In Search of Mozart

Description

An unmissable biography narrated by Juliet Stevenson and featuring interviews and performances with over 70 of the greatest exponents of Mozart’s music. A valuable addition to any music lovers collection.
“Top-drawer…essential viewing”  The Guardian

Produced in association with the world’s leading orchestras, opera houses and musicians. Told through a 25,000 mile journey along every route Mozart followed; IN SEARCH OF MOZART is a detective story that travels to the heart of old Europe… and the heart of genius itself.

“I loved every minute of it
” Time

Narrated by Juliet Stevenson and featuring: Ronald Brautigam, Renée Fleming, Magdalena Kožená, Lang Lang, Louis Langrée, Julian Rachlin, Roger Norrington, Imogen Cooper, Škampa Quartet, Orchestra of the 18th Century, the Salzburg Camerata… and many other leading musicians, performers, and Mozart experts.

Without resorting to docu-drama or visual re-enactment, In Search of Mozart traces the composer’s life through his music and extensive correspondence. From K1a to K626 (Requiem), over 80 works are featured in chronological order, revealing striking parallels between the music and Mozart’s own experiences. Throughout, it is the music that takes centre stage, with the jigsaw of Mozart’s life fitting around it. With rigorous analysis from musicologists and experts such as Jonathan Miller, Cliff Eisen, Nicholas Till, Bayan Northcott and the late Stanley Sadie, a new, vivid impression of the composer emerges. It dispels the many common myths about Mozart’s genius, health, relationships, death and character, to present a new image, very different from Milos Forman’s Amadeus.

Narrated by Juliet Stevenson and with Mozart voiced by Samuel West, the film features interviews and performances with over 70 of the greatest exponents of Mozart’s music including: Christophe Rousset, Sir Roger Norrington, René Jacobs, Sir Charles Mackerras, Renée Fleming, Magdalena Kožená, Sandrine Piau, Ian Bostridge, Gerald Finley, Sir Thomas Allen, Imogen Cooper, Pierre Laurent Aimard, Leif ove Andsnes, Lang Lang and Škampa Quartet. Frans Bruggen’s Orchestra of 18th Century and Ronald Brautigam perform much of the orchestral repertoire but the film also includes live performances from the Vienna Philharmonic, Norwegian Chamber Orchestra, Academy of St Martin in the Fields, Salzburg Camerata, Bayerischen Rundfunks, Concerto Köln, Netherlands Opera, Staatskapelle Berlin and Prague Estates Theatre.

“No more important, or beautifully filmed documentary about Mozart’s life and music has emerged than Phil Grabsky’s ‘In Search of Mozart’.” Chicago Tribune