‘UFA FILM NIGHTS - Film Classics with Ensemble’

MUSIC BY

'I SOLISTI DI FRANCOFORTE'

I Solisti di Francoforte is an instrumental ensemble made up of musicians from all over Europe. The pianist Neus Estarellas hails from Majorca and received her training in Iceland and Germany, she plays mainly as a soloist in the performing arts. Giorgos Panagiotidis from Greece first picked up a violin at the age of five. At 13, he won the Czech Republic’s Ústí nad Orlicí violin competition. He studied in Munich before beginning a prestigious career that saw him join the renowned Ensemble Modern and collaborate with conductors such as Zubin Mehta, Pierre Boulez and Sir Neville Marriner. Born in 1994, Miguel García Casas is an exceptional young Spanish trombonist. He is solo trombonist at the Frankfurter Opern- und Museumorchester whilst at the same time studying for a Master’s at the Hochschule der Künste in Bern. Finally, on the cello, Hugo Rannou from France completes the ensemble. With his insatiable musical mind, he is at home with all manner of repertoires, ranging from jazz to early music by way of contemporary and chamber music, which he trained in under Gerhard Schulz of the Alban Berg Quartet.

DER GEIGER VON FLORENZ – Paul Czinner 
(GER 1925/1926, 82 min)

Until now, young Reneé has enjoyed the undivided attention of her beloved father. But after his wedding, their domestic circumstances change. Driven by jealousy, the girl begins to compete bitterly with her stepmother. When an attempt at reconciliation fails, the father finally sends the fiery Reneé to a Swiss boarding school. But she flees across the border into Italy, disguised as a shepherd boy. During her journey through the country, Reneé's violin playing attracts the attention of a painter. He takes the supposed young man into his home – and soon finds his muse in Reneé...
Paul Czinner was no stranger to the art of violin playing. As a child he was considered a virtuoso because of his abilities on the stringed instrument. He wrote the female leading role in THE FIDDLER OF FLORENCE specifically for Elisabeth Bergner. In 1933, the pair married in England. In 1939 they both moved to the U.S. where Czinner categorically refused to shoot any more movies without his wife’s involvement and instead embarked on a career as a theater producer. From the beginning of the 1950s, now permanently back in England, he dedicated himself to documentary films about dance and musical theater.