Sunday March 22, 2009
Made for the movies
Review by CHRISTY YOONG
It was certainly cinema night with a twist when the Malaysian Philharmonic Orchestra played memorable scores from some of the best movies of our time.
SYMPHONIC OSCARS
Dewan Filharmonik Petronas
March 15
The MPO, lead by Richard Kaufman and with Whitney Claire Kaufman as vocalist, played big screen favourites. – Photo from Dewan Filharmonik Petronas. SAY what you want, but some of the most memorable music written in the last 75 years or so has been for the movies.
Like many marriages, when music and movies work well together, both leave lasting impressions, reinforcing and bringing out the best in each other. When they don’t, however, it’s time to call the lawyer.
Fortunately, the 15 compositions selected for last weekend’s Symphonic Oscars programme at the Dewan Filharmonik Petronas (DFP) were entirely dud-free.
The music featured included John Barry’s score for Out of Africa, Maurice Jarre’s work from a Passage to India and the Oscar-winning song Over the Rainbow from The Wizard of Oz Not only were they wonderful in their own right – all either won or were nominated for the Oscars awarded by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences – they also appeared in some outstanding movies.
The programme selection was a wide-ranging one, ranging from the breathtakingly lush Flight over Africa, composed by John Barry for Out of Africa, to Bruce Broughton’s dramatic and expansive music for Silverado.
Along the way, the Malaysian Philharmonic Orchestra (MPO), lead by Richard Kaufman, paid tribute to movies like The Untouchables, The Godfather, Ben Hur, To Kill a Mockingbird, Gone with the Wind, Dr Zhivago, The High and The Mighty, and The Magnificent Seven.
The music also featured a veritable who’s who of the too-often-underrated band of composers who wrote the music.
Apart from Barry, who wrote music for 11 James Bond movies and won five Oscars, including Best Original Score for Out of Africa, and Broughton (whose Silverado lost to Out of Africa in 1985, but won a record 10 Emmy awards for the music he wrote for TV shows like Dallas, Hawaii Five-O and Buck Rogers in the 25th Century), other composers highlighted included Ennio Morricone (honorary Oscar in 2007 for his work in movies like Malena, The Untouchables and The Mission), Miklos Rosza (Oscars for Ben Hur, A Double Life and Spellbound), Nino Rota (Oscar for The Godfather II), Elmer Bernstein (Oscar for Thoroughly Modern Millie as well as nominations for To Kill A Mockingbird and The Magnificent Seven), Dmitri Tiomkin (Oscars for The High and the Mighty, The Old Man and the Sea and High Noon) and Maurice Jarre (Oscars for A Passage to India, Dr Zhivago and Lawrence of Arabia).
It was not all instrumental music at the DFP, though. The programme also featured Oscar nomination songs – The Trolley Song from Meet in St Louis; When You Wish upon a Star (Pinocchio), The Continental (The Gay Divorcee); What Ever Will Be Will Be (better known as Que Sera, Sera from The Man Who Knew Too Much) and Over The Rainbow (The Wizard of Oz).
On hand to perform them with wit and verve was Whitney Claire Kaufman, daughter of the conductor, with the able and encouraging support of the MPO, who were excellent throughout the show.
Richard Kaufman also proved as much genial host as inspiring conductor, speaking directly to the audience to introduce the music and generally adding to the relaxed conviviality of the DFP.
For me, the just-over 70 minutes of music ended way too soon.
I had, I confess, a jolly good time: the orchestra and the Kaufmans were excellent entertainers and the music was both enjoyable and nostalgic as it brought flashbacks from the movies that added to my appreciation of the music.
Kudos to the DFP for coming up with such a pleasurable event. I certainly wouldn’t mind another round of this.
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