Best classical music biographies movies

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Top 8 classical music biopics

If you need a change from online concerts and operas but you still want to keep a link with music, here's a selection of musical biopics to see (or perhaps revisit) in this time of lockdown. With Tino Rossi as Schubert, Gustav Leonhardt as Bach or Gérard Depardieu as Marin Marais, here's a whistle stop tour around the best feature films featuring emblematic figures of classical music.

1Amadeus (Milos Forman, 1984) 

It's incontestably the top musical biopic of all time. Everything has been said about this film, one to be devoured greedily. Mozart, whose music is performed by Neville Marriner and the Academy of St Martin in the Fields, is presented as a frivolous party animal with an oversized ego. But apart from its world-wide success, this Milos Forman feature has contributed to telling people something about Salieri, in spite of the exaggeration of his rivalry with Mozart – the film is based on the eponymous Peter Shaffer play, which takes some serious liberties with historical fact. We know perfectly well that it's not Salieri who cynically finished the Requiem at Mozart's deathbed – but the scene is a piece of vintage cinema. Other parts are more truthful, like the complaint from the Emperor Joseph II that M

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14 Documentaries about Classical Musicians

Get to know a whole range of composers, conductors and performers in these musical documentaries. All of them are on Netflix, YouTube, BBC iPlayer or free on Amazon Prime (at the time of writing - last updated on 7th January 2025). If you want more TV recommendations, check out our other article on this subject: Classical Music Films/TV Series on Netflix & Prime. If you enjoy our content, please consider supporting us on Ko-fi, where anyone who feels like it can buy us a ‘coffee’ with no strings attached. Thank you.

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