The Sarasota Orchestra�s skillful performance of great moments from Oscar-worthy film scores effectively turned the usual structure of those films upside down. The wisdom of such a step is debatable, but the pleasure it provided on Saturday evening was undeniable.
n a production created by John Goberman's New York-based PGM Productions, excerpts from such iconic movies as �Gone With the Wind,� �Ben-Hur,� �An American in Paris,� �Citizen Kane� and �The Wizard of Oz� were screened while the orchestra, under Andrew Lane�s decisive direction, played the scores in synchronization with the images projected above them.
�The Adventures of Robin Hood� boasts a dynamic score by one of the European composers who effectively took over Hollywood movie music from 1930 to 1980, Erich Korngold. Unfortunately, the 1938 film�s sound track made separation of music and dialogue problematical, rendering the witty spoken words nearly unintelligible amid the resonance of the orchestra.
The same technical hurdle had a negative effect on Max Steiner�s score for the 1939 hit, �Gone with the Wind.� The fabulous sequence portraying the burning of Atlanta lacked both the dialogue and the sound effects so crucial to feeling the impact of the flames, the crowds and the collapsing buildings. However, the music underscoring Scarlett O�Hara�s vow never to be hungry again, including the glorious Tara Theme, matched the fine photography and early Technicolor beautifully.
1939 also saw the debut of another Technicolor spectacle, �The Wizard of Oz,� with a dazzling score by Herbert Stothart, including songs by Harold Arlen that live on, particularly in the ubiquitous �Somewhere Over the Rainbow,� played in both the film�s finale and the program overture.
Orson Welles always weighed the impact of music in his films very carefully. His debut film � never equalled, alas � was �Citizen Kane,� in which astonishing black-and-white cinematography and a rich score by Bernard Herrmann never miss a step. The excerpts included here, the opening and closing �Rosebud� sequences, were beautifully realized by the orchestra.
The greatest opportunity to blow us away occurred in the excerpts from Miklos Rosza�s score for �Ben-Hur.� By the time this film was made (1959), multi-track sound was the norm, making it possible for the producers of this concert to mix live sound with dialogue and effects, rendering all three more relevant. While the magnificent music was performed beautifully, its scale contrasted unfavorably with the small and somewhat dim projection, once more reminding us that the creators of these great films might well have been right in their original balance of music, sound effects, images and the spoken word.