Gramophone – September 2019

gramophone.co.uk GRAMOPHONE SEPTEMBER 2019 3

Founded in 1923 by Sir Compton Mackenzie and Christopher Stone as

‘an organ of candid opinion for the numerous possessors of gramophones’

W

here fi lm music sits in relation to

classical music is not always clear-cut.

Is it just ultra-programmatic orchestral

music? Does its association with what’s

happening on screen constrain or enrich it? Does it –

can it – stand alone in its own right? The answer, of

course, is that it depends on the score; like all music,

some of it will be brilliant, some not so much.

What is clear is that those who dismiss movie

music as something separate, lesser even, are not only

ignoring its often extraordinary creative power, but

also denying themselves some really rewarding musical

experiences. And now we have Anne-Sophie Mutter,

one of our age’s greatest violin virtuosos, telling us so.

Our columnist, Edward Seckerson, recalls this

month how, as a child discovering music, he met with

parental disapproval that his fi lm score purchases

would sit alongside core symphonic repertoire.

Undaunted, he now represents one of those

enlightened reviewers whose catholicity of taste is

only restricted by whether or not something is good:

musicals, movie scores and Mahler rightly vie for his

shelf space. (That he cites Leonard Bernstein as his

musical hero is no surprise.)

And Seckerson is not alone: many artists and

concert-goers see no reason why they can’t enjoy both

Brahms and, say, the LSO in full intergalactic fl ight

performing a John Williams score – something

I’m sure the orchestra’s legendary Principal Trumpet

Maurice Murphy, who can be heard prominently on

the soundtracks of some of the most successful fi lms

in cinematic history, would have heartily agreed with.

When music for the silver screen strikes gold

‘Kirill Petrenko is

an elusive and

interview-shy

maestro,’ admits

HUGO SHIRLEY,

who writes our

proile piece this

issue, ‘but speaking to musicians

who have worked with him helped

me to build an intriguing picture of

what sort of a conductor he is and

what his new reign at the Berlin

Philharmonic might bring.’

NEIL FISHER

found meeting

Anne-Sophie

Mutter to be

a revealing

experience. ‘“Are

you a soloist or

a musician who sees the entire

cosmos?” I’d assumed she stood

more in the irst camp. But it was

she who posed the question and, as

her new album proves, she has her

eyes on the whole musical universe.’

THISMONTH’SCONTRIBUTORS

THE REVIEWERS Andrew Achenbach • Nalen Anthoni • Tim Ashley • Mike Ashman • Michelle Assay

Richard Bratby • Edward Breen • Liam Cagney • Alexandra Coghlan • Rob Cowan (consultant reviewer)

Jeremy Dibble • Peter Dickinson • Jed Distler • Adrian Edwards • Richard Fairman • David Fallows

David Fanning • Andrew Farach-Colton • Iain Fenlon • Neil Fisher • Fabrice Fitch • Jonathan Freeman-Attwood

Charlotte Gardner • David Gutman • Christian Hoskins • Lindsay Kemp • Philip Kennicott • Richard Lawrence

Andrew Mellor • Ivan Moody • Bryce Morrison • Hannah Nepilova • Jeremy Nicholas • Christopher Nickol

Geofrey Norris • Richard Osborne • Stephen Plaistow • Mark Pullinger • Peter Quantrill • Guy Rickards

Malcolm Riley • Marc Rochester • Patrick Rucker • Edward Seckerson • Mark Seow • Hugo Shirley • Pwyll ap Siôn

Harriet Smith • David Patrick Stearns • David Threasher • David Vickers • John Warrack • Richard Whitehouse

Arnold Whittall • Richard Wigmore • William Yeoman

Gramophone, whichhas

beenservingtheclassical

musicworldsince1923,is

irstandforemosta monthly

reviewmagazine,delivered

todayinbothprintanddigital

formats.Itboastsaneminentand

knowledgeablepanelofexperts,

whichreviewsthefullrangeof

classicalmusicrecordings.

Itsreviewsarecompletely

independent.Inadditionto

reviews,itsinterviewsand

featureshelpreaderstoexplore

ingreaterdepththerecordings

that the magazine covers, as well

as ofer insight into the work of

composers and performers.

It is the magazine for the classical

record collector, as well as

for the enthusiast starting a

voyage of discovery.

‘It was fascinating

to talk to

Benjamin

Wallisch

about his

ilm-composing

process,’ says

JAMES MCCARTHY, author of this

month’s feature on ilm music.

‘Thanks to technological advances,

the ilm composer’s craft continues

to evolve; it’s a hugely exciting and

rewarding industry to be part of.’

As would Anne-Sophie Mutter. When, for our

cover story, a soloist of her stature talks with as much

passion for John Williams as for Penderecki and

Thomas Adès, it’s only right to take her argument,

and the music itself, seriously. And, to cite another

example, it’s only a few months since Riccardo Chailly

was praising Nino Rota’s music for Fellini’s fi lms in

our pages, describing one particular score as ‘an

incredible universe of sound, from semi-Baroque

music with a harpsichord in the orchestra, up to

almost a quotation from The Rite of Spring’.

Of course, the place of fi lm music within classical

composition is complex: Shostakovich, Walton and

Korngold all wrote for both concert hall and silver

screen; it’s only recently that the compartmentalisation

of composers has become, with a few notable exceptions,

so acute. However, the craft and inventiveness of

fi lm-focused fi gures such as Williams, or Morricone,

is worth celebrating in its own right.

Finally, fi lm music can offer an amazing opportunity

for the classical world in simply showing vast numbers

of people what a symphony orchestra sounds like.

Many orchestras incorporate fi lm music concerts into

their programmes, and that’s aside from the ‘pops’

concerts which, particularly in America, have long

played such a key role in the summer season. All of

which strengthens the message that fi lm scores are not

meant to be background music – they’re an intrinsic,

emotionally shaping element of a fi lm. Initiatives

such as these, and advocacy by the likes of Mutter and

others, deservedly puts the genre centre stage.

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COVER PHOTOGRAPH:

SCHULLER/DG