Soundtrack to the end Julian Pellicano wraps up WSO tenure with tribute to movie music By: Alan Small Posted: 6:27 PM CDT Thursday, Apr. 4, 2024

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Julian Pellicano will lead the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra on a journey of famous movie music this weekend, from Gone with the Wind and West Side Story to the James Bond film franchise.

What won’t be on the Blockbuster Scores bill is the music from Robert Altman’s The Long Goodbye, although the title of the 1973 noir film is an apt description of the amicable end to an 11-year relationship between associate conductor Pellicano and the orchestra.

He announced in February he will step down from the WSO at the end of this season and take his baton to Toronto to join the National Ballet of Canada.

Pellicano had guest-conducted with the National Ballet previously and the company liked what they saw and heard.

“The chemistry was right and they approached me and I felt really good about it,” the 44-year-old says during an interview at the Royal Winnipeg Ballet, where he will continue in his role as its music director and principal conductor.

“I’m very lucky I get to continue working with the RWB because I love this company so much.”

It was a difficult decision to leave the orchestra, but he’ll continue performing with its musicians, many of whom have become friends, when they accompany RWB performances at the Centennial Concert Hall.

“We’ve developed a relationship for 11 years between myself and the musicians and this is just the beginning of a new chapter for us because this won’t be the last time we work together,” Pellicano says.

He still has Saturday night’s and Sunday afternoon’s performances at the concert hall, which winds up the 2023-24 Live at the WSO season.

He will also lead the orchestra May 3 and 4 for Star Wars: A New Hope, which has the symphony performing John Williams’ Academy Award-winning score alongside the 1977 smash starring Mark Hamill, Carrie Fisher and Harrison Ford.

The Force will pull Pellicano back to the WSO next season when he leads the orchestra on the next two films in the franchise, The Empire Strikes Back (Sept. 20-21) and Return of the Jedi (Jan. 17-18, 2025).

Pellicano had never conducted an orchestra alongside a film when he joined the WSO as its resident conductor in 2013; however, the Yale School of Music grad jumped into the deep end of the pool and has since become a specialist in the segment.

His expertise has grown along with the popularity of WSO movie performances, which varied from silent films such as Metropolis (1927) to contemporary hits, such as the Harry Potter movie franchise.

Ordinarily, the famous Star Wars theme would be a natural for the Blockbuster Scores concert, but the upcoming screening of the film with the WSO accompaniment meant a shift to another of Williams’ famous works.

Pellicano says the score from E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, the 1982 hit directed by Steven Spielberg — especially the music that accompanies the film’s final chase scene — holds cinematic importance.

“They edited the film around the musical performance. That very rarely happens,” Pellicano says.

“We’ve developed a relationship for 11 years between myself and the musicians and this is just the beginning of a new chapter for us because this won’t be the last time we work together.”–Julian Pellicano

“We play so much Williams at the WSO, but you can’t leave him out. It’s Williams’ absolute best film score. If you’re not going to play Star Wars, you have to play E.T.”

The concert will follow the history of music in movies, beginning with an overture from Captain Blood, the 1935 Errol Flynn and Olivia de Havilland pirate classic, and the 1939 Civil War epic Gone with the Wind, which made Austrian emigrés Erich Korngold and Max Steiner and their music synonymous with Hollywood’s Golden Age.

“I thought it would be cool to do a show where we go in chronological order through some of the first films when they had the technology to actually put a film, dialogue and music on the filmstrip and have it synchronized. There are some really incredible composers and tunes,” Pellicano says.

Other highlights on the bill include Lawrence of Arabia (Maurice Jarre); The Magnificent Seven (Elmer Bernstein); The Godfather (Nino Rota); Apollo 13 (James Horner); The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (Howard Shore); Emma (Rachel Portman); and Interstellar (Hans Zimmer).

The music from James Bond films will focus on the works of John Barry, who arranged the film franchise’s famous theme and scored 11 of the films, including Dr. No, From Russia With Love, Goldfinger and Moonraker.

“There’s just so many numbers in this show, it’s kind of like a blizzard of music,” Pellicano says. “I truly believe the composers that have been working in Hollywood since the 1920s are the most talented, gifted composers who have ever worked. It just so happens they work in this medium.”

The conductor, who grew up on Long Island in New York, moved his family to Winnipeg after taking the job; his youngest daughter was born here. They are waiting until summer, when the school year is finished, before moving to Toronto.

Pellicano had little background in conducting ballet before guesting with the RWB in 2017, and he found a connection between leading an orchestra to film and collaborating with dancers. In both cases, the musical performance serves a bigger purpose.

”It was always something I wanted to do, to conduct for theatre. At the time I thought opera, but when ballet was presented to me, it felt very natural. I didn’t know I was going to feel that way,” he says.

“It opened my eyes to a new part of my career for me.”

The WSO is hosting a luncheon in his honour Sunday at 11 a.m. at La Cucina Italia, the Fort Garry Hotel’s restaurant, prior to the Blockbuster Scores performance at 2 p.m.

“I’m kind of overwhelmed by the whole thing because I wasn’t expecting it all,” he says of the celebration. “I’m very grateful to the symphony for doing that.”

Alan.Small@winnipegfreepress.com

X: @AlanDSmall