Movie themes come alive in cinematic spectacle

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This article was published 07/04/2024 (586 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Hooray for Hollywood! The Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra celebrated nearly a century of movie magic with its final concert of its Live at the WSO series, Blockbuster Scores.

The 145-minute program (including intermission) featuring 15 overtures, theme songs and suites (oh my!) also allowed Saturday night’s crowd of 1,678 to bid their own fond farewell to outgoing WSO associate conductor Julian Pellicano.

The much-beloved maestro assumes his new position as staff conductor with the National Ballet of Canada this fall after 11 seasons on this podium, including leading an astonishing 460 plus concerts. Pellicano has one more WSO show to go – fittingly, conducting a live film score next month — before he leaves for Toronto.

Blockbuster Scores was hosted by CBC senior arts reporter and film critic Eli Glasner, whose animated delivery of fun facts, film lore and historical context set up each of the chronologically presented selections and added much to the evening’s enjoyment. So did his kibitzing with Pellicano that infused the otherwise scripted show with both spontaneity and keen insights into what makes a good film score tick. The engaging host’s palpable passion for film ran like a leitmotif throughout the show — even perching on his own director’s chair, bopping along to the music, between each of his introductions.

Highlights – and there were many – included, right off the top – Alfred Newman’s famous fanfare 20th Century Fox Theme, that led immediately to Johnny Mercer/Richard Whiting’s Hooray for Hollywood. We also heard Max Steiner’s lushly arranged Tara’s Theme from Gone with the Wind, with Glasner sensitively contextualizing the now controversial film as a “time capsule” that neatly whitewashed the inhumane realities of American slavery during its 1939 première.

A particularly zesty The Wizard of Oz concert suite, showing plenty of snap, crackle and pop courtesy of the percussion section, even included audience participation that Winnipeg audiences adore. After Pellicano invited the mixed-ages crowd to morph into the Wicked Witch of the West’s Winkies, the entire house of (now) castle guards bellowed their ominous “Oh-E-Oh” chant as the band played on.

One will never tire of hearing any of Leonard Bernstein’s brilliant works, with his overture to West Side Story becoming another highlight, including the musicians gaily shouting “mambo” right on cue.

Pellicano also led an enthralling Lawrence of Arabia overture, matched equally by a take-no-prisoners James Bond suite, including a cameo appearance of the franchise’s iconic Diamonds are Forever theme that sparkled like a gemstone.

Some of the lengthier pieces proved too much of a good thing, including Howard Shore’s The Fellowship of the Ring: Symphonic Suite, that lacked cohesion at times, and Hans Zimmer’s Interstellar Suite, despite guest musician Charmaine Bacon’s nifty organ solo that thundered to the gods.

One can forgive another longer piece, John Williams’ Adventures on Earth from E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial for being Pellicano’s sentimental top pick, with the artist charmingly admitting “I’m a really sappy individual,” before launching into the theme from Spielberg’s child-centred, alien fantasy flick.

You know that any show with “blockbuster” in its title isn’t exactly going to be an evening of easy, laid back listening. Two-plus hours (and this program could — and should — have been whittled by half an hour) of loud ’n’ proud, high-octane energy makes one long for a few kinder, gentler numbers that don’t always end in full throttle. There are only so many fanfares and crescendos rising to a fevered pitch one can absorb in a night, with the program at times feeling overly homogenous.

However the sweet spot did arrive right after intermission, with Nino Rota’s Love Theme from The Godfather. The deeply — and surprisingly — moving sight and sight and sounds of Pellicano suddenly slipping into the orchestra as an equal among peers to strap on his accordion to bring to life Rota’s molten melody, firmly rooted in the conductor’s own ancestral Italian homeland will not soon be forgotten.

Bravo, maestro, for this pitch perfect grace note to your illustrious WSO career.

As expected, the crowd roared its approval with a standing ovation at the end of the night, leading to a final encore of the main theme from Star Wars, that blasted us into our own starry, Winnipeg multiverse.

Holly.harris@shaw.ca