Symphony Central Coast returns to The Art House, Wyong on Sunday, April 2 for their third Lights, Action, Music! a concert celebrating the magnificent music of the movies.
Their annual film music concert will again feature music from some of the most loved films of all time, including Lawrence of Arabia, Up, Elvira Madigan, Spirited Away, The Last of the Mohicans and Star Trek plus a selection of Australian films with music by Australian composers.
As a bonus, there will a silent gothic horror movie from 1928 with a new score, performed live by a full symphony orchestra.
Maurice Jarre scored some films in the 1950s but his career took a spectacular turn when producer Sam Spiegel asked him to work on David Lean’s Lawrence of Arabia.
Initially, three composers were to write the score but, for various reasons, Jarre ended up writing all the music himself and won his first Oscar.
He received another Oscar for his next film Doctor Zhivago and later scored A Passage to India, Gorillas in the Mist, and The Year of Living Dangerously.
Mainly known as a symphonist and for his prominent use of percussion, Jarre often integrated unusual instruments into his scores such as cithara (an ancient Greek lyre) and fujara (an old Slovak flute) on The Tin Drum.
The film Elvira Madigan is known for its use of the music from Mozart’s 21st Piano Concerto and Trevor Jones draws heavily on Celtic rhythms and melodies in his music for The Last of the Mohicans.
Japan also gives us two composers – Ryuichi Sakamoto’s Merry Christmas, Mr Laurence starring David Bowie, and Studio Ghibli’s Spirited Away, with music by Joe Hisaishi.
All these and more will be performed live at The Art House with more than 50 musicians on stage.
Also on the program is music from some of Australia’s most promising emerging film composers.
Symphony Central Coast is pleased to partner with Australian Film, Radio, and Television School and Aaron Trew’s Central Coast Composer Collective to offer some of their students an opportunity to present their music.
Some have been written to previously produced films, others to just an image or idea, still others are just musical ideas in embryonic form, while some have been written just for this concert.
Charles Klein’s gothic horror based on a story by Edgar Allan Poe, The Tell Tale Heart, has a new soundtrack, written by Conductor and Artistic Director of Symphony Central Coast, Dr Steven Stanke and the orchestra will wrap up the concert with a snippet of Star Trek: The Motion Picture written by Jerry Goldsmith.
Stanke said performing film music was incredibly exciting and satisfying because it was often the most complex and challenging music of our age.
“Composers are extremely creative when scoring films and a full symphony orchestra is often the only way to perform them completely,” he said.
The Art House concert will be at 2.30 pm on Sunday, April 2.
Source: Symphony Central Coast