Movie music

We didn't get out to shop for Black Friday until late because we spent the afternoon at an enjoyable concert at the Kennedy Center. Our friend Fr. Steven managed to acquire some complimentary tickets to the National Symphony Orchestra Pops concert and was kind enough to share them with us. They were actually quite fine tickets; we had the back corner "box" on the parterre level, which is a sort of two-row balcony partitioned in groups of ten that encircles the rectangular orchestra section and has seats that are essentially on the same height level as the stage. The nice thing about the parterre is that we had actual free-standing, padded chairs and there was a padded rail in front of us on which we could lean during the concert.

Yesterday's concert was "Salute to the Silver Screen," with principal Pops conductor and renowned award-winning (Oscar, Tony, Emmy, Grammy, Golden Globe, Pulitzer) composer Marvin Hamlisch on the podium and special guest soprano Broadway star Melissa Errico. It was a perfect concert for Ryan, who's a film major.

The show opened with Mr. Hamlisch seated at the piano, a pin spotlight on his face, as he played "As Time Goes By" from Casablanca, then segued into the orchestra playing the shrieking high A's of Psycho. They played "Tara's Theme" from Gone with the Wind and a musical medley of songs from Gene Kelly dancing movies that featured a percussionist who came up front to "play" a pair of tap shoes. Miss Errico came out to sing "Windmills of Your Mind," then a French song from a French movie accompanied only by a harp.

Throughout, Maestro Hamlisch provided his witty, educational commentary. At one point, he showed us a film clip of Burt Lancaster from The Swimmer as a movie composer would get it, without any music or sound effects, then asked the audience for ideas about how it should be scored. As the clip played a second time, Hamlisch played those ideas—the Olympics, William Tell, horse races, Chariots of Fire, etc.— on the piano.

A second-half playing of themes from The Godfather had Hamlisch asking various orchestra players to reprise their instrumental solos as he discussed composers' instrument selections, orchestral color, and the difference between "arrangement" and "orchestration."

Miss Errico returned, having changed from her first half strapless black dress to a claret velvet gown with a plunging decolletage neckline, to sing "The Sound of Music," and, from one of her signature roles, "I Could Have Danced All Night."

After playing many other things, they closed the concert with a medley of Hamlisch's songs from the movies Sophie's Choice, Ice Castles, The Way We Were, and The Sting, the maestro playing and conducting the last two from the piano. The audience's enthusiastic ovation was rewarded with an encore of "Somewhere Over the Rainbow."

In addition to all the splendid music, we got to see some interesting lighting design, as well. The pipes from a large organ are positioned in the back of the stage, and they used those pipes as a palette for stunning lighting effects.

The last performance of "Salute to the Silver Screen" is tonight at 8; don't miss it, if you like old movies!