11. Death In Venice

RZ: There’s this amazing scene at the end using a Mahler track. I don’t want to give it away. It’s a hard film to watch in many ways. Very long and very heavy. You’ve got to be in the right mood to really appreciate it. But there’s a scene that I’ll never forget, a distorted image, almost grotesque, and Mahler playing with it.

FB: This was almost an excuse to get Mahler on to the list. There are some really great things about this film but Mahler is definitely amongst the best.

RZ: He’s great to play to people whose idea of classical is shepherds on a hill. I think a lot of people turned on Mahler because – and I stand to be corrected on this – because he sort of renounced his Judaism and moved to America and said he wasn’t Jewish. Norman Lebrecht wrote a really good book on Mahler that I wouldn’t mind reading to find out more.