Luciano Berio’s Sinfonia’s third movement largely consists of musical references to composers including Gustav Mahler, Igor Stravinsky, Pierre Boulez, Arnold Schönberg and Karl-Heinz Stockhausen. The composition is sometimes described as a collage, however Berio clearly states it isn’t one in Frank Scheffer’s documentary, it is a synthesis made from music he loves and that influenced his life, from Bach to Stravinsky and from Ravel to Stockhausen. It’s almost the personal credo of his career: ‘If you were to ask me to explain the presence of Mahler’s scherzo in Sinfonia, the image that appears in my mind’s eye is that of a river flowing through an ever-changing landscape, disappearing underground from time to time, only to reappear entirely transformed.’
Just as Berio references composers, so Scheffer uses ‘quotes’ from his own films. The latter are connected by footage of a river – the same one Berio used to tie his composition together. The film includes rehearsal footage, interviews (including with Luciano Berio, Riccardo Chailly and Louis Andriessen) and orchestras performing.