Jon Bernthal and Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor in OriginPhoto: Atsushi Nishijima (Neon)
There’s a scene nearly halfway through Origin where the protagonist is advised by her confidant to simplify her new book’s sharp-but-unwieldy premise or risk losing potential readers. It reads like similar feedback given to writer-director Ava DuVernay in...
There’s a scene nearly halfway through Origin where the protagonist is advised by her confidant to simplify her new book’s sharp-but-unwieldy premise or risk losing potential readers. It reads like similar feedback given to writer-director Ava DuVernay in...
- 12/8/2023
- by Courtney Howard
- avclub.com
6 October 2023 — Tractus emphasizes Arvo Pärt compositions that blend the timbres of string orchestra and choir. New versions predominate, with focused performances from the Tallinn Chamber Orchestra and the Estonian Philharmonic Chamber Choir under Tõnu Kaljuste’s direction that invite alert and concentrated listening. From the opening composition Littlemore Tractus, which takes as its starting point consoling reflections from a sermon by John Henry Newman, the idea of change, transfiguration and renewal resonates, setting a tone for a recording whose character is one of summing up, looking inward, and reconciling with the past.
Tõnu Kaljuste, a long-time ally of Pärt, points out that much recent discussion with the composer has revolved around new approaches to the scores. Commenting on the wide-reaching and evocative repertoire brought together here, Wolfgang Sandner remarks in the CD’s liner note, “sound and silence, music and word always remain in dialogue in Arvo Pärt’s work.
Tõnu Kaljuste, a long-time ally of Pärt, points out that much recent discussion with the composer has revolved around new approaches to the scores. Commenting on the wide-reaching and evocative repertoire brought together here, Wolfgang Sandner remarks in the CD’s liner note, “sound and silence, music and word always remain in dialogue in Arvo Pärt’s work.
- 10/10/2023
- by Music Martin Cid Magazine
- Martin Cid Music
Ice Theatre of New York (Itny) will perform at Unwrapped at Nemacolin on December 3, 2022 at 8:30pm at the ice rink in Lafayette Square, 1001 Lafayette Drive, Farmington, Pa. As part of the festivities, Nemacolin will transform into a glowing wonderland with plenty of holiday activities, including gingerbread house workshop, visits with Santa, live music, and more. For more information, visit nemacolin.com/happenings/unwrapped-at-nemacolin.
Also performing is three-time U.S. champion, two-time Olympian, World Championship medalist, TV commentator, and figure skater Johnny Weir, visiting Nemacolin for the third year with another magical performance.
Itny repertory works will include:
Of Water and Ice
Performed by Sarah France and Valerie Levine
In the polar regions, a constant interplay takes place between H2O in its liquid and solid forms. Set to a DJ Spooky score, generated itself by the geometry of ice crystals and the math of climate change data, the dance...
Also performing is three-time U.S. champion, two-time Olympian, World Championship medalist, TV commentator, and figure skater Johnny Weir, visiting Nemacolin for the third year with another magical performance.
Itny repertory works will include:
Of Water and Ice
Performed by Sarah France and Valerie Levine
In the polar regions, a constant interplay takes place between H2O in its liquid and solid forms. Set to a DJ Spooky score, generated itself by the geometry of ice crystals and the math of climate change data, the dance...
- 11/30/2022
- by Music Martin Cid Magazine
- Martin Cid Music
Tucked away from the limelight at the Berlinale is the diverse and well-attended Generation section, themed on films devoted to depicting children. This, it is clear, is not the same thing as movies for children, though the two categories certainly and frequently joyfully overlap. Here, naivety, wonder, play, and confusion can be pursued in a way that might seem foolish in the so-called adult cinema found elsewhere at the festival. Polina Gumiela’s nearly feature-length Blue Eyes and Colorful My Dress shows how radical children’s cinema can be, following the wandering play of Zhana, a three-year-old girl (the director's daughter), around chunky, labyrinthine apartment blocks in the Bulgarian city of Plovdiv. Plotless in so far as the start-and-stop nature of a child’s play is plotless, and characterized by the several other self-minded children and animals—cats and dogs are half friends and half foes—Zhana encounters during her freedom,...
- 3/1/2020
- MUBI
Björk’s Cornucopia was billed as the Icelandic pop-iconoclast’s “most elaborate staged concert to date,” and it would be a tough claim to refute. The world premiere of the concert-like multi-media piece, commissioned by the newly-opened New York City art temple The Shed — an avant-garde culture outpost that opened last month alongside the controversial Hudson Yards luxury real estate development — featured a spectacular surround-sound installation, a 52-member Icelandic choir that at one point swarmed through the audience, other-worldly costuming, and vivid staging, including a bounty of jaw-dropping, lushly layered video projections.
- 5/10/2019
- by Will Hermes
- Rollingstone.com
Carlos Reygadas's Battle in Heaven (2005) and Silent Light (2007) are showing April and May, 2019 on Mubi in the United States as part of the series What Is an Auteur?Battle in HeavenEmerging six years after Post Tenebras Lux (2012), Our Time, the latest film from Mexican auteur Carlos Reygadas, offers an unsparing account of a marriage in crisis. Starring the director and his real-life spouse Natalia López (and their children), the film depicts a couple navigating the difficult terrain of an open relationship. Characteristically, Our Time disavows many of the conventions of cinema, adopting an approach that mirrors non-fiction filmmaking to capture the beauty and intimacy of the daily life of the couple and their clan. Shifting his gaze from the human drama at the center of the narrative to the rich environment of the family’s ranch and its surroundings, the director asks challenging questions about the nature of romantic...
- 4/21/2019
- MUBI
‘Soundtrack of America’: Inaugural Performance at the Shed in New York City Engages Emerging Artists
How do you open a new arts complex in New York City — one that costs nearly half a billion dollars and is on the edge of a glittery enclave that locals have swiftly rejected as a wealthy gated community — without wallowing in cultural elitism? Alex Poots, the Scottish artistic director of the Shed — which opened on Friday night without much pomp but plenty of circumstance — must have been worrying about that for years.
As the former director of the Manchester International Festival, he’s leaning into his global connections to...
As the former director of the Manchester International Festival, he’s leaning into his global connections to...
- 4/7/2019
- by Jerry Portwood
- Rollingstone.com
On behalf of the Vatican, a grizzled war journalist investigates a cult that has grown around a vision of the Blessed Virgin in rural France
Xavier Giannoli’s The Apparition is a flawed but heartfelt film about the mysterious workings of divine grace, and things that can’t entirely be explained away. It is showily freighted with the music of Monteverdi, Arvo Pärt and Jóhann Jóhannsson. Giannoli’s film-making has its own fluency, seriousness and weight. Like Jacques Audiard, he knows how to get the wide shot and the bigger picture, the panoramic sweep that exalts the immediate emotional drama. Unlike Audiard, he does not always marry the excellent performances to a story that really means something. There is a bit of redundancy.
Vincent Lindon, grizzled and rumpled as this actor habitually is, plays Jacques, a troubled warzone journalist on sick leave due to the trauma of seeing his photographer...
Xavier Giannoli’s The Apparition is a flawed but heartfelt film about the mysterious workings of divine grace, and things that can’t entirely be explained away. It is showily freighted with the music of Monteverdi, Arvo Pärt and Jóhann Jóhannsson. Giannoli’s film-making has its own fluency, seriousness and weight. Like Jacques Audiard, he knows how to get the wide shot and the bigger picture, the panoramic sweep that exalts the immediate emotional drama. Unlike Audiard, he does not always marry the excellent performances to a story that really means something. There is a bit of redundancy.
Vincent Lindon, grizzled and rumpled as this actor habitually is, plays Jacques, a troubled warzone journalist on sick leave due to the trauma of seeing his photographer...
- 8/3/2018
- by Peter Bradshaw
- The Guardian - Film News
Filmmaker/Curator Katy Kavanaugh cites kids’ participation in international film festivals as a boon for child developmentby Jared FeldschreiberFilmmaker/curator Katy Kavanaugh, shown here, leading a “Design Thinking” workshop. On her website, she cites inventor R. Buckminster Fuller’s quote: “And then you will go out and do what no one has told you to do.”
Empathy remains at the heart of good storytelling, especially as it correlates to films designed for kids. In a “post truth” age of obfuscating facts and deceitful falsehoods seeping their way into public discourse, an idealist may often be discouraged that morality and compassion for “the other” do not reap tangible rewards. But one can find solace that there remain individual artists who — idealistic as they may be — have proven that kids who watch international films and attend international film festivals enable their capacity for empathy as they watch films in such a setting.
Empathy remains at the heart of good storytelling, especially as it correlates to films designed for kids. In a “post truth” age of obfuscating facts and deceitful falsehoods seeping their way into public discourse, an idealist may often be discouraged that morality and compassion for “the other” do not reap tangible rewards. But one can find solace that there remain individual artists who — idealistic as they may be — have proven that kids who watch international films and attend international film festivals enable their capacity for empathy as they watch films in such a setting.
- 7/16/2018
- by Sydney Levine
- Sydney's Buzz
In the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences’ announcement of 141 films qualified for Best Original Score, the biggest news stemmed from an absence: No controversy. “I, Tonya” and “The Greatest Showman” scores were deemed ineligible based on their predominant use of songs, while “Call Me By Your Name” and “Detroit” didn’t even submit, presumedly knowing they wouldn’t qualify. Those omissions merit a shrug, unlike the outrage that followed last year’s disqualification of Johann Johannsson’s “Arrival” and Lesley Barber’s “Manchester By the Sea” scores.
This year, people were closely watching what happened to Radiohead guitarist Jonny Greenwood and legend Hans Zimmer. Each has a history of running afoul of qualification rules, and each has one of the most celebrated scores of 2017, “Phantom Thread” and “Dunkirk.”
In the case of Greenwood, devoted fans still haven’t gotten over the disqualification of his brilliant 35-minute original score...
This year, people were closely watching what happened to Radiohead guitarist Jonny Greenwood and legend Hans Zimmer. Each has a history of running afoul of qualification rules, and each has one of the most celebrated scores of 2017, “Phantom Thread” and “Dunkirk.”
In the case of Greenwood, devoted fans still haven’t gotten over the disqualification of his brilliant 35-minute original score...
- 12/19/2017
- by Chris O'Falt
- Indiewire
Mubi is continuing its partnership with Dok Leipzig to showcase highlights from their tribute Visual Electrics. The Cinema of Jay Rosenblatt in this year’s 60th festival edition. Mubi's retrospective is showing November 3, 2017 - March 4, 2018 in most countries around the world.It is a common and justified rhetorical device to begin an article on the retrospective of a filmmaker with an impression, a little observation or the description of a scene. However, being confronted with the work of San Francisco-based found footage worker Jay Rosenblatt the idea of a single, autonomous moment vanishes behind multicolored layers of streaming emotions. Just a few days after the International Leipzig Festival for Documentary and Animated Film I find it enormously hard to remember a single scene. As the filmmaker said himself during one of the Q&A sessions in Leipzig, “They [the films] all kind of blend together.” Well, they do and in this one might find the personal,...
- 11/17/2017
- MUBI
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- 7/16/2017
- by Stephanie Petit
- PEOPLE.com
Close-Up is a column that spotlights films now playing on Mubi. Theo Angelopoulos's Ulysses' Gaze (1995) is showing April 27 - May 27 and Landscape in the Mist (1988) is showing April 28 - May 28, 2017 in the United States.Landscape in the Mist“We Greeks are dying people. We've completed our appointed cycle. Three thousand years among broken stones and statues, and now we are dying.”—Taxi driver, Ulysses’ GazeIt seems that no essay on the films of Theodoros Angelopoulos can neglect to mention that, despite being recognized as one of cinema’s masters in Europe, he has repeatedly failed to cross over to the United States. A retrospective at the Museum of the Modern Art in 1990, a Grand Prix at Cannes Ulysses’ Gaze in 1995, a Palme d’Or for Eternity and a Day in 1998, and, most recently, a complete 35mm retrospective at the Museum of the Moving Image and Harvard Film Archive...
- 4/24/2017
- MUBI
A chef’s worst nightmare came true, and not only did composer Duncan Thum set that to music, it earned him his second Emmy nomination, for Original Dramatic Score for Netflix’s “Chef’s Table.”
The story of Chef Grant Achatz, the Chicago wunderkind who is one of the leaders in progressive cuisine, is almost unbelievable in its irony: the chef lost his ability to taste food while undergoing treatment for cancer. That’s not the end of his narrative, but it is part of the reason why Thum settled on Achatz’s episode as the standout for Emmy submission, even though he had scored all six episodes of the series’ second season.
Read More: ‘Chef’s Table’: The Directors’ Secret Recipe for the Best Food Show on TV
“There’s something special about Grant’s story that I just personally related to, because my sister also struggled with cancer,...
The story of Chef Grant Achatz, the Chicago wunderkind who is one of the leaders in progressive cuisine, is almost unbelievable in its irony: the chef lost his ability to taste food while undergoing treatment for cancer. That’s not the end of his narrative, but it is part of the reason why Thum settled on Achatz’s episode as the standout for Emmy submission, even though he had scored all six episodes of the series’ second season.
Read More: ‘Chef’s Table’: The Directors’ Secret Recipe for the Best Food Show on TV
“There’s something special about Grant’s story that I just personally related to, because my sister also struggled with cancer,...
- 8/19/2016
- by Hanh Nguyen
- Indiewire
The director has limited himself to ‘pure drama’ for his 20th movie. Here he talks about Brexit, the vanished freedom of the 1980s, and his need for solitude
Is Pedro Almodóvar getting more respectable? You might say so. When the international film scene first caught up with the Spanish writer-director in the late 80s, he had already been notorious in Spain for nearly a decade with his films inspired by low life and high melodrama – lurid, cheerfully scandalous, irrepressibly polysexual stories of porn stars, punk rockers, serial killers and rebel nuns. Now, 20 features into his career, Almodóvar has long been recognised as a European classic, with his films since the mid-90s, including All About My Mother and Volver, largely turning away from outrage and perversity. Instead, Almodóvar has come to specialise in emotional complexity, stylistic elegance and a distinctly high-art sobriety, never more so than in his latest film,...
Is Pedro Almodóvar getting more respectable? You might say so. When the international film scene first caught up with the Spanish writer-director in the late 80s, he had already been notorious in Spain for nearly a decade with his films inspired by low life and high melodrama – lurid, cheerfully scandalous, irrepressibly polysexual stories of porn stars, punk rockers, serial killers and rebel nuns. Now, 20 features into his career, Almodóvar has long been recognised as a European classic, with his films since the mid-90s, including All About My Mother and Volver, largely turning away from outrage and perversity. Instead, Almodóvar has come to specialise in emotional complexity, stylistic elegance and a distinctly high-art sobriety, never more so than in his latest film,...
- 8/7/2016
- by Jonathan Romney
- The Guardian - Film News
The fourteenth entry in an on-going series of audiovisual essays by Cristina Álvarez López and Adrian Martin. Mubi will be showing Leos Carax's The Lovers on the Bridge (1991) May 10 - June 9 in the United States.Leos Carax’s Les amants du Pont-Neuf (The Lovers on the Bridge) is a true monument of 1990s cinema. It covers a lot of ground, on every level: starting down in the gutter and looking a little like a documentary about Paris’s homeless, it soon reaches a point where an inner switch is flicked and surrealistic, romantic poetry literally lights up the screen. Alex (Denis Lavant)—an emblematic tramp in the tradition of silent cinema, only muckier—spies the equally lost soul, Michèle (Juliette Binoche, never better than here), an artist who, due to encroaching blindness, is on the run from her bourgeois background. Once the film explodes with the rapture of their...
- 5/10/2016
- MUBI
This concludes my look back at 2015 with the newer new albums -- the ones with new, or at least contemporary, compositions, most by living composers.
1. Soloists/Warsaw Boys' Choir/Warsaw Philharmonic Male Choir/Warsaw Philharmonic Choir & Orchestra/Antoni Wit Penderecki: Magnificat; Kadisz (Naxos) Naxos' invaluable Krzysztof Penderecki (b. 1933) project continues to bring us conductor Antoni Wit's impeccable renderings of the Polish composer's complex and challenging music, especially excelling in the choral works, as here. One of the longer settings of this text (here nearly 45 minutes), Penderecki's Magnificat (1973-74) is also epic in sound, written in a high-avant style similar to his iconic St. Luke Passion, with extended singing effects (especially long glissandi, but also speaking and whispering), highly disjunctive melodies, extremely dense dissonance, and colorful cluster interjections by the orchestra, especially the winds.
It has a prominent if intermittent role for solo bassist (here Wojtek Gerlach), surprising...
1. Soloists/Warsaw Boys' Choir/Warsaw Philharmonic Male Choir/Warsaw Philharmonic Choir & Orchestra/Antoni Wit Penderecki: Magnificat; Kadisz (Naxos) Naxos' invaluable Krzysztof Penderecki (b. 1933) project continues to bring us conductor Antoni Wit's impeccable renderings of the Polish composer's complex and challenging music, especially excelling in the choral works, as here. One of the longer settings of this text (here nearly 45 minutes), Penderecki's Magnificat (1973-74) is also epic in sound, written in a high-avant style similar to his iconic St. Luke Passion, with extended singing effects (especially long glissandi, but also speaking and whispering), highly disjunctive melodies, extremely dense dissonance, and colorful cluster interjections by the orchestra, especially the winds.
It has a prominent if intermittent role for solo bassist (here Wojtek Gerlach), surprising...
- 1/12/2016
- by SteveHoltje
- www.culturecatch.com
Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival has again placed a focus on the Estonian music scene with the sidebar Soundscapes (Nov 15-17).
Now in its fourth year, the section features five Estonian composers who present outtakes from their recent scores to international film directors and producers.
“Music is a part of Estonia’s DNA,” said industry director Sten-Kristian Saluveer, referring to the country’s long-standing tradition - the Song and Dance Festival - that sees 20,000 choir members sing to an audience of 80,000.
“This is something all Estonians have grown up with, and it is reflective in the country’s innovative sounds today which includes world-class composers Arvo Pärt and Erkki-Sven Tüür.”
Composers
In a non-competitive format, the composers presenting work are:
Liina Kullerkupp, composer for the Estonian film Secret Society of Soup Town;
Marianna Liik, winner of 2014 SoundTrack_Cologne Festival’s Film Music Award;
Sten Sheripov, composer, producer, musician, and sound designer whose styles range from orchestration to acoustic...
Now in its fourth year, the section features five Estonian composers who present outtakes from their recent scores to international film directors and producers.
“Music is a part of Estonia’s DNA,” said industry director Sten-Kristian Saluveer, referring to the country’s long-standing tradition - the Song and Dance Festival - that sees 20,000 choir members sing to an audience of 80,000.
“This is something all Estonians have grown up with, and it is reflective in the country’s innovative sounds today which includes world-class composers Arvo Pärt and Erkki-Sven Tüür.”
Composers
In a non-competitive format, the composers presenting work are:
Liina Kullerkupp, composer for the Estonian film Secret Society of Soup Town;
Marianna Liik, winner of 2014 SoundTrack_Cologne Festival’s Film Music Award;
Sten Sheripov, composer, producer, musician, and sound designer whose styles range from orchestration to acoustic...
- 11/16/2015
- ScreenDaily
Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival has again placed a focus on the Estonian music scene with the sidebar Undiscovered Soundscapes (Nov 15-17).
Now in its fourth year, the section features five Estonian composers who present outtakes from their recent scores to international film directors and producers.
“Music is a part of Estonia’s DNA,” said industry director Sten-Kristian Saluveer, referring to the country’s long-standing tradition - the Song and Dance Festival - that sees 20,000 choir members sing to an audience of 80,000.
“This is something all Estonians have grown up with, and it is reflective in the country’s innovative sounds today which includes world-class composers Arvo Pärt and Erkki-Sven Tüür.”
Composers
In a non-competitive format, the composers presenting work are:
Liina Kullerkupp, composer for the Estonian film Secret Society of Soup Town;
Marianna Liik, winner of 2014 SoundTrack_Cologne Festival’s Film Music Award;
Sten Sheripov, composer, producer, musician, and sound designer whose styles range from orchestration...
Now in its fourth year, the section features five Estonian composers who present outtakes from their recent scores to international film directors and producers.
“Music is a part of Estonia’s DNA,” said industry director Sten-Kristian Saluveer, referring to the country’s long-standing tradition - the Song and Dance Festival - that sees 20,000 choir members sing to an audience of 80,000.
“This is something all Estonians have grown up with, and it is reflective in the country’s innovative sounds today which includes world-class composers Arvo Pärt and Erkki-Sven Tüür.”
Composers
In a non-competitive format, the composers presenting work are:
Liina Kullerkupp, composer for the Estonian film Secret Society of Soup Town;
Marianna Liik, winner of 2014 SoundTrack_Cologne Festival’s Film Music Award;
Sten Sheripov, composer, producer, musician, and sound designer whose styles range from orchestration...
- 11/16/2015
- ScreenDaily
Hopefully, you’ve had a few minutes to play around with our Fall Entertainment Generator. But if you’re looking for straight and simple lists of things to look out for by medium, we’ll be breaking them out separately. Here’s a look at fall classical music and dance performances.September 9/11“Arvo Pärt at Eighty” The Metropolitan MuseumThe New Juilliard Ensemble will perform his shimmeringly ethereal works, and City Ballet dancers will perform Christopher Wheeldon’s Liturgy, set to Pärt’s Fratres. 9/14Tree of Codes Through Sept. 21, Park Avenue Armory How’s this for brand extension: Jonathan Safran Foer’s novel Tree of Codes inspires a dance, with choreography by Wayne McGregor for his own dancers and an original score by Jamie xx, along with an installation by Olafur Eliasson. 9/17Run Time Error Miller Theatre at Columbia UniversityI’m a sucker for the unpredictable, and the Danish composer Simon...
- 8/25/2015
- by Rebecca Milzoff
- Vulture
Eric Lavallee: Name me three of your favorite “2014 discoveries”…
Timo Chen: I worked a lot in 2014 so I didn’t get out much. That said, I was able to recall three things that I discovered that changed a few things in my life.
• Learning to solder and then learning that you could learn just about anything on youtube. I had previously only used electrical tape and sloppy fixtures for all my electronic music endeavors. I told myself that I had to learn how to solder so I looked it up on youtube and was blown away by how many enthusiasts there were giving detailed instruction on something as commonplace as soldering. Then I started doing the same with carpentry and building more and more things–fixtures around the studio, etc. Learning to teach myself to build things was a huge discovery for me in 2014.
• Two pieces of music: Te Deum by Arvo Pärt.
Timo Chen: I worked a lot in 2014 so I didn’t get out much. That said, I was able to recall three things that I discovered that changed a few things in my life.
• Learning to solder and then learning that you could learn just about anything on youtube. I had previously only used electrical tape and sloppy fixtures for all my electronic music endeavors. I told myself that I had to learn how to solder so I looked it up on youtube and was blown away by how many enthusiasts there were giving detailed instruction on something as commonplace as soldering. Then I started doing the same with carpentry and building more and more things–fixtures around the studio, etc. Learning to teach myself to build things was a huge discovery for me in 2014.
• Two pieces of music: Te Deum by Arvo Pärt.
- 2/5/2015
- by Eric Lavallee
- IONCINEMA.com
Having started his directing career overseeing pop videos, it's clear that music is still an integral part of how Spike Jonze works as a film director. From Christopher Walken boogieing to Fatboy Slim's 'Weapon of Choice' to Greta Gerwig's carefree dance to Arcade Fire's 'Afterlife' at the recent YouTube music awards, Jonze is an expert at intertwining sound and image.
The latter group's 'Wake Up' overlaid the stunning trailer for Jonze's Where the Wild Things Are, and the two take their collaboration further with Her. The future-set love story stars Joaquin Phoenix as a man who falls in love with his operating system (voiced alluringly by Scarlett Johansson).
Her: Digital Spy's review ★★★★☆
It's Arcade Fire and Owen Pallett's music that beautifully scores the winsome romance, so when Digital Spy sat down with Jonze we quizzed him on this collaboration. In true Jonze style, he chose a song...
The latter group's 'Wake Up' overlaid the stunning trailer for Jonze's Where the Wild Things Are, and the two take their collaboration further with Her. The future-set love story stars Joaquin Phoenix as a man who falls in love with his operating system (voiced alluringly by Scarlett Johansson).
Her: Digital Spy's review ★★★★☆
It's Arcade Fire and Owen Pallett's music that beautifully scores the winsome romance, so when Digital Spy sat down with Jonze we quizzed him on this collaboration. In true Jonze style, he chose a song...
- 2/13/2014
- Digital Spy
As always, there are biases at play here; my greatest interests are symphonic music, choral music, and piano music, so that's what comes my way most often. There are some paired reviews; the ranking of the second of each pair might not be the true, exact ranking, but it works better from a writing standpoint this way.
1. Brahms: Symphonies Nos. 1-4; Academic Festival Overture, Op. 80 Tragic Overture, Op. 81; Variations on a Theme by Haydn, Op. 56a; 3 Hungarian Dances; 9 Liebeslieder Waltzes; Intermezzi, Op. 116 No. 4 & Op. 117 No. 1 Gewandhausorchester/Riccardo Chailly (Decca)
It is not easy, at this point in recording history, to match the giants of the baton in a Brahms cycle, but Chailly has done it (this is my fiftieth Brahms cycle, and I have more than another fifty Brahms Firsts, and upwards of thirty each of the other symphonies outside those cycles, so I've got some basis for comparison...
1. Brahms: Symphonies Nos. 1-4; Academic Festival Overture, Op. 80 Tragic Overture, Op. 81; Variations on a Theme by Haydn, Op. 56a; 3 Hungarian Dances; 9 Liebeslieder Waltzes; Intermezzi, Op. 116 No. 4 & Op. 117 No. 1 Gewandhausorchester/Riccardo Chailly (Decca)
It is not easy, at this point in recording history, to match the giants of the baton in a Brahms cycle, but Chailly has done it (this is my fiftieth Brahms cycle, and I have more than another fifty Brahms Firsts, and upwards of thirty each of the other symphonies outside those cycles, so I've got some basis for comparison...
- 1/6/2014
- by SteveHoltje
- www.culturecatch.com
Yep, it’s come to this. “Gravity” has basically gone mainstream. The Alfonso Cuarón 3D spectacle has grossed a whopping $476 million worldwide and having just opened in the U.K. with China still to come, some pundits are guestimating the film could hit $600 million globally ($500 million is just around the corner). So that means spoofs. Today’s is “Alfonso Cuarón's Ikea” directed, written and starring Daniel Hubbard. It features that same, now kinda iconic trailer music by Arvo Pärt (it’ll be amusing to see the classical called "the 'Gravity' music" in a few years) and it's amusing little riff on the vastness, space and impossible-ness that is visiting an Ikea store. Once you enter, can you ever get back safely? Watch below.
- 11/14/2013
- by Edward Davis
- The Playlist
The BBC is reporting that English composer Sir John Tavener died at his home in Child Okeford, Dorset early on Tuesday. Often referred to as a “sacred minimalist” (a label that has also been applied to his contemporary, and fellow Orthodox Christian, Arvo Pärt), Tavener was the English-speaking world’s preeminent composer of religious music, blending modern composition with centuries-old traditions. He was 69. Tavener achieved widespread recognition early in his career. The first album of his music, a recording of his cantata The Whale, was released by the Beatles’ Apple Records when Tavener was only 25. In 1977 ...
- 11/13/2013
- avclub.com
Richard Curtis has found a Hugh Grant replicant to star in his daft but sweet film about love and time-travel
Richard Curtis's film is a good-natured fantasy romance of such utterable daftness that it's impossible to dislike. Criticising it is like vivisecting a Labrador puppy. All the traditional Curtis items are in place, including a jolly cast of upper-class folk, a wacky/vulnerable kid sister, characters who go into strange Curtis-speak under pressure ("Oh my arsing God in a box!"), and a Hugh-Grant-replicant leading man: 30-year-old Domhnall Gleeson sounds so much like the young Grant I suspected he'd been dubbed. But there are some nice gags and some ingenious narrative turns in Curtis's well-carpentered screenplay.
Gleeson plays Tim, the shy son of eccentric, well-off parents (Bill Nighy and Lindsay Duncan). At 21, he leaves the family nest in Cornwall to take up his barrister pupillage in London and, yearning for love,...
Richard Curtis's film is a good-natured fantasy romance of such utterable daftness that it's impossible to dislike. Criticising it is like vivisecting a Labrador puppy. All the traditional Curtis items are in place, including a jolly cast of upper-class folk, a wacky/vulnerable kid sister, characters who go into strange Curtis-speak under pressure ("Oh my arsing God in a box!"), and a Hugh-Grant-replicant leading man: 30-year-old Domhnall Gleeson sounds so much like the young Grant I suspected he'd been dubbed. But there are some nice gags and some ingenious narrative turns in Curtis's well-carpentered screenplay.
Gleeson plays Tim, the shy son of eccentric, well-off parents (Bill Nighy and Lindsay Duncan). At 21, he leaves the family nest in Cornwall to take up his barrister pupillage in London and, yearning for love,...
- 9/5/2013
- by Peter Bradshaw
- The Guardian - Film News
Exclusive: Jean-Luc Godard and Ursula Meier are among 14 directors set to participate in an omnibus film that will mark next year’s centenary of the First World War.
Speaking exclusively to ScreenDaily in Locarno, Meier - who has become known to international festival and cinema audiences through her last two features Home and Sister - confirmed that she and 83-year-old Godard will be making short films for the omnibus project Les Ponts de Sarajevo.
The omnibus will be coordinated by Paris-based production house Cinétévé.
The film will be part of a week-long event from June 21-28, 2014, titled “Sarajevo: Coeur de L’Europe”, organised in collaboration with the City of Sarajevo, the Sarajevo Film Festival, Jazzfest Sarajevo, Centre André Malraux, Goethe-Institut and the British Council.
“Most of the contributions will be documentary or essay-type films, but I am one of a couple of film-makers who will be making a fiction film,” Meier explained...
Speaking exclusively to ScreenDaily in Locarno, Meier - who has become known to international festival and cinema audiences through her last two features Home and Sister - confirmed that she and 83-year-old Godard will be making short films for the omnibus project Les Ponts de Sarajevo.
The omnibus will be coordinated by Paris-based production house Cinétévé.
The film will be part of a week-long event from June 21-28, 2014, titled “Sarajevo: Coeur de L’Europe”, organised in collaboration with the City of Sarajevo, the Sarajevo Film Festival, Jazzfest Sarajevo, Centre André Malraux, Goethe-Institut and the British Council.
“Most of the contributions will be documentary or essay-type films, but I am one of a couple of film-makers who will be making a fiction film,” Meier explained...
- 8/14/2013
- by screen.berlin@googlemail.com (Martin Blaney)
- ScreenDaily
Tweet Of The Day | The Gatsby Factor | NPR's American Icons | Counterpoint | The First Time
All 256 two-minute episodes of new birdsong programme Tweet Of The Day (weekdays, 5.58am, Radio 4) will be kept online forever. This is the way all broadcasting is going, whether the programme-makers like it or not. You wonder how the above title will play 10 years from now, when the word tweet will be approximately as resonant as the word Betamax.
All access forever means you can compare The Gatsby Factor (Thursday, 11.30am, Radio 4), Sarah Churchwell's exploration of the enduring allure of Fitzgerald's novel, which appears in anticipation of Baz Luhrmann's hip-hop-inflamed movie version, with the programme Kurt Anderson made for NPR's American Icons series in 2010 and lives online (studio360.org). Neither has seen the new film. Consequently, Churchwell leads you to believe that The Great Gatsby is essentially unfilmable, because the elements of the story that...
All 256 two-minute episodes of new birdsong programme Tweet Of The Day (weekdays, 5.58am, Radio 4) will be kept online forever. This is the way all broadcasting is going, whether the programme-makers like it or not. You wonder how the above title will play 10 years from now, when the word tweet will be approximately as resonant as the word Betamax.
All access forever means you can compare The Gatsby Factor (Thursday, 11.30am, Radio 4), Sarah Churchwell's exploration of the enduring allure of Fitzgerald's novel, which appears in anticipation of Baz Luhrmann's hip-hop-inflamed movie version, with the programme Kurt Anderson made for NPR's American Icons series in 2010 and lives online (studio360.org). Neither has seen the new film. Consequently, Churchwell leads you to believe that The Great Gatsby is essentially unfilmable, because the elements of the story that...
- 5/4/2013
- by David Hepworth
- The Guardian - Film News
The follow-up to his breakout hit Blue Valentine, writer/director Derek Cianfrance’s excellent epic crime drama The Place Beyond the Pines comes out next Friday, March 29, and one Filmmaker reader can win themselves an extra special viewing experience, thanks to a prize pack being offered by the film’s distributor, Focus Features. The lucky winner will get a $25 Visa Gift card to see the film in theaters, a T-shirt, the official soundtrack (featuring the original score by Mike Patton, plus tracks by Arvo Pärt, Bon Iver and Ennio Morricone) and a poster for the film. To win this prize pack, send an email to …...
- 3/21/2013
- by Nick Dawson
- Filmmaker Magazine-Director Interviews
In his 70th year, Malick must be feeling time's wingèd chariot hurrying near. Which is why we've had to wait a mere 19 months for his sixth film rather than the customary decade or more. While clearly the work of the director of Days of Heaven, the pastoral tragedy that remains his masterpiece, To the Wonder is a rambling disappointment with wonderful moments, mostly visual.
The title refers to "the wonder of the western world", an epithet long attached to Mont-Saint-Michel, the magnificent medieval abbey on the Normandy coast, a great symbol of faith, object of pilgrimage and example of sublime architecture. The film begins and ends there, and among its themes are the contrast between the old world and the new, what man creates and what he spoils. It's also about faith and love as experienced by an American writer (Ben Affleck) and a single mother from eastern Europe (Olga Kurylenko...
The title refers to "the wonder of the western world", an epithet long attached to Mont-Saint-Michel, the magnificent medieval abbey on the Normandy coast, a great symbol of faith, object of pilgrimage and example of sublime architecture. The film begins and ends there, and among its themes are the contrast between the old world and the new, what man creates and what he spoils. It's also about faith and love as experienced by an American writer (Ben Affleck) and a single mother from eastern Europe (Olga Kurylenko...
- 2/24/2013
- by Philip French
- The Guardian - Film News
My usual explanation in this space: I am especially interested in piano and choral music, plus symphonies, so that’s what I get the most promos of. Other stuff obviously gets through my filters, but the percentages of what comes in inevitably affect what comes out, i.e. this list. That said, in terms of number of centuries spanned, rather than genres or formats or whatever, I think I'm covering as much or more musical territory than most critics. By the way, look for a shorter list of my favorite classical reissues of 2012, to follow in a day or two.
1. Tokyo String Quartet, Jon Manasse, Jon Nakamatsu Brahms: Piano Quintet, Clarinet Quintet (Harmonia Mundi) There were recordings this year that were more important in terms of bringing new repertoire to light, or featuring young artists, or bringing classical into the 21st century, or being more controversially newsworthy. Examples of all of those follow.
1. Tokyo String Quartet, Jon Manasse, Jon Nakamatsu Brahms: Piano Quintet, Clarinet Quintet (Harmonia Mundi) There were recordings this year that were more important in terms of bringing new repertoire to light, or featuring young artists, or bringing classical into the 21st century, or being more controversially newsworthy. Examples of all of those follow.
- 1/2/2013
- by SteveHoltje
- www.culturecatch.com
Chamber Choir Voces Musicales/Tallinn Sinfonietta/Risto Joost Arvo Pärt: Pilgrim's Song (Estonian Record Productions) Latvian Radio Choir/Vox Clamantis/Sinfonietta Riga; Estonian Philharmonic Chamber Choir/Tallinn Chamber Orchestra; Tõnu Kaljuste Arvo Pärt:Adam's Lament (Ecm) Latvian Radio Choir/Vox Clamantis/Sinfonietta Riga; Estonian Philharmonic Chamber Choir/Tallinn Chamber Orchestra; Tõnu Kaljuste Arvo Pärt:Adam's Lament (Ecm) Latvian Radio Choir/Vox Clamantis/Sinfonietta Riga; Estonian Philharmonic Chamber Choir/Tallinn Chamber Orchestra; Tõnu Kaljuste Arvo Pärt:Adam's Lament (Ecm) Latvian Radio Choir/Vox Clamantis/Sinfonietta Riga; Estonian Philharmonic Chamber Choir/Tallinn Chamber Orchestra; Tõnu Kaljuste Arvo Pärt: Adam's Lament (Ecm)
Because of both his religious devotion and how well his "tintinnabuli" style works with massed voices, choral music has long been the most important part of the output of Estonian "mystic minimalist" composer Arvo Pärt (b. 1935). The past few months brought two excellent recordings focusing on his choral works.
Because of both his religious devotion and how well his "tintinnabuli" style works with massed voices, choral music has long been the most important part of the output of Estonian "mystic minimalist" composer Arvo Pärt (b. 1935). The past few months brought two excellent recordings focusing on his choral works.
- 11/10/2012
- by SteveHoltje
- www.culturecatch.com
Sean Penn discovers his sense of humour as a retired goth rocker reconnecting with his past – but director Paolo Sorrentino's road-movie takes a puzzling left-turn
Paolo Sorrentino's first English-language feature is not quite a misstep, but is less successful than his other films. It is an intriguing co-production oddity, and one in which a disconnect opens up between style and substance; this attempt to absorb an imagined remnant of European history's greatest horror into a quirky road movie in the manner of Wim Wenders does not entirely convince. There's much less political and historical savvy than in Sorrentino's earlier movie Il Divo, about Guilio Andreotti, and less of a solid base on which to rest his unmistakeable mannerisms: the emphatic low-angled establishing shots, the swooping perspectives and zooms, the deadpan closeups and shards of pop – although it's sad, incidentally, to see him here bring out a cliched theme of Arvo Pärt.
Paolo Sorrentino's first English-language feature is not quite a misstep, but is less successful than his other films. It is an intriguing co-production oddity, and one in which a disconnect opens up between style and substance; this attempt to absorb an imagined remnant of European history's greatest horror into a quirky road movie in the manner of Wim Wenders does not entirely convince. There's much less political and historical savvy than in Sorrentino's earlier movie Il Divo, about Guilio Andreotti, and less of a solid base on which to rest his unmistakeable mannerisms: the emphatic low-angled establishing shots, the swooping perspectives and zooms, the deadpan closeups and shards of pop – although it's sad, incidentally, to see him here bring out a cliched theme of Arvo Pärt.
- 4/5/2012
- by Peter Bradshaw
- The Guardian - Film News
We've just opened a virtual cinema featuring the work of Reha Erdem, ranging from the blackly comic to the eerily poetic (and we should note right at the top that not every film mentioned here will be viewable in every country; we do what we can). In the Us, most were first introduced to Erdem when his Times and Winds, which had won the award for Best Film (as well as the Fipresci Prize) at the Istanbul International Film Festival in 2006, saw a limited theatrical run two years later before its release on DVD. It's "a film bewitched by the rhythms of everyday life in a remote Turkish village," wrote Ed Gonzalez in the Voice. "Erdem sees pain and love the same way he does the moon and sun — as constant, illuminating forces — and his camera pushes forward as if on an axis, peering at family and communal experience through...
- 2/28/2012
- MUBI
Andrei Zvyagintsev is one of the most interesting among active filmmakers today. He has only made three feature films. Each of those three films is built, to put it in literary terms, on the scale of a novella rather than an epic novel. Each film delves with aspects of family bonding—or at least that provides the least common factor for the tales, only to multiply and enlarge on aspects of an individual’s life beyond the family, subjects often relating to psychology, politics, sociology and religion. And that is what makes any Zvyagintsev film interesting—its universality and its inward looking questions, all open ended for the viewer to ponder over after the movie gets over. And Elena is true to that spirit.
Famous Russian novels (later made into films) often had for their titles mere names—Anna Karenina or Dr Zhivago. But those novels went beyond those ordinary names.
Famous Russian novels (later made into films) often had for their titles mere names—Anna Karenina or Dr Zhivago. But those novels went beyond those ordinary names.
- 2/1/2012
- by Jugu Abraham
- DearCinema.com
Akomfrah's Handsworth Songs attracted a huge audience when shown in the wake of last summer's riots. His new film, The Nine Muses, uses Homer to explore mass migration to Britain
John Akomfrah, widely recognised as one of Britain's most expansive and intellectually rewarding film-makers, has never been afraid of a battle. Back in the 1970s, when he was barely out of his teens, he tried to screen Derek Jarman's homoerotic Sebastiane at the film club of the Southwark further education college, where he was studying. "There were rows. Black kids were throwing chairs everywhere. They were saying 'you can't show this'. So we stopped the film and had a discussion: what do you mean, 'We can't show this film'? It was clear there were forms of propriety for black spectatorship. Rather than run back into the field, I thought: let's just accelerate it. Let's push these boundaries a little bit more.
John Akomfrah, widely recognised as one of Britain's most expansive and intellectually rewarding film-makers, has never been afraid of a battle. Back in the 1970s, when he was barely out of his teens, he tried to screen Derek Jarman's homoerotic Sebastiane at the film club of the Southwark further education college, where he was studying. "There were rows. Black kids were throwing chairs everywhere. They were saying 'you can't show this'. So we stopped the film and had a discussion: what do you mean, 'We can't show this film'? It was clear there were forms of propriety for black spectatorship. Rather than run back into the field, I thought: let's just accelerate it. Let's push these boundaries a little bit more.
- 1/21/2012
- by Sukhdev Sandhu
- The Guardian - Film News
The 2011 Grammy Awards were big for the ladies -- country trio Lady Antebellum took home the most awards with five, while Lady Gaga earned three. Eminem had two honors, but Alternative Rock group Arcade Fire won the coveted Album of the Year.
Here is the full list of winners:
Album Of The Year
The Suburbs -- Arcade Fire
Recovery -- Eminem
Need You Now -- Lady Antebellum
The Fame Monster -- Lady Gaga
Teenage Dream -- Katy Perry
Record Of The Year
"Nothin' On You" -- B.o.B Featuring Bruno Mars
"Love The Way You Lie" -- Eminem Featuring Rihanna
"Forget You" -- Cee Lo Green
"Empire State Of Mind" -- Jay-z & Alicia Keys
"Need You Now" -- Lady Antebellum
Best New Artist
Justin Bieber
Drake
Florence & The Machine
Mumford & Sons
Esperanza Spalding
Song Of The Year
"Beg Steal Or Borrow" -- Ray Lamontagne, songwriter (Ray Lamontagne And The...
Here is the full list of winners:
Album Of The Year
The Suburbs -- Arcade Fire
Recovery -- Eminem
Need You Now -- Lady Antebellum
The Fame Monster -- Lady Gaga
Teenage Dream -- Katy Perry
Record Of The Year
"Nothin' On You" -- B.o.B Featuring Bruno Mars
"Love The Way You Lie" -- Eminem Featuring Rihanna
"Forget You" -- Cee Lo Green
"Empire State Of Mind" -- Jay-z & Alicia Keys
"Need You Now" -- Lady Antebellum
Best New Artist
Justin Bieber
Drake
Florence & The Machine
Mumford & Sons
Esperanza Spalding
Song Of The Year
"Beg Steal Or Borrow" -- Ray Lamontagne, songwriter (Ray Lamontagne And The...
- 2/14/2011
- by editorial@zap2it.com
- Pop2it
Sigh… Seems like the Music Branch of AMPAS is at it again. Did we learn nothing from last year’s mess? Their omissions just gall me. Only 81 scores managed to qualify and move onto the next round of Oscar voting.
Steve Pond of The Wrap:
Eno’s score for “The Lovely Bones,” a haunting and effective use of the composer’s music both new and old, was not submitted to the Academy for consideration. Yeah Yeah Yeah’s frontwoman Karen O’s music for “Where the Wild Things Are,” which she co-wrote with Burwell, and Burnett’s and Stephen Bruton’s score to “Crazy Heart,” both of which have won critics awards, are also not on the branch’s “Reminder List” of qualifying achievements.
Notable scores have been disqualified in the past by the Academy’s music branch, which has strict rules for qualifying in the category. In 2007, for instance,...
Steve Pond of The Wrap:
Eno’s score for “The Lovely Bones,” a haunting and effective use of the composer’s music both new and old, was not submitted to the Academy for consideration. Yeah Yeah Yeah’s frontwoman Karen O’s music for “Where the Wild Things Are,” which she co-wrote with Burwell, and Burnett’s and Stephen Bruton’s score to “Crazy Heart,” both of which have won critics awards, are also not on the branch’s “Reminder List” of qualifying achievements.
Notable scores have been disqualified in the past by the Academy’s music branch, which has strict rules for qualifying in the category. In 2007, for instance,...
- 1/5/2010
- by Michelle
- WeAreMovieGeeks.com
Can Martin Scorsese pull off a horror movie? Is Glasgow the new Venice? And what's Ricky Gervais up to in Reading? Our critics pick next year's hottest tickets
Film
Cemetery Junction
Having conquered Hollywood, Ricky Gervais is coming home. With his long-time collaborator Stephen Merchant, he has set out to create a British film in the tradition of Billy Liar and the Likely Lads – and of course his own masterpiece The Office – about three blokes working for the Prudential insurance company in Gervais's hometown of Reading. Released on 7 April.
A Single Man
The smart money says Colin Firth will be bringing home a certain gold, bald-headed statuette for his performance as a bereaved gay man in Los Angeles. Based on the 1964 novel by Christopher Isherwood, the movie – fashion designer Tom Ford's directorial debut – follows one day in the life of Firth's literature academic as he confronts his own mortality. Released on 12 February.
Film
Cemetery Junction
Having conquered Hollywood, Ricky Gervais is coming home. With his long-time collaborator Stephen Merchant, he has set out to create a British film in the tradition of Billy Liar and the Likely Lads – and of course his own masterpiece The Office – about three blokes working for the Prudential insurance company in Gervais's hometown of Reading. Released on 7 April.
A Single Man
The smart money says Colin Firth will be bringing home a certain gold, bald-headed statuette for his performance as a bereaved gay man in Los Angeles. Based on the 1964 novel by Christopher Isherwood, the movie – fashion designer Tom Ford's directorial debut – follows one day in the life of Firth's literature academic as he confronts his own mortality. Released on 12 February.
- 12/31/2009
- The Guardian - Film News
Arvo Pärt Experimental classical composer Arvo Pärt was born in Estonia in 1935 and raised in its capital, Tallinn, where the postwar Soviet cloak veiled most outside music. By 14, Arvo was already composing. In 1958, he began nearly a decade of television and film composition for Estonian Radio. Pärt pioneered the Collage Technique, giving the art of sampling its kick-start by injecting snippets of Bach and Tchaikovsky into his pieces. Thumbprint to his sound was also tintinnabulation of the bells. Pärt's artistic well drew from Gregorian chant, Western classical, and polyphony. Accolades include the American Academy of Arts and Letters Department of Music (1996), an honorary Doctorate of Music from the University of Durham (2003), and the Léonie Sonning Music Prize (2008). Start with the magnificence of "Cantus in Memory of Benjamin Britten for Strings and...
- 9/25/2009
- by Phil Ramone and Danielle Evin
- Huffington Post
Estonian Philharmonic Chamber Choir/Estonian National Symphony Orchestra/Tallinn Chamber Orchestra/Tõnu Kaljuste
Arvo Pärt: In Principio
(Ecm New Series)
I have been living with this CD for over two months now, so my reaction here is not hasty. Somebody I work with called it boring, and I wanted to make sure it would stand up to repeated listening. It does. Its lack of flash is not a fault, it’s a virtue; this is noble music that unfolds majestically, but now that unfolding has more layers than it used to.
read more...
Arvo Pärt: In Principio
(Ecm New Series)
I have been living with this CD for over two months now, so my reaction here is not hasty. Somebody I work with called it boring, and I wanted to make sure it would stand up to repeated listening. It does. Its lack of flash is not a fault, it’s a virtue; this is noble music that unfolds majestically, but now that unfolding has more layers than it used to.
read more...
- 4/30/2009
- by SteveHoltje
- www.culturecatch.com
Pärt continues his sacred investigations with homegrown choir and orchestra
"His music fulfills a deep human need that has nothing to do with fashion," Steve Reich once said of his contemporary Arvo Pärt, Estonia's preeminent modern composer. Pärt’s earlier works were in a neo-classical mold; his later ones imbued minimalism with religious fervor. In Principio, which includes four new pieces and several revised older pieces, naturally falls in the latter camp. Pärt’s gaze penetrates the crease between earth and the heavens: Five compositions are settings of the book of John for chorus and orchestra; one is a requiem for late Estonian president Lennart Georg Meri, and one is for the victims of the 2004 Madrid train bombings. The “John” pieces are dominated by celestial voices and string-heavy musical accompaniment that moves fluently between ecstatic fanfare and vanishing solemnity. “Da Pacem Domine” is a standout—its voices flowing in undisturbed serenity...
"His music fulfills a deep human need that has nothing to do with fashion," Steve Reich once said of his contemporary Arvo Pärt, Estonia's preeminent modern composer. Pärt’s earlier works were in a neo-classical mold; his later ones imbued minimalism with religious fervor. In Principio, which includes four new pieces and several revised older pieces, naturally falls in the latter camp. Pärt’s gaze penetrates the crease between earth and the heavens: Five compositions are settings of the book of John for chorus and orchestra; one is a requiem for late Estonian president Lennart Georg Meri, and one is for the victims of the 2004 Madrid train bombings. The “John” pieces are dominated by celestial voices and string-heavy musical accompaniment that moves fluently between ecstatic fanfare and vanishing solemnity. “Da Pacem Domine” is a standout—its voices flowing in undisturbed serenity...
- 4/17/2009
- Pastemagazine.com
Estonian composer Arvo Pärt (b. 1935) has become one of the most popular composers of our time. For a long time he was an obscure figure to all but the most in-the know mavens of the classical avant-garde. Then, 25 years ago, Ecm owner/producer Manfred Eicher found Pärt's music so compelling that he started a classical division, New Series, to put it out (certainly no other labels were rushing to do so at the time). Ecm’s marketing savvy and devoted following have provided Pärt more and hipper exposure than pretty much any classical composer who hasn’t written movie soundtracks or operas. Since 1984, a few other record labels have joined the cause, but Ecm often makes the first recordings of major new Pärt compositions, the exceptions usually being choral pieces receiving their disc premieres under the direction of longtime Pärt boosters Paul Hillier (whose non-ecm work has been released by...
- 3/3/2009
- by SteveHoltje
- www.culturecatch.com
By Michael Atkinson
It's amazing to contemplate, but world cinema didn't really make serious feature films about children until after WWII; Vittorio De Sica's "Shoeshine" (1946) might've been the first. (You could stretch and consider Hal Roach's vivid and roughhewn "Our Gang" shorts as qualifying, and I wouldn't argue.) After the New Waves got rolling, of course, juveniles proliferated like rabbits on screen, but prior to that nearly the first half of cinema history had little or nothing to say about the bedeviled, often neglected, wide-eyed life of the pre-adult. Did cinema change with the war, or did we? Two new movies to DVD, Reha Erdem's "Times and Winds" (2006) and Ramin Bahrani's "Chop Shop" (2007), make their individual cases that little outside of the movie dynamic has changed at all, and that life as a 12-year-old in any corner of the globe is still subject to the grinding,...
It's amazing to contemplate, but world cinema didn't really make serious feature films about children until after WWII; Vittorio De Sica's "Shoeshine" (1946) might've been the first. (You could stretch and consider Hal Roach's vivid and roughhewn "Our Gang" shorts as qualifying, and I wouldn't argue.) After the New Waves got rolling, of course, juveniles proliferated like rabbits on screen, but prior to that nearly the first half of cinema history had little or nothing to say about the bedeviled, often neglected, wide-eyed life of the pre-adult. Did cinema change with the war, or did we? Two new movies to DVD, Reha Erdem's "Times and Winds" (2006) and Ramin Bahrani's "Chop Shop" (2007), make their individual cases that little outside of the movie dynamic has changed at all, and that life as a 12-year-old in any corner of the globe is still subject to the grinding,...
- 7/15/2008
- by Michael Atkinson
- ifc.com
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