Sonata 1957's primary photo
  • Sonata 1957 (2011)
  • 53 min | Documentary
Sonata 1957 (2011)
53 min | Documentary
During the summer of 2000, just after I graduated from college, I was invited to perform a solo recital at the Festival of the Hamptons on Long Island, NY. The festival's director, Lukas Foss (1922-2009), prefaced the invitation with the ...See moreDuring the summer of 2000, just after I graduated from college, I was invited to perform a solo recital at the Festival of the Hamptons on Long Island, NY. The festival's director, Lukas Foss (1922-2009), prefaced the invitation with the condition that I play a piano sonata by Donald Harris (born 1931), his friend and colleague. I did, and then met Harris immediately following the recital. Although I had finally met Harris in person, I had first discovered him through this music, his first professional composition finished in Paris in 1957. This Sonata is Harris' first independently composed work, completed after he left Nadia Boulanger's studio and before he began working with Max Deutsch. In Harris' own words, he loved every note; he caressed every note, and he felt liberated to compose freely in a style of his own choosing after an unremarkable start with Boulanger. Since that first performance, I have played the Sonata many times, and have even written analyses detailing the music's intricate structures. More importantly, I have grown to love the piece. This film was born out of the desire to make intimate and understandable a music whose aesthetic is complex and whose language is atonal. I wished for the film not only to explain what circumstances lead Harris to compose the Sonata, but also to expose an audience to the work's intellectual vigor and subtle emotional beauty. In effect, I hoped to make clear why this difficult and intricate music so captivated me. In these ways, the film is also an unfolding composition, one in which its uncommon protagonist, the Sonata itself, is assembled gradually from fragments into a complete, meaningful, and freshly interpreted performance. Written by Daniel Beliavsky See less
Read more: Plot summary
Directors
Alexis Boling (co-director) | Engin Ufuk Kaplan (co-director)
Producer
Daniel Beliavsky
Composer
Donald Harris (music by)
Cinematographers
Alexis Boling | Engin Ufuk Kaplan
Editor
Bodine Boling
See all filmmakers & crew (7)
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Status
Edit Released
Updated Apr 28, 2011
Release date
Apr 28, 2011 (United States)

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Cast

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4 cast members
Name Known for
Daniel Beliavsky's primary photo
Daniel Beliavsky
Self - Pianist Self - Pianist   See fewer
Secret Music (2018)
Donald Harris's primary photo
Donald Harris
Self - Composer Self - Composer   See fewer
Sonata 1957 (2011)
Gunther Schuller's primary photo
Gunther Schuller
Self - Composer / Conductor Self - Composer / Conductor   See fewer
Naprawde wczoraj (1963)
Veronica Jochum von Moltke's primary photo
Veronica Jochum von Moltke
Self - Pianist Self - Pianist   See fewer
Selbstversuch (1990)
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