“This very unusual master class,” says the celebrated Russian conductor, Valery Gergiev, “is my very modest attempt to give you a little advice about how to treat people around you, not how to move your hands.” Gergiev is addressing the three fledgling conductors who are his students in a master class being held during the Rotterdam Gergiev Festival. The class takes the form of open rehearsals of a complicated orchestral work by Scriabin. Documentarian Sonia Herman Dolz employed three expert cameramen to film these rehearsals from the point of view of the orchestra. It’s a brilliant choice, since Gergiev’s primary focus is on helping his pupils communicate with the players who, as an ensemble, are the conductor’s musical instrument. Hovering over each pupil’s shoulder, the extraordinarily expressive and charismatic Gergiev coaxes, cajoles, and demonstrates, zeroing in on inhibitions, crutches, and bad habits. The chief conductor of St. Petersburg’s Kirov Opera and Marinsky Theater, Gergiev has a presence that is as amazing on the screen as on the podium. Impulsive, precise, generous, authoritative, not to mention passionately involved with the music, he is simply thrilling to watch. “If the orchestra sees that you are full of ideas, of fantasy, of artistic will, it will respond,” says Gergiev. He is, of course, describing himself and, even if we have no interest in classical music, respond to him we do indeed. (Amy Taubin)

Czech Crystal – Golden Prague Awards 2003

Director: Sonia Herman Dolz

Sonia Herman Dolz has directed VPRO-TV’s prestigious foreign affairs program Diogenes, and many film and TV productions in Holland and abroad. Her documentaries include ROMANCE DE VELENTIA, LAGRIMAS NEGRAS, and YO SAY ASI. Currently, she is developing her first fiction feature, based on the novel The Sword and the Doll by Laurens van der Post.