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“I have two impressions of Beethoven: a large brain and an equally large heart,” says Vienna Symphony Orchestra conductor Fabio Luisi. “These two elements often fight against each other, but frequently they love each other, too. There is so much love, so much empathy and ability to endure suffering. All this comes from his heart.”
In what may be considered the definitive film portrait of the great composer, Phil Grabsky has brought together the world's leading performers and experts, including Gianandrea Noseda, Sir Roger Norrington, Riccardo Chailly, Claudio Abbado, Frans Brüggen, Ronald Brautigam, Hélène Grimaud, Vadim Repin, Janine Jansen, Paul Lewis, Lars Vogt, and Emanuel Ax, among others.
These aren’t your typical talking heads. Almost out of compulsion, it seems, they reach out and illustrate their points with bursts of extraordinary music. Grabsky allows room for more than 50 performances, shooting them with an intimacy and insight you would never encounter in the concert hall. While it doesn’t entirely debunk the romantic image of the tortured artist, struck down by deafness, In Search of Beethoven presents a far more complete and complex portrait, even as it puts the stress where it belongs, on the dazzling labours of this most driven and demanding musical genius.
“Beethoven is like the Citizen Kane of the genre” - Slant Magazine
"It was so terrific I wept" - Angie Errigo, Mail on Sunday
Download photos HERE
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