Film music as a popular spectacle comes to Córdoba

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In recent years, concerts with film music, which usually feature live performances of iconic film soundtracks, have multiplied in our country, attracting audiences of all ages and cultural backgrounds, in what has undoubtedly become a phenomenon. of great interest and a very profitable audience for certain commercial initiatives. Obviously, film music has the unique power to evoke memories and emotions associated with films and, in this sense, it forms a kind of collective – and shared – musical memory composed of unforgettable melodies and musical themes from the soundtracks of films that have been part of our lives and with which we identify.

From the world of classical music, for some time now quite a few symphony orchestras have programmed concerts that offer the truly fascinating and unique experience of watching a film while the music is performed live, with the consequent morbidity. addition of witnessing in real time the fit between it and the image and the recorded sounds (usually the original voices and sound effects). To cite some examples of great success, in this way the soundtracks from films such as The return of the King with music by Howard Shore (in some cases with a great deployment of means by adding choir, choir and solo voices – we insist, live – as in the cases of L’Auditori de Barcelona or the National Auditorium of Madrid), West Side Story by Leonard Bernstein in the famous 1961 version, or the no less mythical Fancy by Walt Disney. Very different from this format, but also part of this phenomenon that we discussed, versions of silent film classics have also proliferated with the participation, more or less active depending on the case, of musicians or musical groups that in some way “color” the cinematographic experience with live music, recalling what the first viewers would have in the pre-talkie stage.

In Córdoba we cannot help but remember the work of the brilliant Leo Brouwer, who was in charge of the foundation and direction of the Córdoba Orchestra between 1992 and 2001 and who made music for film one of the hallmarks of design. of symphonic programs as a means of attracting audiences to classical concerts in a city with hardly any tradition in this regard. Let us not forget that Brouwer has also always had a close relationship with the world of cinema as a composer of many soundtracks. Thus, in none of those memorable seasons were references to film music, including his own contributions, such as the famous Star Wars Symphony Suite with which Leo Brouwer himself covered the famous soundtrack that John Williams composed for the film of the same title.

The concert in question is part of the extraordinary hook that film music has among a large mass of the population that has rarely or never heard a symphony orchestra live. To this we must add the post-pandemic trend towards the consumption of live sensory experiences over that of material goods. That and probably much more was behind the astonishing fullness (around 80%) of a Teatro de la Axerquía, whose total capacity is around 3,500 spectators, despite tickets with a cost well above the average of symphonic concerts that take place in the city (no doubt the great publicity developed months before had also achieved its goal).

Without a doubt, the selection of musical pieces from soundtracks by composers as important in the genre as Ennio Morricone, Max Steiner, Elmer Bernstein, Hans Zimmer, Nino Rota or John Barry promised an exciting and varied experience for attendees. These composers have left an immortal legacy and the opportunity to hear their works live is always exciting for any fan of good taste, not to mention film and music lovers. Therefore, the unforgivable absence of all their names in the hand program is surprising as unfair.

As for the Royal Film Concert Orchestra, sponsored by the Excelentia Foundation, it is a group of young musicians that gave a convincing example of their good work under the direction of a correct Fernando Furones. Certainly the soloist contributions shone more (such as the excellent oboe in The mission or trumpet in The Godfather) that at the ensemble level, since the excessive and crude amplification, which greatly prioritized percussion and bass, made it impossible to appreciate any hint of dynamic approach or orchestral articulation.

Nor are we familiar with the authors of the symphonic arrangements in which there was everything: from the neatest of White House,
Lawrence of Arabia either Novecentoor authentic “cutters and pastes” like those presented in The Lord of the Rings, Ben-Hur either Pirates of the Caribbean. In general terms we can conclude that all the pieces composed by Ennio Morricone received a more refined and interesting treatment, both with regard to the excerpts chosen and the interpretation itself, without this preventing us from highlighting other successful moments such as the start of the second part with the overture The great escape or the already mentioned of The Godfather.