Film Music in Concert Redux

This is a follow-up to the post on film music in symphony concerts. The November issue of Discover magazine (available now) has a short column-qua-ad on Star Wars: In Concert, currently touring North America after strong reviews for performances in the UK. The event combines live orchestral performances of music from the films with large-screen video montages, including some material of the sort that would probably be found in the "special features" section of a DVD. The tour's website is Star Wars: In Concert.

Film Music in Concert

Variety reports on a recent surge of symphony orchestras programming film scores.

October alone is jammed with major film music events across the nation. Today in Anaheim, Calif., a 58-city tour of the arena show "Star Wars: In Concert" kicks off at the Honda Center. On Friday and Saturday (Oct. 9-10), New York's Radio City Music Hall will play host to nearly 300 musicians and singers performing Howard Shore's "Fellowship of the Ring" score live while the three-hour film unspools.

In the Emerald City, the Seattle Symphony will play Bernard Herrmann's "Psycho" score live to the Hitchcock picture Oct. 29-31 in Benaroya Hall.

And in greater L.A., John Williams will conduct the Los Angeles Philharmonic in an all-film music concert Oct. 16-18, and John Mauceri will perform an all-Disney music program Oct. 20, both at Walt Disney Concert Hall; the Golden State Pops Orchestra will devote most of its Oct. 24 program to music from both incarnations of "Battlestar Galactica" at the Warner Grand theater in San Pedro, Calif.; and Ennio Morricone will make his West Coast debut at the Hollywood Bowl Oct. 25.

Lest we think this is more of the same (film scores have been a staple of pop concerts for decades), the report ends with this:

The Chicago and Cleveland Symphony Orchestras (two of the so-called Big Five, which also include New York, L.A. and Boston) have added film music concerts to their [regular] subscription lineups in recent years, suggesting that film music may finally be moving away from the pop-concert ghetto.

Click through to the Variety article for some good quotes from David Neumann, Richard Kaufman, John Goberman and John Waxman.

(H/T Kristin Thompson)