{"id":7747,"date":"2022-01-05T13:00:32","date_gmt":"2022-01-05T12:00:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.classical-music.com\/?p=4061"},"modified":"2022-01-05T18:04:07","modified_gmt":"2022-01-05T17:04:07","slug":"10-of-the-best-and-worst-films-about-composers","status":"publish","type":"rss_feed","link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcmusicmagazine\/rss_feed\/10-of-the-best-and-worst-films-about-composers\/","title":{"rendered":"10 of the best (and worst) films about composers"},"content":{"rendered":"

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By BBC Music Magazine\n \t\t<\/p>

Published: Wednesday, 05 January 2022 at 12:00 am<\/p>

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Every subject matter under the sun \u2013 and beyond \u2013 has found its way into cinema over the years, and classical music is no exception. Many of the great composers<\/a> have proved a draw for directors, unsurprisingly so given the range of eccentrics, geniuses, depressives, tyrants and romantics that fill the pages of any composer A-Z.<\/strong><\/p>\n

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    But portraying them well is always a challenge, particularly when they\u2019re in the process of making music \u2013 just as no amount of training can turn an actor into a major-league sports star, likewise music-loving film-goers have grown accustomed to watching wooden, arrhythmic conductors or, less forgivably, hands moving in one direction on a piano\u2026 while the notes we hear clearly move in the other.<\/p>\n

    Despite this, most of the \u2018composer films\u2019 around are rarely less than engaging, and in some cases actually rather good. Here, we\u2019ve picked ten of the better-known ones and given them our marks out of five.<\/p>\n

    1. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart<\/a>:\u00a0Amadeus<\/em> (1984)<\/a><\/strong><\/h3>\n

    We\u2019ll begin with the most famous composer biopic of them all \u2013 not the first, but perhaps one of the glossiest and most thought-provoking. Composer Salieri (F Murray Abraham) is a physical and psychological wreck.<\/p>\n

    We learn about his guilty enmity towards Mozart<\/strong><\/a> through his confession to a priest: he holds himself responsible for the collapse of Mozart<\/strong><\/a>\u2019s health and premature death, and is still eaten up with the realisation that, for all his own devotion to God and the Art of Music, he will never match the genius of the giggling and annoying Mozart<\/strong><\/a> (Tom Hulce).<\/p>\n

    Yet interspersed through all the silliness Peter Shaffer reveals, through the mouth of Salieri, genuine insights into the brilliance of Mozart<\/strong><\/a>\u2019s music as he unfolds the glories of such works as the Wind Serenade: \u2018On the page, just a pulse, like a rusty squeeze box, and then suddenly, high above it, an oboe \u2013 a single note hanging there, unwavering, until a clarinet took it over, sweetening into a phrase of such delight, filled with such unfulfillable longing, it seemed I was hearing the voice of God.\u2019<\/p>

    <\/div> 4.0 out of 5 star rating<\/span> <\/span> <\/div> <\/div>

    Buy from Amazon<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

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