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| Featured solist, Michael Chertock. |
Bob Bernhardt, conductor
Featuring Michael Chertock, piano
Featuring Michael Chertock, piano
Reviewed by Keith Waits
Entire contents are
copyright © 2013 Keith Waits. All rights reserved.
As
popular and accessible as film music often is, it is arguably taken for granted
more frequently than other forms. Throughout the history of the medium, a good
number of musical scores have proved to be truly memorable, rising to iconic
status as cultural markers and helping to define the popular culture. Yet our
relationship to such music is almost entirely through the digital sound of our
local cinema or our home theatre systems. So it is a rare and welcome
opportunity to hear some of this music performed live by a first-class
orchestra, where the warmth and resonance of the concert hall can open our ears
to layers of detail that are sometimes obscured by the onscreen action.
Conductor
Bob Bernhardt’s program for this concert draws upon well-known pieces from the
classical repertoire that were famously pressed into service: Also Spracht Zarathustra by Richard
Strauss(from 2001: A Space Odyssey);
Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 21 in C Major
(Elvira Madigan); and several equally
well-known original film scores: Gone
with the Wind, Exodus.
The
opportunity to hear such compositions removed from the context of the film
narrative they were intended to support allows appreciation of the force and impact
of the music that is only sometimes possible in the cinema itself. A
particularly fine example was on display this evening when pianist Michael
Chertock and the Louisville Orchestra delivered a performance of Exodus: Tone Picture that seemed even
richer and more nuanced than the original. Mr. Chertock’s fluid and delicate
playing lifted the piece beyond the sometimes over-emphatic nature of Ernest
Gold’s composition and allowed us to hear the familiar work with new
appreciation. And this a highlight of an evening that included strong
renditions of the aforementioned Mozart Piano Concerto, as well as the
Rachmaninoff Piano Concerto No. 2 in C
Minor. Both were beautifully executed, but it is a testament to Mr.
Chertock’s formidable talent and Mr. Bernhardt’s care in selection that this
film score stood up alongside such masterworks without shame.
Another
high point was the inclusion of Pietro Mascagni’s Intermezzo from Cavalaria Rusticana. The piece figured
prominently in The Godfather, Part III,
and Mr. Bernhardt introduced it as “the most beautiful five minutes of music in
opera” – a statement that might strike some as a risky thing to proclaim just
before performing the piece. But the conductor and his players proved the point
with a reading that was graceful and stirring.
Mr.
Chertock finished his evening with a lighthearted piece by American composer
Michael Daugherty entitled Le Tombeau de
Liberace – 4, Candelabra Rhumba. There was no listing in the program, so
what, if any, film it appeared in is up for question (a search of IMDB provided
no results). But the Liberace homage was another shift in tone in a program that
was eclectic and unexpected. The Latin rhythms of the material showcased the
percussion section as much as the piano keyboard and were an effective
interjection of liveliness and humor just before the finale.
Said
finale, a suite from Pirates of the
Caribbean: Curse of the Black Pearl by Klaus Badelt, was a last-minute
substitution and therefore also not listed in the program. Here was the only
disappointment of the evening. Routine and bombastic music that only barely
rises above the average big-budget action film score, it was given an energetic
reading here that brought out the sweep and pace that are its only
distinguishing characteristics; but it failed to provide a proper finish.
Whatever difficulties prevented the advertised Symphonic Suite from Lord of the Rings (conductor Bernhardt
was not telling) from being included were a wet blanket on an otherwise
well-chosen selection of material that nicely balanced the populist appeal of
film scores with their better-regarded classical cousins.
Nightlites: Classics Goes
to the Movies
Thursday, January 24, 2013, at The Brown Theatre
Friday, January 25, 2013, at The Ogle Center
The Ogle Center, Indiana University Southeast
Grant Line Road, New Albany, IN
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