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The Project (2015-23)

Fly On The Wall is a UK film and live album series about classical music, to be released in 2024. Over 8 years, we filmed a tribe of some of the world's greatest classical musicians, uncut with no overdubs, using a single camera, from within some of the UK's leading cultural institutions. The resulting films and albums are curated exhibitions from over 300 performances, including scenes from the iconic Royal Festival Hall, St. John's Smith Square, the Royal Opera House and Wigmore Hall, to the illustrious private recording venues of Henry Wood Hall and the Wyastone Estate.

From Vol. 4 - Boris Giltburg, "Études-Tableau"

Volumes
Vol. 1 - The Singers

Year: 2023
Run-time: 45:38

Tim Mead, Lucy Crowe, The King's Singers, The Choir of Clare College, Lise Lindstrom, La Nuova Musica, Ilona Domnich

Vol. 2 - Classical Music in the UK

Year: 2023
Run-time: 42:08

Alina Ibragimova, Cedric Tiberghien, The Maxwell Quartet, Alban Gerhardt, Richard Goode, The Doric Quartet, Takacs Quartet, Marc-Andre Hamelin, Pavel Kolesnikov, Angela Hewitt

Vol. 3 - New Music Projects

Year: 2023
Run-time: 50:02

Colin Currie Group, Marc-Andre Hamelin, Steven Isserlis, Stewart French, Steve Gibson, Francoise-Green Duo, Rosey Chan, Cedric Tiberghien

Vol. 4 - Boris Giltburg: Études-Tableau

Year: 2023
Run-time: 50:44

Boris Giltburg

Vol. 5 - The Competition Tribe

Year: 2023
Run-time: 57:46

Pavel Kolesnikov, Federico Colli, Vadym Kholodenko, Luca Burrato, Andrey Gugnin, Luis Schwizgebel, Daniel Ciobanu, Claire Huang-ci, Kotaro Fukuma

Vol. 6 - Steinway & Fazioli

Year: 2023
Run-time: 44:04

Nikolai Demidenko, Marc-Andre Hamelin, Alexander Gadjiev, Emmanuel Despax, Marco Fatichenti

Vol. 7 - Federico Colli: Bechstein & The Ehrbar Hall

Year: 2023
Run-time: 66:27

Federico Colli

Vol. 8 - Behind Closed Doors

Year: 2023
Run-time: 45:34

Navarra Quartet, Julian Metzger, Marco Fatichenti, Vickers-Bovey Duo, Ayşedeniz Gökçin, Sofia Fomina, The Linos Trio, Mela Guitar Quartet

Synopsis
Vol 1: The Singers

In 2016, in an inconspicuous chapel in north London, Fly On The Wall infliltrates a recording session with opera legends Tim Mead and Lucy Crowe - performing with La Nuova Musica - for a recording of early music with Harmonia Mundi USA. The resulting video goes viral on Classic FM, and kick-starts a journey to explore the vocal music scene in the UK with the masters of close harmony The King's Singers, The Choir of Clare College Cambridge, an epic Wagner project with Californian Lise Lindstrom and a foray into live cabaret from Russian-born, UK-based opera star Ilona Domnich.

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Vol 2: Classical Music in the UK

In this volume we begin a broader look at the extraordinary fabric of the British classical music industry through the projects of a collection of legendary performers exploring established classical repertoire and formats across the UK. Featuring uncut performances of Alina Ibragimova, Alban Gerhardt, Marc-Andre Hamelin and the Takacs Quartet at Hyperion's recording venue at Wyastone, a flawless Maxwell Quartet audition tape from the Menuhin Hall, a Doric Quartet session for Chandos, the unrivalled excellence of Angela Hewitt at practice in London, a private performance before a BBC live broadcast by Pavel Kolesnikov and the return to the concert stage by industry icon Richard Goode at London's Royal Festival Hall.

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Vol 3: New Music Projects

Volume 3 continues this portrait of the landscape of classical music in the UK through new and contemporary music projects in central London. From illustrious venues of Henry Wood Hall, the Warehouse Studios, St. John's Smith Square, the Peckham Asylum and the Southbank Centre we follow a curated journey of music by Steve Reich, Bela Bartok, Imogen Holst, Tarik O'Regan, György Kurtág, Morton Feldman and Rosey Chan. Featuring the Colin Currie Group, Steven Isserlis, Cedric Tiberghien, Marc-Andre Hamelin, Stewart French, Steve Gibson and Rosey Chan.

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Vol 4: Boris Giltburg: Études-Tableau

Since his launch to fame in 2013, Boris Giltburg has become one of the most established and successful solo concert pianists in the world. Over the course of the last eight years, an incessant and gruelling international concert schedule, we filmed Boris - often late at night - during his private practice sessions in a central London piano shop, a showcase of both private musical exploration and the sheer grit and determination required for the forging of a modern-day virtuoso. This final extraordinary film of Rachmaninov's Etudes Tableau Op. 39 documents the growth and development of not just an artist in his prime, but of a human-being exploring a life dedicated to the concert stage.

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Vol 5: The Competition Tribe

Between 2012 and 2016, a tribe of competition winners, an elite group of pianists who, following music college, emerged victorious from the brutal international circuit of piano competitions. At the genesis of their professional careers, we filmed snapshots during their exclusive recording contracts, agency signings and promotions, including a debut performance at the illustrious Wigmore Hall, creating a showcase of the pinnacle of technical prowess, musical tastes and divergent personalities that are defining a new generation of concert artists. Featuring Pavel Kolesnikov, Federico Colli, Vadym Kholodenko, Luca Burrato, Andrey Gugnin, Luis Schwizgebel, Daniel Ciobanu, Claire Huang-ci and Kotaro Fukuma.

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Vol 6: Steinway & Fazioli

What makes a musician's sound, the instrument or themselves? In this volume we look at a group of musicians searching for their ideal sonic experience. Two great masters - Hamelin & Demidenko - showcase their dedication to the Steinway and Fazioli brands respectively. Chopin finalist Alexander Gadijiev is seduced away from his competition selected Kawai to the effortless elegance of the Fazioli. A spontaneous performance of Lizst's Dante Sonata - originally only possible on a Bechstein - is executed by Emmanuel Despax on Fazioli. And the loving repair of a previously decrepit Steinway overseen by Marco Fatichenti marks the beginning of a mission to find the perfect sound for his reimagining of Granados.

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Vol 7: Federico Colli, Bechstein & The Ehrbar Hall

In the midst of the 2021 pandemic, Federico Colli returns to FOTW with a private recital in Vienna's deserted Erbhar Hall. With full lockdown restrictions only partially lifted a couple of weeks before, flight cancellations and closing borders, and the Austrian capital in cultural stasis, this volume sees a battle against the odds to reach the venue - the concert hall of the iconic music conservatory, made bankrupt by Covid, now with a brand new Bechstein D grand piano, that saw performances by Rubinstein, Brahms, Bruckner, Schönberg und Mahler.

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Vol 8: Behind Closed Doors

UK music is thriving, not just on the stage or the recording studio but behind closed doors everywhere. Talent and passion projects permeate society, weaving a rich fabric of cultural activity across the country. The Navarra Quartet rehearsing in a new member in a curtained hall. Marco Fatichenti and Julian Metzger snatching a break from teaching to explore Granados and De Falla. A coaching session with Sofia Fomina at the Royal Opera House. A guitar duo searching for an enveloping acoustic, and the Mela Quartet finding inspiration in Jimi Hendrix's central London bedsit flat. And the young Linos piano trio playing in a wealthy philanthropist's private concert hall in Gloucester Road.

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