The power of music to inspire and exhilarate is the theme of Music from the Inside Out, filmmaker Daniel Anker's amiable—and occasionally very moving—documentary featuring members of the Philadelphia Orchestra, one of America's towering ensembles, who talk about what playing music means to them. Starting with the question “What is music?” the film quickly becomes a celebration of performance as self-expression, not unlike that found in other fields of artistic endeavor. Through conversations among small groups of orchestra personnel and articulate, often touching, testimony from individual musicians, the film captures the transformational effect music has on people. So we see one player going off to play with a jazz combo, a violinist embracing bluegrass, a trombonist playing salsa, an Israeli cellist partnering with a Palestinian who's an expert on a traditional instrument (no politics involved), and several of the musicians listening in awe as a German street performer negotiates a movement from Vivaldi's Four Seasons on the accordion. But the film also explores how the drive for individuality can be gratifyingly subsumed in group performance, particularly evidenced by concertmaster David Kim, who talks about his abandonment of a failing solo career and his joy in playing the sublime Schubert String Quintet with colleagues. Obviously no film can give a definitive reply to the initial question about what music is, but this one offers some strong intimations from professionals who have answered the call. Highly recommended. Aud: H, C, P. (F. Swietek)
Music from the Inside Out
(2005) 90 min. DVD: $24.95. Emerging Pictures. Color cover. Closed captioned. Volume 21, Issue 5
Music from the Inside Out
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