Renzo Carbonera: Stop and Listen

Stop and Listen
Documentary film by Renzo Carbonera 

Italy / 54 min. / 2010 / English subtitles

Polyphonic Choir of Ruda is one of hundreds of all-male choirs in Italy. Regardless of the fierce competition, it gained musical international hights of recognition and appreciation.

Polyphonic (polyphony) in vocal musical tradition implies singing simultaneously more than two parts, each with a melody of it's own. Choral tradition has deep roots especially in Northern Italy where local choirs are a pride of their communities. A small town of Ruda, with a population of less than 3,000 people, is located in Italy's north-est corner, about 10 km from the border with Slovenia. Their choir underwent a major decline at the turn of the millennia and a solution was sought in finding a new choir director. Unusual and maybe even controversial, the choice fell on Fabiana Nato, a female, who became the choir's director in 2004. This broke with the well established tradition of all-male-choirs being directed by a man.

The film little by little introduces a spectator to the Italian tradition of vocal choir music and to the history of Ruda's choir. It shows the type of men who let their lives to be intertwined with the life of the choir, and their reasons why they join on a purely voluntary bases without any pay. It reveals their true passion for the music they sing, their deep need to express their worldly existence through this artistic activity, and their respect and appreciation for their choir director.

The true focus of the film is Fabiana Noro, the lovely and enigmatic choir's director, the only salaried person, who resurrected the choir from their slumps and brought them to the world's recognition. This slim and elegant lady, who at first appears to be too fragile to manage a 40 men choir, became a driving force in their lives, with her iron will reinforcing their motivation and commitment to achieve perfection. Amazingly, none of the singers can even read a musical score. Their mastery is all based only on their auditory and vocal skills that they continuously train and perfect.

The film shows the problems with finding funds and the appropriate repertoire that would attract audiences. Fabiana is searching for new songs for their program, new musical challenges. Not all her venues are fruitful. Luckily, she avoids disasters that brake many creators when they try to catch the "in" styles and forms, or try to appear advanced and innovative, which could lead to their art becoming quite banal, regardless of the public's initial interest.

It is only after a conversion with a choir member that Fabiana realizes what her choir is all about, how it has to be based on what comes deep from the choir members themselves, from inside their beings, what resonates with their hearts and souls, since they are the ones who are the true instruments of their art. With that insight, Fabiana is finally able to navigate her choir to their highest successes and achievements.  

This is an inspiring film to see. It raises questions of what is true artistic authenticity, what makes true art, how to gain audiences' attention and appreciation by simply honouring and being your true self.

This documentary served as an inspiration for Renzo Carbonera to create his first full length feature film RESINA (2017), which was shown at the Montreal World Film Festival 2017 in the category FIRST FEATURE FILM. You can read more about it here.

PRODUCTION TEAM

Director: Renzo Carbonera

Story Line: Gino Pennacchi, Dino Gentili, Renzo Carbonera

Participants: Fabiana Noro, Adriano Bon, Pierpaolo Gratton, Anedi Sdrigotti, Gianni Casatto

Photography: Luca Coassin

Editing: Alessandro Sabbioni ed Ennio Guerrat

Sound: Francesco Morosini

Music: Coro Polifonico di Ruda

Production: Tico Film (Sarah Pennacchi, Gino Pennacchi)

International sales: Poorhouse International ltd (Dr Moritz Reiner)

Stop and Listen FILM TRAILER  

ArtFIFA 2017: Zhu Xiao-Mei

 Zhu Xiao-Mei: How Bach Defeated Mao

Germany / 2016 . 58 min / Chinese, French, English s.-t.

Category : FIFA Competition

This is another excellent film on a classical music piano virtuoso in FIFA competition category this year. You can read about FIFA documentary on French pianist Alain Planès here. It is interesting to compare those two musicians because each creates from a very different private perspective and each has achieved great success. With Planès, it is the integration of all his aesthetic, artistic senses into a unified expressive wholeness. With Xiao-Mei, it is finding the balance within herself, the unity of music and her emotions, and anchoring her being and her music in the timeless ancient philosophies of Lao Tzu and Buddha. 

Zhu Xiao-Mei's favourt composer is Bach. She is best known for playing Bach. She loves interpreting his music and claims that Back was a Buddha disciple, though he did not know it. It is the focus and unity in Bach's music that are Buddha-like, and with which Xiao-Mei strongly identifies. Her second favourite composer is Schubert, she also plays Chopin. She appears to limit her repertoire to those scores that resonate within her, that she strongly identifies with emotionally and philosophically since they correspond to her personal integrity, her sense of centring within and finding the all embracing wholeness. 

After being in exile first in the USA for 8 years and then in France where she still lives, she was finally persuaded to go back to China and face her fears and memories of repression and persecution. What surprised her the most, despite years of cultural banishment and even the outlawing of instruments like piano, she encounters a terrific interest in her concerts mostly from China's young generation. She is stunned because her western audiences are mostly in their sixties, and the demand for classical music is nothing so intense as what she encounters in China.

When Zhu Xiao-Mei was asked how could she play and understand Bach so well although she was Chinese, she replied that Bach music transcended cultural barriers and was a heritage of the entire humanity. She also stated that Chinese people might understand Bach better than westerners because of their attunement to such Chinese philosophers as Lao Tzu.

This film makes a viewer to ask a question why in the west the interest in the great classical composers and their music is waning, why it does not find much resonance with the younger generations? Why do rock concerts get so much funding and promotion and classical music concerts are being neglected? Could the old music masters come back to the forefront in our western society soon, as they did in China after years of political rejection and neglect?

OFFICIAL FILM SYNOPSIS

Presented in partnership with ICI ARTV

“The music of Bach enabled pianist Zhu Xiao-Mei to cope with the worst challenges of her life. After experiencing all of the consequences of the Mao regime and the Cultural Revolution, she emigrated to Paris in 1980. She was deeply marked by the great cultural darkness that came over her country under Mao. She was publicly humiliated, her teachers were intimidated and her musical scores were burned. In this personal and touching documentary about the immense power of music, Paul Smaczny tells Zhu Xiao-Mei’s story as she agrees to return to China for the first time and discovers a country transformed.”

DIRECTOR

Paul Smaczny

Emmy Award-winner Paul Smaczny is a German-based documentary filmmaker and producer of music films and concert, ballet and opera recordings. His latest works include the award-winning documentaries Die Thomaner – A Year in the Life of St. Thomas Boys Choir Leipzig (2012), John Cage – Journeys in Sound (2012) and Music – A Journey for Life (2013), about conductor Riccardo Chailly. In 2010, he founded his own production company, Accentus Music, which quickly became one of the most distinguished production companies in the classical music sphere.

PRODUCTION TEAM

Cinematography: Michael Boomers, Nyika Jancsó

Distribution: Accentus Music

Sound mixing: Karl Atteln, Markus Krohn

Editing: Dirk Seliger

Producer: Anca-Monica Pandelea, Paul Smaczny

Sound: Sebastian Braun, Toine Mertens, Robert Sandow, Christoph Wonneberger

Production: Accentus Music

FILM TRAILER

Two years ago, Art FIFA festival presented another excellent film about pianist Zhu Xiao-Mei. You can read about it here.

FIFA 2015: LE RETOUR EST LE MOUVEMENT DU TAO

For more information and FIFA film festival and scheduling, visit the Art FIFA website.

ArtFIFA 2017: Alain Planès, l'infini turbulent

Alain Planès, l'infini turbulent
Alain Planès, the Turbulent Infinity
France  / 2016  / 55 min. / French,  English s.-t.

Category : FIFA Competition

We all tend to put various art forms into their respective categories. This film brakes such barriers. A music interpreter can actually hear colours or see music in a poem's turn of a phrase. This film, more than any other film about a concert music performer, makes one to understand that all the forms of art stem from the same creative source and have no boundaries separating them. One can put into music the colours one sees, or paint the musical notes one hears. This is how a genius of an artist or musician is revealed in how sensitive he or she is to the variations of the shades, shapes, tonalities, and sounds in any visual, auditory or tactile domain, and how the ability to interconnect all these aspects so the music which is being interpreted acquires a spacial volume of a sculpture, the colour of a painting, and the expressive meaning of a poem. This is what is unique about this film - it makes us understand that music is multidimensional and not simply auditory. It also reveals that the true virtuosos have understood this intuitively and it is what separates them from other music and concert performers who have not grasped this fact.

The film plunges a spectator into music and colours through which the life and career of Alain Planès is presented. It reveals his many connections with the people at the artistic and music avant-guard at his times, and how these relationships and his personal need for art and poetry shaped not only his understanding of music scores, but helped him to find the correct keys to unlock the composers' intent and to interpret it. The film is concise and well put together to reveal to the audience a pianist many of whom might not have known, or have not known him well enough, or might not have understood the source of his artistry. 

OFFICIAL SYNOPSIS

Presented in partnership with ICI ARTV

“Alain Planès is a virtuoso performer of both classical and contemporary music, a versatile and demanding musician and ardent enthusiast of painting and poetry. From his relationship with the visual arts and words, he derives the meaning and power of his creativity. Although he has always avoided the glare of the media, he agreed here to reveal his sources of inspiration and musical choices. Looking back at his artistic path, from his very early days on the piano, his conservatory studies in Paris and the United States, and the launch of his career in the 1970s, this profile by Dominique Lemonnier immerses us in the world of the artist. In her directorial debut, the violinist offers a candid and intimate portrait of the pianist, shedding light on his influences and pivotal encounters.”

DIRECTOR

Dominique "Solrey" Lemonnier

Dominique “Solrey” Lemonnier is a violinist who has performed in concerts and theatrical works, in addition to recording numerous film soundtracks. In 2005, in an effort to combine video, visual arts, texts and music, she formed the Traffic Quintet. Following her last concert at the Philharmonie de Paris in 2015, she decided to set her violin aside and devote herself to directing musical films.

Filmography | First film.

PRODUCTION TEAM

Cinematography:  Justine Emard, Xavier Forcioli, Edward Japp, Gerard Quiles, Ange Leccia

Distribution:  Dominique "Solrey" Lemonnier

Editing:  Idit Bloch, Cyril Polinacci

Narration:  Alain Planes

Producer:  Dominique "Solrey" Lemonnier

Sound:  Romain Allender, Xavier Forcioli, Alexandre Tanguy

Production:  Galilea Music 

For more information and film scheduling, visit the Art FIFA website.

FILM TRAILER

Splendore a Venezia: Christophe Koch Archlute Unveiling

 Christophe Koch Archlute Unveiled

This musical instrument unveiling took place in the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts' preparation for their upcoming exhibiton Splendore a Venezia: Art and Music from the Renaissance to Baroque in the Serenissima.

The exhibition will be held from October 12, 2013 to January 19, 2014. 

This archlute is one of the most important musical instruments among the 120 different that will be displayed works in the upcoming exhibition.  The Archlute of Christophe Koch is a lute to which an extended pegbox has been added to hold unfretted bass courses. This exceptional piece has arrived from the Cite de la Musique in Paris. It's body is made of kingwood decorated with ivory. It represents an excellent example of the Venetian mid-seventeenth century taste.

In conjunction with the exhibition, the Art Musica Foundation will present a full-scale concert series: 20 concerts, 7 lectures, and two films.

Visit the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts' website for more information on the exhibition and all the upcoming events.

http://www.mbam.qc.ca/en

PAC Museum: Beatles in Montreal

Beatles in Montreal
POINTE-À-CALLIÈRE MUSEUM

March 29th, 2013 - March 30th, 2014

The Beatles in Montréal, an exhibition  of the legendary British group which revolutionized pop music around the world, is on a Montréal stopover. The group had a profound influence on musical trends that took root right in Montréal and throughout Québec. Designed as an exhibition-experience, The Beatles in Montréal uses this past musical event as a starting point for an examination of Montréal history and the emergence of “yéyé” music in 1960s Québec.

This exhibition displays a great amount of memorabilia items  from the Montreal's legendary show such as photographs and tickets to the show among others. It also features digitally cleaned Beatles' Montreal stage performance - their concert.



In one of the exhibition halls one can even become the fifth member of Beatles by singing karaoke style along with the legendary group. This participatory activity will no doubt prove to be very popular with the visitors to this exhibition, both the very young ones, as well as with those who actually took part at the Beatles' concert in September 1964.

One of the most memorable exhibits is John Lennon's Rolls-Royce that he owned between 1965-1977. On loan from the Royal British Columbia Museum in Victoria, Canada, this car was manufactured in 1965 by Rolls-Royce Motor Cars Limited, in Crewe, Cheshire, UK. The Phantom V was fitted with a limousine body, finished in matte black, measured 19 feet long, and weighed three tons. John Lennon purchased it when he was just 24 years old. Over the years, Lennon had several modifications made to the Rolls: the rear seat was converted into a double bed, and a television, refrigerator, telephone, and sound system were added.

Growing tired of the Rolls’ all-too-classic paint job, John Lennon sought to update its appearance, looking to more daring—and even psychedelic—stylistic influence Shortly after The Beatles had made the Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band album, Lennon and the J. P. Fallon design firm found their inspiration in a gypsy wagon, painted in a flowery style. Artist Steve Weaver was commissioned to complete the work based on the wagon’s design. The roof of the car was painted with Lennon’s zodiac sign, Libra. The newly painted Rolls-Royce was delivered to Lennon in May 1967. But the car’s radical transformation did not meet with unanimous approval. One day, in downtown London, an old woman attacked the car with her umbrella, yelling: “You swine, how dare you do this to a Rolls-Royce?” Proof that the English have a great deal of respect for this symbol of British dignity.

A short film from 1967 gives the exhibition visitors a glimpse of the Rolls, with its new paint job, driving along a country road, and shows the various transformations made to the car.

Visit the Pointe-à-Callière Museum's website for more information and opening hours.

http://pacmusee.qc.ca/en/home

Canadian International Organ Competition

Montreal Notre-Dame Basilica Organ

This is the second edition of
CIOC - the Canadian International Organ Competition


It will be held in Montreal, Canada, between October 5 and October 16, 2011. It will feature 16 top young organists from 11 countries: 4 women and 12 men, between 24 and 33 years of age.

- The first round of the competition will be held on October 5, 6 and 7 at the Church of the Immaculate Conception.


- The second round will be held on October 10 and 11 at the Saint-Jean-Baptist Church.


- The final round will be held on October 14 at the Notre-Dame Basilica.


The 2011 edition will close with a Gala Concert honouring the prizewinners on Sunday October 16, 2011 at Notre-Dame Basilica.


The winners will receive the following cash prizes:

First Prize:       $25,000

Second Prize:   $15,000

Third prize:      $10,000


Admission to the Competition Rounds and certain activities is free.  Suggested donation is $10. The general admission for the Gala concert is $20.


See the CIOC website for more information

http://www.ciocm.org/index.php?lang=e