Gustav Mahler, autopsy of a genius

Director: Andy Sommer
Co-authors: Andy Sommer and Catherine Sauvat

Participants: Henry-Louis de La Grange, Thomas Hampson, Pierre Boulez, Claudio Abbado, Daniele Gatti, Daniel Harding and Jonathan Nott.

Duration: 90 minutes
Format: HDV
Producer: Bel Air Media / François Duplat and Patricia Houtart
Broadcast: ARTE France / Gabrielle Babin-Gugenheim
Diffusion : planned for May 18^th 2011
Contact : patricia.houtart@bel-air-media.com – tel : +336 32 13 71 04

Synopsis

Director, Andy Sommer, is known for his sensational musical documentaries on the immortals Mozart, Beethoven, Schubert and Berlioz. Today he tackles the mythical Gustav Mahler, proposing a cinematic autopsy of the many facets of this musical genius, who was at once composer, orchestra conductor and opera house director.

The film proposes to make the autopsy of this genious composer and takes us on a journey to the heart of Mahler’s world, going beyond the legends and clichés, and drawing on the latest research to create a portrait that brings us as close as possible to the man Mahler really was.

The film includes the participation of prominent Mahlerian personalities, as Henry-Louis de la Grange, paired with a visually spectacular, accessible dramatisation directly related to Mahler’s music and images inspired by 1900 Vienna’s enduring modernity and “Nature” which always plaid a special role in the Mahler’s inspiration.

The film continues its ‘autopsy’ of the man beyond his death, retracing interpretations of his music by different orchestra conductors up to the present day: from Bruno Walter, Willem Mengelberg to Leonard Bernstein… and from Claudio Abbado, Pierre Boulez to Daniele Gatti, Daniel Harding and Jonathan Nott…