Known for his mournful Adagio for Strings, Samuel Barber was never quite fashionable. This acclaimed film is a probing exploration of his music and melancholia. Performance, oral history, musicology, and biography combine to explore the life and music of one of America’s greatest composers. Featuring Thomas Hampson, Leonard Slatkin, Marin Alsop and many more of the world's leading experts on Barber's music, with tributes from composers Leonard Bernstein, Aaron Copland, Virgil Thomson and William Schuman. The film was broadcast on PBS, and screened at ten film festivals internationally, with three best-of awards. It was named a Recording of the Year 2017 by MusicWeb International, and Critic's Choice by Opera News in 2018.
This beautifully packaged, shrink-wrapped DVD/Blu-ray with full-color artwork includes an interactive chapter menu to each composition, and a Dolby Digital 5.1 surround sound mix, with subtitles in English, French, German, Spanish and Russian. The NTSC Region Ø/ALL disc is compatible with most DVD/Blu-ray players in PAL countries too.
Included with both the DVD and Blu-ray, you will also receive a free, unique redemption code to stream the film in its original, full 4K resolution online.
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REVIEWS:
“An impressive array of talking heads, performers and Barber memorabilia, tracing the composer’s life and work through discussion, demonstration and evocative visuals. By the end of the film, one is deeply moved by the journey of this artist.” IRA SIFF, OPERA NEWS "CRITIC'S CHOICE"
“In the new documentary film Samuel Barber: Absolute Beauty, one realizes how and why Barber’s music has gradually insinuated itself into the very core of the classical music world with a durability that now seems unmatched by any of his contemporaries. With great visual polish, documentarian H. Paul Moon brings together an extremely impressive array of documents, archival footage, interviews with Barber experts, and taped oral histories. And with particular sensitivity and intelligence, Moon explores the nature of the Barber-Menotti relationship. His ability to present so much visual evidence is astounding.” DAVID PATRICK STEARNS, PHILADELPHIA INQUIRER
“A remarkable success that rewrites the rules of documentary filmmaking, the kind of project that used only to be made by documentary departments of major television studios. If you are at all unfamiliar with this essential twentieth century composer, this marvelous documentary is the ideal place to begin.” CHRISTIAN MORRIS, COMPOSITION TODAY
“This lavishly illustrated documentary…proclaims the meticulous labour, inspiration and persuasive powers of H. Paul Moon and his subject: the life and music of Samuel Barber. Punches are not pulled whether in relation to personal behaviour or musical assessment. This a bejewelled production…that steers a rewarding course between moving things along yet staying still long enough to inform, surprise and please.” ROB BARNETT, MUSICWEB INTERNATIONAL