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Films About Classical Music

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8.8K views 49 replies 13 participants last post by  Andrew Kenneth  
#1 ·
Got a favorite? Seen one recently? Could be a documentary, drama, comedy or, indeed, horror. :D Share!

Here's a good doc which is a kind of intro to the whole world (made fairly recently) -


Maestro: The Unknown World Of World Class Musicians (2022, Little Dot Studios)
 
#2 ·
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a late quartet (2012, yaron zilberman)
Members of a world-renowned string quartet struggle to stay together in the face of a crisis.

One of my favorites. Of course, Beethoven's music is utilized as a way to dramatize the relationships of the musicians but it's the central subject around which they struggle to relate to each other. Widely available on streaming platforms including a serviceable copy on YouTube:

 
#3 ·


The Music Lovers (1970)

The Music Lovers is a 1971 British drama film directed by Ken Russell and starring Richard Chamberlain and Glenda Jackson. The screenplay by Melvyn Bragg, based on Beloved Friend, a collection of personal correspondence edited by Catherine Drinker Bowen and Barbara von Meck, focuses on the life and career of 19th-century Russian composer Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky. It was one of the director's biographical films about classical composers, which include Elgar (1962), Delius: Song of Summer (1968), Mahler (1974) and Lisztomania (1975), made from an often idiosyncratic standpoint.
Wiki
 
#9 · (Edited)
2005 movie made for TV. High quality cast and despite the mixed reviews I thought it was great fun. There was an admirable attention to detail in evoking not just the painful genesis and attendant fly-on-the-wall psychodrama of The Rite of Spring but also post-fin de siècle Paris in general. All the cast were worthy of note but I think Aidan McArdle deserves special praise for his portrayal of an oft-tetchy Stravinsky.

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#17 ·
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#15 · (Edited)
Wagner, an excruciatingly long TV series about that composer, starring a very wooden Richard Burton, with three of the most talented thespians playing King Ludwig's ministers (Ralph Richardson, John Gielgud, Laurence Olivier). A memorable line: "then there's that Ring thing," delivered perfectly by Gielgud.

Oh, yes, Vanessa Redgrave plays Cosima von Bülow Wagner.
 
C
#18 · (Edited)
My partial memoryof this is still distinct...

One of the very 1st exposures to classical music of any kind I had was when I was 6 or 7. I watched a music movie drama in black & white made somewhere in the '30s or maybe '40s on our old tube TV sometime in the '50s. It featured Rachmaninoff's Piano Concerto No. 2 as the theme throughout the film.

The lead actor was a struggling pianist wanting to rise to fame, romance, & love. He was dealing with his demons while learning to conquer the concerto. He succeeds in the end, and the movie ends with his triumphant performance. I loved it, and still do.

Can anybody identify the movie from what I speak?:tiphat:
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Researching this out, I may be confused as to the details of the movie, its been over 60 years ago after all!
 
#20 · (Edited)
Chibi Ubu said:
One of the very 1st exposures to classical music of any kind I had was when I was 6 or 7. I watched a music movie drama in black & white made somewhere in the '30s or maybe '40s on our old tube TV sometime in the '50s. It featured Rachmaninoff's Piano Concerto No. 2 as the theme throughout the film.

The lead actor was a struggling pianist wanting to rise to fame, romance, & love. He was dealing with his demons while learning to conquer the concerto. He succeeds in the end, and the movie ends with his triumphant performance. I loved it, and still do.

Can anybody identify the movie from what I speak?:tiphat:
---------------------------------------------
Researching this out, I may be confused as to the details of the movie, its been over 60 years ago after all!
Click to expand...
Got me. The closest thing I could find (or remember) is this 1946 Frank Borzage film Based on real life female concert pianist, torn between her attraction to her arrogant but brilliant maestro and her love for a farm boy she left back home:

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I've Always Loved You

Looks dreadful. :cool: But it features Rachmaninoff No. 2 and there's a fine YT copy -


Good luck with the search.
 
#23 ·
There is also a film about a Czech soprano with a revolutionary bent, and one about Alma Mahler (wife of the composer). There are also several tv programs about music with Leonard Bernstein and Michael Tilson Thomas (separately).

Not to forget Mr. Holland's Opus, about a would-be composer.
 
#24 ·
The Competition

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The plot, a romantic dramady, involves two pianists in the same competition. One a 30-year old man (Richard Dreyfus), cynical and disillusioned competing in his last competition, risking losing his new job, and a 23-year old female virtuoso with an ambitious, accomplished, and cutthroat teacher (Lee Remick).

Of course these two characters are both in competition against each other, but also falling in love ....
 
#26 · (Edited)
Is it Prokofiev's 3rd Piano Concerto that's showcasd in this one? At any rate, good film that shows its age a bit but a great ensemble overall. And, wow, I just found a YT copy after a long time of it being impossible to find streaming anywhere. Well, got my film for the night! Thanks. :)


Edit: ^^ Alas, a terrible copy. For a nice one go here, but have a good ad blocker in place. Have a great weekend.
 
#31 · (Edited)

England, My England (1995)

This follows the career of Henry Purcell alongside the reign of Charles II (played by Simon Callow).

It has been since the 90's since I saw it last, but I remember odd 4th Wall breaking from the major players or contemporary interpolations. I could be misremembering too.
 
#35 ·


Mein Name ist Bach -Mu name is Bach

Mein Name ist Bach is a penetrating portrait of two great personalities: Johann Sebastian Bach and Frederick II of Prussia. Based on true events, the film tells of the stormy meeting between a famous musician and a legendary king, a father and a son.
While visiting one of his sons in Potsdam, Bach is ordered to make an appearance at the royal palace. There he meets the brilliant, talented young prince Frederik. He recognizes the genius in the other, but at the same time he does not tolerate being overshadowed. His younger sister Amalia longs for freedom and is madly in love with Bach's eldest, rebellious son. During the encounter, convention is thrown overboard and an emotional battle between egos ensues, accompanied by the harmonies and dissonances of subdued music.

Not so very famous - speaking German, has Dutch = French subtitles .
4 stars
 
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