Proms on Four: John Wilson's Hollywood Rhapsody BBC Proms

Tonight, we're rolling out the red carpet

to welcome you to an evening of music from the movies.

John Wilson and his orchestra are back, and this year

they are playing the classics from the golden age of Hollywood.

In the past, we've seen him take on Broadway, Rodgers and Hammerstein

and the great MGM musicals.

Tonight, in one of the most eagerly anticipated Proms of the year,

the orchestra is in the spotlight with iconic film scores

and songs by the great composers of the silver screen.

Orchestral music is still at the heart of any Hollywood blockbuster -

think of John Williams, Hans Zimmer and Danny Elfman -

but today's composers build on a long and brilliant tradition.

One of the greatest of the early trailblazers was Alfred Newman,

the music director of 20th Century Fox.

He's a massive figure in film music.

He scored over 200 movies, he won nine Oscars.

In a moment, we'll be hearing his overture

to the gritty 1931 movie Street Scene.

This propelled him to international stardom.

But first, it's time to dim the lights and get the popcorn out -

it's cinema's most famous fanfare, for 20th Century Fox.

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And here is John Wilson himself,

ready to get his Hollywood Rhapsody under way.

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John Wilson bringing principal trumpet Mike Lovatt to his feet

and the whole of the brass section there of the John Wilson Orchestra.

That was Alfred Newman's Street Scene

getting the Hollywood Rhapsody Prom off to a cracking start.

One of the earliest orchestral movie scores.

Next, a Bronislau Kaper piece called Confetti.

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Confetti from an MGM romance

called Forever, Darling starring James Mason.

Bit of a turkey, but Kaper's score was great.

Next we're going to hear the mysterious tale of a woman

murdered in suspicious circumstances. This is called Laura.

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Music by David Raksin from the 1944 murder-mystery Laura,

played by the John Wilson Orchestra. And special applause

for the principal trombone of the orchestra, Gordon Campbell.

One of the world's greatest players, with that gorgeous, silky tone.

And now one of the most famous

and influential soundtracks on tonight's programme.

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Of course, that shower scene. Chills every time.

That was a suite from Hitchcock's Psycho by Bernard Herrmann.

We're going to hear more music by Bernard Herrmann next.

He didn't just write for Hitchcock, although he did love that.

We're going to hear something from another classic of cinema,

from Orson Welles' Citizen Kane.

It's a cod-opera aria.

It's from the sequence in which the newspaper mogul

forces his talentless wife to sing.

But there's nothing talentless about tonight's soloist.

This is bright young soprano Venera Gimadieva.

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# Ah, cruel

# Tu m'as trop entendue

# Les Dieux m'en sont temoins

# Ces Dieux qui dans mon flanc

# Ont allume le feu fatal

# A tout mon sang

# J'ai langui

# J'ai mouri dans les larmes

# J'ai seche

# J'ai desespere

# Dans les feux de tes charmes

# O quelle angoisse tes yeux

# Ont donne a toute mon ame

# Ah, cruel!

# Dites-moi comment que j'expie

# Ce peche si fort

# Toujours remplie

# Je ne peux pas resister encore

# O Dieux, arrachez-moi!

# Ce feu fatal

# Allume ma mort!

# Voila mon coeur!

# Voila mon coeur!

# C'est la que ta main doit frapper

# Voila mon coeur!

# Frappe!

# Prete-moi ton epee!

# Frappe! #

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And yes, I think that was a top D.

That was soloist Venera Gimadieva making her Proms and UK debut

singing Bernard Herrmann's Salammbo Aria

from the 1941 classic Citizen Kane.

With the John Wilson Orchestra.

What a way to start your career.

Next, we're going to hear another complete classic,

which changed the sound of Hollywood forever.

This is Erich Korngold's score for the 1938 Errol Flynn vehicle

The Adventures Of Robin Hood.

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Music that would define the sound of the movies forever -

Erich Korngold's colourful, symphonic and Oscar-winning score

to the 1938 film, The Adventures Of Robin Hood.

The whole orchestra being brought to their feet,

particular applause for principal cellist Jonathan Aasgaard.

It's a piece the orchestra told me earlier

was one of the hardest they've ever played.

You know, someone once said to Andre Previn, the conductor, that,

"Korngold sounds like Hollywood."

"Oh, no," he said, "Hollywood sounds like Korngold."

Well, it's the interval of tonight's concert now.

It has been a whirlwind journey through the ages,

from the 1930s to the 1960s.

We've had thrills, we've had romance, drama and danger.

Even without the pictures,

you really can see just how much the music makes a movie.

John Wilson spends the best part of eight months

preparing for his annual Proms concert -

planning which material to use and painstakingly restoring lost scores.

We caught up with him

to find out how he turns all that hard work into Hollywood glamour.

# There's no business like show business

# Like no business I know... #

Someone once said that to achieve success in your field

you have to find the drudgery enjoyable.

And I think there's a lot in that.

I sit and spend lots of time studying scores, writing scores,

looking into where I might be able to find

material that's been lost, mislaid.

I think Colin Davis said,

"Conductors are paid to sit at home and think about the music."

And a lot of the most important work that one does is just sitting there,

thinking and planning, and absorbing the music.

When you're planning a programme like this,

there are so many things which come into play.

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Cos it's very easy to be too close to something,

to spend weeks and weeks looking at the detail

and to be missing something fairly obvious.

As I did actually last year when we did the Broadway Sound.

In the final rehearsal, the drummer came up to me and he said,

"You need to end the first half with Slaughter On Tenth Avenue."

And swap that with Seven And A Half Cents,

which was originally the finale of the first act.

I just hadn't seen it.

I hadn't seen what was obvious - it would bring the house down.

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WILD APPLAUSE

For years, audiences have been starved

of light entertainment at its best.

And when I say, "at its best," I'm not saying I'm the best at what I do.

But I do take it very seriously. And I take as much care

over presenting a Fred Astaire dance number

as others would a Brahms German requiem.

For the past five years, we've done takes on

various different sorts of musicals, stage musicals, film musicals.

And I felt that change of emphasis this year would be no bad thing.

I think quite a lot of the early composers, the pioneers,

were real composers.

Miklos Rozsa, Korngold, they wrote concert music, concertos, operas.

And then they happened to find themselves with nice movie contracts,

which gave them a big, fat livelihood.

The Robin Hood suite, I think,

is one of his strongest scores.

Like so many pieces in this concert, it doesn't sound, to me,

like music written for a movie.

They're set-pieces which are used in films.

With Korngold, Max Steiner is the sound of those 1940s Warners' movies.

Particularly the melodramas with Humphrey Bogart.

All right, Major, you asked for it.

And without his sweeping, melodramatic,

Wagnerian-inspired music,

I don't think those pictures would pack half the punch.

# Somewhere over the rainbow... #

For the past five years, we've given programmes,

which have been based around songs

and I didn't want the orchestra just to become a backing band for singers,

however great those singers are

and however much we love the material.

There are other things that we can and should be doing.

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The set-up of my orchestra is the old Hollywood studio orchestra.

A symphony orchestra with a dance band in the middle.

And these luscious Hollywood film scores, which are very well-known,

provide us with an opportunity to really show the orchestra off.

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Quite a lot of the players in the orchestra have been asking for years

to have a go at the Tom and Jerry cartoon scores,

which are by a brilliant man called Scott Bradley.

I do think that these players have made a rod for their own backs

to a certain extent, because it's terribly difficult music to play.

It's right on the edge of sort of playability.

I don't know if we'll be able to play it. It's so fast, some of it.

But we'll give it our best shot. Yeah, I'm excited. We're all excited.

Em... And it'll be on the edge.

But...why play safe?

Well, only a matter of moments now

until John Wilson comes back on stage to begin part two

of tonight's Hollywood Rhapsody Prom.

Lots more to come tonight though.

We've got Ben-Hur, we've got Tom and Jerry.

But first, we're off to the Wild West,

with Jerome Moross' suitably epic score to The Big Country from 1958.

Moross was something of a one-hit wonder,

but the music he created for this film with the dream casting

of Gregory Peck, Jean Simmons and Charlton Heston

would forever be associated with Westerns.

He wrote it for a huge orchestra of over 90 players,

and so tonight the full forces of the John Wilson Orchestra

will be unleashed to bring this score to life.

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And here he comes, John Wilson,

to conduct the John Wilson Orchestra in The Big Country by Jerome Moross.

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The Big Country by Jerome Moross.

A sparkling performance by the John Wilson Orchestra.

And a great start to the second half of this Hollywood Rhapsody Prom.

Next, we have a classic score to a classic film,

Max Steiner's unforgettable music from Casablanca.

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Music from the 1942 film Casablanca

and applause there for our very own Sam,

Matthew Regan, who played it again for us.

Next, we have a real treat in store.

Star soloists Jane Monheit and Matthew Ford

will be performing a medley of no fewer than 11 songs.

They're going to be channelling Frank Sinatra, Doris Day and many others.

We'll be Young At Heart.

It should be An Affair To Remember and, if not, well, Que Sera, Sera.

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# A love affair

# Is a wondrous thing

# That we'll rejoice

# In remembering

# Our love was born

# With our first embrace

# And a page was torn

# Out of time and space

# Our love affair

# May it always be

# A flame to burn

# Through eternity

# So take my hand

# With a fervent prayer

# That we may live

# And we may share

# Our love affair

# To remember. #

# When an irresistible force such as you

# Meets an old immovable object like me

# You can bet just as sure as you live

# Somethin's gotta give Somethin's gotta give

# Somethin's gotta give

# When an irrepressible smile such as yours

# Warms an old implacable heart such as mine

# Don't say no because I insist

# Somewhere somehow someone's gotta be kissed

# So en garde

# Who knows what the fates might have in store

# From their vast mysterious sky?

# I'll try hard ignorin' those lips that I adore

# But how hard can anyone try?

# Fight, fight, fight, fight Fight it

# With all of our might

# Chances are some heavenly star-spangled night

# We'll find out just as sure as we live

# Somethin's gotta give Somethin's gotta give

# Somethin's gotta give. #

# Fairy tales can come true

# It can happen to you

# If you're young at heart

# For it's hard you will find

# To be narrow of mind

# If you're young at heart

# And if you should survive

# To 105

# Look at all you derive

# Out of being alive

# And here is the best part

# You'll have a head start

# If you are among the very young

# At heart. #

# You sigh, the song begins

# You speak and I hear violins

# It's magic

# The stars desert the skies

# And rush to nestle in your eyes

# It's magic

# Without a golden wand

# Or mystic charms

# Fantastic things begin

# When I am in your arms

# When we walk hand-in-hand

# The world becomes a wonderland

# It's magic

# How else can I explain the rainbows

# When there is no rain?

# It's magic

# Why do I tell myself

# These things that happen

# Can really be true?

# When in my heart I know

# The magic

# Is my love for you. #

# You see a pair of laughing eyes

# Suddenly your sighing sighs

# You're thinking nothing's wrong You string along, boy

# Then snap!

# Those eyes, those sighs

# They're part of the tender trap

# You're hand-in-hand beneath the trees

# Soon there's music in the breeze

# You're acting kind of smart

# Until your heart just goes wap!

# Those trees, that breeze

# They're part of the tender trap

# Some starry night

# When her kisses make you tingle

# She'll hold you tight

# And you'll hate yourself for

# Being single

# And all at once it seems so nice

# The folks are throwing shoes and rice

# You hurry to a spot

# That's just a dot on the map!

# And then you wonder how it all came about

# It's too late now There's no getting out

# You fell in love

# And love is the tender trap. #

# The night is like a lovely tune

# Beware my foolish heart

# How white the ever-constant moon

# Take care

# My foolish heart

# There's a line

# Between love and fascination

# That's hard to see

# On an evening such as this

# For they both give

# The very same sensation

# When you're lost

# In the magic of a kiss

# His lips

# Are much too close to mine

# Beware my foolish heart

# But should our eager lips combine

# Then let the fire start

# For this time

# It isn't fascination

# Or a dream that will fade and fall apart

# It's love

# This time it's love

# My foolish heart. #

# Three coins in the fountain

# Each one seeking happiness

# Thrown by three hopeful lovers

# Which one will the fountain bless?

# Which one will the fountain bless?

# Which one will the fountain bless?

# Once on a high and windy hill

# In the morning mist

# Two lovers kissed

# And the world stood still

# Then your fingers touched

# My silent heart

# And taught it how to sing

# Yes, true love's

# A many-splendoured

# Thing. #

# When the moon hits your eye Like a big pizza pie

# That's amore

# When you dance down the street With a cloud at your feet

# You're in love

# When you walk in a dream But you know you're not dreaming

# Signor

# Scusa mi, but you see Back in old Napoli

# That's amore. #

# When I was just a little girl

# I asked my mother what I will I be?

# Will I be pretty?

# Will I be rich?

# Here's what she said to me

# Que sera, sera

# Whatever will be will be

# The future's not ours to see

# Que sera, sera

# What will be will be

# Que sera, sera. #

# When somebody loves you

# It's no good unless she loves you

# All the way

# Happy to be near you

# When you need someone to cheer you

# All the way

# Taller than the tallest tree is

# That's how it's got to feel

# Deeper than the deep blue sea is

# That's how deep it goes

# If it's real

# When somebody needs you

# It's no good unless they need you

# All the way

# Through the good or lean years

# And for all the in-between years

# Come what may

BOTH: # Who knows

# Where the road will lead us

# Only a fool would say

# But if you'll let me love you

# It's for sure I'm gonna love you

# All the way

BOTH: # All

# The

# Way. #

CHEERING AND APPLAUSE

An embarrassment of Hollywood riches there

in that movie theme song medley,

performed by soloists Jane Monheit, making her Proms debut,

and Matthew Ford.

With John Wilson and his Orchestra.

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Franz Waxman's Suite from A Place In The Sun

performed by John Wilson and his Orchestra,

with those great solos for sax played by Howard McGill.

Next, we've got music that is instantly recognisable -

we rarely listen to it properly, though.

You know, it's some of the trickiest and most virtuosic music ever written

and it is the percussion section's big moment.

So watch out for what they're about to perform for you.

It's Scott Bradley's music for Tom and Jerry.

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Argh!

Argh!

HE SNORES IN

HE WHISTLES OUT

HE SNORES IN

HE WHISTLES OUT

GUNSHOT

Argh!

-Ow!

-Argh!

-Ow!

-Ow!

-Ooh!

-Ow!

Argh!

THEY BARK LIKE DOGS

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CHEERING AND APPLAUSE

Rarely have you seen a percussion section have so much fun.

That was David Jackson firing the gun,

Steve Henderson smashing most of the crockery

-and now chasing each other offstage.

-SHE LAUGHS

That was Scott Bradley's music for Tom and Jerry.

Well, we are nearly at the end of tonight's Hollywood Rhapsody,

here at the BBC Proms, but we have got a truly epic finale.

Next, we're going to hear

Miklos Rozsa's Oscar-winning score to Ben-Hur.

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CHEERING AND APPLAUSE

Miklos Rozsa's Oscar-winning score to Ben-Hur,

bringing to a close John Wilson's Hollywood Rhapsody

here at the BBC Proms.

They have been seriously put through their paces,

in some of the grandest symphonic music written in the last 100 years.

The whole orchestra on their feet.

Not forgetting organist Richard Hills, who was playing there.

He's been a star of his own solo Prom already.

These musicians really are the best of the best.

They're hand-picked by John Wilson.

At the latest count, I think I've spotted nine orchestral leaders

in the first violins alone - that's how good they are.

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The sell-out audience here at the Royal Albert Hall,

nearly 6,000 of them, cheering John Wilson

as he comes back on to the stage.

Enjoying tonight's Prom almost as much as the orchestra themselves.

Are we going to get an encore?

It just so happens...

LAUGHTER

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CHEERING AND APPLAUSE

The John Wilson Orchestra's encore tonight,

the Ride Of The Cossacks by Franz Waxman

from his score to the 1962 epic, Taras Bulba.

But that really does bring our Hollywood Rhapsody Prom to an end.

And as the crowd continues to cheer John Wilson and his orchestra,

from all of us here at the Royal Albert Hall, a very good night.

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