Christopher Nupen
Birth : 1934-09-30, South Africa
History
Christopher Nupen (born on 30 September 1934) is a South African-born filmmaker based in the United Kingdom specialising in biographical documentaries of musicians.
Nupen was born in South Africa to a family of Norwegian descent — his father, E. P. "Buster" Nupen (1902–1977), was a Test cricketer. His mother was Claire (Doombie) Nupen, née Meikle.
After studying law at university he moved to Britain to work in banking, then trained as a sound engineer with the BBC.
In 1962 he made High Festival In Siena about the summer music school at the Accademia Musicale Chigiana in Siena for BBC Radio Three and was subsequently invited by Huw Weldon to make films for the BBC. Using newly developed silent 16mm film cameras he created a new, intimate style of biographical film beginning with Double Concerto in 1966, featuring the collaboration of Vladimir Ashkenazy and Daniel Barenboim.
In 1968 he co-founded Allegro Films, one of the earliest independent television production companies in the UK. He went on to work on over 80 film and television productions about music.
The Trout, his film of a performance of Schubert’s Trout quintet by Jacqueline du Pré, Daniel Barenboim, Itzhak Perlman, Pinchas Zukerman and Zubin Mehta on August 30, 1969 at Queen Elizabeth Hall in London, became a benchmark of classical music broadcasting. His close friendships with many of his subjects enabled him to communicate the spirit of the artists' work, such as in Jacqueline Du Pré In Portrait.
Surveys of the life and work of composers have also featured prominently in his work, including films about Paganini, Sibelius and Schubert.
His 2004 film We Want The Light explores the meaning of music in human experience, focusing on relationships between Jews and Germans.
In January 2008 he was a guest on Private Passions, the biographical music discussion programme on BBC Radio 3.
In 2019, his autobiography Listening through the lens was published in which he discusses his many award-winning films, the musicians he met, many of whom were to become life-long friends, and his varied and often astonishing private life.
Nupen's work has twice won "DVD of the Year Award" in Cannes and the Preis der deutschen Schallplattenkritik.
Source: Article "Christopher Nupen" from Wikipedia in english, licensed under CC-BY-SA 3.0.
Self
Documentary about Christopher Nupen, a pioneering film director who championed classical music on television, seizing upon his unique access to a golden generation of musicians
Writer
Documentary about pianist and Holocaust survivor Alice Sommer Herz. In the concentration camps she played more than 100 concerts, and credits music for saving her life.
Director
Documentary about pianist and Holocaust survivor Alice Sommer Herz. In the concentration camps she played more than 100 concerts, and credits music for saving her life.
Director
In April 1981 violinist Gidon Kremer performed Vivaldi's Four Seasons leading the English Chamber Orchestra recorded in the baroque library of the monastery in Polling, near Munich. It is, as one would expect from a master violinist, a superbly insightful performance. The sound is resonant and satisfying although surely not true 5.1, and those who wish to have this music on video might well investigate it.
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The struggles of the world’s Jewish people over the course of several centuries are expressed and explored through the music they inspired in this documentary from the BBC and Opus Arte. We Want the Light brings together harrowing tales from Holocaust survivors with performances of music by such legendary composers as Mahler, Bach, Mendelssohn, and Brahms. Interviews with: Alice Sommer Herz, Jacques Stroumsa, Evgeny Kissin, Vladimir Ashkenazy, Zubin Mehta, Itzhak Perlman, Pinchas Zukerman, Toby Perlman, Michael Haas, Elyakim Ha’etzni, Norman Lebrecht, Margaret Brearley, Paul Lawrence Rose, Daniel Barenboim, Yirmiyahu Yovel, Uri Toeplitz & Anita Lasker-Wallfisch. Featuring: Gürzenich-Orchester Köln, Cologne Cathedral Children’s Choir & Cologne Opera Chorus.
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Jacqueline du Pré and the Elgar Cello Concerto, a documentary by award-winning film maker Christopher Nupen, explores the artistic personality of one of the finest performing musicians of the twentieth century, with the recurring theme of her special relationship with the Elgar’s melancholy Cello Concerto. The film begins with an account of what she did after the onset of her illness when she could no longer perform in public. It ends, at her own request, with a re-edited version of the original portrait film which sketches her childhood and the development of her musical talent, her meeting with Daniel Barenboim and their marriage in 1967, her special relationship with the Elgar concerto and, finally, a complete performance of the work with The New Philharmonia Orchestra conducted by Daniel Barenboim; a performance which has become legendary.
Writer
Evgeny Igorevich Kissin was born in Moscow on the 10th of October 1971. He started to play the piano at the age of two, as soon as he was tall enough to reach the keyboard and he has not looked back from that day to this. His is a very rare story of continued success that has had the simultaneous blessing of critics, the public and musicians alike. This film by Christopher Nupen shows Kissin in preparation, interview, rehearsal and performance, with several dazzling performances shot live on stage, in true concert conditions. It also contains all the encores from Kissin's memorable Promenade concert at the Royal Albert Hall, London, in August, 1997—the first Prom concert by a soloist, it attracted the biggest audience in all the 103 year history, very nearly six thousand people. The music is by Liszt, Gluck, Haydn, Beethoven, Schubert, Paganini, Kissin himself and Chopin, the composer for whom Kissin feels the closest affinity.
Director
Evgeny Igorevich Kissin was born in Moscow on the 10th of October 1971. He started to play the piano at the age of two, as soon as he was tall enough to reach the keyboard and he has not looked back from that day to this. His is a very rare story of continued success that has had the simultaneous blessing of critics, the public and musicians alike. This film by Christopher Nupen shows Kissin in preparation, interview, rehearsal and performance, with several dazzling performances shot live on stage, in true concert conditions. It also contains all the encores from Kissin's memorable Promenade concert at the Royal Albert Hall, London, in August, 1997—the first Prom concert by a soloist, it attracted the biggest audience in all the 103 year history, very nearly six thousand people. The music is by Liszt, Gluck, Haydn, Beethoven, Schubert, Paganini, Kissin himself and Chopin, the composer for whom Kissin feels the closest affinity.
Director
The Greatest Love and the Greatest Sorrow is a film which sets out to bring the viewer closer, not to the details of Schubert's life, but to the spirit of what he was trying to express with what he called his creative gift and with which he tried "to brighten the world". The film begins with the funeral of Beethoven, at which Schubert was a torch-bearer, His story is told almost entirely in music written in the twenty months that remained to him after that date, together with quotations from Schubert's letters, diaries and the words that he chose to set in some of his songs. Includes personal introductions by Christopher Nupen and Jacqueline du Pré and features the legendary 1969 performance of The Trout with Daniel Barenboim, Itzhak Perlman, Jacqueline du Pré, Pinchas Zukerman and Zubin Mehta.
Writer
A documentary portrait of famed Ukrainian-American violinist Nathan Milstein (1903–92), covering his life and career through conversations with the artist and with some of his notable students, interspersed with brief performances and followed by two concert performances.
Director
A documentary portrait of famed Ukrainian-American violinist Nathan Milstein (1903–92), covering his life and career through conversations with the artist and with some of his notable students, interspersed with brief performances and followed by two concert performances.
Director
Russian pianist Evgeny Kissin delivers a virtuoso performance of remarkable depth and artistry in this 1990 concert recorded live in Munich at Bavaria Musikstudios. Selections include Franz Schubert's Fantasy in C Major, D 760 ("Wanderer"), Johannes Brahms's Fantasies, op. 116, Franz Liszt's Hungarian Rhapsody no. 12, J.S. Bach's "Siciliana" and Christoph Willibald Gluck's "Melody Dance of the Blessed Spirits."
Director
Two Christopher Nupen films about the music and the artistic intentions of Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, one of the greats and a composer who appeals to millions of people.
Director
Documentary about Soviet-born pianist Vladimir Ashkenazy.
Director
Pollini plays flawlessly, with the greatest finesse and sensitivity, very much in tune with each composer's personal style. His performances are exemplary in every respect. The video and audio are quite acceptable, given their 1970s vintage. Böhm and Abbado are at home in this repertoire, and the Wiener Philharmoniker in excellent form, notwithstanding a few strange noises coming from the horns.
Director
Documentary on the life and career of violinist Itzhak Perlman, including interviews, archival footage, and concert performances.
Director
Director
Born with the gift from nature, polished by years of painstaking work, Pinchas Zukerman was between the ages of 7 and 17 the best teaching that could possibly be found. His well-spent youth established him with an international career before he was 21. The close friendship between the artist and the director, Christopher Nupen, provides not only an interesting documentary but also a touching immersion in the intimacy of one of the greatest violinists the world has ever known.
Director
Christopher Nupen's record of the concert given by five young musicians in the new Queen Elizabeth Hall at London's South Bank, in 1969. The Trout is an exuberant explosion of youthful enjoyment in music: first from Schubert himself, who wrote his famous Trout quintet when he was 22 years old, and then from five young artists of the highest rank. They pick up the spirit of Schubert's music magnificently, both in preparation and rehearsal, and in their 1969 performance of the work, which has become one of the most remembered ever given. Includes personal introductions by Christopher Nupen and Jacqueline du Pré and features the legendary 1969 performance of The Trout with Daniel Barenboim, Itzhak Perlman, Jacqueline du Pré, Pinchas Zukerman and Zubin Mehta.
