Music on the silver screen

Echoing the concert programmes and further elevating the theme of the Prison Yard Festival, Tai Kwun presents an exquisite selection of classic films and new releases that address the healing power of music.

The programme features two major musical films that are rarely shown in Hong Kong. Thirty-Two Short Films About Glenn Gould (1993) captures the episodes of eccentric pianist Glenn Gould – an artist who shook the world with his legendary recording of Bach’s Goldberg Variations; while Tous les matins du monde (1991) tells the story of Baroque composer Marin Marais with an award-winning soundtrack by viol master Jordi Savall.

Meanwhile, two recent releases, Max Richter’s Sleep (2019) and the Australian Chamber Orchestra’s Tabula Rasa(2021) will also be shown. Each film will portray the most significant musical achievements of composers’ Max Richter and Arvo Pärt. This is music which offers the listener consolation and each film sensitively brings a visual dimension which deepens the impact of the music. 

In Falling for Stradivari (2021), the peerlessly brilliant violinist Janine Jansen discovers how 12 different violins, built in the early 18th Century by history’s greatest craftsman Antonio Stradivari, open up fresh and unexpected sound worlds for a performing artists in the 21st Century.

17.01.2022 (Mon)│7pm – 8:40pm | Max Richter’s Sleep (2019)
19.01.2022 (Wed)│7pm – 8:40pm | Thirty-Two Short Films About Glenn Gould (1993)
23.01.2022 (Sun) │12pm – 1pm | ACO StudioCast: Tabula Rasa (2021)
23.01.2022 (Sun)│3pm – 5pm | Tous les matins du monde (1991)

Partner Programme

16.01.2022 (Sun) │3pm – 5:40pm | Janine Jansen: Falling for Stradivari (2021)
【Programme of Beare’s Premiere Music Festival 2022】

Tickets | $100

Tickets now available at art-mate.net and URBTIX

The film follows acclaimed composer and musician Max Richter and his creative partner, artist and BAFTA winning filmmaker Yulia Mahr, as they navigate an ambitious performance of his celebrated 8-hour opus SLEEP at an open-air concert in Los Angeles. Emmy-nominated director Natalie Johns weaves in Mahr’s personal archive and performance footage from Berlin, Sydney, and Paris to create a rich portrait of a shared artistic process, along with contributions that illuminate both the science and story behind the work.

Duration: 100 minutes
Language: In English with Chinese subtitles

Mirroring the structure of Bach’s Goldberg Variations, the recording that made eccentric Canadian pianist Glenn Gould famous, this dramatic narrative is broken up into 32 short pieces. Each short film provides an insight into an aspect of Gould’s life and career. Some are filmed as dramatic re-creations, while others are more abstract: There is even an animated piece accompanied by a recording of a Gould performance. Colm Feore is brilliant as Gould, humanising the difficult genius whose studio recordings, imaginative radio documentaries and insightful writings are still influential in contemporary classical circles.

Duration: 98 minutes
Language: In English

Directed by Matisse Ruby and filmed at Sydney’s Hordern Pavilion, this spectacular concert film features Artistic Director Richard Tognetti leading the ACO through performances of Arvo Pärt's Tabula Rasa and Shostakovich's Chamber Symphony, integrated with imagery and video projections by renowned cinematographer Jon Frank and Beizj Studio. Estonian Arvo Pärt is one of the most performed living composers, and his extraordinary music is revered by musicians and non-musicians alike around the world. Written while his Estonian homeland was under Soviet control, Tabula Rasa strives to break free and start afresh through spirituality and independence. Shostakovich’s Chamber Symphony is a lament for victims of fascism and war, but also an act of self-reflection as it moves from elegy to brutal force into haunting acceptance.

Duration: 60 minutes

It's late 17th century. The viola da gamba player Monsieur de Sainte Colombe comes home to find that his wife died while he was away. In his grief he builds a small house in his garden into which he moves to dedicate his life to music and his two young daughters Madeleine and Toinette, avoiding the outside world. Rumor about him and his music is widespread, and even reaches to the court of Louis XIV, who wants him at his court in Lully's orchestra, but Monsieur de Sainte Colombe refuses. One day a young man, Marin Marais, comes to see him with a request, he wants to be taught how to play the viola.

Duration: 115 minutes
Language: In French with English subtitles

Partner Programme

16.01.2022 (Sun) │3pm – 5:40pm
Janine Jansen: Falling for Stradivari (2021) 
【Programme of Beare’s Premiere Music Festival 2022】

• For wheelchair user, please purchase tickets via URBTIX www.urbtix.hk
• Recommended for ages 6 and above
• Limited offer for specific discount types
• Tai Kwun reserves the right to assign seats
• Programmes are subject to change without prior notice. Tai Kwun reserves the right to make the final decision regarding the arrangements.
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