Danny Elfman swaps the cinema for the concert hall — album review
Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.
The name Danny Elfman is best known from rolling credits at the cinema. Earning four Oscar nominations to date, he has written film scores as diverse as Batman, Edward Scissorhands and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and also wrote the theme tune to The Simpsons.
In recent years Elfman has been building on his portfolio of concert works. This new recording brings together two of the most recent, a Percussion Concerto written for ace percussionist Colin Currie, and Wunderkammer, a glittering orchestral score commissioned for the National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain and performed here by the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra.
A lifetime’s experience in film means there is much atmospheric scene-painting in Elfman’s writing for orchestra, allied to a sure sense of dramatic pacing. What can be missing is a similarly strong flow of ideas in the foreground.
The Percussion Concerto’s priorities are rhythm, rhythm, rhythm (side drums, tom-tom, wood blocks, anvils, metal “gizmo” and more), which give way to Shostakovich-like widescreen panoramas where tuned percussion enhance the mood. It is easy to understand why the premiere made such a visual impact as Currie ran from instrument to instrument. This is a virtuoso piece which will attract more performances.
The magical sound-world of Wunderkammer (“room of wonders”) conjures memories of fantasy films with a touch of Vaughan Williams in the pastoral sections. The Royal Liverpool Philharmonic, conducted by JoAnn Falletta, captures its colourful popular appeal.
★★★☆☆
‘Danny Elfman: Percussion Concerto and Wunderkammer’ is released by Sony Classical
Comments