The Silence Before Bach
Genres
Overview
This latest feature from the eccentrically experimental Catalan director Portabella is a beautiful, sometimes faintly bonkers celebration and contemplation of the role Bach’s music plays in the world today. Blending historical reconstruction with very loosely linked ‘dramatic’ scenes and documentary sequences, the film constitutes a playful, painterly sequence of variations on the argument that Johann Sebastian changed the way the world hears thanks to his extraordinary ear for harmony.
Details
Budget
$0
Revenue
$0
Runtime
102 min
Release Date
2007-12-21
Status
Released
Original Language
Catalan
Vote Count
17
Vote Average
7.3
Christian Atanasiu
Mayordomo
Féodor Atkine
Vendedor de Pianos
Georg Christoph Biller
Self
Christian Brembeck
J. S. Bach
Àlex Brendemühl
Camioner
Georgina Cardona
Violonchelista
Lucien Dekoster
Afinador de Pianos
Beatriz Ferrer-Salat
Amazona
José Pedro García Balada
Gertrud Kossler
Clienta
Bert Kripstädt
Camarero
Lina Lambert
Madre de Mendelssohn
Daniel Ligorio
F. Mendelssohn
Jordi Llordella
Amigo de Mendelssohn
Ferrán Ruiz
Hijo de Bach
Thomas Sauerteig
Amigo de la Violonchelista
Franz Schuchart
Guía Turístico
Antonio Serrano
Acompañante del Camionero
Fanny Silvestre
Anna Magdalena Bach
Mariona Solanas
Hija de Bach
Àlvar Triay
Camionero del Bar
Daniela Wick
Descendiente de Bach
Jens Wittwer
Hijo Mayor de Bach
Johannes Zametzer
Carnicero
6.5
Bach - A Christmas Miracle
Leipzig, December 1734: Christmas brings the Bach family together. The first snow has fallen and the children Gottfried and Elisabeth are delighted about the arrival of their older brothers Friedemann and Emanuel. The Thomaskantor has retired to his music room. Anna Magdalena supports her husband, as there are only a few days left and his latest work, the six-part "Christmas Oratorio", must be finished on time. It is awaited with suspicion by the city council and the gentlemen of the consistory, who have long found Bach's waywardness a thorn in their side and fear that, after the premiere of the St. Matthew Passion a few years earlier, the St. Thomas Church will once again be filled with "operatic" music. With the oratorio, Johann Sebastian Bach hopes that he will finally become court composer in Dresden. And, as always, he demands that all members of the family join forces to help him. But differences of opinion are increasingly delaying the completion of Bach's most famous work.
2024-10-30 | de
8.0
Bach pour tous
A musical journey in the footsteps of conductor Michel Brun, an atypical character, an atheist, who nevertheless plays sacred music, and who devotes his life to Johann Sebastian Bach. With the musicians of the Ensemble Baroque de Toulouse.
2023-06-12 | fr
10.0
Orgues, Toccatas, et Fantaisies
Director Bruno Monsaingeon stages this live musical journey into the works of Johann Sebastian Bach, featuring virtuoso Marie-Claire Alain playing organs hand-selected to best represent Bach's Baroque style. The tour incorporates venues at which the maestro himself would have performed, such as Haarlem, Rötha, Groningen and Dresden, and includes masterpieces such as Toccata in F Major, Trio Sonata no. 1, Fantasia and Fugue in G Minor, and more.
1990-07-27 | fr
5.5
Sting: Beyond The Police
The personal life and professional career of music superstar Gordon Matthew Thomas Sumner, universally known as Sting, who became passionate about music at a very early age and founded the trio The Police in 1977 with Stewart Copeland and Andy Summers, achieving an immediate success.
2017-08-18 | en
10.0
Christmas Oratorio
This recording of all six cantatas from the Salle Henry Le Bœuf in the Palais des Beaux-Arts in Brussels, Belgium, in December 2012 features internationally renowned Bach expert Philippe Herreweghe and the Collegium Vocale Gent.
2012-12-20 | en
0.0
Man of the Woods
At night, in the dark recesses of the woods, a male cellist lures in viewers with a performance of Bach's "Cello Suite No. 1 in G Major." It stars Paul McCoy Drutz-Hannahs, a professional cellist with the Johns Hopkins University Orchestra.
2019-10-20 | it
0.0
The Question of Instrument
Part I of the series "Glenn Gould Plays Bach" is devoted to Bach's "Art of Fugue." Gould's performance is followed by a lively repartee with Monsaingeon, in which the pianist provides dazzling insights illustrated by music examples. He explains, for example, why he plays some pieces extremely slowly, and bemoans the "musicological overkill" of scholars who insist that Bach's keyboard music should only be played on a harpsichord.
1983-09-29 | en
4.2
The Goldberg Variations
Part III in the series "Glenn Gould Plays Bach" spotlights Gould recording Bach's "Goldberg Variations" in a sound studio. In a brief introduction, he reminisces about his first recording of the pieces and explains why he wanted to record them again now, a quarter of a century later. It was to be his last recording of the "Goldberg Variations" and perhaps the last time he played the work: Glenn Gould died the year after the recording was made.
2007-08-28 | en
6.2
Chronicle of Anna Magdalena Bach
The life and music of Johann Sebastian Bach as presented by his wife, Anna.
1968-02-03 | de
0.0
An Art Art of the Fugue
In Part II of the series "Glenn Gould Plays Bach", Gould concentrates on the fugal form in Bach's works, showing us how Bach uses keys like stops on an organ, and how they give him ideas and colours. He performs various fugues from the Well-Tempered Clavier and reveals why he feels the "Art of Fugue" is the work that summed up Bach's life.
1983-10-06 | en
0.0
Bach Brandenburg Concertos & Coffee Cantata
Deutsche Grammophon celebrates Nikolaus Harnoncourt's 80th birthday with this 2-DVD release of rare, vintage, period Bach performances for the first time. Never released on DVD and, to the dismay of fans, long unavailable--these glorious Bach pieces are conducted by period instrument pioneer, Nikolaus Harnoncourt, as only he can. Harnoncourt, a notable cellist, performs in two concertos and on gamba in one. Harnoncourt warns, "If we lose contact with the great works of Bach, we lose our contact with humanity." Vocalists Janet Perry, Robert Holl, and Peter Schreier sing with distinction in the Coffee Cantata. The Surround Sound makes clear that they revel in the acoustics of the visually magnificent Baroque library of Wiblingen Monastery.
1983-07-25 | en
0.0
Ivo Pogorelich: Bach, Scarlatti, Beethoven
Pianist Ivo Pogorelich in a 1987 studio recital of works by Bach, Scarlatti, and Beethoven, recorded at historical palaces of Veneto Villa Caldogno in Vincenza and Eckartsau Castle in Lower Austria. The program consists of: BACH English Suites ##2,3 // SCARLATTI Sonatas K487 in C, K20 in E, K98 in e, K450 in g, K1 in d, K159 in C // BEETHOVEN Sonata #11 in B♭ op22; Bagatelle "für Elise".
1987-01-01 | en
0.0
De occulta philosophia
A memorable intellectual journey to rediscover Baroque music, from the handmade fabrication of a harpsichord by master luthier Titus Crijnen to the interpretation of several scores by Bach and other Baroque composers by the Spanish ensemble La Reverencia.
2014-03-20 | es
5.5
Friedemann Bach
During a house concert, the Bach family gets a visit by their son Wilhelm Friedemann, who has just given up his position in Dresden because he no longer could endure the reprisals of his superiors.
1941-06-25 | de
5.8
Lifted
A little girl and her inventor father celebrate the success of their greatest dream, on a day she will never forget.
2015-04-20 | en
0.0
Herione: Deo
DEO A reimagining of Deo Gratias (ca. 1497) by Johannes Ockeghem. A Film by Eric Leiser. Animation by Eric Leiser. Composed by Pauline Kim Harris and Spencer Topel Deo is an acoustic-electronic transcription of Johannes Ockeghem’s stunning Deo Gratias devised as a complement to Ambient Chaconne. Notable as a 36-part canon, Ockeghem evokes singing of angels in heaven via an innovation on a traditional canon, using this ancient musical device as a kind of acoustic feedback delay. In essence, our Deo expands this idea of delays to a canon of thousands, in an ever expanding and infinite soundscape, where the melodies eventually dissolve into resonance.
2019-09-05 | en
0.0
Living Bach
There are more than 300 Bach choirs and Bach ensembles worldwide, most of which are made up of amateurs. For many, their lives are inextricably linked with the music of Johann Sebastian Bach. What do people seek and find in his music? What connects them across continents? What fascination lies in the music of the famous German composer, which manages to transcend borders, cultures, religions and centuries? The film embarks on a journey through six continents to meet amateur musicians and singers who have made Bach their "centerpiece".
2023-11-30 | en
9.0
Erbarme dich - Matthäus Passion Stories
Erbarme dich - Matthäus Passion Stories is a labyrinthine narrative in which notables such as Peter Sellars, Emio Greco, Simon Halsey and painter Rinke Nijburg explain their special relationship with Bach’s St Matthew Passion to Ramón Gieling (Johan Cruijff: en un momento dado). They speak against the backdrop of a church which has fallen into disrepair, while a choir of homeless people and Pieter Jan Leusink’s Bach Choir & Orchestra rehearse the Passion. Leusink isn't just the conductor, he is one of the main characters himself, with a painful past in which this musical piece has played a dominant role. Stories from the others alternate seamlessly with this. We learn how the St Matthew Passion played a decisive role in the relations between men and women, fathers and sons, fathers and daughters, mothers and their unborn children, and finally that in spite of our differences we all find a common denominator in the secret of Bach's music.
2015-02-26 | nl
5.6
My Name Is Bach
Composer Johann Sebastian Bach is introduced to King Frederick II of Prussia in 1747. The aging composer and the young monarch clash and a battle of egos ensues.
2004-04-08 | de
5.5
Tennessee Nights
When entertainment lawyer Wolfgang Leighton decides to take a break from business for some fishing in Tennessee's backwoods, he ends up embroiled in a bank robbery and murder. Pursued by the killers, he's running from the police and a young hitchhiker appears to be his only friend.
1991-10-12 | en