Unsung 'Cinematic Symphonies': Symphonies which sound like film music

[eschiss1]

And Korngold is particularly relevant here given the movie Deception (... I knew about the cello concerto from it but now I've read a bit of the context/a bit of a plot summary, with a cellist, a composer, etc. in a love triangle I really do want to see this film )

[sdtom]

Have you seen the Wilder picture The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes? This is the Rozsa Violin Concerto.

[eschiss1]

I gather(?) that Korngold's cello concerto is played more or less as such (by the cellist character?) in Deception (in a score composed -by- Korngold in 1946, not compiled in 1970 posthumously as "The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes" was) making it almost literally a cinematic concerto. (Like the Warsaw Concerto, then, but by a composer not only known for such things...) (Yes, not a cinematic symphony, I know, I know- for lack of, well- being a symphony. But I hope that bit of generalization does not lose the essence of the topic too much...)

[TerraEpon]

Korngold wrote a concerto around seven minutes for the film. This was later expanded to the 13 minute Op. 37 Cello Concerto. AFAIK the former has only ever been recorded on the complete score recording on Naxos -- others are all the later 'concert' version.

[Alan Howe]

Ahem, gentlemen. Back to symphonies, please.

[TerraEpon]

Ok well continuing on the Korngold front, he not only wrote a large symphony, but an even more romantic Sinfonietta which though early is still in his signature style.

Rozsa also wrote a symphony, which was early as well, but shows some hallmark of his later style.

[sdtom]

What would you all think if we started a site on this very material? I would be willing to put it together. Do you think there is enough interest?
Tom

[minacciosa]

Interesting; I find the Korngold to be a model of classic symphonic form; everything is where it should be, and all buoyed by an inexhaustible imagination capable of pouring new wine into the figurative old bottle of Haydn's symphonic structure.

Another great example: Dohnanyi's Symphony No.2, which I believe is one of the greatest symphonies from a century blessed by a plethora of timeless works in that form.

[sdtom]

http://www.andrew-pearce.com/cinemasymphony

Andrew Pearce has written a symphony about this very topic. I've talked to him, enjoyed his symphony very much, and can share his despair that he can't get it performed, something we all know about.
Tom

[ancestralvoices]

If it's only symphonies you're asking about, then here are some starters:

Karlowicz - symphony in E minor(his only), 2nd movement
Hanson - first two symphonies

...but if Symphonic Poems are considered...:

Novak - In the Tatras(this piece will surely give you everything you're looking for -- I think it's all encompassing) and also De Profundis for violence and despair.

Sibelius - Lemminkainen in Tuonela(from the Lemminkainen Suite)
              Kullervo Symphony(Kullervo's Youth - 2nd movement)

Lekeu --- Ophelie from Deuxieme Etude Symphonique(and possibly the Hamlet movement as well)

Atterberg -- almost everything, including his symphonies

Nikolai Tcherepnin - The Distant Princess

Choir and Orchestra:

Kodaly -- Missa Brevis(the choral and orchestral version)

Taneyev -- John of Damascus

While reading their bios just now -- I noticed how many of them are November/December births. Interesting, yet probably means nothing.

Most of the above are in minor keys.

If you enjoy some of the above -- I'll gladly send more.

[ancestralvoices]

Incidentally, , Novaks Autumn and May symphonies can be heard on youtube.

[sdtom]

Parts of the second symphony of Hanson was used in the film Alien to the chagrin of the film composer Goldsmith.

[eschiss1]

Well, it's (obviously) not just in Europe (West and East) (including England and Russia with that) that "film composer" and "concert composer" overlap; one reads that Alex North, who was commissioned to write music for the film 2001 that was never used (some works by obscure composers like Strauss, Ligeti and others were used instead, one gathers, and the film was in consequence quickly forgotten), took the music he'd written for the film and put it in one of his own (North's) symphonies (his 3rd, from what I read)...

(Not to mention, say, Copland, ...)

If anyone ever uses a part of Hanson's 2nd symphony other than the famous melody of the 2nd movement in a film (I used to work food-service at Interlochen NMC and one did hear a lot of that theme at concerts there, of course) I'll be surprised. The composer himself reuses it at least once, probably a few times, in other works (though composers - artists in general - will do that sort of thing; I can think of several other examples and not just Mahler and Shostakovich, either...)

[Alan Howe]

Undoubtedly the champion contender in this category is the Cinema Symphony by Andrew Pearce (b.Durham, England in 1975) which was mentioned earlier in the thread. My copy has finally turned up in the post and really there's no need for further discussion as the work was clearly designed to be a proper symphony dressed in the garb of John Williams-style Hollywood film music. The fact that the music is so magnificent - imaginative and wonderfully scored throughout its 52-minute length - renders all other possible contenders also-rans. I'd encourage all fans of film music to get hold of the piece: clearly conductor José Serebrier had a wail of a time with the Royal Scottish National Orchestra when the recording was made back in 2007.

There are also two welcome fillers - but more of them some other time.

[Mark Thomas]

Thanks for the resounding recommendation, Alan. It's downloading as I type!