This
weekend the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra presents music from 50 years of
James Bond films. If you managed to totally screw up Valentine’s Day, or just
want a sexy, swinging night on the town, this is a program that will hit the
target.
Guest
conductor Carl Davis, anything but undercover in flashy attire, including a
bedazzled Union Jack vest, led the RPO through more than two dozen musical
numbers from the Bond catalogue. Starting with John Barry’s theme from 1962’s “Dr.
No” and building to Adele’s award-winning title song from 2012’s “Skyfall,” Davis gave the audience a crash course in
Bond-ology, tracing the iconic spy in his film adventures. Davis imparted
little bits of information about the actors who played the role, as well as the
musicians and composers who have been involved in scoring the series over the
decades.
As
a property that has existed for 50 years, the Bond films present a unique
cultural opportunity. This program serves as a fascinating kind of musical
anthropology, as you can trace shifting artistic trends over the past 50 years.
The 1960’s film scores were dominated by that suave, masculine orchestral
sound, while the 70’s devolved into schmaltz (Marvin Hamlisch’s
“Nobody Does it Better” from “The Spy Who Loved Me”) and the 80’s ventured into
slick pop-rock sounds (Duran Duran’s “A View to a Kill”). Interestingly, the 21st
century Bond films, the three starring Daniel Craig, have boomeranged back to
those 60’s roots musically as well, with the modern scores including some of
the iconic elements of the earlier films while still sounding totally fresh and
relevant to today.
The
orchestra in generally performed well Friday night,
and I noticed more than a couple of gleeful smiles on the faces of the musicians
as they attacked some of those classic Bond motifs. The musicians sounded
equally at home playing the more traditional nocturne from “Octopussy”
as they did taking on an instrumental-only version of “Die Another
Day” by Madonna. (Davis made an easy joke at Madge’s less-than-renowned
composing career, but it’s actually a pretty nifty song once you take out the
droning staccato lyrics.) I will admit to totally rocking out during the faster
portions of “Live and Let Die,” headbanging and all
in the Eastman Theatre.
However,
there were two critical instances where I felt that the orchestra didn’t live
up to the standards set by the original songs. In the opening number from “Dr.
No,” that absolutely essential thrumming guitar line didn’t synch up with rest
of the orchestra. The soloist had the rhythms down, but the timing of that
particular passage is tricky; it’s not quite on the beat, and he was slightly
off, making it sound rushed instead of that key laidback cool. In a similar
vein, the first song after intermission, “View to a Kill,” lacked urgency from
the brass section. That song includes gunfire-like stings from the brass
section which, on Friday, sounded more like pop guns. Give us the punch, folks.
This is James Bond! The man demands potency in every way.
Vocalist
Mary Carewe joined Davis and the orchestra on roughly
half the songs for the night. On the one hand, singing James Bond themes sounds
like a pretty fun gig. On the other, the originals feature some amazing
singers, and living up to Shirley Bassey, Tina
Turner, Adele, and the like is no small order. Carewe
does a fantastic job with all of the disparate styles, and was especially good
on the theme to “License to Kill.”
The
RPO again presents “Classic Bond” Saturday, February 16, 8 p.m. at Eastman
Theatre. For more information visit the website.
This article appears in Feb 13-19, 2013.
I am a life-long 007 fan (although still feel strongly that Sean Connery was second-to-nobody in the role), and attended this concert on Friday night. I am also the son of a Julliard-trained classical pianist, hence from birth I’ve learned a thing or two over the years with regard to music in general and musical performances.
Although I enjoyed the concert in general, I too felt that this performance of the music was “scaled back”, and lacked the passion, volume, and intensity of the original music. I also noted that the vast majority of concert attendees sat completely still and static throughout the concert, while my head was bobbing and weaving with the beat. Overall, I was wondering, “where’s the passion”?, both in terms of the orchestra and particularly the audience.