America and Film

In the concert program of the NFM Leopoldinum Chamber Orchestra, film music will meet minimalism and contemporary works inspired by dance, movement and popular culture. The works of Bernard Herrmann, John Coriglian, Jessie Montgomery and John Adams — American composers who shaped the artistic landscape of the United States in different ways in the 20th and 21st centuries will sound.

The evening will open with Bernard Herrmann's Psycho Suite, based on themes from the music to Alfred Hitchcock's Psychosis. Although the director was delighted with the tension and drama that the score brought to the plot, the collaboration between the two creators was not always without conflicts. Hitchcock initially did not want the composer to write the soundtrack for the famous murder scene in the shower. This one, however, has put his own. The piercing, violent string entrances that accompany the cinematic sequence have become one of the most iconic moments in the history of cinematography. The master of suspense later admitted that even a third of the effect that his painting produces is due to the music. John Corigliano is one of the most prominent contemporary artists on the other side of the Atlantic. In 1999, he composed the soundtrack for The Red Violin, directed by François Girard. This is the remarkable story of the eponymous instrument, which has been passed from hand to hand for more than four centuries. The film takes viewers from Cremona in 1681, through Vienna at the end of the 18th century and Oxford in the nineteenth century, to Shanghai during the Cultural Revolution and Montreal at the end of the 20th century. Since the main character here is the violin, it was to them that Corigliano entrusted the solo role - in the recording it was performed by Joshua Bell, whose virtuosity greatly contributed to the success of the music. The score was honored with an Oscar and to this day remains one of the most appreciated achievements of the artist in this field.

Strum is one of the most popular works by composer and violinist Jessie Montgomery. The work was based on a quintet written in 2006, and the author developed and developed it several times in the following years. Its driving force is the characteristic pizzicato figures performed by string instruments, as well as a dense network of rhythmic ostinat. Montgomery draws inspiration from American folk music and the elements of dance and movement — leading the listener from a mood of nostalgia to an increasingly energetic, even ecstatic celebration. The final element of the concert program will be John Adams' Shaker Loops. The composer is one of the most famous authors of music of our time. The song was created in 1983 on the canvas of an earlier prepared Wavemaker referring to the movement of waves. In the new work, he developed the idea of obsessively repeated, short motifs, creating a pulsating, energetic sound texture. The title refers both to the characteristic “trembling” of the strings and to the Shaker community, whose religious rites were often accompanied by exuberant, rhythmic dances.