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ONCE AT A BORDER - DVD Movie
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12 of 13 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
The Documentary to End All Documentaries,
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This review is from: Stravinsky: Once at a Border / Tony Palmer (DVD)
This 150 minute documentary on Stravinsky's life is, by far, the best one I have ever seen done on any composer. Produced in 1980-81, in time for Stravinsky's centennial in 1982, prolific English filmmaker Tony Palmer really, really outdid himself. There is nary a dull moment in the entire thing; apparently Palmer was asked to do this film by Mme. Vera Stravinsky and much material that appears was made available by herself and also Robert Craft.
It seems very fortuitous, in retrospect, that Palmer and his staff were able to interview many soon-to-pass figures from the artistic world of the yesteryear - Serge Lifar, Boris Kochno (Diaghilev's secretary), 3 of Stravinsky's four children, his second wife, George Balanchine, concert promoter Jean Wiener, Kyra Nijinsky (daughter of famed Vaslav Nijinsky, choreographer of "Le Sacre"), Marie Rambert (who danced in the premiere of "Le Sacre"), Georges Auric, and many others. Stravinsky had a difficult, but extremely full and rewarding life. Naturally, not everything could be covered in depth in a short span of 2-3 hours, but Palmer hits all the high points, and wonderfully well. The best parts of the film are Stravinsky's narrations - I'm not sure when these were done, but they are integrated well into the film. Also great are close-ups of many old archive photos and documents (including parts of Stravinsky's scores) - a lesser director than Palmer would have glossed over many of these fine things. For what it's worth, my favorite parts are (1) the beginning of the development of the film, which segues from the present-day Russian fair, showing where Stravinsky drew his first ideas for composition, into an orchestral performance of "Petroushka"; and (2) the end of the first half - where Palmer covers the deaths of Stravinsky's eldest daughter, and wife - sad of course, but the background music is the 'Aria II' and 'Capriccio' from the Violin Concerto (1931) as the accompaniment to the narrative. Kyung-Wha Chung, arguably its best interpreter, submits a heartwrenching oration of the Concerto, and there are a few very nice shots of Chung playing. The latter portion of the film is even more informative - while the first half largely focuses on his early years, "Le Sacre", "Petroushka", Diaghilev, and "The Firebird", and also "Les Noces" (one of Stravinsky's hallmarks but rarely performed), which receive superlative performances. The second half looks at Stravinsky's life and work after moving to Hollywood around 1940. The highlight of the second half is coverage of his recordings for CBS Masterworks and a couple of his commissions ("The Circus Polka", and the arrangement of "The Star Spangled Banner", for which he was arrested and jailed) are covered. The sequence on Stravinsky in Hollywood was done quite well - and oddly, nearly 30 years later, much of the footage Palmer shot looks the same, particularly the street signs! If I had to criticize this picture in any way - and it would be difficult to do so - I would have to say that certain segments go on just a bit too long. There are some fine performances by about a dozen different ensembles throughout the course of the film, but some of them (like "Les Noces") go on for many minutes at a time (sometimes with various photographs and location shots simultaneously.) The final part, covering Stravinsky's death, showing the very aged Madame Vera Stravinsky, is another example. Stravinsky's principal collaborator, Robert Craft, certainly had a lot to add, but some of the segments with him are jusy creepy (particularly the one where he's in the room where Stravinsky expired.) Apparently Craft was responsible for swaying Stravinsky into some rather objectionable musical territory in his later years, but of course, this isn't covered. But these small issues aren't at all detrimental. The conclusion of the film is absolutely miraculous - watching the aged Stravinsky - physically frail but still mentally perfect - conduct the Berceuse and Finale from "The Firebird" (with the audio narration once again superimposed) - is spellbinding. As soon as the final B-major chord comes, the applause is instant - and Palmer closes the film with a side shot of the man momentarily frozen in space and time. I am not an overly emotional person, but every time I see this, something just hits me. To say that I recommend this film highly is a massive understatement. Bravo, Tony Palmer - I think you just about killed the possibility of anyone else ever making a better documentary.
7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A moving autobiographical portrait of Stravinsky,
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Amazon Verified Purchase(What's this?)
This review is from: Stravinsky: Once at a Border / Tony Palmer (DVD)
There has never been a time when Stravinsky's music was not important to me. The very first Classical recordings that I can recall purchasing decades ago were an LP set of Stravinsky conducting his epochal first three ballets (purchased along with the seminal DGG recording of Karlheinz Stockhausen's electronic masterpiece, Gesang der Junglinge). My ears were first attracted to vertical orchestral color and the distinctive differences in tone of the various musical instruments. In the history of music there have been few masters of instrumental color (as well as the temporal aspects of the orchestra) as creative and forceful as Igor Stravinsky. He was the most influential composer of the 20th Century. This marvelous 1982 film by British director Tony Palmer is essentially a biography of Stravinsky in celebration of his centennial, and it features the composer reading from his autobiography with a film accompaniment. Much of the film is rare, taken in Russia during the heyday of the Soviet Union. As counterpoint to Stravinky's music, it is perfect. Certainly, no one composed music that was more purely Russian, more rooted in the soil and beliefs of its people.
Fascinating excerpts include the kinetic and propulsive original choreography for Petrouchka by Mikhail Fokine and the profoundly primal and deeply moving original orchestration for Les Noces. We hear multiple cimbalons and drums, making an already Russian work sound even more authentic, rather than the more generic sounding four percussive pianos Stravinsky was later forced to substitute as a result of wartime privations. Les Noces features the original ballet choreography by Bronislava Nijinska and the excerpt is beautifully danced. The Firebird is also presented in its original ballet choreography by Fokine. There are many musical performances excerpted from throughout Stravinsky's long life, providing the viewer with a real sense of the composer's unique accomplishments in such a multitude of disparate musical genres. But always there was ballet. The segments with George Balanchine and Robert Craft are probably the most fascinating for the information they convey about Stravinsky's work habits. This is a wonderful, wide-ranging movie that covers a great deal of ground in its 166 minutes. The film and sound quality are serviceable, at best. Much of the film is archival in nature and even though the sound is represented as Dolby 2.0, it is often a fairly distant mono. Nevertheless, whatever shortcomings this disc may possess, they are more than made up for by the irreplaceable nature of the material. If you are a fan of Stravinsky, this film is a must. Most strongly recommended. Mike Birman
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Scenes from the life of the Inventor of music.,
By
This review is from: Stravinsky: Once at a Border / Tony Palmer (DVD)
This is a very interesting and nicely composed documentary film about the great Stravinsky. For those who are well-familiar with the composer's life and works, especially for those who read a great book on Stravinsky by Robert Craft, many episodes will not be a discovery, but still the narration and the natural enfolding of the story in the chronological order make it an easy and informative watch.
I think interviews with his children, his second wife Vera Sudeikina and the descendants of the artistic collaborators of Stravinsky, such as the daughter of Nijinsky, were excellent and interesting. It was also interesting to see the granddaughter of Rimsky-Korsakov, and even from very short fragments devoted to her, a Russian would immediately know from the manner of her speech and her way of carrying herself that she belonged to the cultural elite, as he grandfather did. For me a few things were astonishing - first, that Diaghilev had died in Hotel des Bains from typhoid in 1929. Somehow before I never linked the story of his death with Thomas Mann's Aschenbach from Der Tod in Venedig. Considering that Diaghilev was a homosexual, it becomes even more suspicious. Diaghilev died in 1929, and Der Tod was written in 1912. How could it happen that Diaghilev lived the story of Mann's Aschenbach, or rather, lived Achenbach's death??? Next, to see Stravinsky's hand-written score was a stunning experience. Now only everything is laid out in a the most perfect order, he also uses different colors to stress certain points. It is amazing to notice that he writes in Russian in an "old style", with the pre-revolutionary grammar - something that a very young Russian viewer might not even know about. His very think accent in English is profound, but as soon as he switches to French his speech flows! We can see how for people of his generation French was indeed a language of the educated and cultural elite, the international Latin. Stravinsky has always astonished me as a man of supreme intelligence - not only his ideas and thoughts are very clever; in addition he never said anything outright stupid or uneducated. I am sure he had huge gaps in knowledge about many things, since he devoted himself completely to his art, leaving not much time for literature and art, but he appears to be intelligent enough to not expose his ignorance in other subjects, something that many musicians do, that is, displaying complete lack of knowledge in anything outside of the field of music - Taruskin, Harnoncourt would be some examples. Maybe this is because composers must be supremely intelligent, compared to conductors, musicians, musicologists? Because a great composer is always an excellent mathematician, and at least does not have problems with logic. Stravinsky's score seems to be printed out from a supercomputer. NO ERRORS. It is petrifying somewhat. However, such an Apollonian mind still needs a strong Dionysus, and while we know that Stravinsky has plenty of it in his music we learn that he always loved wine, and that he considered water a drink for losers! What a MAN! The films has great fragments from his most important works; I love especially his Oedipus Rex, Les Noches with the great choreography by Bronislava Nijinska and mise-en-scene by Natalia Goncharova; Symphony of psalms, Pulcinella; Firebird, of course; there were many more. The only thing that I wish would be shed more light on is Stravinsky's visit to USSR. I know he left earlier than planned; and some commentary on that event would be interesting, just as Horowitz' visit to Russia is. The film refers to Shostakovich accusing Stravinsky of writing avant-garde music and composing nothing worthwhile in the 60's, but it is a well-known fact that in reality Shostakovich admired Stravinsky, while Stravinsky despised Shostakovich, considering his style secondary, outdated and totally lacking in innovation. I can imagine that Stravinsky despised Shostakovich even deeper, since it is quite obvious that he dismissed Wagner and his followers. He called himself a Mozartian, and indeed his strictness in structuire, and discipline of form confirm it. His severity is probably another reason why he hated familiarity and being called "Igor" by strangers. It was also amazing to see that Stravinsky conducted his own compositions. I believe this is the best way to present a new work, unless a composer cannot physically do it. It seems obvious to me that whatever he imagines in his mind can be best conveyed to us by him, too. Also, I did not find the fact of a poorly tuned piano so sensational. He was hearing his music in his head, so it seems that the piano might not be needed at all. Maybe he kept it this way to shock unsuspecting guests? It seems to me that Stravinsky had a great wry sense of humor. Also, he was not without showing off his genius - to refer to his occupation not as a composer, but as an "inventor of music" is quite inventive indeed! I highly recommend this documentary.
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