BBC Proms: Film Music Concert starting shortly on BBC4

[Quintus 5,391]

7.30pm. Will be on iPlayer afterwards. I'm not sure which pieces are to be played, but Williams is listed in the programme. There is to be a tribute to John Barry, too. Knowing the Proms, it'll be high quality stuff and well worth tuning into, if you can.

[Giftheck 573]

Interesting. I wonder what Williams pieces will be played.

[Sharkissimo 1,971]

5 minutes and count-ing...

[Quintus 5,391]

WOW. The Psycho suite was INCREDIBLE. Blew me away, tbh.

[fommes 126]

Oh it's radio you're talking about - not TV?

Is this one of those things that will be up on the internet radio for a few days afterwards as well? Also for non-UK people?

[Quintus 5,391]

It's on the tv.

The twenty minute Walton Henry V suite nearly killed it though. It was narrated by an actor, which dragged it out to the point of annoyance. All the great music we have and they play THIS for nearly half an hour?!

Williams got his obligatory Star Wars/Harry Potter nod. Yawn.

Followed by ten minutes of pretentious garbage from Radiohead guitarist turned "orchestral composer" Jonny Greenwood. At the expense of Goldsmith? Steiner? Shore? Yep, obviously. Silly me.

Hopefully the Barry segment can salvage what's left of the runtime.

..

..

Well. That was a bit shit. The arranger murdered John Barry.

Move along, nothing to see here.

[films 0]

Did anyone record this ? i watched it was good!!

[Sharkissimo 1,971]

The arranger raped OUT OF AFRICA (wtf was he thinking with those drum rhythms and pointless woodwind ornaments), and as usual the Bond scores lose all their raw power. They get flattened in dynamic range, slowed down in tempo, and thinned down in orchestration. And then they have the temerity to throw in that David Arnold shit at the end.

The highlight was cleary PSYCHO, even if it was bit laboured.

[#SnowyVernalSpringsEternal 10,251]

and as usual the Bond scores lose all their raw power. They get flattened in dynamic range, slowed down in tempo, and thinned down in orchestration.

That IS a problem because a lot of Barry's scores have that thickly layered sound to them. A wall of music, but in a good way. Sumptuous strings, deep resounding brass.

And then they have the temerity to throw in that David Arnold shit at the end.

Cool, I love Arnold. His Bond scores are pretty fantastic, what did they play?

[Sharkissimo 1,971]

and as usual the Bond scores lose all their raw power. They get flattened in dynamic range, slowed down in tempo, and thinned down in orchestration.

That IS a problem because a lot of Barry's scores have that thickly layered sound to them. A wall of music, but in a good way. Sumptuous strings, deep resounding brass.

He knew how to use the full range of the orchestra. Before this, I thought the Nic Raine/City of Prague arrangements/recordings were bad, but Jesus Christ!

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b0132ps3/BBC_Proms_2011_Prom_38_John_Williams_Johnny_Greenwood_John_Barry/

Bond starts at around 45 minutes in.

And then they have the temerity to throw in that David Arnold shit at the end.

Cool, I love Arnold. His Bond scores are pretty fantastic, what did they play?

You Know My Name instrumental, Night at the Opera and the The Name's Bond.

[gkgyver 1,638]

I thought you were joking, nobody could possibly butcher the simple beauty of Out Of Africa.

But Lord almighty, that was horrible! That sounded nothing like Barry.

Is it that hard to listen to the scores at least once and get the tempi right? Also, what I don't get is why almost every orchestral version of Goldfinger adds another 8th to the fanfare. It steals punch.

[Sharkissimo 1,971]

It could have been frickin' Mantovani, or maybe mid-60s Morricone.

Wait a second... Hear that noise?

That's John Barry spinning in his grave at the speed of sound.

[#SnowyVernalSpringsEternal 10,251]

Watching the final bit now. Murder On The Orient Express sounds great.

But oooooh, you guys don't mention that!

Whining bitches...

The Bond suite seems to have the same problem as ever. The arrangements feel like reductions of the original John Barry tracks. And the rawness of the jazzy or rock aspects if rather lost. It feels to stiff, and yet too forced at times.

The QoS bit came out the best.

Hmm...The Good The Bad and The Ugly without a screaming choir does...not...work.

[Quintus 5,391]

The problem with the Barry segment was time - they crammed in too much of his music into about twenty minutes. The arranger thought it was a good idea to up the tempo and jazz up Out of Africa, get it out the way - abysmal idea. Murdered. You Know My Name bit was good, though. Incidentally, I didn't know Barry was a mentor of sorts to David Arnold. Little wonder then that he considers him to be the greatest of the film composers.

Anyway, the concert was worth watching for:

Psycho

Cinema Paradiso

Schindler's List

[Salacius 7]

Loved it, Herrmann's music was awesome, Murder on the Orient express was fantastic, Mr Williams' stuff sounded great - the best coupled with Herrmann- (Star Wars was a bit too slow the second half) and I enjoyed the fast Harry Potter ha ha. Shindler's List was fantastic. What a lovely violin player.

The Barry music was a lovely tribute but as you guys said with problems. I really enjoyed the James Bond main theme.

Not a huge Morricone fan. Spagetti westerns are a bit of a joke to me and was a crap way to close the night. But loved the rest of it.

By the way can guys you come up with a better program?

How about some choral works??

Duel of teh Fates

The Omen maybe?

Lord of the rings Suite

Also how about Goldenthal?

I would love to hear some of his music live

[Richard Penna 2,082]

They need to stray from the classics... it's always Barry, Williams, Bennett. I don't think I've ever seen a film music prom where they didn't play Star Wars and Murder on the Orient Express.

What about a program like the concert David Arnold organised. That had loads of contemporary stuff, and very well performed.

Watching from Sky+ now. So far the Herrmann pieces have been superb. Although every time I hear the Citizen Kane overture I keep expecting the Fox fanfare to come in... I've listened to the oscar medley too many times!

Cinema Paradiso - holy crap that was a sweeping, majestic performance.

Onto Africa now... how bad can this possibly be?... *30 seconds later* I've heard worse, but they've destroyed the slow, rich values of the theme.

[Quintus 5,391]

every time I hear the Citizen Kane overture I keep expecting the Fox fanfare to come in... I've listened to the oscar medley too many times!

[Omen II 1,088]

I was lucky enough to get in to see this concert yesterday - not bad for a fiver! All the tickets for the seats sold out a long time ago but, as I had a couple of days off work, I decided to take my chances and joined the queue for the standing tickets in the Arena at about 4.30 p.m. I'm glad I did because on the whole I thought the concert was very enjoyable indeed.

I think perhaps the programmers were guilty of trying to cover too many bases in the one concert. While it is great that we can watch a concert devoted entirely to film music at the Proms (the first such concert took place as recently as 1999!), I think it would have been better if they had concentrated on one thing - a concert devoted entirely to the music of Bernard Herrmann in his centenary year would have been my choice, for what it's worth. Instead it seemed as though they wanted to celebrate Benny's hundredth, RRB's 75th, JW's 80th next year, pay homage to the late John Barry and also champion new music (in this case Jonny Greenwood's Norwegian Wood).

I loved all the Herrmann stuff - it was a real thrill to see The Man Who Knew Too Much performed at the Royal Albert Hall, the venue where Herrmann can be seen conducting the LSO in Arthur Benjamin's Storm Clouds Cantata at the movie's climax; I had to stop myself from shouting "Bang!" during the cymbal crash near the end (the famously irascible composer would surely have disapproved). I also really enjoyed the suite from Henry V - I got quite caught up in the patriotism towards the end and reckon Rory Kinnear did a cracking job with the Shakespearean narration. It was quite exciting when the five drummers walked onto the stage for the Charge and Battle sequence (I don't think the TV broadcast showed that bit clearly). The audience seemed to really enjoy this one.

As others have said, it was an awful version of Out of Africa (the programme does not credit the arranger) - indeed when it started I thought the percussionists were playing the wrong piece! The guitarist seemed to struggle a little in the James Bond theme too. On the other hand I thought Chloe Hanslip was perfect for the Morricone and Williams pieces, her unfussy and down to earth style suiting both pieces really well (of all the recordings of the Schindler's List theme I have heard, I like hers the most). But what was that strange pattern on your dress, Chloe?

[Sharkissimo 1,971]

Incidentally, I didn't know Barry was a mentor of sorts to David Arnold. Little wonder then that he considers him to be the greatest of the film composers.

Shame he hasn't learnt much. It goes back to what you said about God Given Talent.

The Barry music was a lovely tribute but as you guys said with problems. I really enjoyed the James Bond main theme.

It was the Arnold-ised version from CASINO ROYALE. The dissonance in the opening chords is lost, and it lacks swing. Too clean in other words.

[#SnowyVernalSpringsEternal 10,251]

Rubbish! listen to Casino Royale! That tracks really swings. It's basically the original John Barry arrangement in better sound quality.

[crocodile 6,294]

Cool concert. Thanks for sharing.

Karol - who like Greenwood quite a bit (he wrote one of the best scores of the last decade, for sure)

[Quintus 5,391]

Maybe, but what you call "one of the best scores of the last decade"; I call obnoxious tinsel.

[crocodile 6,294]

"Obnoxious" I can understand. It is even intentional. But what about intelligent and interesting use of music in a film? Won't you agree that this is something else? Greenwood is not a mere guitarist. He's a classically trained musician, you see. And it shows.

The suite of his music is fantastic btw. I might buy this soundtrack after all.

Karol

[Sharkissimo 1,971]

Rubbish! listen to Casino Royale! That tracks really swings. It's basically the original John Barry arrangement in better sound quality.

Nah, that's a lie.

This is a good example of the original arrangement recorded with modern equipment:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S5QNstOGyM0&feature=channel_video_title

The CR end titles arrangement is just a slightly re-tweaked copy of the one from the Shaken & Stirred album.

10 years later and doesn't even change the sound. Sad.

[#SnowyVernalSpringsEternal 10,251]

The sound is basically from Doctor No, but in stereo.

Anyway, some of Arnold's other renditions are pretty far removed from John Barry.

Arnold is such a treasure, a real versatile composer. Like an English Michael Kamen.

[crocodile 6,294]

He's a solid and competent one, I'll give him that. But versatile? He's done some varied stuff I guess (for smaller movies), but his bigger works sound rather the same to me. Don't get me wrong, I enjoy most of them them a great deal. But I can't see much new.

Karol

[#SnowyVernalSpringsEternal 10,251]

Wrong, monkey boy!

[Sharkissimo 1,971]

Greenwood is not a mere guitarist. He's a classically trained musician, you see. And it shows.

Barely, if that. It's what you might expect of a pretentious music student. Muted strings playing in unison, gimmicky glissandi in basses etc... It's all been done better before.

Don't get me wrong, I still like the THERE WILL BE BLOOD score, but aside from that, I'm not too big Greenwood's orchestral work.

The sound is basically from Doctor No, but in stereo.

It's the original arrangement 62, re-recorded and mixed with late 90s studio equipment. The CASINO ROYALE version is Arnold's attempt to sound like the original, but misses the mark a great deal.

Anyway, some of Arnold's other renditions are pretty far removed from John Barry.

All of them are, to different degrees.

[crocodile 6,294]

Barely, if that. It's what you might expect of a pretentious music student. Muted strings playing in unison, gimmicky glissandi in basses etc... It's all been done better before.

All that we're listening to (and why we're even here) has been done better before. So what?

Karol

[Quintus 5,391]

"Obnoxious" I can understand. It is even intentional. But what about intelligent and interesting use of music in a film? Won't you agree that this is something else?

Sorry Karol, whilst watching the film the score just really got on my nerves; it constantly distracted me; it destroyed any semblance of immersion; it took me out of the experience. Simply put: it did everything a score shouldn't.

[Richard Penna 2,082]

The only part of There Will Be Blood that I felt worked normally was the first cue. Really didn't care for the rest.

[Thor 5,273]

Before you guys come too harshly down on this concert (which I have no access to here in Norway, so I can't comment on the contents myself), be aware that you're lucky to have this kind of concert in the first place. It's extremely rare over here.

[Omen II 1,088]

Before you guys come too harshly down on this concert (which I have no access to here in Norway, so I can't comment on the contents myself), be aware that you're lucky to have this kind of concert in the first place. It's extremely rare over here.

I agree with you there, Thor (see my post above). We are somewhat spoilt in London with access to great concerts on an almost daily basis; I appreciate that plenty of folk posting here will rarely, if ever, get the chance to see a film music concert performed live.

Although you will not be able to watch the concert in Norway, you should be able to listen to it by clicking here. Let us know what you think.

P.S. I would recommend 'promming' to anyone visiting London between July to September - a unique, enjoyable and very affordable experience for anyone that loves good music.

[gkgyver 1,638]

Rubbish! listen to Casino Royale! That tracks really swings. It's basically the original John Barry arrangement in better sound quality.

The original Dr. No arrangement has a more complex bass line if I'm not mistaken.