The Chicago Symphony Orchestra just announced more films with live music for their upcoming season, with an emphasis on classic silent films: Ben-Hur (1925), Metropolis (1927) and The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1920).
These films may be classics, but some of the music is new. During the screening of Ben-Hur on October 14, the CSO will play a new orchestral score composed by Stewart Copeland of The Police.
For this performance, Copeland will sit in with the orchestra on drum kit.
Many fans of the legendary rock band aren't aware that Copeland has written music for other genres, including film (Francis Ford Coppola's Rumblefish and Oliver Stone's Wall Street) and opera. Copeland's fourth opera, based on Edgar Allan Poe's The Tell-Tale Heart, was recently premiered by Long Beach Opera.
Here's a preview of the music he wrote for the swords-and-sandals epic film:
Organist Cameron Carpenter wrote his own macabre score for The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, and he will perform it live on Orchestra Hall's organ during a special screening of the silent horror film on Halloween. The virtuoso organist will no doubt make full use of that colossal instrument's 44 stops, 59 ranks, 14 couplers and 3,414 pipes.
Fritz Lang's science-fiction classic Metropolis will complete the orchestra's "CSO at the Movies" series on May 29, 2015. The film's eclectic musical score includes selections by Arnold Schoenberg, Edvard Grieg, Béla Bartók and other composers of the silent film era.
This three-concert series also includes "Pixar in Concert" on November 28 and Stanley Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey on March 13, featuring the CSO and Chorus under the direction of André de Ridder.
The CSO will also perform the musical score to Francis Ford Coppola's The Godfather on February 3 and 4, probably the most familiar film to modern audiences of the movies the CSO recently added to its upcoming season.
More information about the "CSO at the Movies" series and special film events is available at cso.org.
