Life Of Georg Frederic Handel, A Tony Palmer Film
Back Cover Image | Label: TONY PALMER Catalog: TPDVD114 Format: DVD In 1985, film maker Tony Palmer celebrated the 300th anniversary of Handel’s birth with a brilliant film Got Rot Tunbridge Wells using an entertainment written by John Osborne. 2009 marks the 250th anniversary of the death of Mr. Georg Frederic Handel, hence the issue of that film on DVD on Tony Palmer’s own label (TPDVD114) newly remastered to 16:9 aspect ratio and in excellent sound. This is not a film biography like Song to Remember or Song without End laced with impossible scenes, both apocryphal and anachronistic. Here Handel declaims to all who will listen or care to hear (i.e. us) an illustrated soliloquy of unvarnished remembrances, brilliantly delivered by Trevor Howard as the aged Handel. We glimpse Handel as a prodigy, a young composer and performer, on through his triumphs and failure, to bankruptcy and poverty. This is really an entertaining and captivating production, appropriately illustrated by vocal performances by Elizabeth Harwood, James Bowman, Emma Kirkby, Anthony Rolfe-Johnson, John Shirley-Quirk and also Simon Preston, organ, and pianist Andrei Gavrilov. The English Chamber Orchestra is conducted by Sir Charles Mackerras. I enjoyed this immensely and recommend it. Reviewed by Bruce Surtees. Reprinted from The Wholenote Magazine (www.thewholenote.com), Nov. 2008. |