The private lives of string quartets

[Stanley Stewart]

Have just set my HD recorder - BBC 2, 21.00-22.40 hrs, 17 Sept!

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

Have just set my HD recorder - BBC 2, 21.00-22.40 hrs, 17 Sept!

Don't panic at the start of your "tape", Stanley - Katie Derham overruns only by three minutes!


Everyone who 's waiting until eleven o'clock : IT'S STARTED!

[Richard Tarleton]

Mystery solved - it's at 2100 everywhere except BBC2 Wales, where it's at 2300. so we're all right

[pastoralguy]

Katie Derham overruns only by three minutes!

: IT'S STARTED!

I've missed Katie?! No...!

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

I've missed Katie?! No...!

'Fraid so, pg - you'll need to take a better aim next time.

[pastoralguy]

'Fraid so, pg - you'll need to take a better aim next time.

[Stanley Stewart]

Don't panic at the start of your "tape", Stanley - Katie Derham overruns only by three minutes!


Everyone who 's waiting until eleven o'clock : IT'S STARTED!

Fortunately, ferney, my recorder remains in pause mode until the logo for the selected title appears and I kept the sound mute until the programme started. However, I didn't warm to the film either; not too keen on bourgeois bickering, despite the presence of some fine actors.

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

Yes - a whole string (ho-ho) of clichés, wasn't it? Quite watchable even so, until the terrible sentimentality of the last 10mins-quarter of an hour.

I did wish that I'd watched Beck, instead.

[Richard Tarleton]

Catch-up TV is a great boon, ferney, you could still have watched Beck....

BBC Wales to blame for confusion over times - I think they vary the national schedules every so often just to prove they can. Usually it's for a village pump rugby match which anyone with any interest in would be at. Last night they were showing Dad's Army at 9.00 and that Cymru-noir police series Hinterland (which I've never watched) at 9.30.

[kernelbogey]

Yes - a whole string (ho-ho) of clichés, wasn't it? Quite watchable even so, until the terrible sentimentality of the last 10mins-quarter of an hour[....]

I watched this for the second time and think it's a good film. Philip French agreed in his original Observer review of the film.

Cliches? Sentimental? Maybe, but this is an American film. I suspect a British film would have been more buttoned up..

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

... but this is an American film.

I don't think that that's a good enough excuse, messel'n.

[kernelbogey]

I don't think that that's a good enough excuse, messel'n.

For me, the way in which Peter's diagnosis of his early Parkinson's affected the others, and triggered their sense of their inidividual needs, in some cases suppressed in the interests of the ensemble, was proportionately conveyed. I wonder if you felt that the emotion displayed was superficial (see OED definition)? .

I'm also curious what any string players who have seen the film thought of the way that the (non-musical) actors 'played' their instruments.

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

For me, the way in which Peter's diagnosis of his early Alzheimer's affected the others, and triggered their sense of their inidividual needs, in some cases supppressed in the interests of the ensemble, was proportionately conveyed. I wonder if you felt that the emotion displayed was superficial (see OED definition)? .

It was Parkinson's wasn't it? (This was particularly pertinent to my response - a friend of mine is in the initial stages, and I found the performed responses "unauthentic". Not "sentimental" - that was reserved for the last ten minutes of the film; as I said, I found the rest "quite watchable", even with the clichéd stories of the other characters; the blokes having affairs, the mother/daughter conflict, the dialogue about Music, the inner jealousies between first and second violinists ... But, apart from that ... )

I'm also curious what any string players who have seen the film thought of the way that the (non-musical) actors 'played' their instruments.

The daughter looked least convincing - the way she was holding the bow, the left-hand fingering. I daren't voice my opinion about how the bowing of the Quartet didn't seem to quite match what was being heard; it'll quite probably turn out to have been close-ups of the actual Brentano 4tet players that was filmed if I do!

[kernelbogey]

Many thanks Ferney.

The daughter looked least convincing - the way she was holding the bow, the left-hand fingering. I daren't voice my opinion about how the bowing of the Quartet didn't seem to quite match what was being heard; it'll quite probably turn out to have been close-ups of the actual Brentano 4tet players that was filmed if I do!

BTW all the 'player' actors had musical coaches.

[ahinton]

Some suspect and somewhat contrived treatment of issues (sch as "the blokes having affairs, the mother/daughter conflict, the dialogue about Music, the inner jealousies between first and second violinists", as fhg points out) and yes, some appallingly sentimental and unrealistic stuff towards the end that was then made even worse by cut-'n'-paste bits of what was not merely the star but also the saving grace of the show, namely Op. 131 itself which, even by the most exalted standards of Beethoven at his very best, seems somehow to be above them.

I recall a performance at Dartington several years ago by the wonderful French ensemble Quatuor Diotima in which the first half comprised some Webern, Steve McNeff and (David Matthews, specifically his sixth quartet, if I'm allowed to mention that here) and the second half was occupied by what was by far the most outrageously modern piece in the entire programme and was one of the finest and most engaging accounts of Op. 131 that it has ever been my privileged good fortune to hear...