What do we hear when we listen beyond the surface? Sometimes music says more than you think. Behind Hermann’s terrifying soundtrack, Korngold’s sumptuous melodies and Shostakovich’s jaunty celebrations there are shadows: stories of survival, political oppression and the darker corners of the human mind.
Bernard Hermann Psycho: a narrative for string orchestra
Erich Korngold Violin Concerto
Dmitri Shostakovich Symphony No 9
Oliver Cope conductor
Sarang Seohyun Kim violin
Bernard Hermann Psycho: a narrative for string orchestra
Few pieces of film music are as instantly recognisable as Bernard Herrmann’s Psycho score. Written for strings alone, its stabbing rhythms, shrieking chords and relentless repetition turn the orchestra into a source of pure psychological tension. The famous shower scene is only part of the story: throughout the score, Herrmann keeps us on edge, making us sense danger before we see it, the almost colourless sounds perfectly suited to the dark on-screen world of Hitchcock’s film.
Erich Korngold Violin Concerto
Hollywood meets the concert hall in Korngold’s dazzling Violin Concerto. Written in 1945, as the Second World War came to an end, it draws on themes from several of Korngold’s film scores, transforming music written for the screen into a sumptuous and dazzling concert work. Beneath its sweeping melodies lies a fascinating story of a composer finding his way back to the musical world he left behind following his exile from Europe. The violin takes centre stage throughout, singing, soaring and racing through Korngold’s cinematic score, and for this performance we are joined by the extraordinary Sarang Seohyun Kim, who celebrates her 18th birthday with us this evening.
Dmitri Shostakovich Symphony No 9
Shostakovich’s Ninth Symphony begins with music that seems almost too cheerful for its moment in history. In 1945. everyone expected a monumental statement of patriotic grandeur to celebrate the Soviet victory over Nazi Germany. What the composer actually wrote seems like something closer to a musical prank: short, bright, absurdly cheerful and full of unexpected twists. Beneath the jaunty marches and comic solos lies one of the great questions surrounding the work — just how sincere is all this happiness? The answer tantalisingly unclear.
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