Details

Our annual “movie night” has rapidly become one of the festival’s favourite programs, and Bob Bernhardt has put together a program of winning music from Oscar-winning movies! Enjoy a summer night of music from Titanic, The Wizard of Oz, Beauty and the Beast, The Lord of the Rings, and much more.

Adult Reserved $27 / Grass $18
Child Reserved $13 / Grass free

Thank you to our festival title sponsor:

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Program Information

KORNGOLD
Captain Blood: Overture (6’)*

VARIOUS
A Hollywood Salute (Arr Robert Wendel) (4’)*

ALFORD
Colonel Bogey March (The Bridge Over the River Kwai) (4’)*

RODGERS / HAMMERSTEIN
“The Sound of Music” (The Sound of Music) (3’)*
Kathleen Brett, soprano

G / I GERSHWIN
“By Strauss” (An American in Paris) (3’)*
Kathleen Brett, soprano

ARLEN / HARBURG
“Over the Rainbow” (The Wizard of Oz) (4’)*
Kathleen Brett, soprano

VARIOUS
Disney Classics Overture (Arr Bruce Healey) (7’)*

FRANZ WAXMAN
The Ride of the Cossacks (Taras Bulba) (5’)*

INTERMISSION

HOWARD SHORE
Symphonic Suite from The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (Arr Whitney) (7’)*
Kathleen Brett, soprano

MENKEN / ASHMAN
“Beauty and the Beast” (Arr Danny Troob / Bruce Healey) (3’)*
Kathleen Brett, soprano

MENKEN
“Colors of the Wind” (Pocahontas) (Arr Danny Troob) (3’)*
Kathleen Brett, soprano

JAMES HORNER
Medley from Titanic (Arr James Moss) (8’)*

JOHN WILLIAMS
Raider’s March (Raiders of the Lost Ark) (5’)*

*indicates approximate duration

Program Notes

How apt that our concert begins with music by Erich Wolfgang Korngold (1897-1957), one of the great bridges between the worlds of classical music and the movies. A supremely gifted composer at a very young age, Korngold came to America at the invitation of Max Reinhardt, and soon established himself at the forefront of Hollywood film scorers. His ability to capture the great swashbuckling classics – particularly those of Errol Flynn – are particularly noteworthy. Such was the case with 1935’s Captain Blood, released originally without Korngold’s name in the credits. His rousing overture to the movie launches our salute to Hollywood tonight.

We cannot tell you much about the suite of classic film themes arranged by Robert Wendel called Hollywood Salute – but that’s because you have to tell us! All we can say is that, following the famous fanfare Alfred Newman composed for 20th Century Fox, and the familiar strains of “Hooray for Hollywood,” there are 16 classic movie themes to follow. Your job will be to write down as many as you know, in order. We’ll tally up the lists, and award a prize before the end of tonight’s concert. Good luck!

One the many great moments in David Lean’s Oscar-winning movie The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957) occurs early on, when the captured British soldiers are paraded back to the prison camp. Demonstrating their defiance and English stiff-upper-lip-idness, they enter whistling. And the tune they whistle, which is soon accompanied by the film score, is a march called Colonel Bogey, written many years before by a man named Frederick J. Ricketts (1881-1945), who wrote under the pseudonym of Kenneth J. Alford.

The 1965 film The Sound of Music won five Academy Awards, including one for Irwin Kostal’s adaptation of the music, composed by Richard Rodgers (1902-1979), with words by Oscar Hammerstein II (1895-1960). The film begins with a rapturous and swirling aerial homage to the beautiful Alpine setting of the story (Ted D. McCord’s cinematography was nominated for an Oscar, but didn’t win), as Julie Andrews sings the title song.

George Gershwin (1898-1937) wrote his symphonic poem An American in Paris in 1928. The concept, that of an American visitor strolling along Parisian streets and observing the goings-on, became the inspiration for the 1951 Vincente Minnelli film of the same name. Starring Gene Kelly and featuring a surprisingly convincing comedic performance by concert pianist Oscar Levant, the movie won an impressive six Oscars, and is filled with songs by George and Ira Gershwin (1896-1983). One of those, “By Strauss,” is presented tonight.

It might seem surprising, even shocking, that The Wizard of Oz, widely regarded as one of the greatest American films, won only two Academy Awards. But when you remember that it was up against another 1939 classic, Gone With the Wind, it’s understandable. The film made a star of the then 16-year-old Judy Garland, and one of its much-deserved Oscar statuettes went to the classic Harold Arlen – Yip Harburg song, “Over the Rainbow.”

Over the years, the films produced at the Walt Disney studios have produced some of the finest songs and scores. Our Disney Classics Overture, arranged by Bruce Healey, includes “Zip-a-dee-doo-dah” (from 1946’s Song of the South); “You Can Fly!” (Peter Pan, 1953); “Chim Chim Cher-ee,” “Step in Time,” and “Supercalifragalisticexpialidocious” (all from 1964’s Mary Poppins); “I’m Late” (Alice in Wonderland, 1951); “Bibbidi-Bobbidi-Boo” (Cinderella, 1950); “Heigh-Ho” (Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, 1937); “A Dream is a Wish Your Heart Makes” (Cinderella again); as well as the famous theme from the seminal 1950s TV show The Mickey Mouse Club, and finishes with a song written for the 1964 New York World’s Fair, “It’s a Small World.”

Like Korngold, Franz Waxman (1906-1967) was a successful composer in Europe before coming to America. But he was already an established film composer before crossing the Atlantic. Also like Korngold, Waxman scored his share of epics. The 1962 film Tara Bulba, based on the Gogol story of the titular 16th-century Ukrainian hero, starred Yul Brynner and Tony Curtis. Tonight’s stirring excerpt, known now as The Ride of the Cossacks, is taken from a scene in the film in which Bulba’s army rides on horseback to the Ukrainian city of Dubno.

Eventually to win a boatload of Academy Awards, Peter Jackson’s astounding film treatment of J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings made its debut in 2001 with The Fellowship of the Ring. The New Zealand director got Canadian composer Howard Shore (b. 1946) to capture the magic, danger, heroism and broad landscapes of the movie with one of the richest film scores of the 21st century. Tonight’s brief suite, arranged by John Whitney, has several of the film trilogy’s memorable themes, ending with the song “In Dreams,” which will be sung tonight by Kathleen Brett.

Walt Disney’s 1991 version of the story of Beauty and the Beast is the only animated feature film ever nominated as Best Motion Picture in the history of the Academy Awards. It didn’t win, but its score, with music by Alan Menken and lyrics by Howard Ashman, did earn it two Oscars, including Best Song from a Motion Picture for the title song, which we will hear tonight. Four years later, Disney did it again, with the movie Pocahontas. That film grabbed the same two Oscars, with “Colors of the Wind” winning Best Song. Alan Menken was once again the composer, with lyrics this time by Stephen Schwartz.

No film has achieved the level of recognition of James Cameron’s 1997 movie Titanic. It has not only made more money than any other film, it also garnered 11 Academy Awards. One of them, not surprisingly, went to James Horner’s (b.1953) rich and dramatic score. James Moss has taken some of the film’s themes, and fashioned them into this vivid suite, which will take about 186 fewer minutes to sit through than the actual movie.

Hollywood titans Stephen Spielberg and George Lucas teamed up in the late 1970s in an effort to recreate the great adventure movies and serials they remembered as children. They came up with the fabulously successful Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981), and they made sure to bring along some ideal collaborators. In Harrison Ford, they had their indomitable, but vulnerable (“Snakes! I HATE snakes!”) hero. And in John Williams (b. 1932), they had the perfect soundtrack composer. As he has done for more than 30 years, Williams not only created a score that matched the movie’s grand adventure perfectly, he also created an instantly identifiable signature tune – the “Raider’s March.”

Program Notes © 2009 D.T. Baker

Program notes © 2009 by the Edmonton Symphony Orchestra and its respective annotators. All Rights Reserved. Program notes may not be printed in their entirety without the written consent of the Edmonton Symphony Orchestra; excerpts may be quoted if due acknowledgment is given to the author and to the Edmonton Symphony Orchestra. For reprint permission, contact D.T. Baker, Music Resource, by email, dave.baker@winspearcentre.com.

These notes appear in galley files prepared for Signature magazine, official publication of the ESO, and may contain typographical or other errors, or may differ from the final print version. Programs and artists subject to change without notice.

Artist Information

Robert Bernhardt, conductor

Robert Bernhardt is the second Music Director in the history of the combined Chattanooga Symphony & Opera, and is currently in his 16th season with the company. Concurrent with his CSO tenure, Bernhardt holds the additional title of Principal Pops Conductor of the Louisville Orchestra where he is currently in his 28th season. He began his professional career there in 1981 as Assistant Conductor, and has worked with the Orchestra every year since. He was the Artistic Director and Principal Conductor of the Rochester Philharmonic (1995-98), Music Director and Conductor of the Tucson Symphony (1987-95), Principal Guest Conductor of Kentucky Opera (1991-96), and Music Director of the Amarillo Symphony Orchestra (1985-1987). His vast symphonic repertoire covers most of the standard canon and his commitment to the music of our time is significant.

 

This season, Robert Bernhardt will make his guest conducting debut with the Houston Symphony, and returns to the podiums of the Pacific Symphony, Tucson Symphony, and the Chattanooga Ballet. He has guest conducted the Detroit, St. Louis, Seattle, Phoenix, Nashville, Colorado, Pacific and Iceland Symphony Orchestras among others, and has been a frequent guest with the Pittsburgh Symphony, the Tucson Symphony, and the Boston Pops. He made his Carnegie Hall debut in 1978. In addition to his work with the CSO, he has conducted the Opera Companies of Nashville and Birmingham. He has also conducted the Louisville Ballet, the North Carolina Ballet, the Jacksonville Ballet and the Lonestar Ballet. Born in Rochester, NY, Robert Bernhardt holds a Master's Degree with Honors from the University of Southern California School of Music where he studied with Daniel Lewis. He was a Phi Beta Kappa, summa cum laude graduate of Union (NY) College, where he was an Academic All-American Baseball Player.

Since making his ESO debut in May 2006, Robert Bernhardt has become a favourite guest conductor of both the orchestra and its audience. The 2009 Sobeys Symphony Under the Sky is the fourth consecutive edition of the festival led by Mr. Bernhardt. He will conduct several more performances in the 09/10 season, including Oktoberfest! on October 6, 2009, Our Favourite Mozart on October 8, 2009, and Classics of the Silver Screen on May 20, 2010.

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Kathleen Brett, soprano

Canadian soprano Kathleen Brett is cherished by audiences in America and Europe not only for the beauty of her tone and stylistic instinct but also for her natural stage presence and dramatic skills. Ms. Brett has enjoyed a long artistic collaboration with the Canadian Opera Company, Toronto, where she has portrayed a variety of roles including Susanna in Le nozze di Figaro, Romilda in the Stephen Wadsworth production of Handel’s Xerxes, and the Governess in Britten’s The Turn of the Screw. Among her many other appearances in Canada she has performed the roles of Nannetta in Falstaff and Pamina in Die Zauberflöte with L’Opéra de Montréal, Amarilli in Handel’s Il Pastor Fido with Opera Atelier of Toronto and Leila in The Pearl Fishers at Opera Lyra Ottawa. Other notable roles are Adina in L’elisir d’Amore and the title role in Romeo and Juliette performed with Calgary Opera; Pamina with Edmonton Opera and Despina in Così fan tutte with Vancouver Opera.

 

In addition to her operatic work, Kathleen Brett is often performing in concert halls all over North America, excelling in a wide repertoire that ranges from works of the Renaissance to contemporary music. She has performed with many Canadian and American symphonies including Toronto, Montréal, Chicago, Detroit and Philadelphia. Noteworthy performances have been Vivaldi’s Gloria under Trevor Pinnock and the Fauré Requiem under Pinchas Zuckerman, both with the National Arts Centre; she sang in Handel’s Messiah with the Minnesota Orchestra and the Montréal Symphony; Haydn’s Mass in C Major at the Grant Park Music Festival in Chicago and in Bach’s St. Matthew Passion with the Vancouver Symphony.

Highlights from upcoming engagements in the 2009-2010 season include concerts with the Cincinnati Pops Orchestra, the Hamilton Symphony and multiple appearances with Edmonton Opera. Ms. Brett will also perform the role of Zerlina in Don Giovanni at The Calgary Opera. Kathleen Brett appears with Robert Bernhardt again in the ESO 09/10 season for Classics of the Silver Screen on May 20, 2010.

Multimedia

Festival conductor Bob Bernhardt talks about Sobeys Symphony Under the Sky: