572111bk Themes2:557541bk Kelemen 3+3 10/3/09 3:49 PM Page 1 Carl Davis Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra Born in New York, Carl’s early work showed great promise. In 1959, the The Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra gives over sixty concerts from September to June in Liverpool’s revue Diversions won him an Obie (off-Broadway). Since then he has Philharmonic Hall, as well as presenting concerts locally and throughout the United Kingdom. There have been composed extensively for radio, film and television including: The World at concert tours to the Far East, the United States and throughout Europe, and performances at the Prague Autumn in War which has been re-released on DVD and CD – Last Night of the Poms September 2008 and a tour of North Germany and the Netherlands in October 2008. The RLPO is Classic FM’s with Barry Humphries (to be revived with a U.K. tour during September Orchestra in North West England, a relationship extended until 2012. In 1998 the orchestra launched its own recording and October 2009); the BBC’s Pride and Prejudice and Goodnight Mr Tom. label, RLPO Live, a venture which has met with a great deal of success. Many RLPO Live recordings are currently Carl’s latest television music was written for the BBC series of Cranford. being reissued by Avie Records. Other recordings by the orchestra appear on the EMI, Naxos, Nimbus, Universal and Numerous feature films include The French Lieutenant’s Woman, Scandal Virgin Classics labels, with latest releases listed on www.liverpoolphil.com. Members of the Royal Liverpool and Topsy Turvy. The Hollywood TV series introduced Carl to composing full Philharmonic are involved in a number of innovative community education and outreach projects, including the length scores for archive films starting with the incredible 5½ hour score for orchestra’s series of Family Concerts. The Liverpool Philharmonic Youth Orchestra, of which Sir Simon Rattle was Abel Gance’s Napoleon first shown in London in 1980 and leading to a once a member, also enjoys close links with the RLPO. Vasily Petrenko became Principal Conductor in September further 50 full-length restorations including Ben Hur, The Thief of Bagdad, 2006, with a contract extended until 2012. The Wind and Phantom of the Opera (recently shown at the Royal Opera House). In 2007, Carl recorded a new documentary on Greta Garbo for Turner TV and also recorded the music for all 12 of Chaplin’s ‘Mutuals’, now available on DVD. The score for Napoleon resulted in the French Minister of Culture awarding Carl The Order of Chevalier des Arts et des Lettres. Other honours and awards include: Honorary Doctor of Arts from Bard College; Honorary Doctor of Music (Liverpool University); a BAFTA Special Lifetime Achievement Award in 2003 and, in 2005, the CBE (Hon.) for his contribution to the world of Music. As part of the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra’s 150th anniversary celebrations, in 1991 Carl and Paul McCartney composed a full-length work entitled Paul McCartney’s Liverpool Oratorio which has been performed all over the world. For eight years, Carl held the position of Artistic Director and Conductor for the RLPO’s Summer Pops Season. His real love is to compose music for dance Photo by Gerard Mankowitz Photo by Gerard and Carl has written 14 ballets, including: A Simple Man (the life of Lowry); A Christmas Carol for the Northern Ballet Theatre; Dances of Love and Death, for London Contemporary Ballet; The Picture of Dorian Gray for Birmingham Royal Ballet; Alice in Wonderland for the English National Ballet which was revived in 2006/07 and opened in Pittsburgh in April 2008, performed by The Pittsburgh Ballet Company and is C scheduled to go on tour in the U.S.A. in 2009; Aladdin, originally composed for Scottish Ballet was performed in Tokyo in November 2008 with The New National Theatre; and Cyrano de Bergerac for The Birmingham Royal Ballet M (choreography by David Bintley) was premiered in 2007 to great acclaim. Carl composed a score for The Lady of the Camellias with choreographer, Derek Deane which premièred in Zagreb during October, 2008. Carl’s musical, Wind Y in the Willows is often performed in Regents Park and Alice in Wonderland, written with the late John Wells was recently revived by The West Yorkshire Playhouse and the Birmingham Rep. Carl lives in London. Barraclough Photo by Jon K 5 8.572111 6 8.572111 572111bk Themes2:557541bk Kelemen 3+3 10/3/09 3:49 PM Page 2 Great Movie Themes 2 Jurassic Park was a new high for computer-generated Juliette Binoche finds a shattered piano and plays part recently the genre failed to catch fire, witness notorious Victorian times in which it is set, and it has two alternate images, which created the fantastical world where of the Goldberg Variations on it. Minghella wanted to flops like Polanski’s Pirates (1986) and Cutthroat Island endings. Though several people had attempted Some of the best cinema music works on two levels: cool sax and vibes and comically chaotic collapse. dinosaurs were recreated from their DNA. The story carry the feeling of Bach through the rest of the score (1995). But the enormous (and somewhat unexpected) adaptations, it was Harold Pinter who eventually within the film it reflects the mood, deepens the The Argentinian Lalo Schifrin is another jazz climaxes in a scary and exciting chase but in writing the without relying on the rest of the variations, so asked success of the Pirates of the Caribbean (2003) led to succeeded, cunningly creating a parallel of some of the characterization and comments on the film, but it also composer but, unsurprisingly, with a Latin bent: he wrote main theme John Williams ignores both that and the Yared to write something on the same level.Yared begins two sequels being shot back-to-back and released in novel’s effects. Not only does he tell the woman’s story, works on a purely musical level and some of these a song and played piano on Quincy Jones’s classic album dinosaurs’ terrifying aspects: after a pastoral opening he with a feeling of the two- or three-part inventions, (or the 2006 and 2007. Alan Silvestri was to write the original but he adds another layer, and we watch a film version themes become enormously popular. Soul Bossa Nova. His film scores include the iconic reflects the giant creatures’ stately grandeur. Well-Tempered Clavier’s C major Prelude), before the score but he left and director Gore Verbinski approached being made, with Meryl Streep and Jeremy Irons playing Danny Elfman, who often works with director Tim Bullitt (1968), though he has regularly to correct people: Shakespeare’s plays have inspired countless strings enter to add a gentle halo to the contemplative Hans Zimmer (born 1957). Under intense time pressure, both the characters and the actors in that film. The score Burton, is sometimes (unfairly) seen as specialising in there is actually no music in the famous car chase. He adaptations and one of the most popular is Romeo and melody. Zimmer suggested Klaus Badelt, his colleague at Media by Carl Davis sets the scene on the Dorset coast with a fantasy films and comic book adaptations. Batman also worked in television and it was there that he had a Juliet. One of the best known is Franco Zeffirelli’s from Despite the success of Romeo and Juliet, Rota Ventures and together they worked out the main themes. sobbing theme and recitative-like melodies to express (1989), one of his early big studio films, covers both great success with Mission Impossible (1966-73), about 1968, starring teenagers Leonard Whiting and Olivia continued to prefer to work in Italy with only a few Badelt then wrote the score with some help from other the desperation that the film’s heroine suppresses. bases but, unlike the camp television series with music a group of US secret agents, the Impossible Missions Hussey. After the previous year’s The Taming of the forays into Hollywood. One of these was Francis Ford colleagues. Though it is a modern-sounding score and Shakespeare in Love (1998) was an international by Neil Hefti, Burton’s film is a dark vision of a troubled Force. Each episode began with a tape recorder outlining Shrew Zeffirelli turned again to veteran Nino Rota to Coppola’s mafia epic The Godfather (1972 and 1974; does not attempt to recapture a Korngold sound, Badelt hit, winning seven Oscars, including one for the score by crime-fighter. After a mournful opening there is a “Your mission, should you decide to you accept it”. The capture another love story. Based on a song-like melody, for the last instalment in 1990, Coppola’s father Carmine was careful to include lots of hints of jigs and sea- Stephen Warbeck. It is his biggest success to date, moment of glittering percussion before the music pulls tape would then be destroyed or even self-destruct and the extensive score moves through a panoply of moods took over, reusing Rota’s theme). The music became shanties. though he also scored television’s Prime Suspect, the itself together and launches forward with a driving a lit fuse would fizzle across the screen as Schifrin’s and at time takes on a distinctly English folk-song feel hugely popular but Rota could not be Oscar-nominated Michael Cimino’s first film Thunderbolt and film version of Billy Elliot (2000) and Captain Corelli’s rhythm. driving main theme kicked in for the credits. The film (at one point there is an actual vocal version), which for the first part, as the love theme was based on a Lightfoot was a success and he embarked on the huge Mandolin (2001).