Ealing Symphony Orchestra finishes its season with a lively evening of music from across the pond, some of which has found fame on the silver screen.
Please note that the start time of this concert is 6.30pm - earlier than usual.
Whether it is the terrifying vision of Darth Vader striding along to the Imperial March, or the majestic opening title theme, the music of Star Wars is instantly recognisable. There are a variety of concert suites and arrangements of the music, usually split into the original trilogy (1977-83), the modern prequels (1999-2005) and the new saga (2015+). The Suite on offer this evening contains melodies from the classic trilogy.
We continue our exploration of classic film music with a section of the soundtrack of E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (to give it the film’s full title). This segment, Adventures on Earth, includes the famous ‘flying theme’ and an exciting chase scene, with extracts from the finale where the characters in the film bid farewell to their new friend.
Moving further back into the 20th century, Copland’s 1938 ballet Billy the Kid is only partly a portrait of the infamous outlaw, with a wider view on the ‘Old West’ and the adventurous pioneers. Beginning with a melody depicting the open prairie, the action moves around the frontier, from a small town to a desert shootout. Cowboy and folk tunes feature heavily in the score, and one scene includes the Mexican ‘Jarabe’ dance.
Based on Voltaire’s novella of the same name, Bernstein’s operetta Candide has now overcome its initially lukewarm reception and achieved enormous popularity. A complex and satirical plot, invoking many comic opera tropes such as masked balls and singers (deliberately) doubling as multiple characters, gives rise to many popular songs. The Overture remains popular in its own right and is full of Bernstein charm.
Gershwin called Porgy and Bess not an opera, but a ‘folk opera’. He said, “Porgy and Bess is a folk tale... When I first began work in the music I decided against the use of original folk material because I wanted the music to be all of one piece. Therefore I wrote my own spirituals and folksongs. But they are still folk music – and therefore, being in operatic form, Porgy and Bess becomes a folk opera.” Initially unpopular due to its racially charged theme, the opera is now one of the best-known and most frequently performed operas. This evening’s version is the Porgy and Bess Symphonic Picture, an exploration of the more well-known themes of the work, arranged by the composer’s friend Robert Russell Bennett in 1942.
Ealing Symphony Orchestra is an independent voluntary orchestra based in West London usually giving around five main concerts a year. We try to do something in most concerts which is a bit out of the ordinary, without forgetting that players and audiences come to enjoy themselves, so there are plenty of popular classics as well as some fine music you may not know already. Our concert programmes pages should give you an idea of what we're about. Our conductor is John Gibbons, well-known in both the professional and amateur worlds.
Credit to 'aldobarquin' of Pixabay for the photo of the toy stormtrooper (used with permission).