Rodgers & Hammerstein on the Silver Screen – Concert Preview

20th March 2023

Months of careful preparation are rapidly coming to fruition and it will soon be time to listen to our brilliant Rodgers and Hammerstein on the Silver Screen on Sunday 26 March.  

19 individual pieces of music have been carefully placed in special folders for each player, and a special stand has been sourced for Claus Efland to place his two giant scores on (one for each half of the concert) when he conducts. Detailed plans have been made for special lighting for the De Montfort Hall stage throughout the concert, and two leading singers from the West End stage, Shona Lindsay and Stephen John Davis will be joining us for the concert. In addition Shona and Stephen will be joining John Florance for a special pre-concert talk at 2pm in the hall.

The film soundtracks for the Rodgers and Hammerstein musicals are some of the most well-known and beloved in movie history. In transferring the music from the Broadway shows to the ‘Silver Screen’, Richard Rogers was able to call on some of the most talented orchestrators working for the Hollywood soundstage such as Robert Russell Bennett, Edward Powell, Irwin Kostal and Herbert Spencer. In the years following the heyday of these films, the music for the scores often became separated or even lost. In recent times, the British conductor and arranger John Wilson has looked to resurrect these and many other lost masterpieces from the iconic Hollywood period. The reconstructed Rodgers and Hammerstein scores for the musicals performed at this concert were premiered at the BBC Proms in 2010 with the John Wilson Orchestra and Maida Vale Singers under John Wilson himself to bring these wonderful melodies to life.

There is still time to book your tickets for what promises to be a fantastic afternoon of music from your favourite musical films!

Shona Lindsay; Stephen John Davis; Rodgers and Hammerstein at the piano


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