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Alexandre Desplat concert in London


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The London Symphony Orchestra's film music concert for the 2014-15 season will feature the film music of Alexandre Desplat. The concert takes place at the Barbican in London on 11th December 2014. Here is a link:

http://www.lso.co.uk/144/LSO-on-Film-The-Music-of-Alexandre-Desplat/937

C'est formidable, n'est-ce pas?

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He's one of my biggest disappointments as a film composer. He hasn't really evolved beyond his basic style and failed in his attempts to score an epic movie

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He's one of my biggest disappointments as a film composer. He hasn't really evolved beyond his basic style and failed in his attempts to score an epic movie

You mean like so many others before him he failed to live up to what you consider great movie music?

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  • 4 weeks later...
  • 9 months later...

Odd, seeing as Monuments Men was recorded with the LSO and Godzilla was recorded in LA. Not that I'm complaining about the LSO performing Godzilla!

The Imitation Game has gone too.

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Hey, the programme changed again:

Programme to include music from:

The Imitation Game
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows
The King's Speech
The Queen
Philomena
Twilight: New Moon
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
Girl with a Pearl Earring
Godzilla
The Ghost Writer
Birth
The Grand Budapest Hotel
Coco avant Chanel

This is the programme from 6 days ago:

Programme to include music from:

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows

The King's Speech

The Queen Philomena

Twilight: New Moon

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button

Girl with a Pearl Earring

Godzilla

The Ghost Writer

Ides of March

Birth

Moonrise Kingdom

The Grand Budapest Hotel

Make up your mind Alexandre!

(The pictures indicates they'll also perform something from A Self Made Hero)

Karol - still hoping that he'll include The Monuments Men (as an encore or something)

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  • 2 weeks later...

Our very own Jim Ware (Our? What do you mean our? You never post here anymore, Burden!? :P ) is reviewing the LSO Desplat concert next Thursday for publication in the December issue of FSM Online. That's then and this is now.

Here's a 12 minute audio promo with a look at the concert repertoire and clips from our 2012 conversation about working with the London Symphony.

If you like it, please share and buy a ticket to the concert if you haven't already done so. No pressure though. Thanks and best wishes, Tim.

Desplat & the LSO

:music:The Rehearsal from The King's Speech

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And it's a pity you don't here more often, Mr Burden!

Yes, some of us are attending this. I personally cannot wait!

EDIT: Oh, is it just me or did they change the programme... again? ;)

Karol

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Still trying to decide if I should go to this concert or rather go see Wicked instead... Harry Potter and Pearl Earring would be cool to hear, don't know (or recall from watching the movie) much of the other pieces though...

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  • 2 weeks later...

What did you all think of the concert yesterday? Here are two photos, neither of which will win any prizes but they do at least showcase the LSO's cool new Reservoir Dogs style outfits.

DSC01718_zps7f5b7c19.jpg

DSC01724_zps0c205c95.jpg

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What was the final programme? Any inside tidbits, exclusive info, or insight into concert versions or so?

I am not an expert on Desplat's music so cannot name all the individual cues that made up the various suites, but the programme was as follows:

The Twilight Saga: New Moon - Love Theme

Girl with a Pearl Earring - Suite

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button - Suite

Stephen Frears Suite (Philomena and The Queen)

Ghost Writer - Suite

The Grand Budapest Hotel

INTERVAL

Godzilla - Main Titles

The King's Speech - Suite

Pelleas et Melisande: Sinfonia Concertante for flute and orchestra

Birth - Suite

The Imitation Game

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows - Suite

ENCORES

Coco Avant Chanel

A Self-Made Hero

There was plenty of flute action going on (not of the "This one time at band camp" variety, I hasten to add), with four flautists / piccolo all doubling on alto flutes, bass flutes and recorders at various times in the evening.

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It was a highlight of this evening, along with A Self Made Hero. Ironically, the two least known things.

Harry Potter suite was a bit of a letdown. They played a lot of material - Obliviate. Sky Battle, Detonators, Fireplace Escape (I think), Destroying the Locket The Tunnel, Dragon Flight, Panic Inside Hogwarts, Statues, Lilly's Theme, Broomsticks and Fire, Showdown and Voldemort's End. Many of those cues were excerpts and not in order I listed them in. But it felt completely unstructured in a sort of start-and-stop kind of fashion. No flow to it whatsoever.

Karol

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It was a highlight of this evening, along with A Self Made Hero. Ironically, the two least known things.

Harry Potter suite was a bit of a letdown. They played a lot of material - Obliviate. Sky Battle, Detonators, Fireplace Escape (I think), Destroying the Locket The Tunnel, Dragon Flight, Panic Inside Hogwarts, Statues, Lilly's Theme, Broomsticks and Fire, Showdown and Voldemort's End. Many of those cues were excerpts and not in order I listed them in. But it felt completely unstructured in a sort of start-and-stop kind of fashion. No flow to it whatsoever.

Karol

Oh that is a shame. I have attended quite a few film music concerts where they do that, play cue after cue straight from the materials of the score and there has not been any adaptation at all, which gives them a choppy feel you describe without much direction or overarching structure that leaves you a bit dissatisfied. I don't mind performing concert suites back to back when those have been adapted for concert but performing unrelated cues from the same score without connecting material feels a bit lazy to be honest. In this case of course Desplat might not simply have had the time to adapt his music more thoroughly, being as busy as he is.

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Yeah. But that was my only gripe about this thing. The pieces they picked are among thevstrongest material so that's fine.

And that orchestra (I believe they call it LSO?) was ok. ;)

Karol

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Yeah. But that was my only gripe about this thing. The pieces they picked are among thevstrongest material so that's fine.

And that orchestra (I believe they call it LSO?) was ok. ;)

Karol

No doubt you had a great time. That LSO is not half bad I hear.

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My wee report:

In short succession, i saw two concerts, one by Desplat (Barbican, one by Elfman (Royal Albert Hall), that pretty well reflected their respective approach, one classical and refined, one much more 'rough' and unpolished but brawny and fun - you take your guess who's who, though i hasten to add that Elfman only presented his collabs with Tim Burton, so the RAH concert was not representative of his whole output.

Desplat gave a 45-pre-concert talk that was lead by the LSO principal flutist whose name was Gareth but whose last name i forgot. A bit too broad, as these things tend to be, it once at least threatened to become more interesting at the notion that Desplat and Kathryn Bigelow very carefully tried to apply an even tone to ZERO DARK THIRTY and how important Desplat found the political ballast that came with it. The rest was more the well-trodden stuff about how important it is to be a team player etc. Maybe these recent Sony leaks made me too hungry for some sweaty shop talk. Several directors (Stephen Frears?) also seemed to be in attendance.

The concert itself was successful, though i echo Karol's sentiment that the Potter suite sucked and easily was the low point of the evening (not surprisingly, as the scores are more concerned with staying out of the limelight than to form the drama). High point: THE GHOST WRITER suite that beefed up the minimalistic soundtrack to huge Herrmannesque proportions, and a generally well-thought out selection of the various presented works (BUTTON, PEARL EARRING, GRAND BUDAPEST HOTEL, CHANEL, HERO TRÈS DISCRET, the here now much-maligned IMITATION GAME) though the brevity of some of the cues (TWILIGHT, GODZILLA, 2:30 and such) seemed to shortsell the potential of these scores. The impressionistic-yet-tangible flute piece that Desplat somehow found the time to write in 2013 (!?) was also a very good reminder that this composer has considerable chops as composer and can very well write a self-contained piece of music that doesn't has to rely on the crutch of a movie scene to work.

The level of LSO musicianship was high, as expected though the venue seems to have shrinked considerably since my last Williams concert. Desplat gave a spirited conducting and won the audience over at last with GHOST WRITER - the excitement was palpable and instead of the great-but-a-bit-too-behaved pieces like BENJAMIN BUTTON finally unleashed the kind of mystical spell that a showman like Williams can bestow upon an audience by raising the button for the STAR WARS overture - which for me was a sweet adventure because with stuff like STAR WARS or INDY i usually start counting notes or flubs out of sheer boredom but a piece i don't really know (i only have the main titles of GW) still is a great experience on stage. More on Elfman at a different spot...

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I might be entirely wrong here but it somewhat reminded me of Williams' concert work, at least the more melodic ones. It has the same sort of contemplative but impressionistic and mysterious (not necessarily technically) tone. Especially in the string section. I loved it.

Yeah, what pub says. Pretty much.

Karol

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I might be entirely wrong here but it somewhat reminded me of Williams' concert work, at least the more melodic ones. It has the same sort of contemplative but impressionistic and mysterious (not necessarily technically) tone. I loved it.

Karol

The second movement was performed. The first half was very impressionistic, at times recalling Ravel and Toru Takemitsu. The second was quite odd, with jazz-like inflections and unusual chord choices that reminded me of Alex North.

Mesmerising and quite unlike his film music. Not particularly melodic but it felt like it could be if it wanted to.

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I think it might have helped if the programme had listed which cues made up the various suites, as I sensed that many of the audience members were waiting for Desplat to drop his shoulders after the last piece in order to be able to tell when the suites had finished and therefore commence their applause. Alternatively, some of the suites might have worked better if the cues had been knitted together without a pause, in the manner of the Charles Gerhardt suites of Golden Age film music with which many of us are familiar.

Desplat gave a 45-pre-concert talk that was lead by the LSO principal flutist whose name was Gareth but whose last name i forgot.

Gareth Davies.

http://www.garethdaviesonline.com

The stage at the Barbican can be extended forward to cover the first few rows of seats at the front of the stalls, so maybe this is what made you think the venue had shrunk, publicist?

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I might be entirely wrong here but it somewhat reminded me of Williams' concert work, at least the more melodic ones. It has the same sort of contemplative but impressionistic and mysterious (not necessarily technically) tone. I loved it.

Karol

The second movement was performed. The first half was very impressionistic, at times recalling Ravel and Toru Takemitsu. The second was quite odd, with jazz-like inflections and unusual chord choices that reminded me of Alex North.

Mesmerising and quite unlike his film music. Not particularly melodic but it felt like it could be if it wanted to.

This is very enticing, and the fact that it takes inspiration from Maeterlinck.

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The stage at the Barbican can be extended forward to cover the first few rows of seats at the front of the stalls, so maybe this is what made you think the venue had shrunk, publicist?

Quite rare to see that though. It's always been a cosy venue.

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