I have always been fascinated by films, something I probably share with just about the whole population of the world. But I have also been drawn to the likeness of how a film is made with how music is made. A story including different characters with beauty, tempo and timing. A psychological narrative where there is the expected but perhaps more importantly, the unexpected.
Quoting oneself is terrible, I know, But to take a phrase from my first “real” documentary “Beethoven – Freedom of the Will”, “Since I was six years old, I have been telling stories with my hands touching the keys of the piano. I will never stop doing that. But as the world shut down, I found a new way to tell stories”
FILMS
Beethoven – Freedom of the Will
Directed by Per Tengstrand
Filming: Per Tengstrand, Björn Skallström, Aleksandra Sende
Filming & sound Kreutzer Sonata: Per Tengstrand
Lighting Kreutzer Sonata: Stefan Bensaid & Per Tengstrand
No human being is perfect – an attempt to idealize a person will always land in half-truths. But music can inspire and empower, and no music has done so more than the music composed by Ludwig van Beethoven. This film takes us through historical moments and portraits people who have been touched by the timeless power of Beethoven’s music.
Ever since I played ”Fur Elise” when I was six years old. the music of Beethoven has been a part of my life. For the past twenty years, I have performed cycles of all the piano sonatas and piano concertos. I will never forget the letter I got after playing a concert which included the dramatic ”Appassionata”.
In the audience was a man whose wife had recently passed away, and he obviously had a hard time recovering from that. He received a ticket to my concert as a gift from friends: he went to the concert, albeit reluctantly. After the recital, he wrote to me. He said that when he had listened to Beethoven’s music, it made him want to come back to life, it gave him strength and hope in a way that nothing else had managed to do.
Although that story is not in the film, it symbolizes the heart of it. How music, in this case Beethoven’s music, can give us an inner strength that perhaps we didn’t know we had. I could make a film about research that shows how music affects the brain’s limbic system, the system that handles emotions and memories. But that’s not this movie.
I want to tell the story through music, and through people.
Piano Rivals
(In progress, premiere October 2024
Piano Rivals is the working title of a documentary about the two leading pianists and piano composers in Europe during the romantic era, Frédéric Chopin and Franz Liszt. It is the second part of a planned trilogy with focus on classical music and how it connects with history and people. The first was “Beethoven – Freedom of the Will” which received prizes at film festivals in Japan, Singapore and Sweden.
Piano Rivals will tell the story of two composers from small countries in the middle of Europe, squeezed between much more powerful countries and their interests. Neither Poland nor Hungary existed as independent nations, ruled by Russia and the Habsburg monarchy respectively. Both Chopin and Liszt associated strongly with their nations . Born only a year apart, both composers became symbols for their countries and their fight for independence. This lives on until this day. In the world, only two airports situated in a capital bear the name of a composer: Ferenc Liszt airport in Budapest, and Chopin Airport in Warsaw.
The film will be filled with music, of course. The music is the main reason these composers touched and inspired people, and the music performed will show this. As is the case in “Beethoven – Freedom of the Will”, whole movements will be performed, performed especially for the film. This is something rather unique: usually only fragments of works are heard in documentaries.
Other parts will be about historical events that make the viewers understand and feel the connection between music and history, between music and people and their lives. Three geographical places will be the main focus: Paris, Warsaw and Budapest. Paris was the place where both composers lived at the same time, and it was the home of Chopin for most of his adult life. Warsaw and Budapest are, of course, the capitals of the native countries of the composers.
As the working title alludes, these were two very different men on a personal level. Liszt was perhaps the first real international star in history, creating mass hysteria which even had a name, “Lisztomania”. Chopin refused to play in public, and only performed in salon settings with friends. Liszt lived a long life, Chopin died young. Liszt was greeted as a national hero in Budapest, being carried through the streets on the shoulders of his supporters, Chopin was never able to return to Poland. Liszt used his fame and fortune to help young and unknown composers and raised enormous amounts of money to charity, Chopin was constantly struggling to make ends meet. There was no open animosity between the men, but while Liszt admired Chopin, Chopin could be quite resentful of Liszt, and what he thought was mannerisms and bad taste.
Per Tengstrand 