NEW ON NAXOS | MAY 2025
Francesco Piemontesi © 2024 PARS Media
2.110778 Picture format: NTSC 16:9 Sound format: PCM Stereo Language: : English, German Subtitles: English, German, Italian, Spanish, Japanese, Korean Region code: 0 (worldwide) No. of disc/s: 1 (DVD 9) Release date: 9 May 2025 Key features:
7 47313 57785 9
The Alchemy of the Piano A film by Jan Schmidt-Garre with Francesco Piemontesi Alfred Brendel, Jean-Rodolphe Kars, Stephen Kovacevich, Antonio Pappano, Maria João Pires, Pianos Ermonela Jaho, Soprano Eldar Nebolsin as Sergei Rachmaninoff Francesco Piemontesi, a BBC Music Magazine award-winning pianist and lauded as a ‘wonderful Mozartian’, has an intense curiosity about his fellow artists – their pianos, the sonorities they cultivate, the secret elements that animate their playing, and what drives them. In this documentary by Jan Schmidt-Garre, filmed over one year, Piemontesi talks with some of the world’s leading performers, including his mentor Alfred Brendel, Maria João Pires, Stephen Kovacevich and Antonio Pappano, in a series of revealing encounters that illuminate their individual approaches to the instrument, its colour and form. The film is complemented by a bonus 60-minute recital by Yulianna Avdeeva, Zlata Chochieva and Francesco Piemontesi, played on Rachmaninoff’s Steinway piano at Villa Senar, his home in Switzerland during the 1930s.
This is a 90-minute audiovisual documentary accompanied by a 60-minute concert made in Rachmaninov’s home, Villa Senar, Lake Lucerne. It includes an appearance from legendary pianist Alfred Brendel as well as such admired performers as Maria Joâo Pires , Stephen Kovacevich , Jean-Rodolphe Kars and Antonio Pappano .
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Alfred Brendel
Maria Joâo Pires
Stephen Kovacevich
Jean-Rodolphe Kars
Produced by PARS Media, whose films have been broadcast in over 30 countries, they have garnered prestigious awards at festivals in Chicago, Prague, Paris, Munich, and Berlin, as well as at Midem Classical and the International Classical Music Awards. Their work has also been released on DVD and enjoyed theatrical screenings worldwide. Director Jan Schmidt-Garre studied conducting and musical theory with Sergiu Celibidache in Mainz, Munich and Paris. He is also an opera director – his last production was Capriccio in 2021 with a first-rate cast for Leipzig opera
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Antonio Pappano
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Also available on Blu-ray video: NBD0186V Picture format: HD 16:9 Sound format: PCM Stereo Language: English, German Subtitles: English, German, Italian, Spanish, Japanese, Korean Region: A, B, C (worldwide) No. of disc/s: 1 (BD 50) Release date: 9 May 2025
Jan Schmidt-Garre
Companion titles – Other film music releases
7 30099 01866 1
2.110681-82 (NBD0124-25V)
2.110775 (NBD0183V)
2.110770 (NBD0181V)
2.110710 (NBD0141V)
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