Concert Revue By Alan Duckworth
The National Symphony Orchestra conducted by Emil De Cou presented Pixar In Concert at Wolf Trap National Park for the Performing Arts. The program was full of Oscar Award winning soundtracks and scores from every full length Pixar animated film produced since 1995.
When Toy Story debuted in 1995 it was the first full length motion picture to be completely produced using computer generated imagery (CGI). It was cutting edge technology that has fascinated audiences in the 19 years since. In addition to groundbreaking animation techniques Pixar studios has always been known for producing quality, award-winning sound. Randy Newman ,who scored six of the films featured in tonight’s program, has been nominated for 20 Academy Awards and won twice for Monsters, Inc. and Toy Story 3. Composer Micheal Giacchino also won Academy Awards for Up and The Incredibles. Nearly every feature tonight has either been nominated or won an Oscar! That speaks volumes of the quality of the program.
It should be no surprise that arguably one of the worlds best animation studios has one of the worlds best sound departments as well; the two virtually go hand in hand. Musical composition techniques over the centuries have evolved to include expression marks at the beginning and throughout a score. These notations affect the overall emotion of a song. Animation, as indicated in the book The Illusion of Life: Disney Animation, utilizes twelve basic principles of animation. These principals in part apply timing, anticipation and exaggeration techniques that are still used today, even with CGI. This makes the motion sequences appear less dull, more realistic and more suggestive. If you consider the dynamics, tempo, and expression of a musical composition, it’s natural it would compliment these animation principals. Composed orchestrations in particular are extremely effective at portraying moods. Late 19th century composers started implying emotions in their scores and Italian became the dominate language for indicating such expressions as shown below. In many ways any motion picture is only as good as the soundtrack.
Given the nature of the program it’s hard not to imagine this being a fantastic presentation. The orchestra was colossal! Just about every type of instrument imaginable was represented, even instruments you wouldn’t normally find in a typical ensemble such as the guitar, drums and even banjo. The Filene Center stage was encased with wooden panels to help direct the sound. A massive projector screen hung from the rafters above conductor Emil De Cou. Visual sequences were projected on the screen from each film, dialogue free. It was captivating watching the synchronized presentation; the NSO seemed to match the score perfectly. It was immensely entertaining! Experiencing the films in this manner is like hearing them for the first time.
Conductor Emil De Cou provided some insight about the films in between sets. He cited WALL-E as a personal favorite, but that all the acts were really, really good. Emil’s conducting style was fantastic! You could tell he had a fondness for the program and it looked like he was having a lot of fun.
The amount of feeling in each score was astonishing! It really was an emotional roller coaster, you’ll probably need a handkerchief. By contrast there was also a great amount of humor and excitement as well. I particularly liked the flying/volante sequences, which made us feel like we were flying through the air. The films helped guide these emotions but I still do believe even if there were no visuals accompanying the score I would still feel the same way.
This program was fantastic all the way through and the NSO really brought it to life. These types of presentations are quickly becoming favorites. It was just an amazing concert!
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