31.5. Helsinki Music Centre at 7 pm

Frank Strobel, conductor

The Idle Class (USA 1921) 34 min

Charles Chaplin Productions Distributed by: First National Produced, directed and written by: Charles Chaplin Cinematography: Roland H. Totheroh Art direction: Charles D. Hall Music: Charles Chaplin (1971) Starring: Charles Chaplin (tramp/husband), (wife), (Edna’s father), Lita Grey (guest)

INTERVAL 20 min

The Kid (USA 1921) 60 min

Charles Chaplin Productions Distributed by: First National Produced, directed and written by: Charles Chaplin Cinematography: Roland H. Totheroh Art direction: Charles D. Hall Music: Charles Chaplin (1971), orchestral version Carl Davis Starring: Charles Chaplin (tramp), Edna Purviance (wife), Jackie Coo- gan (kid), Carl Miller (artist)

Original version: 1614 m / 20 fps / 70 min. Version edited and sonorised by Chaplin with a new musical score (1971): 1500 m / 55 min, 60 min

FILMPHILHARMONIC EDITION: Film by courtesy of Roy Export Company S.A.S., Music by courtesy of Bourne Music Co.

Finnish subtitles: Saara Vironmäki

Interval at about 19.40. The concert ends at about 21.05.

1 CHAPLIN’S THE KID the filming was finally completed 18 months later, the situation was so infla- AND THE IDLE CLASS med that Chaplin had to smuggle the negative to Salt Lake City and to hide Chaplin’s The Kid marked a turning from the bailiffs in New York until a re- point in movie history. Until then, the conciliation was reached with Mildred. great comedians had made a name The main reason for the delay was in for themselves with series of their fact that Chaplin had realised he had own consisting of short comedies. But in his hands a bigger film than he had The Kid was so popular that not only originally foreseen. It still had plenty Chaplin but Buster Keaton and Harold of situation comedy. It also had a sty- Lloyd as well from then onwards con- lised realism combined with lyricism, centrated on the production of long humour and emotional impact. As in comedies. the other Chaplin films dating from The story begins when a newborn around that time (Sunnyside, A Day’s babe ends up in the hands of Charlie Pleasure), there is also an amusing, nai- , who at first does everything vist dream sequence. The thing about he can to be freed of the child. Five The Kid that was new, bold and original years later, the kid is now the assistant was Chaplin’s knack of combining farce of glazier Charlie. It is his job to bre- with drama. ak windows in order to create work for Charles Maland claims that the po- Charlie, who just happens to arrive on pularity of the Chaplin films from The the scene. Gold Rush onwards derived from the The plot is based on a Victorian tale aesthetic contract he made with the of a woman (“whose only sin was mot- audience. This contract provided the herhood”) who abandons her baby in viewer with a tramp persona, romance, the hope that someone rich will adopt inventive visual comedy, pathos, and him. But a tramp finds the baby and two contrasting sets of values. Many years later, having acted as his guar- of these elements are there in The Kid, dian angel, returns him to his mother, but instead of romance, there is an who is now a famous opera singer. At adult-child relationship. Like certain ot- this point Chaplin’s films take a psycho- her major Chaplin films, this one has an logical turn of direction: their mission open end. is now care for another. The tramp who The Idle Class (1921), made after The once had a disastrous effect on everyt- Kid and re-released with it in 1971, was hing or, as the butt of events arouses one of Chaplin’s last short films. In it he sympathy becomes a human prepared plays a dual role: a penniless, golf-play- to help others. ing tramp and a wealthy alcoholic hus- The filming of The Kid was inter- band. Their paths cross at a masque- rupted when Charlie’s wife Mildred (eg- rade ball, with hilarious consequences. ged on by her mother) initiated messy divorce proceedings against him. When Antti Alanen (abridged)

2 FRANK STROBEL him all over the world and he has par- ticipated in numerous music festivals, including the Berlin, Hong Kong and Frank Strobel has established him- Vienna. self as an eminent conductor in the world of film music. He combines a thorough grounding in the Classical, Romantic and 20th century concert THE FINNISH RADIO repertoire with a wealth of experience SYMPHONY as a conductor, arranger, editor, produ- cer and recording artist. As well as edi- ORCHESTRA ting and conducting the original mu- sic for classics, he has made The Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra a speciality of arranging and perfor- (FRSO) is the orchestra of the Finnish ming new scores. In 2003 he edited Broadcasting Company (yle). Its mis- the reconstructed original music by sion is to produce and promote Finnish Prokofiev for Alexander Nevsky, which musical culture. Its Chief Conductor as he then conducted and recorded for of autumn 2013 will be Hannu Lintu, CD, winning the Preis der Deutschen following a season (2012/2013) as the Schallplattenkritik 2004. He has also orchestra’s Principal Guest Conductor. worked on many new German, British The FRSO has two Honorary and American films and TV movies. Conductors: Jukka-Pekka Saraste and In addition to the FRSO, Frank Sakari Oramo. Strobel enjoys particularly close pro- The Radio Orchestra of ten players fessional relationships with the Berlin founded in 1927 grew to symphony or- Radio Symphony, Frankfurt Radio chestra strength in the 1960s. Its previ- Symphony, MDR Radio Orchestra ous Chief Conductors have been Toivo Leipzig, NDR Radio Orchestra Hanover, Haapanen, Nils-Eric Fougstedt, Paavo Oslo Philharmonic, Orchestre National Berglund, Okko Kamu, Leif Segerstam, de Lyon and the Konzerthaus Vienna. Jukka-Pekka Saraste and Sakari Oramo. Highlights of the present season in- The latest contemporary music is a clude his debut at the Barbican with major item in the repertoire of the FRSO, the London Symphony Orchestra and which each year premieres a number of symphonic film music concerts featu- yle commissions. Another of the orches- ring 2001: A Space Odyssey, Metropolis tra’s tasks is to record all Finnish orches- and Matrix. tral music for the yle archive. During the From 1997 to 1998 Frank Strobel was 2012/2013 season it will premiere six Principal Conductor of the German works commissioned by yle. Film Orchestra Babelsberg. Since 2000 The FRSO has recorded works by he has been Artistic Director of the Eötvös, Nielsen, Hakola, Lindberg, European FilmPhilharmonic Institute Saariaho, Sallinen, Kaipainen, Kokkonen Berlin. His concert tours have taken and others, and the debut disc of the

3 opera Aslak Hetta by Armas Launis. Its discs have reaped some major distinc- tions, such as the BBC Music Magazine Award and the Académie Charles Cros Award. The disc of the Sibelius and Lindberg Violin Concertos (Sony BMG) with Lisa Batiashvili as the soloist re- ceived the MIDEM Classical Award in 2008, in which year the New York Times chose the other Lindberg disc as its Record of the Year. The FRSO regularly tours to all parts of the world. During the 2012/2013 season it will be heading for Eastern Finland and Southern Europe. All the FRSO concerts both in Finland and abroad are broadcast, usually live, on yle Radio 1. They can also be heard and watched with excellent live stream quality on the FRSO website (yle.fi/rso).

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