Post by darkehmen on Jan 17, 2008 21:27:53 GMT 1
This will only be pertinent to North American readers, I suppose, but I wonder if anyone here remembers the broadcasts of several of Karajan's Telemondial films on A&E's Sunday-morning TV program Breakfast with the Arts, some time in the late '90s/early'00s.
Breakfast with the Arts was, for a time, an exceptional program. Hosted by Elliott Forrest, it used to show a wide assortment of classical programming, such as the Berlin Philharmonic concert from Waldbuehne. These days, it's degenerated (like A&E as a whole) into an "arts" program in name only, with rock music being passed off as some kind of "art." But back in the day, it was a great show.
I distinctly remember that it broadcast at least three of the Telemondial films: the Dvorak 9th, the Beethoven Violin Concerto with Mutter, and the four-Overtures film (Beethoven's Coriolan, Egmont, Leonore III, and the Brahms Tragic).
The last of the three was especially interesting, because the Overtures film had never been released for home video, so this broadcast was the only way that one could see it. To this day, the only source I have of the Overtures film is the VHS recording that I made of the A&E broadcast. But VHS is a poor medium at best, and I've always longed to seeing the film in digital. The forthcoming, long-awaited DVD release by Sony will finally make that a reality. (I wonder if it will include the same four overtures, or if it will also include the "Fidelio" overture, which was apparently filmed at the same time as the other Beethoven works?)
But what I didn't tape -- and I wish I had -- was the Beethoven Violin Concerto. I figured it would be the same as what I already had on Laserdisc, but it wasn't. Not quite.
As is known, Karajan shot the first works in the Telemondial series on film, before later converting to video, and for the Violin Concerto, as for the Beethoven symphonies, he later spliced various video shots (close-ups of the musicians, for example) into the original film footage. It works fairly seamlessly, but it is noticeable.
But what was interesting about the Violin Concerto film broadcast on A&E was that it was a slightly different cut than what was released on Laserdisc -- and subsequently on DVD. Specifically, it featured film footage exclusively, so close ups of the trombones, the timpani, the woodwinds, etc., consisted of shots presumably taken at the time of the original filming, and not the video segments that were shot later and spliced in.
Most interesting of all, though, was an extended two-shot scene that I recall during the first movement which showed Karajan listening with rapt attention to Mutter's cadenza. It's not in the cut on Laserdisc (which only shows Mutter, from various angles), but it was an interesting sequence, and it was definitely film, not video.
I wish I'd recorded the broadcast. I still remember it vividly.
Anyway, that's just an interesting bit of trivia -- i.e., in this case (and therefore possibly in others), the cut of the film that Telemondial provided for public broadcast was slightly different than what one sees on home video.
And this being the centenary, how nice it would be if some networks would broadcast a few of the films as a tribute -- perhaps PBS? It would be wonderful to see, although I think it's unlikely...
Breakfast with the Arts was, for a time, an exceptional program. Hosted by Elliott Forrest, it used to show a wide assortment of classical programming, such as the Berlin Philharmonic concert from Waldbuehne. These days, it's degenerated (like A&E as a whole) into an "arts" program in name only, with rock music being passed off as some kind of "art." But back in the day, it was a great show.
I distinctly remember that it broadcast at least three of the Telemondial films: the Dvorak 9th, the Beethoven Violin Concerto with Mutter, and the four-Overtures film (Beethoven's Coriolan, Egmont, Leonore III, and the Brahms Tragic).
The last of the three was especially interesting, because the Overtures film had never been released for home video, so this broadcast was the only way that one could see it. To this day, the only source I have of the Overtures film is the VHS recording that I made of the A&E broadcast. But VHS is a poor medium at best, and I've always longed to seeing the film in digital. The forthcoming, long-awaited DVD release by Sony will finally make that a reality. (I wonder if it will include the same four overtures, or if it will also include the "Fidelio" overture, which was apparently filmed at the same time as the other Beethoven works?)
But what I didn't tape -- and I wish I had -- was the Beethoven Violin Concerto. I figured it would be the same as what I already had on Laserdisc, but it wasn't. Not quite.
As is known, Karajan shot the first works in the Telemondial series on film, before later converting to video, and for the Violin Concerto, as for the Beethoven symphonies, he later spliced various video shots (close-ups of the musicians, for example) into the original film footage. It works fairly seamlessly, but it is noticeable.
But what was interesting about the Violin Concerto film broadcast on A&E was that it was a slightly different cut than what was released on Laserdisc -- and subsequently on DVD. Specifically, it featured film footage exclusively, so close ups of the trombones, the timpani, the woodwinds, etc., consisted of shots presumably taken at the time of the original filming, and not the video segments that were shot later and spliced in.
Most interesting of all, though, was an extended two-shot scene that I recall during the first movement which showed Karajan listening with rapt attention to Mutter's cadenza. It's not in the cut on Laserdisc (which only shows Mutter, from various angles), but it was an interesting sequence, and it was definitely film, not video.
I wish I'd recorded the broadcast. I still remember it vividly.
Anyway, that's just an interesting bit of trivia -- i.e., in this case (and therefore possibly in others), the cut of the film that Telemondial provided for public broadcast was slightly different than what one sees on home video.
And this being the centenary, how nice it would be if some networks would broadcast a few of the films as a tribute -- perhaps PBS? It would be wonderful to see, although I think it's unlikely...