F-0117

Title:

Concert Magic

Category:

P

Produced:

1948

Country:

USA

Released:

Oct 1948 (film, USA); 1950 (film, Europe); Sep 2005 (DVD)

Director:

Paul Gordon

Writer:

Actors:

Yehudi Menuhin (Violin); Jakob Gimpel; Eula Beal (Contralto); Adolph Bailer; Antal Doráti (Conductor); Marguerite Campbell (Piano)

Description:

This DVD contains two sections. The first is a black-and-white feature, 'Concert Magic,' consisting of a 75-minute recital/concert with Menuhin and assisting artists. It was made in the Chaplin Studio in Hollywood in 1947 and is reputed to be the first full-length classical music concert film ever made. In it Menuhin, mostly accompanied by his long-time pianist Adolph Baller, plays various works, mostly short, mostly of encore size, many of them selected from programs Menuhin had played in hundreds of concerts for Allied soldiers during the Second World War. They include such things as the first movement of Beethoven's First Violin Sonata, the unaccompanied 'Prelude' from Bach's Third Partita, Wieniawski's 'Scherzo-Tarantelle,' Paganini's 'Moto Perpetuo,' Locatelli's Caprice subtitled 'Il labarinto armonico,' Bach's 'Air on the G String' (accompanied by Antal Dorati leading an orchestra of Hollywood studio musicians), Paganini's First Caprice (yes, THAT Caprice, and in the now out-of-fashion arrangement for violin and piano made by Fritz Kreisler) and a violin/piano arrangement of Schubert's 'Ave Maria.' He is also heard playing the violin obbligato in 'Erbarme dich' from the St. Matthew Passion (with contralto Eula Beal singing it in English as 'Lord, Have Mercy on Me'). Beal is heard in the Bach/Gounod 'Ave Maria,' and in a smashing performance of Schubert's 'Erlkönig' accompanied by pianist Marguerite Campbell. Polish-American pianist Jakob Gimpel is heard in selections by Liszt, Chopin and Mozart. Audio only (a selection played in movie theaters as patrons took their seats for the 'Concert Magic' movie): Novacek: 'Perpetuum Mobile' with Dorati leading a Hollywood orchestra. (Scott Morrison, Amazon.com)

Language:

English

Bach's Music:

Air (Mvt. 2) from Orchestral Suite No. 3 in D major, BWV 1068
Antal Doráti / Hollywood Symphony Orchestra
Yehudi Menuhin (Violin)

Prelude (Mvt. 1) from Partita for solo violin No. 3 in E major, BWV 1006
Yehudi Menuhin (Violin)

"Ave Maria", by Charles Gounod, adopted from the Prelude No. 1 in C major from WTC 1, BWV 846
Eula Beal (Contralto); Marguerite Campbell (Piano)

Aria for Alto Erbarme dich (Mvt. 39 [47]) from Matthäus-Passion BWV 244 (sung in English)
Antal Doráti / Hollywood Symphony Orchestra
Eula Beal (Contralto); Yehudi Menuhin (Violin)

Film Company:

Concert Films Corporation

Format:

Colour film | DVD (NTSC)

VHS/DVD Label:

EuroArts

TT:

75 min [DVD]

Comments:

Watch selections:

Buy movie at:

Amazon.com [DVD]

Source/Links: IMDB | Concert Magic (1947) (Audiophile Audition) | Literary Blog » “Concert Magic” - Historic Film Reappears after Mysterious Absence of 55 Years!
Contributor: Aryeh Oron (October 2007)