Star-Ledger previews Bond & Beyond concerts

The Star-Ledger writes:

[A]s time — not to mention pop music soundtracks — make big orchestral Hollywood scores more and more a thing of the past, musicians, conductors and audiences are becoming more accustomed to experiencing film music in concert halls. And orchestras are increasingly looking to the great film scores of yore to appeal to both music aficionados and symphony newbies alike.

The most popular way to play film music these days? Have a full orchestra perform the score in synch with the full projected film.  

"I think in America maybe we're finally getting removed enough from the golden age of film scores, that people are able to look at that music with more respect," says Timothy Brock, who will conduct the New York Philharmonic for its presentation of Charlie Chaplin's "City Lights" on Thursday evening.

...

[N]ext month the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra will be performing a weekend series of concerts at NJPAC celebrating the music of the James Bond films.

None of this should sound strange or as if orchestras are somehow pandering to popular taste: We forget that bands playing alongside films were commonplace in the silent era, where musicians — or at least an organ or piano — were required to provide films the necessary musical accompaniment. 

"Film music belongs in concert halls, especially silent film scores," says Brock, who has worked with the Chaplin Estate since 1998 and has also composed 27 original scores for silent films. "It wasn't because of a loss of artistic merit that silent film scores stopped being written, it was simply technical and stylistic change."

Brock adds, "In Europe, I get asked to do film scores everywhere, but in the States it's really only the big orchestras in New York and Los Angeles that do these kind of concerts."

The American-born conductor/composer currently lives in Bologna, and he says that in Italy that film composers like Ennio Morricone (who composed the scores for Sergio Leone's spaghetti Westerns) and Nino Rota (Fellini's favored composer) are seen as extensions of the country's musical tradition — not a separate category. 

"In Italy, if you putting on something by Miklos Rozsa, say his 'The Vinter's Daughter,' paired along with other classical music, no-one minds," Brock says.

The NJSO got into the film score act in a big way this season. The band has already accompanied the films "Back to the Future" (as part of the film's 30th anniversary celebration) and "Home Alone," as a holiday season event.

For its series of Bond concerts, titled "Bond & Beyond," the band will play selections from the five decades of 007 movies.  

Darryl Kubian, a violinist in the NJSO, is eager to tackle "Bond & Beyond" concerts. As well as playing violin in the New Jersey orchestra, he is also a composer of the film and television scores and wants more orchestras to program movie music.

"Films are one place where orchestral music has not only survived but thrived in the 20th century and even now," he says. Kubian adds that just as the signature Bond themes are great orchestral music, the brassy opening credits songs are no different than lieder-type songs sung in classical recitals.

Conducting the "Bond & Beyond" concerts in New Jersey is Michael Krajewski — and he, too, has become a big proponent of film scores. For the past ten years, Krajewski has conducted concerts with a touring troupe called Cirque de la Symphonie, which performs a melange of dance, acrobatics, contortionism and juggling alongside standard classical repertory.

...

"All orchestras want to find new angles and audiences," Krajewski says. "Movie soundtracks offer a way for them to do just that."

Read the full story.

» RELATED: Listen: Broadway Radio previews Bond & Beyond

» RELATED: Listen: singer Debbie Gravitte previews Bond concerts