Rent The Alchemy of the Piano (2024)

1h 30min

Synopsis:: Show moreShow less
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 Joao 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.
Actors:: Alfred Brendel, Ermonela Jaho, Jean-Rodolphe Kars, Eldar Nebolsin, Francesco Piemontesi, Maria João Pires
Directors:: Jan Schmidt-Garre
Producers:: Jan Schmidt-Garre, Marieke Schroeder
Writers:: Jan Schmidt-Garre
Aka:: Die Alchemie des Klaviers / The Alchemy of the Piano - A film by Jan Schmidt-Garre with Francesco Piemontesi
Studio:: Naxos Music UK Ltd.
Genres:: Documentary, Music & Musicals, Special Interest
Countries:: Germany

BBFC:

Release Date:

09/05/2025

Run Time:

90 minutes

Languages:

English LPCM Stereo, German LPCM Stereo

Subtitles:

English, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Spanish

DVD Regions:

Region 0 (All)

Formats:

NTSC

Aspect Ratio:

Widescreen 1.78:1 / 16:9

Colour:

Colour and B & W

Bonus:

At Sergei Vassilyevich's Piano: A tribute to the pianist Sergei V. Rachmaninoff
A recital at Villa Senar with Yulianna Avdeeva, Zlata Chochieva and Francesco Piemontesi