything else, this at a time when a waltz is not considered proper society music. After he is fired from his clerical bank job because of his preoccupation with composing, he decides to follow his passion and form an orchestra. After some famed opera singers, including Carla Donner (Miliza Korjus), hear his music, they expose Johani's music to the masses, to royalty and to music publisher Julius Hofbauer (Hugh Herbert). As such, Johani becomes the toast of Vienna. With his new found musical fame, Johani's life, which includes his work in the European Revolutions, changes. He becomes torn for his love for his loving and faithful wife Poldi Vogelhuber (Luise Rainer) and his more emotionally passionate but somewhat destructive love for Carla Donner, who herself is involved with Count Anton Hohenfried (Lionel Atwill).
- DirectorAlfred HitchcockStarsEdmund GwennEsmond KnightJessie MatthewsThe story of Johann Strauss the elder and younger.
- DirectorAbel GanceStarsHarry BaurAnnie DucauxJany HoltLyrical biography of the classical composer, depicted as a romantical hero, an accursed artist.
- DirectorReinhold SchünzelStarsAlan CurtisIlona MasseyBilly GilbertThe romantic story of Franz Schubert 's fight for recognition of his music. Fleeing Austria, he arouses passion strongly akin to mother love in a beautiful bucolic girl, who loves him to much to sacrifice genius on the altar of marriage.
- DirectorChristian-JaqueStarsRenée Saint-CyrLise DelamareJean-Louis BarraultBiographical romance about the great composer Hector Berlioz, someone whom the French, during their WWII occupation by the Nazis, could look back proudly on.
- DirectorNorman WalkerStarsWilfrid LawsonElizabeth AllanMalcolm KeenA lavish period drama produced in 1942 by Lord Rank's G.H.W. Productions Ltd.
- DirectorTimo KoivusaloStarsMartti SuosaloHeikki NousiainenMiina TurunenThe life story of Jean Sibelius, a Finnish composer.
- DirectorSimon Cellan JonesStarsPeter HansonJack DavenportLeo BillOn June 9, 1804, Ludwig van Beethoven and his pupil Ries assemble a group of musicians to give the first performance of his Third Symphony, 'Bonaparte', to his patron Prince Lobkowitz and his guests, including hypercritical Count Dietrichstein, in Vienna. The piece provokes political arguments among players and audience as to whether Bonaparte is a tyrant, or, as Beethoven believes, a liberator. The composer is also rejected by his former love, the recently widowed Josephine von Deym, though the visiting elder statesman of composers Haydn pays him a strange compliment. Leaving the gathering, Beethoven confesses to Ries that he is losing his hearing and later he reads that Bonaparte has declared himself the French emperor. As a result he will lose all respect for Napoleon and will change the symphony's title to 'Eroica'.
- DirectorWalter Kolm-VeltéeStarsEwald BalserMarianne SchönauerJudith Holzmeister"Eroica" is an Austrian film from 1949 that illustrates the life and work of composer Ludwig von Beethoven.
- DirectorPeter WebberStarsSimon Russell BealeJason FlemyngEmilia FoxThe darker side of the composer is explored when he stays in the hospital for syphilis.
- DirectorTony PalmerStarsSimon CallowMichael BallRebecca FrontIn 1960s, a British playwright attempts to reconstruct the life of real life 17th century English composer Henry Purcell even though little is known about him. Purcell's life is reenacted and his music performed.
- DirectorFelix O. AdlonPercy AdlonStarsJohannes SilberschneiderBarbara RomanerKarl MarkovicsAlma Mahler's affair with the young architect Walter Gropius sets in motion a marital drama that forces her husband Gustav Mahler to seek advice from Sigmund Freud.
- DirectorDominique de RivazStarsVadim GlownaJürgen VogelKaroline HerfurthComposer Johann Sebastian Bach is introduced to King Frederick II of Prussia in 1747. The aging composer and the young monarch clash and a battle of egos ensues.
- DirectorLuc DionneStarsPatrick DroletMarc LabrècheMacha GrenonOn the keyboard, the young hands fly rapidly and the melody rises. For the child, nothing is easier; he hears the sounds in his head. These hands belong to 6 years old André Mathieu. He won his audiences and fired up concerts halls in London, New York, Paris and around the world. Adulated, hailed, praised, the child prodigy seemed to have everything to succeed. From the top of his vertiginous successes, to depths of torment, the life of the "Little Canadian Mozart" blends into his music. A romantic and passionate composer wishing for happiness, his story is nevertheless played on tragic notes.
- DirectorRené FéretStarsMarie FéretMarc BarbéDelphine ChuillotA reimagined account of the early life of Maria Anna 'Nannerl' Mozart, five years older than Wolfgang, and a musical prodigy in her own right.
- StarsPaul RhysCharles HazlewoodDavid BamberA dramatized documentary on the life and music of Ludwig van Beethoven.