"Arts & Opinion" on "Schumann at Pier2"
October 30, 20122012 MONTREAL WORLD FILM FESTIVAL
THE RATINGS
A & O film critic Nancy Snipper has seen the following films. Here are her ratings and comments, always out of 4, reserving 2.5 or more for a noteworthy film, 3.5 for an exceptional film, 4 for a classic.
3.0--SCHUMANN,Christian Berger
[reviewed by Nancy Snipper]Was Schumann a genius or madman? That is the question conductor Paavo Jarvi asks an composer's four symphonies masterfully played by the Kammerphilharmonic Bremen at Pier2, a former shipyard turned concert hall in the port of Bremen. Jarvi brillianlty and passionately explains Schumann - the man, by uncovering and analyzing the complex seemingly unrelated transitions that take place in passages in his symphonies. Praised for his lieder and piano music, Schumann can now rest easy knowing that this conductor is probably his greatest champion when it comes to extolling the mind, heart and intensity behind the musical matter of this great, mercurial composer. Jarvi describes Schumann's music as being neurotic and extreme. He will continue to remain enigmatic, tragic and sorrowfully misunderstood. Schumann died in a mad house in his mid forties; he did not fit into this mediocre dispassionate world. Thank Goodness his music lives on.