This documentary is an informal portrait of the great modern composer Igor Stravinsky. Proudly American, though still very much an Old World figure with a long and alert memory for people and events in music, literature and art, Stravinsky is depicted here conducting the CBC Symphony Orchestra in a recording of his Symphony of Psalms.
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There's a lovely few minutes at the start of this documentary that features Julian Bream playing on the lute. Not an instrument I've heard often but it was clear this artist's skill captivated Igor Stravinsky as he sat in a theatre stall and watched. This gives us an early indication as to just how profound this man's interest in music and it's instruments was. For the next fifty minutes we follow him as he prepares the Canadian CBC Symphony Orchestra to make a live recording of his three hour-plus "Symphony of Psalms". Leading the orchestra himself, he doesn't rehearse as such - he intends to play the whole thing through commenting and recapping as required, to ensure that everyone is on the same page by the conclusion. This run-through is interspersed with some contributor's comment and underpinned by a narration and an interview that illustrates that this now proud American citizen is also a man who has a distinguished European past too. His contacts book would have been a thing to marvel at - everyone from Tchaikovsky and Diaghilev to Prokoviev were his luncheon partners. He even got arrested with Picasso for relieving himself against a wall in Madrid! His conversation is engaging and lively - though he is no pushover, and clearly knows (and gets) what he wants. As fly on the wall films go, this is less intrusive than many - we are shown the door on one or two occasions and I found that added a bit of realism to this interesting portrait of a man who spanned two empires - one with a crown and one without, and he seems to have kept his feet on the ground too.
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