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Schumann at Pier 2

Janos Gereben on October 29, 2013
Paavo Järvi with the Bremen Chamber Philharmonic
Paavo Järvi with the Bremen Chamber Philharmonic

Thanks to the S.F. Bay Area's smallest, youngest, and — to me — best public television station, KMTP (ch. 32 on Comcast), San Francisco has the luxury of commercial- and fundraising-free programs from Deutsche Welle, RAI, (the formerly BBC-imitator, now Putin-ized) Russia Today, and the fabulous Classic Arts Showcase.

One of DW's best music programs is the documentary film about Schumann, Schumann at Pier 2, with Paavo Järvi and The Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie of Bremen. Check the DW schedule about repeated telecasts. The film itself is also available.

A special feature available on DW is the making of Schumann at Pier 2.

For this concert film, the television crew chose an unlikely location, a former dockyard building at Bremen’s port. Pier 2 usually hosts rock concerts, but suddenly a classical conductor and orchestra were rehearsing Schumann’s four symphonies there. The building, with its striking industrial flair, was also the venue for the lavishly staged concerts. The result was a unique, unprecedented television document of Schumann’s symphonies.

This two-part concert film offers a behind-the-scenes look at both the rehearsals and the concerts. One special feature is studio recordings, made by individual members of the orchestra, of selected passages from these Romantic masterpieces.