De meester en zijn leerling

In September 2002, the renowned Russian conductor Valery Gergiev gave three talented young colleagues master classes in Rotterdam. The British - originally Chinese - Jason Lai, attached to the BBC Symphony Orchestra, the Spanish Alexis Soriano of the Hermitage Orchestra in St. Petersburg and the Dutch Otto Tausk, who conducts the Maarten Altena Ensemble. Under the watchful and all-seeing eye of their celebrated master, the three have to conduct the Rotterdam Young Philharmonic Orchestra. Sonia Herman Dolz registers their performances - interrupted by Gergiev's sometimes severe, sometimes poetical, sometimes humorous reprimands - their contemplations and the informal meetings with their idol. The Master and His Pupil is compelling, not just because of the music (the performed pieces and the score that Paul M. van Brugge wrote especially for this film), but particularly because of Gergiev`s hypnotising personality, who during short demonstrations during the lessons leads the orchestra with his hands, eyes, voice, but especially with his heart and soul.