{"id":1678,"date":"2009-05-10T13:13:35","date_gmt":"2009-05-10T12:13:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thecliffedge.com\/blog\/?p=1678"},"modified":"2015-03-28T11:07:38","modified_gmt":"2015-03-28T11:07:38","slug":"fine-music-at-filmharmonic-fun-la-memories","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thecliffedge.com\/?p=1678","title":{"rendered":"MUSIC REVIEW: ‘Filmharmonic’ at the Royal Albert Hall"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"filmharmonic<\/a>By Ray Bennett<\/p>\n

The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra\u2019s annual Filmharmonic concert at the Royal Albert Hall on Friday night kept a large crowd of film music enthusiasts entertained with scores by top composers including John Williams, Maurice Jarre, John Barry, Lalo Schifrin, Howard Shore and Hans Zimmer.<\/p>\n

David Arnold was on hand to direct the orchestra playing his themes from \u201cThe Stepford Wives,\u201d \u201cQuantum of Solace\u201d and \u201cCasino Royale\u201d, and Debbie Wiseman took the baton for suites from \u201cTom & Viv\u201d and \u201cLesbian Vampire Killers.\u201d<\/p>\n

Paul Bateman conducted the rest of a two-hour show with presenter Tommy Pearson providing useful context and witty banter between sets. Pearson also introduced the two guest composers who looked very pleased to be there.<\/p>\n

Arnold drew a huge laugh when he mentioned that in \u201cStepford Wives\u201d Nicole Kidman was remade as a robot \u201cas if you\u2019d notice\u201d. The regular James Bond film composer paid tribute to his mentor Barry, the 007 original, and his music showed how skilfully he is filling the master\u2019s shoes.<\/p>\n

The Royal Philharmonic will present a concert titled \u201cThe Music of Bond\u201d at the Royal Albert Hall on Nov. 13 with conductor Carl Davis and presenter Honor Blackman, who played Pussy Galore in \u201cGoldfinger.\u201d<\/p>\n

Wiseman\u2019s selections on Saturday night demonstrated her range and prompted a shake of the head that such a fine score was wasted on rubbish like \u201cVampire Killers.\u201d<\/p>\n

Other highlights of the concert were Ron Goodwin\u2019s lively main title theme from \u201cWhere Eagles Dare,\u201d Barry\u2019s lovely Oscar-winning main theme from \u201cOut of Africa,\u201d and Jarre\u2019s evocative \u201cBuilding the Barn\u201d cue from \u201cWitness.\u201d<\/p>\n

There were also excellent arrangements by Mike Townsend of Ray Parker Jr.\u2019s \u201cGhostbusters\u201d and four main themes from American television shows of the 1980s: \u201cDynasty\u201d and \u201cCagney and Lacey\u201d by Bill Conti, \u201cL.A. Law\u201d by Mike Post, and \u201cDallas\u201d by Jerrold Immel.<\/p>\n

Listening to those catchy tunes took me back to many days spent on the sets of each of those shows when I was reporting for TV Guide Canada. Good times they were: Lunch with Joan Collins at the 20th Century Fox commissary and at La Scala in Beverly Hills with Linda Evans, who used numerology to predict my fortune.<\/p>\n

Drinking with Linda Gray in a bar near the old MGM studios in Culver City. Sharon Gless sending her P.A. out for beer in her little house near the freeway in Van Nuys. Gless poured a beer with lots of foam and looked at me. She said, \u201cYou don\u2019t mind a little head, do you?\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Ray Bennett The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra\u2019s annual Filmharmonic concert at the Royal Albert Hall on Friday night kept a large crowd of film music enthusiasts entertained with scores by top composers including John Williams, Maurice Jarre, John Barry, Lalo … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,1263,8,10],"tags":[488,503,584,702,791,792,3169,1046,1081,1154,1186],"class_list":["post-1678","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-film","category-memory-lane","category-music","category-notes","tag-david-arnold","tag-debbie-wiseman","tag-filmharmonic","tag-joan-collins","tag-linda-evans","tag-linda-gray","tag-paul-bateman","tag-royal-philharmonic-orchestra","tag-sharon-gless","tag-the-royal-albert-hall","tag-tommy-pearson"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thecliffedge.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1678","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thecliffedge.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thecliffedge.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thecliffedge.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thecliffedge.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1678"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/thecliffedge.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1678\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6308,"href":"https:\/\/thecliffedge.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1678\/revisions\/6308"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thecliffedge.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1678"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thecliffedge.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1678"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thecliffedge.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1678"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}