London Symphony Orchestra Living Music Thursday 11 December 2014 7.30pm Barbican Hall LSO ON FILM: THE MAGIC AND MAJESTY OF ALEXANDRE DESPLAT Alexandre Desplat Love Theme from ‘The Twilight Saga: New Moon’ Girl with a Pearl Earring – Suite The Curious Case of Benjamin Button – Suite Stephen Frears – Suite (featuring ‘Philomena’ and ‘The Queen’) Ghost Writer – Suite The Grand Budapest Hotel INTERVAL Main titles from ‘Godzilla’ King’s Speech – Suite Dave Arch piano Pelléas et Mélisande: Sinfonia Concertante for Flute and Orchestra Gareth Davies flute Birth – Suite London’s Symphony Orchestra The Imitation Game Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Suite Alexandre Desplat conductor Dominique Lemonnier artistic director Sol Rey & Ange Leccia videos Xavier Forcioli production coordinator Kraft Engel Management / Richard Kraft & Laura Engel concert associate producer Concert finishes approx 9.45pm 2 Welcome 11 December 2014 Welcome Living Music Kathryn McDowell In Brief Welcome to this evening’s LSO concert where APPLICATIONS FOR THE 2015 PANUFNIK it is a great pleasure to welcome composer COMPOSERS SCHEME ARE NOW OPEN and conductor Alexandre Desplat in this special Once again the LSO will offer six UK-based performance of his music scored for film. composers the opportunity to write a new three- minute work for the London Symphony Orchestra. The LSO has a long and fruitful relationship The scheme culminates with a public workshop with Alexandre Desplat, having recorded many in March 2016 during which the new pieces will of the scores you will hear this evening for the be rehearsed by François-Xavier Roth and the films concerned, and the Orchestra is delighted London Symphony Orchestra at LSO St Luke’s. to bring this music to centre stage. Applicants should be under the age of 45 and should be of British nationality, studying in the UK, The LSO was the first to record music that was or resident in the UK for at least three years. specifically written to accompany film, and the first to record in the Abbey Road Studios over lso.co.uk/composers 80 years ago, where many of these recordings still take place today. LSO SING Following a sell-out tour to Australia and Singapore The London Symphony Orchestra has an abundance in November, the LSO has two more concerts of singing opportunities that people from all walks of before Christmas. On Sunday the LSO’s massed life can join in with in 2015. Whether you are a seasoned choirs (the London Symphony Chorus, Community choral singer or have not sung since school, why not Choir and Discovery Choirs) are joined by the LSO join us for a Singing Day at LSO St Luke’s next year. Brass Ensemble in a special festive performance, All workshops are led by the LSO’s experienced choral and on 18 December, we welcome back to the team and are accompanied by piano or an LSO chamber podium Nikolaj Znaider for a programme of ensemble. Our three workshops in 2015 give you Beethoven and Mahler. the chance to explore Duruflé’s Requiem, discover some of the choral music that inspired Brahms, I hope you enjoy tonight’s performance and I look and immerse yourself in traditional gospel music. forward to seeing you again before Christmas. lso.co.uk/singingdays TONIGHT’S GROUPS This evening we welcome Nicole Hu & Friends. Kathryn McDowell CBE DL For more details on group bookings, visit Managing Director lso.co.uk/groups lso.co.uk Artist Biographies 3 Alexandre Desplat Composer Six time Oscar nominee, Alexandre Desplat, nomination for The Queen and won his first European with hundreds of scores and numerous awards Film Award. The same year, he won a Golden Globe, to his credit, is one of the most worthy heirs of a Los Angeles Film Critics Association Award and a the French film scoring masters. His approach to World Soundtrack Award for the The Painted Veil. film composition is not only based on his strong In 2008 he composer for Lust, Caution (Ang Lee) and musicality, but also on his understanding of cinema, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (David Fincher), which allows him to truly communicate with which earned him a second Oscar nomination and a directors. He studied piano and trumpet before fourth BAFTA and Golden Globe nomination. choosing the flute as his main instrument. With his score for Roman Polanski’s The Ghost Raised in a musical and cultural mix with a Greek Writer in 2010 he won a second César and a second mother and French father who studied and were European Film Award. The same year, he wrote married in California, he grew up listening to the the music for the second film in the Twilight saga, French symphonists Ravel and Debussy and to jazz. a platinum record, and The King’s Speech for which He enriched his classical musical education by he won the BAFTA, Grammy Award and was nominated studying Brazilian and African music, which later led for the fourth time at the Oscars and for the fifth him to record with Carlinhos Brown and Ray Lema. time at the Golden Globes. 2010–11 saw Desplat An avid fan of cinema, he expressed his desire to score David Yates’ films Harry Potter and the Deathly compose for the big screen early on. During the Hallows Parts I & II; the latter became the third recording of his first film he met violinist Dominique most successful movie of all time. 2011 saw further Lemonnier who became his favourite soloist, artistic scores: The Tree of Life (Terence Malik), Carnage director and wife. She founded the Traffic Quintet for (Roman Polanski), Fantastic Mr Fox (Wes Anderson), which he composed and transcribed soundtracks. The Well’s Digger Daughter (Daniel Auteuil) and The Ides of March (George Clooney). In 2003 he burst onto the Hollywood scene with his evocative score to Girl with a Pearl Earring, In 2012, collaborations resulted in Zero Dark Thirty which earned him nominations at the Golden Globes, (Kathryn Bigelow), Reality (Matteo Garrone), Renoir BAFTAs and European Film Awards. In 2005 he (Gilles Bourdos), Zulu (Jerome Salle), Moonrise composed strong and remarkable parts for the film Kingdom (Wes Anderson) and Rust and Bone of Jacques Audiard The Beat That My Heart Skipped, (Jacques Audiard) for which he won a third César. that won the Silver Bear at the Berlinale as well as He also scored Argo (Ben Affleck), which was his first César. In 2006, he received his first Academy awarded the Oscar for best film, and earned Desplat Award nomination for his score to Stephen Frears’ a sixth nomination from BAFTA, as well as a fifth The Queen. In the same year, he also won a Golden nomination at the Golden Globes and the Oscars. Globe for his score to John Curran’s The Painted Veil, performed by pianist Lang Lang. In 2013 he penned the scores of The Monuments Men (George Clooney), Venus in Fur (Roman Polanski), Prizes and collaborations with leading directors then Stephen Frears’ Oscar nominated Philomena and started to flow. In 2007, he received his first Oscar The Grand Budapest Hotel by Wes Anderson. 4 Programme Notes 11 December 2014 The Curious Case of a Frenchman in Hollywood: The film music of Alexandre Desplat It is curiously ‘Hollywood’ that in 2003, after scoring for Girl with the Pearl Earring, Alexandre Desplat at the tender age of 42 was hailed as a new talent. PROGRAMME NOTE WRITER to Desplat’s sensitivity ‘about SARAH BREEDEN regularly protecting great performances … contributes to BBC Proms family supporting and amplifying rather concert programmes, has written than simplifying and reducing’. on film music for LPO as well as LSO, It helps that it’s all done ‘with school notes for London Sinfonietta humour, charm and speed’. and the booklet notes for the EMI Classical Clubhouse series. A self-confessed cinephile from She was Editor of LSO publications, an early age, Desplat was seduced has edited BBC Proms in the Park by ‘the eclecticism of what a souvenir programmes, and worked movie composer could offer’. for BBC Proms for several years. It was Alex North’s score for Spartacus (1960) which made him first sit up and take notice and He had been working for 20 years and already he claims his influences are John Williams, Bernard had about 50 scores to his name, albeit in France. Herrmann, Franz Waxman and Fellini’s composer In fairness, Girl with the Pearl Earring did bring of choice, Nino Rota. Some of these composers do him to the centre of the Hollywood film industry come shining through in his oeuvre. It has been and resulted in a career which has seen him pointed out that Desplat’s scores are possibly more collaborate with big name directors including atmospheric and concentrate on mood rather Wes Anderson, Roman Polanski, Ang Lee and than just highlighting visual markers. Desplat puts George Clooney, working on mainstream films this down to his homeland’s film music culture, from drama and thrillers, monster blockbusters, the influence of French ‘Nouvelle Vague’, the music music for the incredibly successful franchises of of documentary-style films from the late 50s and Twilight and Harry Potter, to the more intimate 60s by such luminaries as Jean-Luc Goddard and films of Stephen Frears, with several Oscar François Truffaut. nominations and award wins along the way. Whatever the genre, influence or style, Desplat’s It’s not just luck and talent, though. Desplat has scores, sans images, have the power to move, made canny choices by, he says, ‘getting closer thrill and inspire the imagination. to directors who understand what the music can display’ such as Roman Polanski.