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Article - "Lion" Roars in New York
Barry & Prokofiev in Carnegie Hall
John
Barry's celebrates his 70th birthday in style
By
Michael Storck
John
Barry made his first appearance on the stage of Carnegie Hall last
night (5/25) as a 70-piece orchestra and world-reknown chorale gave
his Oscar-winning 1968 score to THE LION IN WINTER it's New York
premiere performance.
The first half of a concert by The Collegiate Chorale (founded
by Robert Shaw in 1941) and the Orchestra of St. Luke's was devoted
to a faithful re-creation of Barry's much-lauded score, a mixture
of classical and modern influences from plainchant to Prokofiev.
Actor Timothy Dalton, who made his film debut in THE LION IN WINTER,
was on hand to introduce the evening, conducted by Robert Bass.
In celebration of John Barry's seventieth birthday, the composer
himself strode out to the podium for a rapturous standing ovation
after the piece, which was presented accompanied by a specially
created assembly of clips from the film while the orchestra and
chorus performed most of the score's key sections admirably in synch,
with a full and accurate re-creation of Barry's singular and unmistakable
sound.
Program selections were: Main Title, Chinon/Eleanor's Arrival,
Allons Gai Gai Gai, To the Chapel, How Beautiful You Make Me, Eya
Eya Nova Gaudia, God Damn You, The Christmas Wine, To Rome, Media
Vita in Morte Sumus, and We're Jungle Creatures.
That's the straight news; now for the gossip...
An hour before the concert, some Carnegie Hall dude whose name
I didn't catch brought out John Barry (standing ovation) and Timothy
Dalton for a casual Q&A. JB looked cheerful and healthy, if seventy
(I hadn't seen him since six years ago at an NYC screening of MIDNIGHT
COWBOY)...resplendent in a knockout suit & tie, hair trimmed very
short, and seemingly as relaxed as I've ever seen him in front of
a crowd. Unfortunately, the interviewer didn't know that Barry--a
charming and amusing raconteur when dealing in personalities and
anecdotes--hates talking about his "work process." So the first
few questions about movie scoring elicited little more than rote
replies, delivered in an unenthusiastic drone through that sometimes
unintelligible basso Yorkshire gurgle. The New York crowd was entirely
with him, however, and laughed appreciatively at JB's occasional
mugging and one-liners. Once we got into the "movie stars are creeps,"
"Saltzman hated GOLDFINGER"-type anecdotes, the audience couldn't
get enough and Barry seemed to be genuinely enjoying himself. When
one admiring fan asked, in reference to the heart-rending sense
of loss that informs SOMEWHERE IN TIME, "what was going on in your
life at that time?" Barry shot back, "None of your business," which
got a huge laugh and sustained applause.
In the break before the concert proper, I asked a very close contact
if any of John's stuff was going to end up in THE INCREDIBLES and
the answer, sadly, is no. I offered the speculation that JB is simply
at a place where his tolerance for the kind of industry bullshit
that's become SOP (endless revisions, micromanagement, no one person
in charge) is at zero, and the contact agreed, "It' sub-zero tolerance.
He's my favorite movie composer in the world, and it'll be a miracle
if he ever scores another film."
After the intermission (or, for my Brit buds, the "interval"---that's
"half-time," Terry), I discovered 9-year-old Jonpatrick sitting
right behind me, along with a couple of cousins, and (I believe)
Laurie's sister and her husband. The Barrys (up in a box) remained
for the second half of the concert (Prokofiev's IVAN THE TERRIBLE
score, accompanied by clips from the Eisenstein film).
As far as audience attendance was concerned, it seemed like a pretty
full house to me, although one cannot see how many of the boxes/balconies
are filled from down in the "prime parquet," where we were sitting.
My most conservative estimate would be that Carnegie Hall was at
least 3/4 full. And a more attentive and respectful audience I haven't
seen in my last few years of theatre-going. You could hear a pin
drop.
On the way out of the auditorium, I met LION IN WINTER director
Anthony Harvey for the second time in twenty years, and... just
on my way out the door, I swear, accidentally ran right into John
and Laurie coming down the stairs. I never considered, even for
a moment, trying to remind JB of our several previous meetings over
the years (and that interview we never got round to doing, grrr),
but since he was right there in my face, what the hell, I stuck
out my hand and said, "Always great to see you, sir. I've been waiting
thirty years to give you a standing ovation for that score, and
all the others. Come back to this podium soon, and stay longer,
will you?" He took my hand in both of his, smiled into my eyes,
and said, "Maybe I will."
And that was the best news of the evening.
Oh, by the way, the performance of orchestra and chorus was quite
wonderful... capturing the original sound so perfectly I found myself
looking around trying to spot the synthesizer. The lead trumpet
hit one or two minor melvins during the main title and the volume
wasn't turned up to "eleven" as I'd have it on my stereo, but overall
it was a superb performance.
Michael Storck
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