Search the Community

Season just announced. Check out Prom 8 on 20th July! http://www.bbc.co.uk/proms 😀

Those of you who enjoy golden age film music might enjoy listening to the BBC Concert Orchestra's Music from Film Noir concert, which will be broadcast on BBC Radio 3 on Monday 11th December at 7.30 p.m. I went to the concert yesterday evening at the Royal Festival Hall and it featured a lot of great music that is rarely heard in concert, as well as several pieces with which I was completely unfamiliar. Robert Ziegler conducted the BBC Concert Orchestra with Mark Kermode as host (and harmonica player on one of the pieces). http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b09hs248 You can hear lengthy suites from Franz Waxman's Sunset Boulevard, Miklos Rozsa's The Lost Weekend and Double Indemnity and Leonard Rosenman's Rebel Without A Cause amongst others. There was also some lesser known music such as George Antheil's main title music from the Humphrey Bogart picture In A Lonely Place. The actress / singer Hannah Waddingham (off of Game of Thrones) sang three classic songs from Gilda and Dark Passage very ably too.

Yesterday evening I went to an excellent concert of epic choral film music at the Royal Festival Hall, Keith Lockhart conducting the BBC Concert Orchestra and Crouch End Festival Chorus. I am posting this here because not only did the concert include four pieces by John Williams, but also because it was recorded and will be broadcast on BBC Radio 3 this Friday 24th March at 19:30. http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b08jfhtt Williams fans will surely enjoy hearing Hymn to the Fallen (the long version!) and Duel of the Fates sung by a huge choir. I counted 110 singers. As well as the Williams pieces, I loved hearing John Barry's The Lion In Winter, Sergei Prokofiev's fantastic Alexander Nevsky and of course Jerry Goldsmith's The Omen amongst others. I will try to remember to post a reminder on Friday when the broadcast is about to start. Bizarrely, there was a woman in the row in front of me who slept through the entire concert. I think she must have had a couple of glasses of wine beforehand, but even so it was a quite remarkable feat. I don't mean that she dozed off occasionally, she proper slept through it despite being in the front stalls a few feet away from nearly two hundred musicians. Neither Battle on the Ice nor the suite from The Omen roused her from her slumber. Were it not for the fact that her husband (I assume) was sitting next to her apparently unconcerned, I honestly might have thought she was dead. I was thankful at least that she did not start snoring. Keith Lockhart spoke occasionally with presenter Matthew Sweet and said a few nice things about John Williams, so make sure you listen on Friday or afterwards on catch up. peregrinos expectavi, pedes meos in cymbalis!

Anyone in the London / Hertfordshire area that missed out on the sold out RPO and LSO John Williams concerts may be interested in yet another John Williams 80th birthday concert, this one at the Watford Colosseum on Friday 16th November. Keith Lockhart conducts the BBC Concert Orchestra and London Voices (who of course performed on some of the Harry Potter and Star Wars prequel soundtracks). Details are here: http://www.bbc.co.uk...rammes/b01nmdjp Friday Night Is Music Night is something of a British institution, a weekly Friday evening broadcast of concerts from venues around the country, usually introduced by Ken Bruce. This concert will be recorded for broadcast on Friday 14th December on BBC Radio 2, so I'll try to post a reminder nearer the time. There are not many tickets left for the concert itself, so be quick if you want to go to it!

Take your stinking paws off me, you damned dirty ape! http://www.southbankcentre.co.uk/whatson/planet-of-the-apes-live-92567?dt=2015-08-28 28th August 2015, Royal Festival Hall, London. Robert Ziegler conducts the BBC Concert Orchestra. Bring your own mixing bowls and ram's horns.