New West Symphony performs film scores

"Movie Medley" was the name of a recent concert by the New West Symphony at the Thousand Oaks Civics Arts Center's Fred Kavli Theatre, but a more appropriate title might have been "Theatrical Thrillers."

Musical director Boris Brott led the orchestra in pieces by some of the greatest of all film composers.

"On the Waterfront" (1954) was Leonard Bernstein's only film score, but what a masterpiece it is. One of the many reasons the composer wrote music for only one movie was the necessity for him to take a backseat to the story, something Bernstein was rarely comfortable with. Regardless, his towering work amplifies the tension and conflict not only in the story but in the heart of its hero, the erstwhile boxerturnedreluctant-racketeer Terry Malloy, played by Marlon Brando.

Bernstein's "Symphonic Suite" from "On the Waterfront" begins with a compelling and angular French horn melody (beautifully played by James Thatcher). An insistent percussion interlude sets the mood for the treacherous lives of the longshoremen under the shadow of tyrannical union boss Johnny Friendly (Lee J. Cobb). The suite merges several other thematic ideas, all of which return to the original horn theme, which evokes the guilt, sorrow and regret felt by the film's protagonist.

The program continued with featured performer Sean Chen, a 20yearold pianist of remarkable ability, who performed Rachmaninoff's "Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini." Almost as an apology for the apparent break in format, Maestro Brott reminded the audience that the famous 18th variation from the "Rhapsody" was a running theme in the 1980 film "Somewhere in Time" starring Christopher Reeve.

In his masterful performance, Chen showed off not only his youthful agility at the keyboard but also a joyous flamboyance that was refreshing without being showy. For his encore, Chen played Brahms' wistful and nostalgic "Intermezzo in A Major."

The scores from two of director Alfred Hitchcock's legion of classic films were the focus of the second half of the concert, beginning with music from the 1945 thriller "Spellbound," one of the first motion pictures to deal with psychoanalysis.

As Bernstein did with "On the Waterfront," "Spellbound" composer, Miklós Rózsa, crafted a separate work drawn from themes from his score. In this case, the result is a lush, atmospheric concerto for piano and orchestra, featuring Chen as soloist.

Chen's enthusiastic performance was nearly upstaged by the inclusion of the theremin, an early electronic instrument patented in 1928 that was used by Rózsa in the original score but is rarely performed in concert settings. This fascinating instrument, which made the left wing of the stage look like an antique furniture store, emits an eerie electric quaver that has been used frequently in film and television music. (Some wellknown examples are the Beach Boys' "Good Vibrations" and themes from TV series such as "The Outer Limits" and "My Favorite Martian.")

The theremin operates on the principle of a heterodyne, producing two oscillating electronic fields that are controlled by the player without touching the instrument. Theremin virtuoso Charles Lester had the audience transfixed as he moved his hands over the instrument like a magician, controlling the volume with one hand and the pitch with the other.

Bernard Herrmann's music for Hitchcock's "Psycho" (1960) is widely acclaimed as being one of the most frightening of all movie scores. The composer's decision to match the blackandwhite cinematography with an equally monochromatic sound using only strings was a stroke of genius.

The main theme, which features an insistent, jagged melody, is played under the opening credits and again during heroine Janet Leigh's desperate ride through a driving rainstorm to the remote Bates Motel. When the slashing sounds of the strings signaled the scene in which Leigh is stabbed to death in her motel room shower, the audience erupted in uneasy laughter of recognition of the iconic music.

The concert concluded with two uplifting works: John Williams' "Adventures on Earth," which accompanies the bicycle chase through the skies in "E.T." and, for an encore, the majestically familiar "Star Wars" opening theme.