Yesterday Alan Menken finally received his Max Steiner award in what was originally going to be the 2020 Hollywood in Vienna gala concert, until it got postponed twice by one year each due to the pandemic. Once again, the entire programme was dedicated exclusively to Menken compositions, with the exception of Broughton's opening fanfare and the traditional final Gone With the Wind encore.
The programme consisted of:
Overture & Be Our Guest (from Beauty and the Beast, but with "funny" modified lyrics to fit the evening)
Bless Our Show (from Sister Act - the musical; I keep forgetting Menken was involved with that)
Enchanted - Suite
Suite & I See the Light (Tangled)
Home on the Range - Suite*
Go the Distance & Gospel Medley (Hercules)
Intro & Friend Like Me
A Whole New World
Prince Ali
Proud of Your Boy(all from Aladddin)
Pocahontas - Suite*
The Hunchback of Notre Dame - Suite
The Little Mermaid - Suite*
Under the Sea (same)
Something There
Suite* (Beauty and the Beast)
Encores:
How Does a Moment Last Forever (Beauty and the Beast)
Suddenly Seymour (Little Shop of Horrors)
Some of the suites included songs (I've marked those with an asterisk). Most importantly, this meant that Pocahontas included Colors of the Wind, and The Little Mermaid included Poor Unfortunate Soulds (brilliantly performed by Drew Sarich) and Part of Your World. Sadly, some were purely instrumental; I usually find Menken's underscore nice enough, but mostly secondary to the songs, so I'd usually rather have just the songs instead. Tangled is the one where I find the actual score more interesting than usually, but sadly they didn't include the standout piece (Kingdom Dance) in the suite. Hunchback's dramatic Orff-Requiem finale I always found good but overrated, and it's long… I would have preferred the dramatic opening song/score, or Heaven's Light & Hellfire. The Beauty and the Beast suite ended with the titular song - but sadly with an arrangement of the pop version that started out as a duet and ended up involving the entire ensemble. The only bits I didn't know were Sister Act and Home on the Range, and at least without context it was rather grotesquely eccentric. How Does a Moment Last Forever was performed by Menken himself at the piano, after receiving the Steiner award.
The ORF Radio-Symphonieorchester (as usual) was conducted by Michael Kosarin (co-composer, arranger, and conductor for many Menken projects since Hercules - the programme booklet claims that their first collaboration was when he allegedly conducted Pocahontas, but neither the CD booklet nor IMDb corroborate that he was involved with that at all). The cast was made up of Broadway and West End singers, many of whom originated the stage versions of the songs the performed - much better than my initial fear that they would cast Austrian/German musical singers (or even perform the German versions of the songs).
Sounds great so far? It probably could have been, but Hollywood in Vienna has been persistent in making each concert bigger and more EPIC! than the previous one. What started out with a first rate concert conducted by John Mauceri (with music by Korngold, Williams, and Goldsmith, among others) has long since become a big spectacle with a click-tracked, amplified orchestra and choir that puts more emphasis on the projections, light show, "funny" moderators, and overall EPICness than the actual music. Even then this year's programme could have fared reasonably well, but for most of it, the mix was a mess. Even when the orchestra wasn't mixed so loudly as to drown out the singers, the balance was off (because the voice came from the overhead speakers, while the massive orchestra came, when not over-mixed, primarily from the stage). But mostly, everything was turned up to 11 (orchestra, soloists, choir), and when the percussion kicked in, all you could really hear was drums and a massive wall of sound. I was very much looking forward to the gospel stuff from Hercules (possibly the most ingenious thing Menken has done), but for much of it I could only make out the drums and the lower alto (?) muse. In retrospect, I Won't Say (I'm In Love) would probably have worked much better.
There was a relatively brief stretch - from Pocahontas to The Little Mermaid - where the mix (or perhaps the arrangements) was more tempered, and that part of the concert was really quite good (although as I mentioned earlier, not my favourite selection for Hunchback). Sadly, everything was turned up to 11 for an EPIC version of Under the Sea. Ending the official part of the programme with an overproduced, full cast arrangement of the pop version of Beauty and the Beast kind of sums up everything that's wrong (as far as I'm concerned, or from what I expect from a *music* concert as opposed to an epic entertainment spectacle) with the format.
Ultimately, the cast was probably first rate, and the performances mostly very fine (I See the Light felt somehow lacking in emotion to me, which may well be attributable to the strict click track), but the overall result was a rather sad, if loud, mess. It'll probably fare much better in a recorded version (I assume a Blu-ray release will be coming), and those who only experience it in that form will probably not even understand much of my criticism.
During her speech at the end of the concert, producer Sandra Tomek mentioned that the future is unclear and they don't yet know if there will be another Hollywood in Vienna. I don't know if that is because of lack of funding or for artistic reasons, but we (the traditional group of friends who usually meet up at this (and other film music) concerts) speculated before the concert what they might come up with next, and couldn't think of anything, because after Zimmer and Menken, it seems like they've almost exhausted the big crowd pleasers that can work in this extravagant format (and I can't see them return to a more settled concert setting). My only idea was an all-Marvel programme, which would probably be the first time I decide to skip the concert.
Yeah, no offense but this *IS* actually offensive. I don't think illiterate is an appropriate word. Also: People have different taste and different background and experience. No newsflash here. But one can point out this without calling less experienced people illiterate. Call them bad journalists, by all means. Also also: There might be people here on this site who aren't that experienced either and might know less than the so called "average jwfan user".
Yeah, no offense but this *IS* actually offensive. I don't think illiterate is an appropriate word. Also: People have different taste and different background and experience. No newsflash here. But one can point out this without calling less experienced people illiterate. Call them bad journalists, by all means. Also also: There might be people here on this site who aren't that experienced either and might know less than the so called "average jwfan user".
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