British film composer George Fenton with the London Symphony Orchestra

By -

7 June 2009, 7.30pm, Barbican

The world-famous film and television composer George Fenton joins the London Symphony Orchestra for the first time to conduct and present music from his myriad of scores in this exciting concert. Fenton has written music for over 70 feature films, collaborating with some of the most influential directors of the late 20th century. Works to be performed include Cry Freedom, music from the films of Ken Loach, a world concert premier of music from the BBC TV series Planet Earth and the unforgettable music from his award-winning score for The Blue Planet. Since Fenton’s first job as a composer and musical director for an RSC production of Twelfth Night in 1974, he has grown to be one of Britain’s most acclaimed film composers writing music for epics such as Richard Attenborough’s Gandi in 1982, for which he received his first Oscar nomination. Subsequently Fenton has been nominated for four more Oscars for Dangerous Liaisons, Cry Freedom (Best Song and Best Score) and The Fisher King and three Golden Globes: Cry Freedom, and Anna and The King (Best Song and Best Score). He has also received BAFTA and Ivor Novello awards and nominations for television work on productions such as Bergerac, The Jewel in the Crown, The History Man, The Monocled Mutineer, and Life in the Freezer.

Following the broadcast of The Blue Planet in 2001 for which he won Ivor Novello, BAFTA and Emmy awards for Best Television Score, he created the show, Blue Planet Live! which has toured both in the UK and worldwide, performed by many of the world’s leading orchestras. In a five-star review of The Blue Planet Live! the described how:

'Fenton's music was correspondingly amazing. Massive percussion and rending brass for the destructive work of the whales, graceful flutes for the spinning dolphins.... he certainly has fun and it's infectious'.
Fenton has a Royal Television Society Lifetime Achievement Award and is a Fellow of the British Academy of Composers and Songwriters.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Role of Music in Opera

By -
There are numerous books on the topic, and every composer, librettist, director, singer and audience member has their opinion as to what role the music should play in an opera. In a play without music, the words ought to support the meaning behind a character's actions. However, in the case of action movies, often times the action is what tells the story and there aren't words, just images to forward the plot. We might hear music to accompany action, build tension, but the action tells the story. Musicals tend to speak until the emotion of the moment just "has" to break out in song - unless it's something like "Mama Mia" where the dialog is the rails we travel on between songs; the songs themselves, written before the concept of the musical, are the focus of the production, while the story is secondary. Operas are a different beast. The music provides emotion to the words spoken, but it also plays the role of ambience when there is only action. In ...
Read more

Episode 210b: Joyeuse le départ

By -
Image
Podcast:  Play in new window  |  Download Subscribe:  Apple Podcasts  |  Android  |  Google Play  |  Stitcher  |  TuneIn  |  RSS Provost Cunningham has Transmigrated, but to where! What is Dr Sage going to do with his body? And how can she bring home her friends, Abigail and Erasmus, without also bring home Cunningham? What are they going to say when they find the “skeleton” she’s hiding in her closet? Cast: Eddie Louise Clark  as Dr Sage Chip Clark  as Professor Savant Justin Bremer  as the Narrator Emily Riley Piatt  as Abigail Entwhistle, Calypso & Dean Stewart Written by  Eddie Louise Theme music by  Unwoman Sound Design by  Chip Michael
Read more

Teaching Composition – What are we trying to achieve

By -
In the process of learning composition I have spent time with a number of instructors who have encouraged me to write twelve-tone, pitch-class, electro-acoustic and other forms of experimental techniques. No matter how much I might understand and appreciate the work of other composers in the genres, these are not forms of music I resonate with. They are simply not forms of music I listen to and I struggle with the idea of writing them. However, in a Master Class by Libby Larsen she made the comment, “Learn them all, because all forms of music have something to offer.” This I very much agree. There are elements of each of the above mentioned forms (and others) that I do resonate with. Berg’s Violin Concerto is a beautiful twelve-tone work, although it is possible to look at numerous sections of the music with a “tonal” analysis. Another composer friend, Gary Bachlund commented that using these techniques can narrow the choices for how to compose a piece of work. If you look at ...
Read more