DVD + Blu-Ray:
The Alchemy of the Piano / By Jan Schmidt-Garre

Together with director Jan Schmidt-Garre, award-winning pianist Francesco Piemontesi embarkes on a journey to find secret elements of piano playing.

The Alchemy of the Piano

A film by Jan Schmidt-Garre
with Francesco Piemontesi

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 Joâo Pires, Stephen Kovacevich and Antonio Pappano, in a series of revealing interviews 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.

Alfred Brendel, Ermonela Jaho, Jean-Rodolohe Kars, Stephen Kovacevich, Antonio Pappano, Maria João Pires

Eldar Nebolsin as Sergei Rachmaninoff

Also featuring Yulianna Avdeeva, Zlata Chochieva, Benjamin Heisenberg, Marieke Schroeder, Erwin Stürzer

EXTRA FEATURE
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

2.110778 / NBD0186V
Total playing time: Documentary 90 minutes / Bonus 60 minutes
Language: EN, DE • Subtitles: EN, DE, IT, SP, JP, KR
DVD: NTSC 16:9 • PCM Stereo • Region: 0 (worldwide) • DVD 9
BD: HD 16:9 • PCM Stereo • Region: A, B, C • BD 50

English title The Alchemy of the Piano
Genre Documentary
Production Company PARS Media
Co-Production Company Bayerischer Rundfunk, the Serge Rachmaninoff Foundation and ORF
Assoc. Prod. Company Arte, NRK, RSI, SRF, SVT and Naxos Audiovisual
Assoc. Prod. Company FFF Bayern and the Funk Stiftung
Director Jan Schmidt-Garre
Editor Sarah J. Levine
Producer Jan Schmidt-Garre, Marieke Schroeder
Camera Thomas Keller
Audio recorded and mixed by Clémence Fabre, Johannes Kammann and Eberhard Weckerle
Sets Sascha Groß
Graphics Daniel Bäß
Stage Director Diethard Prengel
Assoc. Producer Daniel Riegler, ORF
Editor Monika Lobkowicz, ARTE
Editor Grete Liffers, Theresa März, BR
Editor Adriana Thunhart, Karin Veitl, ORF