Symphonic Hollywood: Celebrating Elmer

by Jamie McLean

On April 4, Elmer Bernstein turned 75, and celebrated the momentous occasion nine days later by giving a concert at the Glasgow Royal Concert Hall with Scotland's foremost classical ensemble, the 87-piece Royal Scottish National Orchestra.

Bernstein jumped up speedily to the podium and led the orchestra in a rousing rendition of The Sons of Katie Elder, which nicely set off the audience for his famous "Main Title" to The Great Escape. These were a bit disappointing, as the former is a little too reminiscent of his other western works, while the "quiet" sections in the latter were a tad inconsistent: RSNO chief tubist Phillip Hore was superb, but his colleagues on the woodwinds weren't quite on the money, in comparison to the movie version.

These slight imperfections were soon forgotten with a suite of themes from The Age of Innocence. It's a terrific piece of work, full of beautiful, waltzing melodies. The orchestra responded with impressive commitment to what what is no doubt a challenge in orchestral cohesion. Thankfully, the group remained together through another suite as well, The Ten Commandments: great music backed by an equally great performance.

Between the pieces, those expecting insightful wit and erudition, like what you get from Jerry Goldsmith between pieces, were likely to be disappointed, as Bernstein thought he'd "let the music speak for itself." After experiencing the comments by Goldsmith and Joel McNeely in this regard, I found it disappointing indeed. However, longtime Bernstein confederate Cynthia Millar came on with her awfully big ondes martenot (ondz mar-ten-oh) to close the opening half of the concert with three pieces featuring the instrument: one more cut from The Age of Innocence ("The Muse's Reward"), Ghostbusters, and "Taarna" from Bernstein's stunning score to Heavy Metal. Playing impressively throughout the three tunes, Millar was a model of intense concentration.

The standout of this set was undoubtedly Ghostbusters, the epitome of Bernstein's '80s comedy scores (along with Spies Like Us), and a most impressive piece it was, using doubled martenot and piano and ghostly strings and woodwinds to achieve the appropriately spooky effect. The downer was the "Taarna" theme from Heavy Metal, one of the greatest pieces ever written for a fantasy film and excellently performed by all concerned—but without a choir!

Then it was time for a break, and after a journey to the (closed) bar, I returned to see Bernstein do a hundred-meter dash and long jump up to the podium, where he kicked off the second half of the "Prelude" from his 1963 TV documentary on Hollywood, entitled Hollywood and the Stars—interesting but a bit too musically camp, full of glitzy sound and fury.

After that came Hawaii, a moderately gripping George Roy Hill movie that got a better score than it deserved. Bernstein's grandly powerful work on this is amongst his best and the orchestra mercifully proved to be more than equal to the test, as it was on the next piece, the sublimely beautiful To Kill a Mockingbird. As the RSNO had come off making a recording of the complete score for Varèse Sarabande, one expected great things from them. Thankfully, the orchestra rose to the occasion and played it just the original—and one's enjoyment of the tune is always enhanced by seeing the composer conduct it live! (Pity screenwriter Horton Foote hated it.)

The penultimate works need no introduction: Walk on the Wild Side and The Man with the Golden Arm. Both are strokes of genius and deserve their place in film music history. However, the orchestra didn't quite get a handle on them, especially the latter, which in 1955 featured the titanic drum mastery of the late Shelley Manne. Percussionist James Goodwin tried at the kit (and almost pulled it off on the former piece), but when it comes to The Man with the Golden Arm, the ghost of Manne casts a giant shadow (ahem!). Also, it's hard to make a legit brass section come over with the big, blasting sound of a jazz orchestra—a definite problem when classical musicians are playing a looser musical form like jazz.

After those tunes, guess what he played us out with? That's right, how could you have an Elmer Bernstein concert without The Magnificent Seven? Unfortunately, as a serious fan of the movie and score, I was uncomfortable with the orchestra's handling of the theme: there was an omission of the high strings in the introduction and a curious lack of power in their reading, compared to the original. Still, the tune has such a rousing quality that you forget these things—I sure did.

Bernstein left the podium to a standing ovation from the packed hall, then returned sharply to see the hall staff wheel out a large birthday cake, while the orchestra's leader, Edwin Paling, conducted the band (and audience!) in a chorus of "Happy Birthday"! Bernstein took the podium and thanked us for coming, heaping praise on the RSNO and saying how much he looked forward to coming to our country again, while at the same time, associate leader Justine Watts gamely tried to light the sparklers on the cake (to a witty running commentary by Bernstein!) but was defeated by the hall's air conditioning. Bernstein and the orchestra played us out one more time to The Magnificent Seven, then departed amidst more standing ovations from the audience—no doubt so he could go and enjoy his cake. I went home whistling Bernstein's themes all the way back—how many composers today can get you going enough to do that?

In conclusion, I may sound like I enjoyed the concert a lot less than I did. I had a great time, but in retrospect must record my disappointment at the inconsistency of the arrangements and/or the orchestra's performing of the material, especially on such an auspicious occasion, as this. Such flaws are all the more perplexing when you consider the purist approach Bernstein had taken in his film score recordings of the 1970s and that he's a pretty good conductor as well. Also, one longs for things like The Grifters, Spies Like Us, The Shootist, Saturn 3 and Slipstream to get played. Still, if anything, the flaws only made the good bits stand out, and there was plenty to enjoy—and behold, too, such as the fact that, even after 75 years on this crummy planet, Bernstein is still looking good, and is still a master of his game.