BEETHOVEN / LlSZT: Prometheus (NTSC)

PROMETHEUS - MUSICAL VARIATIONS ON A MYTH
A film by Christopher Swann

Ludwig van BEETHOVEN: The Creatures Of Prometheus: Excerpts from the Ballet Music
Franz LISZT: Prometheus - Symphonic Poem
Alexander SCRIABIN: Prométhée - Le Poème Du Feu
Luigi NONO: Hölderlin from Prometeo

Martha Argerich (piano)
Berliner Philharmonic Orchestra, Claudio Abbado

Produced by Euro Arts / Sony Classical

Sound Format: PCM Stereo
Picture Format: 4:3
Region Code: 0
Menu Languages: D, F, GB, SP
Running Time: 57 mins
DVD 5/ NTSC

101 717 (NTSC)

Swann's film based on a 1993 televised concert from Berlin's Philharmonic Hall appears this month on Arthaus. Until now available only as an audio CD on Sony Classical, this concert includes footage of the legendary pianist Martha Argerich performing Scriabin's Prometheus - The Poem of Fire: an indispensable addition to any collection.

The program features music by Beethoven, Liszt, Scriabin and Nono based on the Greek legend of Prometheus: "Ingenious … A hugely stimulating, thoughtfully planned production." (Gramophone on the CD release). The four works could not be more diverse in style and conception, representing highly different approaches: from Prometheus as bringer of plague and destruction to the punished Prometheus chained to a rock. In this film, Christopher Swann stresses a visual approach to this variety of ideas, using a number of modern film techniques to underscore and illustrate the musical presentation.

Performances by the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra under Claudio Abbado are first-rate, although it is the presence of Argerich that will make this DVD an obligatory purchase.

"The disc's real tour de force - both sonically and musically - is Scriabin's Promethean effusion, his Poem of Fire. The very opening chord tells all, a tensely held pensive and frightening augury and a fitting prelude to everything that follows. … Abbado serves as master of ceremonies, Argerich as a crazed high priestess, her delirious, delicate and unpredictable solo weaving through the orchestra like a bubbling stream of consciousness. That is how it should sound - over-wrought, overpowering, utterly unhinged and yet calculated even to the smallest detail." Gramophone