Concert Review: The Rightful Pumpkin King

Danny Elfman opens the Lincoln Center Festival.
by Paul J. Pelkonen

Danny Elfman in full flight.
Photo by Beatrize Creative © 2015 Lincoln Center Festival

The gulf between "serious" composers and those who write music for Hollywood films is an unfortunate and artificial one, enforced by a music community that refuses to consider the film score as a legitimate means of creative expression. This summer, the Lincoln Center Festival seeks to breach that gap with Danny Elfman: Music from the Films of Tim Burton, a career-spanning retrospective concert program that chronicles a creative partnership that has lasted for fifteen films and thirty years.

Soundtrack Review: It's Wayne's World

Lincoln Center screens Tim Burton and Danny Elfman's Batman.
by Paul J. Pelkonen

Batman (Michael Keaton, l) confronts the Joker (Jack Nicholson, right) atop
Gotham City Cathedral at the climax of Batman. 
Image for promotional purposes only © 1989 Warner Bros.

In 1989, the Hollywood superhero film was born with Tim Burton's Batman, a dark, Gothic and deadly serious adaptation of the classic DC hero. And with it came the score by Danny Elfman, the self-trained composer and former frontman of the Los Angeles art-collective-turned-new-wave band Oingo Boingo. Mr. Elfman is the subject of a six-concert retrospective at this summer's Lincoln Center Festival, focusing on his many collaborations on Mr. Burton's films.