From Los Angeles to Vienna enjoy four of our favorite programs on Great Performances!
From Vienna: The New Year’s Celebration 2020
Available through January 30
As the world welcomes a new decade, Great Performances continues the tradition of ringing in the New Year with the Vienna Philharmonic at Vienna’s famous Musikverein. Under the baton of three-time GRAMMY Award-winning guest conductor and Boston Symphony Orchestra Music Director Andris Nelsons, the concert spotlights the talent of the Vienna State Ballet and the Vienna Philharmonic with beloved waltzes by Strauss and more. PBS favorite Hugh Bonneville (Masterpiece: Downton Abbey) returns as host for a third year, touring Musikverein’s archives, which hold the largest collection of Beethoven manuscripts in the world, the Beethoven museum and other locations associated with the legendary composer in honor of his 250th birthday (December 17, 2020).
Beethoven: The Lost Music
Available through January 30
The Vienna Philharmonic celebrates the 250th birthday of Ludwig van Beethoven with an interval film in the New Year’s Concert. Selected string ensembles and wind ensembles of the Vienna Philharmonic perform in Beethoven’s homes and compositional rooms between Baden, Gneixendorf and Vienna. While swirling music sheets travel across Austria, a mysterious woman who seems to have fallen from time collects them to place a ‘new’ score where Beethoven’s work is stored for eternity – in the collections the Austrian National Library in Vienna.
Movies for Grownups Awards with AARP The Magazine 2020
Available through February 18
Hosted by iconic stage and screen performer Tony Danza, Great Performances: Movies for Grownups® Awards with AARP The Magazine has championed movies for grownups, by grownups, by advocating for the 50-plus audience, fighting industry ageism, and encouraging films that resonate with older viewers. The star-studded awards ceremony includes a tribute to Career Achievement Award honoree Annette Bening, who spoke of shared purpose, vulnerability and camaraderie in filmmaking after the award was presented to her by “20th Century Women” co-star Billy Crudup.
Harold Prince: The Director’s Life
Available through February 29
This Great Performances retrospective celebrates the extraordinary career of producer and director Harold Prince, whose seven decades in the theater spanned from Broadway’s “Golden Age” to the contemporary blockbusters of today.
Winner of 21 Tony Awards (the most of any individual), Prince’s peerless résumé includes such legendary shows as “West Side Story,” “Fiddler on the Roof,” “Cabaret,” “Company,” “Follies,” “Sweeney Todd,” “Evita,” “The Phantom of the Opera” and many more. In addition to archival clips, this fascinating performance-documentary includes interviews with many of Prince’s renowned collaborators, including Stephen Sondheim, Andrew Lloyd Webber, Mandy Patinkin, John Kander, Susan Stroman, Angela Lansbury and others, all sharing their firsthand insights into his pioneering achievements in the theater.
