Concert flier
by Warren M. Sherk
Celebrate the New Year with a Dimitri Tiomkin concert in Ireland on January 12, 2012. The RTÉ Concert Orchestra presents “The Film Music of Dimitri Tiomkin,” at the National Concert Hall in Dublin. Fresh from live-to-film performances of Howard Shore’s Fellowship of the Ring score in November and The Wizard of Oz in December, the RTÉ Concert Orchestra will now focus their attention on the film music of Tiomkin.
Buy tickets: National Concert Hall, Dublin
Richard Kaufman will conduct the orchestra and chorus in a wide range of music representing Tiomkin’s work in Hollywood, including suites from The Alamo, Giant, and It’s a Wonderful Life, as well as themes from Rawhide, High Noon, The High and the Mighty, and Wild Is the Wind.
See the complete program.
Kaufman has championed Tiomkin’s music with orchestras around the world, including the Chicago Symphony, Cleveland Orchestra, Malaysian Philharmonic, Rotterdam Philharmonic, and numerous others. Kaufman just completed a number of Tiomkin-themed concerts with the London Symphony Orchestra and the London Voices.
“As a conductor who loves great film music, for me it doesn’t get any better than conducting the legendary scores and songs of Dimitri Tiomkin with a great symphony orchestra,” Kaufman says. “Tiomkin is a master at creating music which brings a motion picture to life. No matter what the subject matter of a film might be, his themes are truly memorable, and the instrumental colors of the orchestra are at their most brilliant.”
Richard Kaufman
He continues, “Hearing this music in the concert hall is a unique and magnificent experience for the audience, the musicians, and most definitely for the conductor! I’m thrilled that on 12 January, the music of Dimitri Tiomkin, one of Hollywood’s most honored composers, will be in the skilled and caring hands of the RTÉ Concert Orchestra in Dublin. It will be a very special night!”
In the following video Kaufman speaks with symphonic orchestrator Patrick Russ about Tiomkin and the upcoming RTÉ concert. The music for the concert was largely prepared by Russ in Los Angeles, who comments, “It’s wonderful to know that the UK has embraced Tiomkin’s film music, and that the RTÉ Concert Orchestra and chorus will again be delivering a marvelous performance.”
VIDEO: Kaufman and Russ on Tiomkin and the RTÉ Concert Orchestra
Regarding the concert, Olivia Tiomkin Douglas offers, “The RTÉ Concert Orchestra, with its rich history and association with film music performances and recordings, is a natural choice to present this program showcasing Dimitri’s film music in Ireland.”
Andrew Playfoot
Whitney Kaufman
The concert will include a number of songs, performed by vocalists Andrew Playfoot and Whitney Claire Kaufman. Playfoot has won acclaim for his starring roles in various London West End musicals. He can be heard on a number of albums and film soundtracks and is a regular backing singer on The X Factor and Britain’s Got Talent. Kaufman is an American singer and actress who was a member of the North American tour of the hit musical Mamma Mia! She is currently performing music from the films of Walt Disney with symphony orchestras throughout the U.S. and around the world.
Dimitri Tiomkin with one of his four Academy Award statuettes.
One of Hollywood’s most distinguished and best-loved film composers, Dimitri Tiomkin’s prolific career as a composer resulted in of some of the most celebrated and iconic film scores of the Golden Age. Over five consecutive decades, Tiomkin received nearly two dozen Academy Award nominations for score and song. Of these, he took home four Oscars. As the composer behind such memorable films as Lost Horizon, It’s a Wonderful Life, High Noon, and The Alamo, he enjoyed an enviable position in the American film industry, having written for both film and television, and writing songs in addition to scores.
RTÉ is Raidió Teilifís Éireann, Ireland’s non-profit National Public Service broadcaster. The cross-media organization comprises television, radio, a library and archives, publishing, and a handful of performing groups, including the RTÉ National Symphony Orchestra, RTÉ Concert Orchestra (pictured, below), and RTÉ Philharmonic Choir.
Courtesy of RTÉ Concert Orchestra
This past summer, the RTÉ Concert Orchestra recorded Irish composer Brian Byrne’s score for Albert Nobbs, along with the song, “Lay Your Head Down.” The film features actress Glenn Close as the title character. The song, performed by singer Sinead O’Connor over the end credits, was co-written by Byrne and Close and has been nominated for a Golden Globe for best original song.
Additional film credits for the RTÉ Concert Orchestra include The Island by Brian Byrne, Irish Destiny by Mícheál Ó Súilleabháin and The League of Gentlemen’s Apocalypse by Joby Talbot. During the summer of 2011 the RTÉ Concert Orchestra provided live accompaniment for a screening of Casablanca and celebrated the film music of John Williams. The orchestra has an extensive discography on the Marco Polo, Naxos, and RTÉ lyric fm labels.
This concert follows the successful London Symphony Orchestra program of this past October. Read the LSO concert report, with links to reviews here.
Film correspondent and producer Tim Burden with the Q Radio Network and Film Score Monthly Online is helping to promote the concert. Burden enthusiastically recommends the concert: “Dimitri Tiomkin’s glorious music was made for the concert hall, with the symphonic sound of Hollywood rarely bettered considering this programme of historical, western, and war greats. Dublin will be in for quite a treat on January 12th.”
