Sydney Philharmonia Choirs' Music from the Movies

Choral Singing / Sydney Philharmonia Choirs

Saturday 11 May at 8pm
Sydney Opera House Concert Hall


Presented by TEDX Sydney Curator and host of The Movie Show on SBS Fenella Kernebone and conducted by Elizabeth Scott with the Sydney Philharmonia Orchestra, this promises to be the most spectacular concert of the year.


Free pre-concert talk in the Northern Foyer 45 minutes prior to the concert.
Sponsored by Fine Music 2FM.

Sydney Philharmonia's Music from the Movies, 11 May 2019.

Behind nearly every great movie scene is an equally memorable musical moment. Pay closer attention and you’ll notice just how many of those are powered by the human voice. From the crystal purity of the opening to Frozen to the primal sounds of Hans Zimmer’s score for Gladiator, there’s really nothing the voice can’t express, and for the first Festival Chorus concert of 2019 we’re assembling a blockbuster program of the highlights.

Representing the classic soundtracks of John Williams, there’s ‘Dry Your Tears, Afrika’ (Amistad) ‘Hymn to the Fallen’ (Saving Private Ryan) and the terrifying ‘Duel of the Fates’ (Star Wars). We’ve got Australian film-making covered with the ingenious, eclectic score from Baz Luhrmann’s Romeo + Juliet and the aural vista of Nigel Westlake’s Solarmax and Babe soundtracks. And the concert wouldn’t be complete without some of the great classical choral works that have been ‘borrowed’ for the movies: Handel’s Zadok the Priest (The Madness of King George), Beethoven’s ‘Ode to Joy’ (A Clockwork Orange) and, of course, Mozart’s Requiem (Amadeus).


PROGRAM

Choral highlights from the movies including:

Alice in Wonderland, Amadeus, Babe, Frozen, Gladiator, Hymn of the Fallen, Star Wars, The Lion King, The Mission, Baz Luhrmann’s Romeo + Juliet, Saving Private Ryan, and more ...


ARTISTS

Elizabeth Scott Conductor
Fenella Kernebone, Presenter
Festival Chorus
VOX
Sydney Philharmonia Orchestra

(The performance will be recorded by Fine Music 102.5FM for future broadcast. Recording engineer Peter Bell)


Below are videos related to our repertoire:

Alice in Wonderland (Score) 2010 - Alice's Theme. Uploaded by Sakura Jurai.  Accessed 15 April 2019.

Amadeus.  Mozart Requiem "Dies Irae" (Claudio Abbado, conducting). Uploaded by medici.tv.  Accessed 15 April 2019.

Amadeus.  Mozart Requiem "Confutatis/Lacrimosa.  Uploaded by agustigula4.  Accessed 15 April 2019.

Australia: Music from the Movie / "Fire from the Sky".  Uploaded by David Hirschfelder - Topic.  Accessed 15 April 2019.

Symphony No. 9 "Choral". Beethoven. Uploaded by BMinhauzen.  Accessed 15 April 2019.

Babe Soundtrack. "If I Had Words", one sung by Farmer Hoggett, and Babe End Music. YouTube, uploaded by balletic.  Accessed 15 April 2019. 

 

Lyrics:  

Songwriters: Jonathan Hodge / Camille Saint-Saens

"If I had words to make a day for you
I'd sing you a morning golden and new
I would make this day last for all time
Give you a night deep in moon shine."

 

Camille Saint-Saëns - Symphony No. 3 in C minor, Op. 78 (Adapted for Babe). YouTube, uploaded by Dart Vader The Invisible Art of Film Music. Accessed 15 April 2019. 
 

Dry Your Tears Africa - Amistad.  Uploaded by ChuckRazor. Accessed 15 April 2019.

Duel of the Fates - Cinema in Concert - 01. John Williams.  Uploaded by crsOrchester.  Accessed 15 April 2019.

Gladiator Movie Trailer. Hans Zimmer (Official Clip Movie Trailer - HD. Uploaded by movietrailer938. Accessed 15 April 2019. 

Gladiator - Now we are free.  Uploaded by NoName.  Accessed 15 April 2019.

The Lion King - I Just Can't Wait to be King. Uploaded by TLKEmmet.  Accessed 15 April 2019. 

The Lion King - The Circle of Life. Uploaded by Austin B.  Accessed 15 April 2019.

Romeo + Juliet (Prologue) 1996.  Uploaded by Marnieee.  Accessed 15 April 2019.

Romeo + Juliet OST - 15 - Mercurio's Death. Uploaded by xosoundtrackloverxo.  Accessed 15 April 2019.

Symphony No. 9 "Choral". Beethoven.  Uploaded by BMinhauzen.  Accessed 15 April 2019. 

Zadok the Priest - Westminster Abbey Choir and Choristers of the Chapel Royal. Uploaded by DrWestbury.  Accessed 15 April 2019.


Reviews of Performance

Music from the Movies: Sydney Philharmonia Choirs. Sydney Arts Guide.  Accessed 12 May 2019.  

Music from the Movies: Sydney Philharmonia Choirs. Sydney Opera House Concert Hall. May 11, 2019. Stage Whispers. Accessed 12 May 2019.

Music from the Movies (Sydney Philharmonia Choirs). Limelight Magazine. Accessed May 14, 2019. 


Video Credit:

Choristers Unite. Life: get amongst it. Accessed April 1, 2019. (This video was produced during one of our rehearsals for Music for the Movies concert.) 


Resources: 

Broadway World.  Sydney Philharmonia Choirs Presents Music from the Movies. Broadway World. Accessed 27 April 2019.

FILMINK.  Sydney Philharmonia Choirs presents Music from the Movies, Saturday May 11, Sydney Opera House Concert Hall. April 15, 2019.

Sydney Opera House. Music from the Movies. April 15, 2019.

Sydney Philharmonia Choirs Program. 11May 2019.

Sydney Philharmonia Choirs / Music from the Movies  (available at this time of Posting).  Accessed April 1, 2019.

Time Out.  Sydney Philharmonia Choirs: Music from the Movies. Accessed 27 April 2019


YouTube.  www.youtube.com.





(c) April 15, 2019.  Updated, May 14, 2019. Tel. Inspired Pen Web. All rights reserved. 

Sydney Philharmonia Choirs' Bach and Mozart: In the Imagination of their Hearts

Choral Singing / Sydney Philharmonia Choirs

Saturday 20 April at 2pm Sydney Opera House Concert Hall

Free pre-concert talk in the Northern Foyer 45 minutes prior to the concert. Sponsored by Fine Music FM.

Sydney Philharmonia Choirs and Capella St Crucis Choristers.
Photo Courtesy: Eric Hansen.

Between the solemnity of Good Friday and the joy of resurrection on Easter Morning, Easter Saturday might be the ‘deadest day of the church calendar’, but in 2019 you can spend Saturday afternoon with the Sydney Philharmonia Choirs at the Sydney Opera House for a musical expression of faith that will lift your soul.

At the heart of the program is Johann Sebastian Bach and his brilliant Magnificat. Voices ring out – ‘My soul doth magnify the Lord!’ – and the music resounds with trumpets and drums in a spirit of festive celebration. Five soloists bring their dazzling virtuosity and expressive powers to a text that ranges between sheer elation and a profound expression of humility as Mary responds to the news that she will be the mother of Christ.

Framing the Magnificat are two works that, each in their own way, look to Bach for inspiration. The Sydney Philharmonia Choirs have commissioned a new motet for 50 voices from The Song Company’s artistic director Antony Pitts, who takes the explosive harmonies from Bach’s setting of the words ‘In the imagination of their hearts’ as his starting point. As he describes it, Bach’s moment of collective madness is frozen in a kind of anachronistic bullet time and scattered to the four winds and back to Bach.

After interval you can eavesdrop on the newly married Mozart through his work in Great Mass in C minor, embarking on a grand mass for choir and orchestra, to be performed in Salzburg when the couple make their first visit to his disapproving father. Wolfgang Mozart found fresh inspiration in the Baroque techniques of Bach and Handel, combining their complex weaving of voices with the elegance and drama of the Classical style. But he didn’t finish – no one’s entirely sure why – and so it remains ‘half a mass’, tantalising nevertheless magnificent.

The Sydney Philharmonia Choirs invited the Capella St Crucis of Hannover and its conductor Florian Lohmann to join the Sydney Philharmonia's Chamber Singers and Symphony Chorus as they continue their much-loved tradition of Easter concerts.

PROGRAM

Antony PITTS    XLX Mente cordis sui (Premiere)
     "Song of the Elders" - Revelation 5: 9-10
     "Song of theAngels" - Revelation 5:12
     "Song of All Creatures" - Revelation 5: 13-14
    
JS BACH    Magnificat in D major BWV 243
     from the Magnificat - Luke 1:51
     (in the imagination of their hearts, He hath scattered the proud ...)

WA MOZART    Great Mass in C minor KV 427


ARTISTS

Florian Lohmann conductor (Mozart)
Brett Weymark conductor (Bach, Pitts)
Sara Macliver soprano
Anna Dowsley mezzo-soprano
Nicholas Tolputt countertenor
Nicholas Jones tenor
David Greco baritone
Capella St Crucis Hannover
Chamber Singers
Symphony Chorus
Sydney Philharmonia Orchestra
Fiona Ziegler, concertmaster


(The performance will be recorded by Fine Music 102.5FM for future broadcast. Recording engineer Peter Bell)


Reviews of Performance

Bach & Mozart: In the Imagination of their Hearts. Stage Whispers. Accessed April 26, 2019.

Bach & Mozart: In the Imagination of their Hearts @ The Sydney Opera House.  Sydney Arts Guide. Accessed April 26, 2019.

Sydney Philharmonia Choirs: A dazzling Easter dip into Bach and Mozart. Reviewer: Peter McCallum. The Sydney Morning Herald. Accessed April 21, 2019.


(Personal note:  I found this concert timely, performed right on a Holy Saturday. It is compelling and meaningful. I'm not just talking about the superb repertoire, the magnificent choirs, soloists, orchestra,  and quality conducting. I'm talking about an extra depth that one experiences as an audience-member ... when I was transposed into something divine ... I have no words, I can only feel. Everything started with Antony Pitts' featured new work XLX MENTECORDIS SUI. The delightful voices of various split choirs well-positioned inside the Sydney Opera House sounded like calm ocean waves that washes away the weariness of the soul, in reflection of the Holy Week. And Bach's Magnificat! What an enthralling interpretation. How can one not be touched! And the program's finale: Mozart's Great Mass in C minor. I lie if I don't admit that the main attraction for me is this Wunderkind's Mass in C. SPC did not disappoint. Whilst listening intently to the performance came to mind the 1984 Milos Forman movie Amadeus, for in parallel with the Great Mass in C, unfinished like WAM's Requiem but considered also his greatest work. What an uplifting glorious performance! Bravo, and thank you, Sydney Philharmonia Choirs and Capella St. Crucis. / Tel)

Suggested Listening:

 

Mozart Mass in C minor K.427 Gardiner. YouTube, uploaded by vse vsad. Accessed April 1, 2019. (Monteverdi Choir. Eric Ericson. Chamber Choir. Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra. Mia Persson soprano. Ann Hallenberg mezzo-soprano. Helge Rønning tenor. Peter Mattei bass. Nobel Prize Concert 2008.)

 

Video Credit:

In Conversation: Brett Weymark, Bach, Mozart at Easter. Uploaded by Sydney Philharmonia Choirs. Accessed April 1, 2019.

Resources: 

Antony Pitts: 50 is the new 40. Limelight Magazine. Accessed April 16, 2019.

Bach & Mozart. Sydney Opera House. April 15, 2019.

Sydney Philharmonia Choirs / Bach & Mozart (available at this time of Posting).  Accessed April 1, 2019.

Sydney Philharmonia Choirs Program.



(c) April 1, 2019.  Updated, April 20, 2019. Tel. Inspired Pen Web. All rights reserved.