Tom Guernsey

March 27

By the way, the music from LotR was the first two movements from the symphony. It was even played as such, with a short pause between movements. Clearly Wicki knows the work well and it was a terrific performance. Oddly I enjoyed the epic bits less than the quieter parts. Some of the choral writing in the bigger passages is texturally kinda blocky at times, the whole ensemble moving at the same time. I far kite enjoyed the slithering Ring material, the carefree whimsy or Hobbiton and the gorgeous music for Rivendell. Dramatically the whole passage for the Bridge or Khazad Dum and the aftermath as everyone mourns Gandalf’s “death” and the finale were the most satisfying for me.

JTW · March 26

1 minute ago, JTW said:

It must’ve been a great concert, thanks for sharing! I attended his Burton collaboration concert at the Royal Albert Hall where he also sang from A Nightmare Before Christmas. I stayed at the same hotel as Steve Bartek and we chatted on the way to the RAH.
I can’t wait to hear the percussion concerto. It’s great that Elfman is following in the footsteps of Williams in becoming a classical composer as well as a film composer.
as for the BATMAN Suite, it was the absolute highlight for me at the concert, hearing it live was just as amazing as hearing the STAR WARS Main Theme live for thr first time.

Congrats again for being there and glad you enjoyed it!

Thank you! It was the same concert hall (but don’t think it was the same orchestra) that I saw the premier of John Powell’s Prussian Requiem. Obviously very different but equally impressive. I must admit that I really appreciate Danny Elfman writing concert works in a style that is recognisable from his film work. I do really enjoy JW’s concert works, but given how many indelible melodies he’s given us, it would be great to have a violin concerto that was as memorable as the classics of the genre!

1 minute ago, ddddeeee said:

I was there too and my initial reaction is that I prefer it to the violin concerto (which I like very much!).

It followed the same broad structure of his violin concerto (1st and 4th movements are more classical, in the 2nd movement he allows himself to get a bit silly at times and the 3rd movement is more sombre). I think the shorter runtime helped the whole thing feel more assured. As someone who is still quite new to the classical scene, I was taken by how entertaining it was, which I'm sure is what he's going for.

The audience reaction and the chat I heard afterwards seemed to be very positive. It'll be hard to hear Batman on CD again after that performance, though. It'd be nice to have a recording of that suite at some point (along with many of the other Elfman/Burton suites).

Here's a video of Currie talking about the concerto.

I did enjoy the wit and humour in the concerto, including when the audience appreciated the humour of Currie having to dash round the stage. Thanks for the video!

March 26

3 minutes ago, bollemanneke said:

Godmothered.

My first 2020 movie, I thought it would never happen. Also, I probably should have watched it when it came out to make that Christmas a bit more bearable. Anyway… It’s pretty good. Agnes was only annoying in the beginning, but then she grew on me, Eleanor is great and the jokes are amusing. Jane is irritating, however, and please, please let that song not be on the soundtrack and damn the person responsible for ruining Handel’s piece in it. I was also happy how the story didn’t unfold the way I was expecting it to.

Now, the music. The main theme is quite memorable and receives a few excellent variations, particularly on trumpets, but it has to be said that apart from those, all the source music, particularly the Sound of Music references, are better than anything Portman composed. God, I’m actually praising the Sound of Music! The choir is nice and there’s an undoubtedly accidental reference to the Tinker Bell 3 magic theme, but I can’t help wondering what Powell, Williams, Howard or McNeely might have done with this assignment.

Yeah it was kinda pleasant in the way that most Portman scores are but it’s the kind of score you expect to be swept away by. But I wasn’t.

JTW · March 26

19 minutes ago, JTW said:

Like X-MEN: THE LAST STAND Expanded Edition. Especially since the first two scores already have an expanded release. But I would love a BOURNE IDENTITY Expanded Edition or even a Jason Bourne Soundtrack Collection. Now that would be great.

X-Men 3 would be good. I’m not super desperate for more Bourne especially but I think the later scores are missing a couple of good cues from whah I recall from prior discussions.

JTW · March 26

10 minutes ago, Richard Penna said:

We indeed have to allow for the possibility that it's not up to Powell, or that there is somehow a financial or logical reason why.

But barring either of those - assuming it would simply be a case of curating the digital sessions, then yes, I too think that leaving a huge gap between releases is a mistake. I hope it's not simply to encourage us to 'appreciate' the album presentation first, because, in the same spirit of language that Powell so refreshingly uses, that would be the most patronising load of bollocks, and we've already had a couple of years to do that.

Agreed. And a year between releases feels perfectly well spaced out to me. And I can’t believe preparing the conductor score would need two years either.

JTW · March 26

4 minutes ago, JTW said:

I thought it would come out this Fall or Winter, or a year from now. But 2024… Why? I’m sure HTTYD 2 is selling very well. I don’t see why they’re waiting so long to release Part 3. I think it’s a mistake. Then again I’m not sure it’s up to JP.

Agreed. It does seem an awfully long way ahead especially since the first one was last year. I mean it’s almost surprising they weren’t done as a 6 disc boxed set. Sure it’ll be worth and hopefully there will be some other goodies in the interim.

JTW · March 26

Copied from awesome concert thread for those who might not follow that thread but are curious about his new percussion concerto!

I meant to write a few more comments just after the concert but I ended up hanging around the stage door for an autograph, but he never came out. Probably got whisked away via a separate entrance. He was indeed in the audience, in fact he was in my row! See photo… Disappointed not to have got an autograph and say hello but then I did meet him after Alice in Wonderland in concert a few years ago and got an autograph and a photo then so I can’t say I’m doing too badly!

The percussion concerto was excellent and a world premiere performance. Oddly, the program notes don’t actually say anything about the music beyond that it was written after a chance meeting with Colin Currie who was the superb soloist. I’m pretty sure I’ve seen him before performing the world premiere of Michael Torke’s percussion concerto.

Elfman’s concerto is broken down into four movements, triangle, DSCH (that’s the four note motif Shostakovich used to use as his calling card and apparently was used by Elfman in his Dolores Claiborne score according to Wikipedia) down and syncopate.

Much like his other concert works it’s unmistakably Danny Elfman but with far more interesting development and precision than some of his film music. The scoring is for strings, percussion soloist, piano, celeste and four or five members of the percussion section who were positioned behind the strings so there was some brilliant interplay between them, the soloist and the orchestra.

The one thing about a percussion concerto is that it’s very theatrical compared to other instruments as the soloist has to dash round the stage as the wide range of mostly tuned percussion instruments were positioned either side of the conductor (Ludwig Wicki who did a great job with this as well as the other selections he was probably more familiar with… he’s the conductor on the recording of the LOTR symphony).

Must be quite a challenge for a percussion soloist over and above the usual stresses of being a soloist. Essentially you have several different solo parts depending on which instrument you’re playing so have to be in the right place as well as playing the right notes! I’m sure there will be a recording at some point but it won’t quite convey the interplay between the soloist and the other percussionists which worked wonderfully well .

The Batman suite included (from what I recall - the programme notes by Jeff Bond no less, didn’t say) the opening titles, descent into mystery, waltz to the death, up the cathedral, and from Batman Returns, the music for Catwoman and Penguin, followed by finale from the first movie. There seemed to be a few places with either additional or more prominent choral contributions. I definitely got some chills when the Batman theme bursts through in the main titles, Wicki did a great job of milking those buildups for everything they were worth!

I think the “suite” from Alice in Wonderland was the opening track “Alice” from the sequel score which is about half the original Alice track but goes off in a slightly different direction in the middle and a different ending. It’s one of those scores I know the main theme but can never really remember much about the rest of it!

Alas there was no encore. I bet my other half a fiver they would play The Simpsons theme as a witty encore, sadly I was disappointed… That was probably the only disappointment, absolutely phenomenal concert.

Edmilson · March 26

8 minutes ago, scallenger said:

Well, Hidden World is for sure coming now... but in early 2024. And from one of his replies in the comments, this includes the release of the printed sheet music score.

https://www.facebook.com/1689850014571627/posts/3095325250690756/?sfnsn=mo

If LLL or Intrada gave us two years notice of a release there’d be a riot ;-).

Jay · March 26