Concert Review: The Price of Perfection

Joshua Bell and the New York Philharmonic play The Red Violin.
by Paul J. Pelkonen

Here's looking at you, kid: Samuel L. Jackson peers into The Red Violin.
Image © 1998 Mikado Pictures

Is it worth it to create the greatest instrument in the history of Western music, even if it costs you everything?

That is the question asked by the 1998 François Girard film The Red Violin, which tracks the creation, birth and long life of its titular object from a workshop in Cremona in the 16th century to an auction house in modern day Montreal. However, more notable than the film is its Academy award-winning score, which is being played this week in conjunction with the film by Joshua bell and the New York Philharmonic. Michael Stern conducted.

Concert Review: With a Swish and a Flick

Harry Potter and the Sorceror's Stone comes to NJPAC.

by Paul J. Pelkonen

Harry Potter (Daniel Radcliffe) tries out a wand at Ollivander's.
Image from Harry Potter and the Sorceror's Stone copyright 2001 Warner Brothers Entertainment. 

The global phenomenon of Harry Potter, chronicling the struggle of an eponymous boy wizard against the forces of darkness,exists in many forms. There are the original seven books. The books have been made into eight films, nine if you count the new Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them. There are mugs, posters, plates, scarves and theme parks. And now there’s a concert series, which made its New Jersey debut on Saturday afternoon at NJPAC. (A followup is scheduled for October 28 of this year, featuring the score for Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets.)

Concert Review: A Hook and an Uppercut

The New York Philharmonic plays On The Waterfront.
by Paul J. Pelkonen

Give him the hook: Marlon Brando in On the Waterfront.
Photo © 1954 Columbia Pictures. 

In the history of the New York Philharmonic, no conductor is more revered or loved than Leonard Bernstein, the Massachusetts-born composer who held the post of music director from 1958-1969. On Friday night at the soon-to-be-renamed Avery Fisher Hall, the Philharmonic kicked off this year's series celebrating film music with Bernstein's lone film score: On The Waterfront.

Concerning Hobbits, Wizards and Leitmotifs

An introduction to the other Ring cycle.
by Paul J. Pelkonen

Frodo Baggins (Elijah Wood, center) Sam Gamgee (Sean Astin, left) and
Gollum (Andy Serkis, right)in a tense moment from The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers.
Image from The Two Towers © 2002 New Line Cinema/Wingnut Films, used for promotional purposes only,

This week Superconductor will visit the other massive Western art-work concerned with some dwarves, some heroes and a Ring of Power that these creatures will kill to possess. We will be attending and writing about the 21st Symphony Orchestra and Chorus's current stand at Lincoln Center's David H. Koch Theater. There,  conductor Ludwig Wicki will lead 250 musicians and singers in composer Howard Shore's orchestral score of The Lord of the Rings in conjunction with screenings of the Academy Award-winning trilogy.

Koyaanisqatsi in 5 Minutes

This is your brain.

Photo from Wikimedia Commons.

This is your brain on drugs.

Well, not really.

Tooling around on the Inter-tubes today, I found a version of Godfrey Reggio's 1978 film Koyaanisqatsi, sped up 1,552% by visual artist Wyatt Hodgson. Mr. Hodgson's version uses a different score ("The Holy Egoism of Genius" from The Seduction of Claude Debussy by The Art of Noise) and has been compressed to run for just five minutes. The song's been cut a little short too.

If you're not familiar with Koyaanisqatsi, it is a meditation on the imbalances of modern life. It is assembled footage, dating from just before its 1982 release to documentary footage and stock imagery dating all the way back to a NASA film from 1962.

Although it is only 86 minutes long, time speeds, slows and bends in upon itself as the images fly by. The images range widely: staring pedestrians shot on the street, cars and televisions being assembled, and the most famous, iconic shots: clouds racing across mirror-front skyscrapers.

Enjoy.

Balance Out of Life from Wyatt Hodgson on Vimeo.

And here's Godfrey Reggio's original on YouTube.