Capitals Collide

By Phil Lehman

Excerpted from FSM Vol. 8, No. 2, on sale now...

Hollywood is a very long way from Washington, D.C. --  geographically and otherwise. And while film-music-related events may be normal occurrences in the movie-making hub of Tinsel Town, they are fewer and farther between this far East.

Recently, however, these two capitals got a little closer. The National Symphony Orchestra performed a festival called "Soundtrack Music and Film," consisting of six concerts between Jan. 23 and Feb. 1, , and held at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts.

The musical director of the National Symphony Orchestra, Leonard Slatkin, created the concept for the event. The son of prominent Hollywood studio musicians Felix and Eleanor Slatkin, Leonard was mentored by some of the biggest names in film music composition -- Max Steiner, Elmer Bernstein, Franz Waxman and Bernard Herrmann, to mention a few.

The series was co-hosted by John Williams. John Williams needs no introduction either in Hollywood or in Washington, but his presence surely contributed to the capacity audience for his performances. It is interesting to note that this concert series marked John Williams' first appearance in the Nation's Capital as a guest conductor of the National Symphony Orchestra.

Slatkin, explained eloquently that the point of the festival was to present musical masterworks drawn from classic cinema. He emphasized that these concerts were not "pop concert" events, and that the distinction between concert and film music is now becoming closer. In fact, John Williams made the comment that he enjoyed playing his film music in the concert hall because the film and sound effects could not get in the way. Williams mentioned that Felix's mother played the cello in the recording session of Jaws, and thus has been scarring kids for the past 27 years.

JANUARY 23 -- "A Portrait of John Williams"

The first half of the concert showed a sampling of Williams' dynamic compositions for the concert hall. The colorful For Sigi was written in honor of Sigi Ozawa's 25th anniversary with the Boston Symphony Orchestra. Five Sacred Trees is a beautiful dialogue between bassoon and orchestra inspired by Celtic legend.

The second half of the program featured music from Williams' Hook, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, Jaws, Schindler's List, Raiders of the Lost Ark, and the end sequence from E.T. As an encore, Leonard Slatkin conducted Williams' "Across the Stars" love theme from Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones. John Williams then returned to the podium for the rousing theme from Star Wars, leaving the stage to a long, and well-deserved, standing ovation. Williams made a remark about providing a substitute if the audience could not get home in time for the 11:00 news. To crowd's delight, he then closed the program with the NBC News Theme.

JANUARY 24 -- "Made in Hollywood"

The second concert focused on music from the American cinema from the movie studios' early days through Hollywood's Golden Age. The first half of the program was lead by Leonard Slatkin and featured film music by "serious" composers -- Aaron Copland's suite from The Red Pony and a suite from Leonard Bernstein's On the Waterfront.

After intermission, John Williams picked up the baton. His first piece, entitled "Tribute to the Film Composer," highlighted 22 recognizable film themes and fanfares, including Patton, Exodus, Titanic, Jaws, Psycho and Rocky. The remainder of the concert consisted of suites and themes from Vertigo, Citizen Kane, A Place in the Sun, The Magnificent Seven and "Tara's Theme" from Gone With the Wind. The highlight of the afternoon was an astounding rendition of "Cathy's Theme" from Wuthering Heights, with soloist and concertmaster, Nurit Bar-Yosef.

JANUARY 25 -- "In Sync: How Do They Do It?"

The third concert in the series sought to provide insight into the history and the art of synchronizing music to the movies. The experience combined live performance, recorded soundtracks, exciting film clips and engaging commentary by John Williams as he conducted the orchestra. The first selection consisted of Williams and Slatkin sharing the piano accompanying succeeding silent film clips of the Keystone Cops, Rudolph Valentino, Laurel & Hardy, Charlie Chaplin, and others. Williams then conducted a medley called "Monsters, Beauties and Heroes", which consisted of music from King Kong, Jaws, Casablanca, An Affair to Remember, Robin Hood and Superman synced to appropriately themed film clips.

Williams then introduced Stanley Donen, esteemed director of many of the biggest M-G-M musicals from the '40s and '50s, and conducted several scenes with live orchestral accompaniment. The highlights were excerpts from Seven Brides for Seven Brothers and Singin' in the Rain.

Next, John Williams wanted to demonstrate the process of placing music into a scene of a movie. He chose a four-minute sequence in the early part of Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade. The audience watched the film without sound as Williams explained the different kinds and tempos of music that he and Steven Spielberg decided were required. The orchestra then played the music synchronized perfectly to the film's action. Next on the program was a complete cartoon called Baton Bunny, in which Bugs Bunny attempts to conduct an orchestra. You can only imagine what John Williams had to do in order to get the orchestra to follow the action. It was executed flawlessly. The final selection on the program showcased the last 10 minutes of E.T., which included the chase, farewells and the ascending of the space ship. This "unearthly" sequence displays the interdependence of film and music as well as any other ever created. For an encore, both Williams and Slatkin conducted the main title from Star Wars using light sabers as batons. Actually, they were mostly dueling with each other while the orchestra played on without missing a beat.
 

For the full story see FSM Vol. 8, No. 2.

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