Jeremey McMillan asked about films of composers' lives.

The trouble with most such films is that they usually use a
"based-on-a-true-story" approach, so that events and people are invented
or deleted at the whim of the writer of the screenplay, eg I quite enjoyed
"Amadeus" both on the stage and as a film, but I fully realised that the
popular conception of Mozart would become as Tom Hulce portrayed him, and
that Salieri will be remembered as that nasty guy that whacked Mozart.
Joyce Maier's recent interesting post about Beethoven's immortal beloved
reminds us of the book and film of that name, both of which I endured -
both, believe me, are to be avoided assiduously.  "Testimony" with Ben
Kingsley as Shostakovich is far too long, takes itself a bit too seriously
and much of it looks as if it was shot in an old warehouse in London using
available light, but it's worth sitting through as long as you remember
that the jury remains out on the truth or otherwise of the book on which
it's based (no, I *don't* want to start a thread on that topic).  I can't
think of much else in recent years.

There are some good documentaries, not all easily available.  Ken
Russell's early films on Delius and Elgar and (reportedly) Vaughan
Williams are excellent, but his later feature films, eg "The Music
Lovers" (Tchaikovsky), are best avoided, as are his fairly recent films
on Bruckner, Brahms, Schubert and Bax, all of which I found unpleasant and
embarrassing.  A superb two-tape program on Sibelius (available on Teldec)
is the best music documentary I've seen in a long time.  There was a very
thorough and well-made Mozart documentary from some years ago which we saw
on television in hourly instalments over about two months, but I don't
recall its origins.  I do remember it used the slow movement of the Piano
Concerto #23 as its theme (anyone else remember this program?)

Richard Pennycuick
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