Symphony scores with film music

RALEIGH -- There could be reasons some concertgoers might be apprehensive about the current N.C. Symphony program, which concludes tonight at Memorial Hall in Chapel Hill: the lecture aspect, the inclusion of movie scores or the fear of atonal music. Those who stood resolutely applauding at the end of Friday's performance at Meymandi Concert Hall in Raleigh until an encore was played are proof there's no cause for alarm.

UNC School of the Arts chancellor John Mauceri's broad musical background, coupled with his affable personality, make him the perfect narrator for this evening devoted to composers who have influenced film music. The program is organized around Arnold Schoenberg and Erich Korngold, both émigrés from Austria to Los Angeles in the late 1930s, escaping the grip of the Third Reich.

Although Schoenberg did not write for film, his atonal compositional style profoundly affected music in the 20th century, including soundtracks. But Mauceri points out that Schoenberg also composed tonal music, programming his Chamber Symphony No. 2 as a prime example. The piece is easily accessible despite its moody introspection.

Korngold used his full genius in film scores of uncommon richness, borne out in the glorious five-part suite from 1939's "The Adventures of Robin Hood." As worked up by Mauceri from Korngold's original score, it stands as a concert piece without apologies.

Schoenberg influenced American film composer Bernard Hermann, especially in his gripping all-strings score for "Psycho," another of Mauceri's brilliant reconstructions for the concert hall. Most telling are the excerpts from John Williams' "Close Encounters of the Third Kind," skillfully employing the atonality of Schoenberg in depicting the unknown and the neoromanticism of Korngold for the bonding of man and alien.

Mauceri is in his element in the second half, giving marvelous thrust to the Korngold and Williams, as well as the gorgeous "Moonlight" intermezzo from Richard Strauss' "Capriccio." Only the first half seems misjudged, with the Schoenberg and Hermann both too dark and too small of stature to hint of the glories after intermission.