Bad Girls of Music

A double portrait of the violin players Vera Beths (44) and Olga Rudge (96). The climax of the film is their encounter during a private concert in the North Italian Dolomites. BAD GIRLS OF MUSIC sketches the careers of both women: Beth's 'recent' fame opposite Rudge's breakthrough in the twenties and thirties. In those days, Olga Rudge also met her future life companion, Ezra Pound. For Vera Beths, Olga Rudge had been an unreachable legend until the private Italian concert. Beths travelled to the grand old lady in the company of pianist Reinbert de Leeuw to offer her a private performance of the violin sonata that George Antheil composed for and dedicated to Mrs. Rudge. In spite of the differences in their backgrounds, the two women share each other's musical predilections: modern American composer George Antheil and the old Italian master Antonio Vivaldi.