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An Intimate Glimpse into Music Making As an American that loves Classical Music, I am used to looking to Great Britain for information, recordings, sound equipment and so much more that revolves around my passion. Years ago there was a BBC television program called the “Philharmonia” which dealt with the ups and downs of the personnel of the famed Philharmonia Orchestra, based in London. Every week I would find out more about the musicians, like the first chair clarinetist... Would he/she get the funding to have an assistant principal, so they could spend more time with the children? Like many orchestras in Europe, the Philharmonia is owned by the players themselves, and to make the kind of money they need to live in one of the most expensive cities in the world, they work like dogs. When I learned of a film about some of the members of one of America’s premier ensembles, the Philadelphia Orchestra, I harkened back to the earlier BBC program and thought I knew what I was in for -- but was I wrong. Daniel Ankar’s film, “Music from the Inside Out,” includes multiple conversations with members of the Philadelphia Orchestra, and the topic isn’t themselves and their lives, but music. It is often said that Music takes over where Words fail, so the idea of a film about people speaking about the indefinable should not work, but it does. With clarity, passion and a “greatest hits” sound track, “Music from the Inside Out” gets us closer to the music, by listening to the people who have spent most of their lives chasing this elusive art. Part One deals with defining music, and we get to know these people who have spent so many hours practicing to get them ready for a life they can’t easily explain. We learn why finding your voice is so important, and that maybe discovering that what you wanted to do and what you do best are sometimes two different things. We go on tour with the orchestra and get some understanding about the difference between seeing the world and playing music for it. The music in this DVD is beautifully recorded and after a bit one notices a difference in this film. We are not dealing with artful camera shots of the conductor, it is the orchestra we watch. We see these musicians pulling the notes off the page and turning it into something that isn’t so much sound, as a fragile and immediately satisfying art. Part Two gives us viewers an inside look at the subtle differences between conductors downbeats and how orchestras learn to act as single unit rather then a group of individual artists. In their conversations, the principals of the Philadelphia Orchestra manage to make invisible and subtle music something we can better understand whether we are new to classical music or have be listening and enjoying this potent elixir for decades. “Music from the Inside Out” is recorded in 5.1 sound, and features extras like deleted scenes, and extended conversations with the conductors we didn’t see before, as well as an alternate opening, but the best part of the bonus tracks, and maybe the entire disc, is seeing the Chinese pianist Lang Lang rehearsing with the orchestra the second movement of the Prokofiev piano concerto No. 3. Here is the spirit of music writ large. It may be only a rehearsal, but Lang Lang throws himself into the notes with such mixture of abandon and precision that we are swept away by his passion. I have never heard those difficult runs played so freshly and with a subtle understanding of the rhythm that makes this concerto unique. Here is the Dionysian spirit that music can contain when all the elements come together in a moment-to-moment understanding between all the musicians as they play. Too bad we get so little of this amazing marriage of spirit and knowledge! I would gladly pay to view the entire rehearsal with these amazing musicians. "Music From the Inside Out" is highly recommended to anyone that loves music. 4/13/07 Back to the main Cinema Tuesdays Reviews page More about the Cinema Tuesdays series  |
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