Explores the events and places behind Tchaikovsky's 1812 Overture, with music performed by the SBS Youth Orchestra.
The composer always thought the music too loud and showy to be of any merit, but audiences have begged to differ ever since its premiere...
In Nicosia, the worlds last divided capital, Turkish & Greek Cypriots attempt to bridge no-man's-land with a performance like no other. The film follows their unconventional rehearsals in the UN Headquarters on the island and joins their search for instruments from Nicosia's war detritus - as they prepare for Dutch composer Merlijn Twaalfhoven's outdoor music project, "Long Distance Call".
Fundraising video & DVD for the Royal Flying Doctor Service of Australia, Australia's renowned not-for-profit aero-medical service.
Following the Moldau River into the heart of Bohemia, the SBS Radio & Television Youth Orchestra take us on a journey through Czech culture and landscape. Features music by Smetana & Dvorak.
Recorded live at the Sydney Town Hall, James Morrison and the SBS Youth Orchestra pay tribute to the 250th birthday of the great Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart [on 27 January 2006]. Jazz virtuoso James Morrison adapts some well-known Mozart repertoire, as well as some common garden implements to perform the Mozart 4th Horn Concerto.
What do you do when your tiny, idyllic coral atoll is a few mere metres above the Pacific Ocean, the waters are rising, and your biggest neighbour won’t acknowledge that it may be a contributor to the cause - or even that there is a problem? “High Tide in Tuvalu” gives us an islanders’ perspective on Australia’s relationship with the Pacific in light of the most pressing, sink-or-swim environmental issue of our times: climate change.
Through Tchaikovsky's sometimes intimate correspondence with patroness Nadezhda von Meck, this programme takes us on a musical journey of Italy through the eyes and ears of this great but deeply troubled composer. For Tchaikovsky, Italy was both a source of inspiration and a refuge from a tumultuous existence in his native Russia.
"The magical photography by Adam Sebire of Sydney’s visual icons is matched by thematic, orchestral, and solo sounds which do not attempt to paint the visuals in sound... Sebire’s inspired filming of Sydney, both present and historical, provides a visual singing of Sydney. Especially magical were the scenes of 18th and 19th century paintings superimposed on the Opera House and Circular Quay locations."
35mm film with Dolby SR audio, 4'00".
We track in and then around what appears to be Man Ray’s classic surrealist image featuring his muse Kiki. Beautiful shapes and silhouettes - including an ancient Greek gymnopédiste - dance serenely in the background. For just a moment before metamorphosis, our violoncelle comes to life to sing us a poem set to Satie’s haunting Gymnopédie No.1. “ Le Violoncelle” is a single-shot micro-voyage into the creative milieux of Man Ray, Erik Satie & Kiki de Montparnasse, and from the beginnings of photographic manipulation to the present era of digital duplicity.
From fandangos to habañeras, from Falla's "Love, the Magician" to Sarasate's "Gyspy Airs", Spanish Music has always had deep multicultural roots. Despite attempts to stereotype it or to pin it down - by composers both Spanish and foreign - ultimately it's the diversity of past and present influences that make it so unique and recognisable. A journey through Spain, her history and music with the SBS Radio & Television Youth Orchestra.
When 650 young performers from a dozen countries combine for a renowned international festival, the only common language is that of music. The Japan International Youth Musicale, held every three years in Shizuoka, Japan, is gaining a reputation for bringing the most varied and exciting talent from all parts of the world.
Leonard Bernstein's Chichester Psalms were written in the middle of the '60s. Blending his trademark street rhythms with a setting of Hebrew psalms from the Old Testament, Bernstein's decidedly ecumenical "Chichester Psalms" are performed here by the combined choirs of Sydney Grammar and Ascham Schools, Sydney, with the SBS Radio and Television Youth Orchestra and treble Antony Freeman. Christopher Shepard conducts and also takes us on a short tour of Bernstein's secular and religious influences.
Australian jazz legend James Morrison gives the world première of composer Judy Bailey's "Four Reasons" suite for orchestra and jazz soloist (trumpet, trombone, flugelhorn and euphonium). The work was commissioned by the SBS Youth Orchestra. James and Judy also talk about their collaboration and the jazz/classical "crossover".
Filmed in and around Moscow and St Petersburg, this documentary sees the SBS Radio & Television Youth Orchestra's first venture into the land of so many renowned musicians. For conductor, Matthew Krel, it is also a return to his native land after 22 years. The program includes interviews with Russian musicians, teachers, academics, critics and students.
Beyond the beautiful colours of Cuba’s people lies the changing symbolism of her socialist red, the influence of the Greenback, as well as the political and material colours that tint the world’s most famous cigars. Forty years after Ché and Fidel’s Cuban Revolution, capitalism, communism, and Havana Cigars remain intertwined.
The 60 young musicians of the SBS Radio and Television Youth Orchestra, conducted by Matthew Krel, embark on a musical journey through Estonia and Finland. One is old, the other new, but both are closely related by geography and cultural heritage. It is also a journey through the 20th century music of Estonian composer Heino Eller, Finland's great Jean Sibelius, as well as Darius Milhaud and Zoltán Kodály. The program concludes with Sibelius's stirring Finlandia, performed in the Temppeliaukio (Rock Church) in Helsinki.
This program takes its name from the Dream of Hope project set up by the Chinese government to support homeless children. The SBS Radio and Television Youth Orchestra was invited to visit Beijing to perform in the Forbidden City. Highlights of the program include the Concerto for Clarinet by Weber featuring Cindy Lin on clarinet, and a popular Chinese piece entitled Good News from Beijing.
An entertaining guide to the various sections of the SBS Radio and television Youth Orchestra. Filmed at Sydney Town Hall, with narration by Christopher Lawrence and conducted by Myer Fredman, the program provides an insight into the function and range of all the instruments, which make up the orchestra.
A talented young Australian pianist, Duncan talks about his highly demanding studies in Moscow, and their influence on his performance of the first piano concerto by the enfant terrible Sergei Prokofiev.
TECHNOMAD is a documentary about “home”, nomadic traditions, their intersection with cyberspace, and what happens when reality goes off the rails and into the desert..
