Christopher Nupen films (inc. For Daniil Trifonov fans)

[zola]

The latest of these shows up on BBC4 tomorrow evening, "Daniil Trifonov - Piano Sensation"

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b052yq1c

These can be a little on the dry side and the programme title suggests some DG inspired hype but worth catching at some point I suggest.

[ardcarp]

These can be a little on the dry side

Let's hope CN remains 'dry' and hasn't been got at by the latest craze for posing on camera with the "I'm Herr Doktor Professor Nupen and I'm going to discover...blah blah blah" gambit. I've loved his previous TV films, and find the off-screen voice system...albeit dry.....much more informative.

[mercia]

for Trifonov fans

Friday night is music night on BBC4 - a one hour documentary on Daniil Trifonov 8:00pm this evening

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b052yq1c

a film by Christopher Nupen (?)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christopher_Nupen

oh he did that Trout film from way back

[Nick Armstrong]

Oh dear, what a nauseating voiceover - both the pious tone and the fawning content. I'll probably soldier through it at some point due to the interest of the substance, but ... ughhh

[ardcarp]

Not perhaps Nupen at his best, but give me a voice-over rather than a cavorting presenter anyday. Not sure what I made of the substance of the film. Two things struck me. 1. Great that someone can compose in a neo-Romantic style and not be rubbished for it, and 2. Interesting to see him at the Fazioli factory, with Terry Lewis doing his best to diss Steinways without actually saying so...oh and seeing Snr F. in person. Maybe walking through an avenue of frames (is that the right word?) was a step too far!

One never knows how great talents (Trifonov's that is) are going to pan out as time goes on. He sounded pretty special to me.

[Nick Armstrong]

Not perhaps Nupen at his best, but give me a voice-over rather than a cavorting presenter anyday.

I'm with you there; but still....

(That reverential reference in the voiceover to Rachmaninov as 'The Master' had me gagging, I'm afraid. Maybe I'm not in the mood. I'll try another day! )

DT is the real thing I think, and I'm going to hear him live later this year, so I will try and stay the course to hear what he has to say.

[aka Calum Da Jazbo]

i gagged on the voiceover it was dreadful and suggested anidolatrous attitude to art with which i have no sympathy

[Stanley Stewart]

I'm also a devotee of Christopher Nupen's documentary output and was fascinated by the portrait of Daniil Trifonov's phenomenal talents as pianist and composer; even a remarkable platform presence as a child. The programme indicated his development in so many aspects making his potential enormous in a highly competitive field. Chopin and Ravel, study at Cleveland College, also performing his own composition at the age of seven! Watched the programme again, today, convinced that this is a talent to watch.

Followed through with a further transfer to DVD of the two-part Nupen documentaries on the Sibelius Symphonies from an off-airvideo, recorded in 2010.
This left space for the BPO/Rattle cycle of 5, 6 and 7. Highly satisfying.

[Nick Armstrong]

What a VERY bizarre programme this was...

The sycophancy at the family dinner (of course one understands why the film-maker has to be obliging, having been invited into the family circle, but... ), the teacher with the utterly ludicrous spectacles, the alarming close-ups of the profusely perspiring pianist in performance... Much of the programme almost seemed like a grotesque parody of an arts documentary.

I ended up fast-forwarding just to hear the passages of DT playing. He really is a phenomenal pianist. That's all I want to know.

EDIT: The most interesting section of the film I thought was him choosing between the 3 pianos, I agree ardcarp - my money was on the one he ultimately chose, it really spoke in a way the others didn't, especially the middle one which seemed to have oddly 'sour tastes' in the sonority

[ardcarp]

It is perfectly possible that Nupen was given a brief to dwell on the personal, emosh stuff to make the programme 'accessible' (OK, I hate the expression too) in the hope that Joseph/ine Bloggs might watch it. I sometimes find the Radio 4 programme (Tales from the Stave?) tipping over into sentimental slurp. Obviously some people like it that way. My focus was on Trifonov's playing (not enough, agreed), his compositions, the Fazioli visit and his back story. Maybe I should change my name to Ardbloggs?

[Richard Tarleton]

Sycophantic is the word for Nupen docs - the Trout, his other films of their circle....Segovia one of the worst....I probably enjoyed them the first time round in the 1970s but they haven't stood the test of time.

[sgjames]

While doing a few youtube searches I came across the channel for Allegro Films which, as far as I can see, lists uploads of most of Christopher Nupen's
main films:

https://www.youtube.com/user/allegrofilms/videos

I have just watched, and much enjoyed, Nupen's Respighi film 'A Dream of Italy'.