Twain Newhart
ample, there is a wonderful suite available, and it pretty much tells the story of the film in a concert setting. Korngold’s Robin Hood Suite does a similar thing: you can’t hear the entire film’s music, but the different movements of the suite take us on that journey in music, and describe to us the characters, the excitement, the story. In a funny way, it’s an adaptation of the film itself.”
Matt Catingub leads a recording session.
identify the thematic material, and use those themes to create a concert-worthy representation of the music. John Williams’s genius, for instance, goes far beyond writing scores for film. It lies in his ability to also take the music he’s written for a particular film and create a piece of music that jumps off the stage in the concert hall. Other people who did that well include Elmer Bernstein, Jerry Goldsmith, many others. To experience Franz Waxman’s music from Sunset Boulevard, for ex-
Both Sides Now
Matt Catingub, pops conductor of the New Mexico Symphony and principal conductor of the Honolulu Pops, has worked on both sides of the screen-to-stage equation. The son of jazz vocalist Mavis Rivers, who was signed to Capitol Records by Frank Sinatra when the Rat Pack era was in full swing,
Catingub has connections to pops-arrangement royalty: the legendary Nelson Riddle arranged his mother’s first album. George Clooney drew upon Catingub’s first-hand expertise when he hired him to score the actor/director’s film Good Night and Good Luck. “I don’t know if a lot of people know this, but George basically got his start by moving from Kentucky to L.A. to become his aunt Rosemary’s driver,” laughs Catingub. “He lived in that world with her when he was growing up, so he very much knew what he was doing and what he wanted for Good Night and Good Luck. He told me, ‘It’s a period piece, it’s the mid-’50s, we’re in New York, and I want jazz from that era and I want the arrangements to sound like that.’ It was a very definitive set of guidelines. Writing it was a labor of love, since I grew up with that music too.” The score Catingub produced does a remarkable job of evoking the era: lean, suave, effortlessly cool jazz that freezes the film in its time like no piece of art direction could. It was Nelson Riddle’s arrangements, as well as the work of the legendary tenor
A DAY IN THE LIFE... THREE PHANTOMS IN CONCERT
RETURN!
Black & Blues 26
symphony
NOVEMBER–DECEMBER 2010