Original subtitles

Slowly, slowly... Good dog.

What are you doing here?

You said you didn't want to do this route anymore?

Yeah, that was the idea,

but I decided against it.

Only if you've got ideas can you decide against them.

-See ya! -So long!

You are a quiet, discreet guy.

You probably prefer to eat in peace

and take cat naps during the trip.

But I feel like telling someone my story.

So here's the deal:

You make yourself more sociable

and I'll pay for your breakfast...

Then you listen until you get sleepy

and I'll let you sleep until we get to the German border.

We haven't got much of a reputation.

You don't?

People think we're dirty,

and always breaking the law.

And that we carry a gun in the glove compartment.

Really?

You'll see when you've been in this for a while.

Just imagine driving for hours, crossing different countries,

and all these cars around you that think

you shouldn't be allowed on the same road as them.

You've got to be really strong minded.

-How do you manage? -What?

Being strong minded.

You have to have a way to let off steam...

because the pressure is too much.

So what do you do?

-What do you mean what do I do? -To let off steam.

-What do I do? -Yeah.

Well, like everyone else, try to find something

that gives me breathing space.

And I'm not talking about making it on the internet.

At home we always played chamber music

with my brothers:

Mozart, Schubert.

Germany!

Germany is full of soccer fans!

When they're not playing or singing, they're shouting. They can shout!

Or else, they are playing and singing.

How about that...

Sometimes I need to talk

with a part of me that isn't in this damn truck.

What about those virgins you've got out there?

The best investment I ever made, 1.000 euros for each one!

A lot of people mix up superstition with everything else...

with values.

You know what? I don't think they are that far off.

-Are you really carrying a gun? -What gun?

You said before you had a gun in the glove compartment.

Does that bother you?

I don't know, man...

I have no idea how things work in your world,

but I know how they work in mine.

I know when the merchandise is rotting,

and how to get along with the police on the road.

Who is he?

He's the new Kantor of St. Thomas's church.

-A believer and a musician. -I hope he's good!

I'm sorry to keep you waiting.

My work load here is so great

that I have few opportunities to see visitors.

A musical composition, by right should be pleasant,

it must please the ear and satisfy the mind.

I hope you will find these qualities

in the notes I am giving you.

Let me play one of these variations for you.

I have used the new Neapolitan technique

of crossing the hands.

I am sure you will discover many new things.

The undetermined development of the theme

is compensated by a profoundly harmonious structure.

Fascinating.

I've never heard anything as deep.

Your music is a pure, lucid exposition.

It brings forth new emotions never felt before.

Please accept this golden cup

with 100 gold Louis

from the hands of my esteemed Goldberg,

and although the gift were multiplied a thousand times,

it would never be enough to equal the value of your art.

Please tell the Count

that his generous gift is not as valuable

as the attention he gives my music and this, his humble servant.

Hello Mr. Schuchart! How's it going?

Thanks for asking.

-How about you? -Good, thank you.

-How's your wife? -Also well, thanks.

-And the kids? -Not too well.

They are sick! I hope they get better soon.

Thank you very much. Hot chocolate as usual?

Yes. Thank you!

Your hot chocolate, Mr. Schuhart!

Great, thank you.

Is my wig on straight?

-Just perfect, Mr. Schuchart. -Thank you.

-Have a good day! -Thanks.

See you later.

Welcome honest working people from near and far.

I need not introduce myself.

I have returned again to Leipzig to show you the places that were

most important to Bach in this city.

St. Thomas's convent and St. Thomas's school

were founded in 1212.

The members of St. Thomas's choir

are part of a tradition that is almost 800 years old.

In the beginning, St. Thomas's was a small Romanesque church.

Later, the heart of the church was enlarged in the Gothic style.

All the architectural styles are present in the tower.

The nave is late Gothic,

dating from around 1500.

The most important thing in the church

is Johann Sebastian Bach's tomb.

This is his final resting place,

which is visited by admirers from all over the world.

I arrived in Leipzig in 1723

and worked here until 1750.

I was kantor of St. Thomas

and musical director of the city of Leipzig.

As such, I was responsible for the religious music

for four Leipzig churches,

for the municipal musicians

and for the teaching of music and Latin

to the students of the school of St. Thomas.

I was not employed by the church but by the Leipzig city hall.

My time in Leipzig was the most productive of all.

I wrote about 500 compositions,

including the "Magnificat",

"the Mass in B minor", "the Passions", "the Oratorio",

"The Art of the Fugue", "The Well Tempered Clavier",

"The Goldberg Variations",

"A Musical Offering" for Frederik the Great,

some 300 religious and secular cantatas

and quite a number of motets.

Ladies and Gentleman!

We'd like to welcome you aboard the motor boat "Bad Schandau".

We hope you have a pleasant trip to Pillnitz.

[Like Odysseus] [on his trip to Ithaca,]

[if you listen closely] [to the river]

[you will recognize] [some delightful melodies]

[that were played for the owner]

[of the castle,]

[Count Hermann Carl von Keyserlingk,] [Russian plenipotentiary minister]

[to the court of the Elector] [of Saxony in Dresden.]

[Count Keyserlingk] [was a sickly person]

[who suffered from] [a terrible affliction: insomnia.]

[He therefore asked] [his personal clavichord player,]

[Johann Gottlieb Goldberg,] [to ask the composer Bach,]

[who had been touched] [by the hand of God,]

[for a series of delicate variations,]

[that would deliver Count Keyserlingk] [into the arms of Morpheus]

[and also raise his spirit on high.]

[Dresden, Prague,] [Budapest or Paris]

[are all big cities] [with rivers running through them.]

[Through these rivers] [a European idea took form.]

[Schiller, Goethe,] [Mozart, Weber or Wagner,]

[were inspired by the rivers.]

[Dresden is in the very heart] [of Europe.]

[If we were to rise over this plain,]

[we would see the Urals.]

[The Elbe is one of the main forms] [of communication]

[in this old continent,]

[a stream of commerce and ideas,]

[but it also carries scars...]

[Let us not forget] [what Gerhard Hauptmann said]

[in 1945:]

["Those who no longer know] [how to cry will learn again]

[faced with the devastation] [of Dresden."]

You pig!

Christoph-Friedrich,

leave your sister alone.

HE WHO SINGS, PRAYS TWICE

Christoph-Friedrich!

Find the pureness of the music.

What can help you do this? A precise, strict order.

And how do you achieve it?

With your breathing,

peace and the strength of God.

And, if you are an honest person,

your music will also be honest and balanced and full of beauty.

Do you understand, my boy? Come!

Play the prelude.

Listen to the harmony and its progression,

its tension.

You're doing very well. You can go now, son.

I would like two apples...

This cheese, can I have this piece?

You take the meat and stuff it with garlic and lard.

Salt it and put it in a greased pan in the oven.

When it's roasted and crisp on the outside

add some broth

and let it cook on a low fire.

If you let it cook slowly it has time to develop its aroma.

Then you add a little rosemary.

It changes the whole taste of the meat.

I also recommend that you add some diced potatoes

all around the meat.

You will have to add more lard so the potatoes don't burn.

So then: lard!

No, no. That is not exactly right.

I never use rosemary,

but I add finely crushed hazelnuts

right before serving.

There's no arguing with preferences my dear lady,

and a recipe is not dogma.

When things are well seasoned,

with just the right sensitivity and necessary delicacy,

they will always have an excellent taste.

Please remember to order some nice fresh brains

for next Wednesday.

My master would rather go through hell than have a Wednesday

without breaded brains.

Have I ever failed you? Don't worry,

and please remind Herr Mendelssohn

that besides this tender veal

he can also enjoy our lamb, a succulent tongue.

I also recommend ordering a whole pork

which we can deliver to the house.

During the hunting season we also have chickens,

pheasants, hares,

turkey and rabbit.

All this seasoned with herbs brought from all over the world.

And most important of all:

wine mulled with cinammon, cinammon!

And, best of all: our geese livers.

It is the best thing we've got today.

Remember what I say.

[Not a single one of] [Johann Sebastian Bach's]

[compositions]

[was printed or distributed]

[until 50 years after his death.]

[But it wasn't until 1829,]

[in Mendelssohn's time,]

[When the "St. Matthew Passion"]

[was again interpreted] [under his baton.]

[Popular legends have grown]

[around this discovery,]

[like the one about the butcher,]

[Mendelssohn's butcher:]

[It is a wonderful story]

[that tells how Mendelssohn's butcher]

[used sheets of music]

[for the "St. Matthew Passion"] [to wrap the meat.]

[He used sheets of music]

[for the "St. Matthew Passion"] [to wrap the meat.]

These types of poor stockings like

those of a suburban housewife

tell us two things clearly:

First: they are outdated.

Second: they belong to a sphere of power.

Two good excuses for being different in peace.

Oh, my mother's undies!

Blind undies, shameful little pocket.

I know, I know we will become dust:

that protects us,

On the one hand being crazily piggy.

On the other, obeying who I wanted

They will never talk about you;

and that you were a fountain of silence.

How long will you be staying in Leipzig?

A couple of weeks.

What's on the program?

Locatelli, Frescobaldi,

Telemann and Bach's two sons.

Carl Philipp Emmanuel and...?

Johann Christian.

Ah, the youngest... Very well.

Have fun and call once in a while.

Yes?

No in a motel...

It's a real bad storm...

Haven't I always come through?

No way, no!

I'll be there tomorrow around noon.

So long!

Did you get what I ordered?

I haven't got Rossini's letters, but I found Gustafsson's book.

"The Stillness of the World before Bach"

There must have been a world

before the "Trio sonata in D major",

A world before the "Partita in A minor",

But what was that world like?

A Europe of empty spaces with no resonance,

full of ignorant instruments,

where the "Musical Offering" and the "Well Tempered Clavier"

had not yet gone through a keyboard.

Without Bach, God would be diminished.

Without Bach, God would be third rate.

Bach is the only thing that reminds us

that the world is not a failure and after Bach...

Liszt is unbearable.

Cioran!

Oh, by the way, I found something that may interest you.

"Musiques d'un autre monde", Simon Laks?

He was a Polish Jew.

A composer and orchestra conductor.

He earned his living playing the piano

in movie houses and restaurants.

He was imprisoned in Beaune, in Drancy, in Auschwitz and in Dachau.

They set him free in 1945 and he wrote this book in Paris

to evoke the memory and the suffering of those annihilated.

And above all,

to analyze the role of music in the extermination.

I recall Levi's description very well,

how the music made them pick up their legs and...

Simon Laks conducted those musicians.

I didn't know you were so interested in the holocaust.

You're the one that's always saying that music saves you, right?

Read it!

Christmas Eve 1943,

the commandant orders Simon Laks and his musicians

to play Christmas carols

for the women interned in the camp hospital.

The Polish women begin to cry and their sobs

were louder than the music.

They screamed:

enough, let us die in peace.

Music hurts.

In Leipzig we were very lucky

because it was sunny the whole time...

Hi. How did it go?

I hardly slept because of the storm...

Here's the story.

It's a baby grand that you will have to...

Give me a piece of paper.

Here's the address.

It's a three-story building,

the second and third floor are a duplex.

-Did you call the crane? -Yes.

So, they're semidetached houses,

you won't be able to get it in through the front door...

-How about the back? -It's impossible, there's a garden.

So... the crane will meet you there at noon,

with the 35-meter jib.

There is a terrace

-in the back. -Isn't it a balcony?

No, it's not... it's a long wide terrace,

and you are going to get the piano...

on it...

There are sliding doors

and the piano fits through, no problem.

Right?

Come on, I'll show you the piano!

This is it!

-It's an antique... -Yeah.

This piece

is more than a hundred years old.

It has to be treated with care.

My ancestor's tomb

has been there for approximately 50 years.

The masculine branch of the family died out in 1843.

The feminine branch

is still very active.

So, here we are finally at the office of the present Kantor of St. Thomas,

Professor Biller, the present-day Bach.

He is an extremely busy man

but he is waiting for you.

Training here is very strict.

We have rehearsals every day with the choir

because we sing every Friday evening

in St. Thomas's,

a cantata on Saturday afternoons

and Mass on Sundays.

Most of the members of St. Thomas's choir

come from non-religious families,

which at first is a problem, however,

after working with the spiritual texts,

and the music that accompanies them,

most members of the choir

ask to be baptized during their time in St. Thomas's church.

The work of the choir is,

above all in a secularized society,

to promote religious music.

If you take into account that every Friday evenings,

Saturday afternoons and Sundays,

the choir has to sing something new,

you can imagine the pressure.

A lot has to get done in very little time.

It is getting late and I have a rehearsal.

But I can tell you a bit more about the choir

and the school.

-Come this way please. -It will be a pleasure. Thank you.