By JAMES H LEWIS
In the beginning, there were no words. Movies were silent, with only the mugging of actors and occasional text establishing the plot. Sound, if you were fortunate enough to live in a major city with a spacious theater, was provided by a pit orchestra whose music was chosen and timed to enhance the action on the screen. In smaller venues, an organ provided the soundtrack; outside of large cities, an upright piano, out of tune in nostalgic recreations, served the purpose.
The Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra recreated these experiences on Saturday, March 1st when it presented Pixar in Concert, a celebration of fourteen of the feature films the Disney-owned animation studio has turned out in the past three decades.
This is not the first time the PSO has paired a feature film with live performances. Its Star Wars concerts are always big draws, with the orchestra replacing the music track in these performances. At the same time, the film’s dialogue and sound effects remain intact. Pixar in Concert relies solely on the orchestra. There is no soundtrack, harkening back to the early days of silent films.
Conductor Jacob Joyce, associate conductor of the PSO and director of its youth orchestra, launched into the title and incidental music for Pixar’s first production, Toy Story, without a preamble, then outlined how the evening would progress—the first half featuring Pixar’s golden oldies, the second featuring more recent works.
Joyce did not name any titles, an omission that contributed to the magic of the evening. As each sequence began, the audience reacted with anticipation. Most of us know these films (although I took my grandson along as a consultant), and whether it was the opening strains of the orchestra or the fade-up to a familiar animated face, most in the house identified the film, erupting in scattered applause.
The selections—from Toy Story and Cars to Coco and Incredibles 2, were not individual scenes from the movies but clips selected from throughout each production, timed to coincide with the music. Together, they recalled the story of the film with no need for dialogue: the music and our memories filled in the blanks.
The concert concluded with a tribute to the three composers whose work we’d enjoyed—Randy Newman, his cousin Thomas, and Michael Giacchino—accompanied by Randy’s “You’ve Got a Friend in Me.”
The audience rewarded the composers and the PSO with a standing ovation.
The PSO was in “fine fiddle,” performing on a darkened stage below the large screen, their music illuminated by reading lights. We arrived early and were treated to a longer warm-up than we experienced at classical concerts. This suggests they’d had less rehearsal time and were practicing more difficult bars in advance. The extra work showed.
The standard array of strings, woodwinds, brass, and percussion was augmented by three keyboards placed alongside the conductor, a guitar, and snare drum set. The music ranged from lyrical to jazzy, and the brass section had obvious fun, the trumpet section challenging the high register pyrotechnics of the late Maynard Ferguson. Even a saxophone joined in the fun in one improvised section.
From a technical standpoint, it was fascinating to watch the conductor don earphones before each selection, a monitor before him with visual cues beginning each scene, to take his cues, matching the music to the action. The illumination was low enough, however, that the audience could ignore this, focusing only on the screen and the melodies that enveloped us.
From our vantage point on the low balcony (Hint: These are the best seats in Heinz Hall from an acoustical standpoint), it appeared most seats were filled. At one point, conductor Joyce asked how many were attending their first PSO concert. A number of hands shot up. This is one of the reasons for these concerts: to expose new audiences to the orchestra and encourage some to graduate to other pop concerts and, as Joyce suggested, to the classical repertoire.
Whether this works, only time will tell. Still, it is both encouraging and disappointing to note that attendance was greater than for any classical concert I’ve attended this season, except for last week’s return engagement of Emanuel Ax.
I hope the experience is catching, for the PSO is Pittsburgh’s premiere cultural attraction, as important to our collective identity as the Steelers.
TICKETS AND DETAILS
This performance repeats on Sunday, March 2nd, at 2:30 p.m. Tickets at https://pittsburghsymphony.org/production/93287/performance/93287/seat_selection
The PSO performs Music of Star Wars on Saturday, May 3rd. The next Music with Film presentation is The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring on Friday, June 27th, and Sunday, June 29th.
Categories: Arts and Ideas, Reviews
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