Venue: The Orpheum Theatre
Date(s): 23 & 24 November, 2001
Reviewer: Christine Dahlo
If you are anything like me, you watch the
making-of featurettes on your DVDs and special edition videos
religiously after watching the film. And often, in those inside looks,
there is a nod to the scoring of the film with a shot of the orchestra
playing while watching a cut from the film. It is usually not until
then that I realize that there is an entire orchestra backing up the
most crucial scenes and characters in the movies.
Case in point: the orchestra led off the evening with the inimitable
"Raiders Theme". The familiar music conjured up images of dusty Indy
riding hell for leather through some desert or escaping the natives in
the jungle...in other words some of the most heroic moments of the
movie. But then there was something I hadn't noticed while distracted
by the action - the softer, romantic movement that comes in between the
familiar melodies. Conductor Jeff Tyzik summed it up well: "Movies
need the music but the music doesn't always need the movies."
Indeed, there was plenty of music here that stood on its own (as in:
doesn't make me think of Harrison Ford), and even some pieces that I
had always hummed having no idea where they came from (i.e. the
whistling marching tune from Bridge on the River Kwai). The
concert overall was an excellent mix of melodies that are ingrained
into our pop culture, such as the "Pink Panther Theme", melodies that
are immediately associated with the movie they come from, such as
Star Wars and "Moon River" from Breakfast at
Tiffany's, and music that is not familiar, but immediately
evocative of the film, such as the score from Taxi Driver.
Indeed, the sexy, saxophone solo from that piece was one of my personal
highlights of the evening. The Taxi Driver score incorporated the
sounds of traffic and horns, a jazz club sax, chaos and gunfire, and
again a more plaintive and echoey sax rounded up by the traffic and
horns.
Jeff Tyzik was an amiable conductor and provided much insight into each
piece and composer. He started off on the right foot too, admirably
sucking up to the Vancouver audience complimenting our fine restaurants
and symphony orchestra. We like that sort of thing in these parts.
It also smoothed the way for cooperation with the audience
participation parts of the program like whistling the tune to Bridge
on the River Kwai and clapping to the "Peter Gunn Theme". As an
additional treat, we Vancouverites also got to be the first to hear his
new arrangement of the "Big Country Suite" from The Wizard of Oz.
It was a very slick sounding piece with a lovely rendition of "Over
the Rainbow", although my favourite (and too short!) bit was the"
Wicked Witch of the West" broom flying theme.
I may not have seen half the movies on the program, but I now have a
new appreciation for epic movie scores and their familiar, unknown,
and always atmospheric themes that have penetrated pop culture as no
top-forty hit soundtrack ever has.
© 2001, Christine Dahlo