Concert Review: A Long Trip to Jupiter

The New York Philharmonic brings back 2001.
by Paul J. Pelkonen

Class in session: the man-apes and the Monolith in 2001: A Space Odyssey.
Image © 1968 Warner Bros. Used for promotional purposes only.

What is 2001: A Space Odyssey really about?.

Stanley Kubrick's seminal 1968 classic is now 50 years old, and remains as puzzling as ever. On Friday night, as part of this year's The Art of the Score festival, the New York Philharmonic performed the complete orchestral and choral music of 2001 as accompaniment to a large scale screening of the film at Lincoln Center.

Concert Review: Man vs. Monolith

The New York Philharmonic plays 2001: A Space Odyssey.
by Paul J. Pelkonen

Here's looking at you, Earth. The Star-Child (formerly David Bowman)
from the last scene of 2001: A Space Odyssey.
Image © 1968 MGM/Turner Films.

It's not every day that the New York Philharmonic draws thunderous applause for performing the relatively obscure works of Gyorgi Ligeti, the iconoclastic Hungarian composer who remains one of the most important musical voices of the latter half of the 20th century.

It's also not every day that Avery Fisher Hall is invaded by man-apes, monoliths and mad computers with a tendency to commit homicide in the depths of space between Mars and Jupiter. To say nothing of secretive government bureaucrats, ice-blooded astronauts and a psychedelic light show that still confuses viewers 45 minutes after its premiere.

On Friday night, Alan Gilbert and the New York Philharmonic performed the complete score of Stanley Kubrick's masterpiece 2001: A Space Odyssey. The concert, which featured a complete screening of the sci-fi epic above the Avery Fisher Hall stage was part of Film Week, a special concert series designed to drum up interest in the 2013-14 season of New York's oldest orchestra.

Putting Ideas Together VI: "I'm Sorry, Dave."

When Pink Floyd's Echoes meets 2001: A Space Odyssey.
by Paul J. Pelkonen

The members of Pink Floyd (l.-r. Roger Waters, Nick Mason,
David Gilmour, Rick Wright) meet their new friend HAL 9000.
Image of HAL 9000 © 1969 Turner Pictures. Image of Pink Floyd © 1971 EMI Records.
Photoshop by the author.

Classical music aficionados and science fiction geeks alike know that Stanley Kubrick's seminal film 2001: A Space Odyssey features a whole slew of great music, from the opening use of Richard Strauss' Also Sprach Zarathustra to Johann Strauss' Blue Danube. Later scenes feature Atmospheres by iconoclastic Hungarian composer Gyorgi Ligeti.


Movie geeks know that if you watch The Wizard of Oz with the sound off while listening to Pink Floyd's The Dark Side of the Moon, weird things are supposed to happen. But what is the result when you combine the grand final act of 2001 with Pink Floyd?