Christopher Nupen, a South African-born filmmaker who popularised classical music movies, passed away at the age of 88.
The Bafta-winning filmmaker’s wife Caroline announced his death on Sunday and said he had battled a long illness.
‘It is with a heavy heart that I am writing to tell you that my beloved Christopher passed away in the early hours of this morning,’ Caroline said
He took advantage of the then-new silent 16mm cameras after immigrating to Britain in his 20s and beginning work for the BBC. He was the first to record musicians up close on stage and in the backstage area.
Many people were initially introduced to classical music through portraits of greats like the pianist Daniel Barenboim and cellist Jacqueline du Pré.
Christopher Nupen devoted his life to bringing the world’s greatest music to audiences. His first film for the BBC, Double Concerto, followed Vladimir Ashkenazy, Daniel Barenboim and the English Chamber Orchestra.
The undertaking received appreciation on a global scale and served as the centerpiece for a run of portrait movies by Nupen.
The musician’s enthusiasm for the project, Nupen’s strong relationship with them, and the development of the first silent 16mm film cameras in the 1960s all contributed to the creation of the intimate and vivacious film, which received plaudits from all around the world.
It served as the model for a number of Nupen’s meticulously studied portrait movies that have come to be considered as classics.
In 1968, he co-founded Allegro Films, the UK‘s first independent TV production business, and he continued to pioneer a brand-new type of music cinema by fusing performance with fly-on-the-wall documentary.