Notes Interdites Two Films by Bruno Monsaigeon
Ideale Audience 307 3498

Release date May 2008

This DVD brings us two fascinating Bruno Monsaingeon films centred on the life and art of conductor Gennadi Rozhdestvensky. The first film, The Red Baton, examines musical life in the Soviet Union using Rodzhestvenky’s own experiences as its starting point. (Born in 1931, he made his debut at the Bolshoi a year before Stalin’s death.) There is plenty historical and musical footage, much of it previously unpublished, including film of Prokofiev, Shostakovich and many others. Viola player and conductor Rudolf Barshai and pianist Victoria Postinikova add their contributions, with stories about the farcical situations that arose after the 1948 denunciation of “formalism in music”. Some of the footage with greatest impact is that of Tikhon Khrennikov, one of those responsible for the reign of terror that overwhelmed the Soviet Union’s greatest composers. Film of his speeches (and a recent interview where he strongly refuted suggestions that his role had been as vicious as it appears) brings home a flavour of life under the Soviet regime. Even more absorbing is the second film, Gennadi Rozhdestvensky: Conductor or Conjuror?, where the maestro talks frankly about working as a conductor. Rehearsal and performance footage of Shostakovich’s Symphony no. 7 and other works (filmed throughout Rozhdestvensky’s career) and glimpses of master-classes offer a fascinating insight into his career and art. The film finishes with a performance of Tchaikovsky’s Romeo and Juliet, with Rozhdestvensky providing a commentary on his own conducting and the effect the music has on him. Stimulating and moving, this DVD is an important documentary that should be of great interest to many music-lovers.
Reviewed by Anne McAlister