From this week, the BBC is embarking on a celebration of cinema music - with BBC Radio 6 Music, Radios 1 & 1xtra, Radio 2, Radio 3 and the Asian Network, alongside a complimentary series of TV programmes on BBC Four, all coming together to celebrate the BBC's Sound of Cinema Season.
All next week Radio 3's Live in Concert broadcasts will be dedicated to the incredible orchestral scores of Hollywood. The BBC National Orchestra of Wales will be performing on Wednesday night at St David's Hall, and our evening of Hollywood glamour will be introduced by Mark Kermode, arguably one of the most well-known film critics in Britain today.
The concert will also mark the beginning of our 2013/2014 season at St David's Hall as orchestra-in-residence - talk about opening the season with a bang!
A great movie score should suggest the very essence of a film's intention; if there were no words, the music should leave you in no doubt as to the nature of the onscreen action. Indeed, a great soundtrack can help to immortalise a great film, and for our America at the Movies concert we have a selection of truly remarkable scores.
There are the names you would expect, names so identified with cinema that their exclusion would lead to much wailing and gnashing of teeth (mostly by the brass), such as John Williams, Howard Shore, and one of my favourites, the inimitable Danny Elfman.
However, there may be names that are not so familiar. For me, one such name is Elmer Bernstein, who, it turns out, scored two of my father's favourite films - The Ten Commandments and The Great Escape. We will perform his theme from The Magnificent Seven.
Miklós Rósza (perhaps another ‘who are you">St David's Hall website.
