Fairbanks Symphony Association goes to the movies for season's final concert

Published Friday, April 25, 2008

What: Fairbanks Symphony Association's FILM-Harmonic!

When: Free pre-show lecture, 7 p.m., concert 8 p.m. Saturday

Where: Davis Concert Hall, UAF

Tickets: $30 adults, $25 seniors, military, $10 students and children. Available at The Alaska House, The Artworks, Hoitt's Music, New Horizons Gallery, www.fairbankssymphony.org or 474-5733.

The Fairbanks Symphony Association spotlights music from the silver screen in its upcoming pops concert, and it promises to be an offer you can’t refuse.

“These movies really were blockbusters, and some won Academy Awards for their scores,” said George Rydlinski, head of marketing and sales for the Fairbanks Symphony Association. He’s also the symphony’s principal bassoonist. “It’s a really good mix, and there’s something for everybody in this show.”

The Fairbanks Symphony Association’s “FILM-Harmonic!” includes overtures and theme songs from a variety of classic films.

“We’ve got music from ‘The Ten Commandments,’ … and of course we have music from ‘The Godfather Suite’ composed by Nino Rota, who’s famous for composing many film scores,” he said. “We have some music that was used in ‘Raging Bull,’ but that was kind of stolen from an opera, ‘Cavalleria Rusticana.’ It’s the intermezzo from the opera, and they use that to great effect in ‘Raging Bull.’”

The collection includes some of conductor Eduard Zilberkant’s favorites, and he will lay out the details of those choices in a pre-concert lecture that starts at 7 p.m.

“Dr. Zilberkant will talk briefly about each piece and about the composing process for films,” Rydlinski said.

The lecture portion of the event is free.

“This is something a little bit different than the normal classical symphony concert,” said Rydlinski. “I think most people would have seen at least half if not more of these movies.”

And sometimes it’s the music that makes a movie go from good to great.

“Can you imagine a movie without a soundtrack?” he said.

Films like Alfred Hitchcock’s “Vertigo” would have struck a much-less eerie note without its thematic music, and songs from certain television shows or movies can conjure up great memories.

“We do a little nostalgic trip through music from Star Trek in an arrangement called, ‘Star Trek Throughout the Years,’” he said. “It starts with the original TV series and then goes into some of the movie themes and some of the TV spinoff themes like ‘Voyager’ and ‘Deep Space Nine.’”

For the young at heart, the symphony will do a medley from “The Muppets” and “The Pink Panther.”

“We’re going to have a special conductor for that piece, to highlight a longtime supporter of the Symphony Association,” he said. Longtime Fairbanksan Ted Sathauer will take over the conducting duties for part of the show.

“And then there’s a whole medley from Disney’s new classics,” he said.

That includes “A Whole New World,” from “Aladdin”; “The Bells of Notre Dame” from “The Hunchback of Notre Dame”; “Under the Sea” from “The Little Mermaid”; “Colors of the Wind,” from “Pocahontas”; “Be Our Guest” and “Beauty and the Beast” from “Beauty and the Beast”; and it closes out with “The Circle of Life” from “The Lion King.”

“I think a lot of kids can relate to that, as well as parents who have had kids in the last 20 or 30 years,” he said. “I’m sure they’ll recognize those tunes.”

The concert concludes with “The Superman March” by John Williams.

“It’s been something that many orchestras have been doing. some orchestras have a regular pops season, but in our orchestra, our season is relatively small, so we try to do it once a year and always in April,” he said. “It’s our last concert of the season, and we hope that we’ll get a good crowd out for it, even though it’s getting to that time of the year when everybody wants to be outside instead of inside.”

Michelle Peterson is a freelance writer for the News-Miner. Contact her at latitude@newsminer.com.

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