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BBC Radio 3's "Sound of Cinema" is broadcasting a concert of Elmer Bernstein's film music this coming Saturday (22nd February).
"Ben Palmer conducts the BBC Philharmonic in a concert featuring highlights of film scores by New York-born Elmer Bernstein (1922-2004), recorded last month in the BBC's studios at MediaCityUK in Salford. The concert showcases several of Bernstein's 14 Academy Award-nominated scores or songs - The Magnificent Seven, To Kill a Mockingbird, True Grit and The Age of Innocence - and his music for The Ten Commandments, The Great Escape, An American Werewolf in London and Ghostbusters. Presented by Matthew Sweet."
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I wasn't sure if those in the US could receive it ?. I played it in the UK and enjoyed it very much.
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Posted: |
Feb 26, 2020 - 11:45 AM
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By: |
Morricone
(Member)
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Fantastic concert! After spending a year on my Elmer concert I had to hear this one to compare. The first question this brought up to me is how important is the full symphonic treatment to the music of Elmer Bernstein? The answer is VERY important. We may have tried to capture the symphonic spirit of pieces like THE TEN COMMANDMENTS, THE MAGNIFICENT SEVEN and even HOLLYWOOD AND THE STARS, but they put the meat on the bone with this one presenting these pieces in their full symphonic majesty. Each decimated our attempts with their sheer power. I was expecting the same from the TRUE GRIT suite but was surprised from the opening “fanfare” that this wasn’t Elmer. That is, instead of doing a suite of themes from TRUE GRIT someone did a theme and variations arrangement on just the song, achieving a 101 strings version of “Some Day Little Girl”. THE GREAT ESCAPE surprised me also in that I felt something was missing. Going back to the Intrada I found how special a composition it is. It goes back and forth from an intimate sound ( a small march representing each indivdual’s spirit in the camp) to the big spectacular breakout of the entire orchestra (which obviously represents the escape). The BBC loses the intimate part of the march and part of the martial sound Elmer orchestrated for. Still it is a powerful rendition. The next one TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD always hits the sweet spot. For our concert William Malpede, instead of using Elmer’s suite, took the entire end cue from when Boo is discovered behind the door. This is the one place where we got more sniffles from our audience than the BBC did. But the next two AMERICAN WEREWOLF IN LONDON and AGE OF INNOCENCE goes back to showing what the full glory of a magnificent orchestra can do. Nothing touches or replaces this quality and so they are standouts. Although this is why I thought it odd to end with the least symphonic piece of the bunch GHOSTBUSTERS.
Anyway after being squashed by many of these BBC numbers I had to pat myself on the back in some way about what we did. So I asked how important is it to represent a wider range of Elmer’s music (35 instead of 9 pieces)? To have intimate (HUD), mid-range(BIRDMAN OF ALCATRAZ) and B movie (ROBOT MONSTER) orchestra levels? Scores that represent the main characters (BABY THE RAIN MUST FALL was about a folk singer, MAN WITH THE GOLDEN ARM a jazz drummer)? Scores that spotlight his choral (THE HALLELUJAH TRAIL), dance (CAST A GIANT SHADOW) and musical theater (HOW NOW DOW JONES) work? Work that represents how varied his approaches were from psychedelic (I LOVE YOU ALICE B TOKLAS) to pomp and circumstance (ANIMAL HOUSE) to a music box tune (FROM NOON TILL THREE) to emulating diggin’ for ore (GOLD) to exotica (HAWAII)? The answer is VERY important.
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