I don’t understand Music in the same way as professionals or enthusiasts. I can’t discern the nuances (I found this out at an early age in school when I lost my way trying to follow classical pieces while reading sheet music). But I do love listening to many types of Music and, as many readers of my blog will know, I love the movies.
I would not normally be rushing to an orchestral performance except this week I got a chance to see “At The Movies” with The RTE Concert Orchestra, conducted by Neil Thompson, in Dublin’s National Concert Hall.
They opened with a medley which was neither on the programme nor was it accompanied by any visuals. After the first clutch of notes I knew that I didn’t need the visuals as Dimitri Tomkin’s score to one of my personal favourite movies, “It’s A Wonderful Life” (1946), flowed through me and the story of George Bailey play out in my mind.
The intro alone will make you want to sit through the whole movie.
We were then treated to clips from the below classic movies (hover over the images to find the Composers).
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I found myself lost in the movie scenes and felt guilty about not noticing the orchestra. I managed to forgive myself because this was partly the point of the night. The fact that I was being sucked into the scenes reflected how well the Orchestra and Conductor were in synch with the individual clips.
The performances were punctuated with small doses of trivia about the composers.
My favourite was about, the aforementioned Dimitri Tiomkin, who gave this speech for the Oscar he won in 1954. As his colleagues, family and friends were waiting for the obligatory thank you part of his speech he wrapped up with…
“Lady and gentlemen, because I working in this town for twenty-five years, I like to make some kind of appreciation to very important factor what make me successful to lots of my colleagues in this town. I’d like to thank Johannes Brahms, Johann Strauss, Richard Strauss, Beethoven, Mozart, George Gershwin, Jerome Kern, Wagner, Tchaikovsky, Rimsky-Korsakov. Thank you.”
This kind of an evening is a treat for Movie and Music lovers alike.
So if you get one chance to go to any movie related live orchestral performance, no matter how odd it may strike you at first, do give it a chance.
Of course all the clips made me want to watch these classics again.
Keep an eye on both links below as I am sure they will be quavering around the subject of movies again soon.
beanmimo 