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I agree with you, not much was missing. We almost got all of the main themes. But I would still have loved to hear Remains Of The day, even the orchestral version, planet of the apes’ quiet flute-romantic theme, and Lydia’s theme from beetle juice.
Other than that, the selection was perfect.Your set list is in correct order. There are only a few things missing. Jenny’s theme from big fish (alternate new version), and young Ichabod’s theme from sleepy hollow.
I was seating at the right side of the stage, on the stalls, “G” area. I guess I was below you.
Man, I still cannot believe the quality, energy and beauty of what we’ve seen during this concert!!!
I was hoping it would be recorded. Since the Albert Hall is really magnificent and it’s acoustic is amazing. But sadly, I didn’t see any camera.
So, here’s a review of the concert.
It might be full of typos, since I’m writing this on an iPhone. I hope it will all make sense.The concert was everything I had hope for. The new arrangements were really clever and nice. The orchestra played beautifully. The choir was phenomenal. There was a real organ, and a theremin as well.
We got to see Elfman perform, as well as Helena Bonham Carter. Tim Burton was there too.
Most of the suites had newly written intros and outros.It started all with Charlie And the Chocolate Factory, along with some images of ALL the burton films.
There was a Theremin soloist, and this made the whole piece really interesting. The orchestra was fantastic.
The piece was pretty similar to the original one.Then, Pee Wee. The whole piece was re-orchestrated and rearranged. A masterpiece. We could really tell Danny had taken time to rework the piece with all the musical experience he’s gained through the years.
Beetlejuice was dynamic and fun. The day-o part from the beginning of the main titles was sung by a male choir, which made it dark and funny at the same time. Here again, the new arrangement was really nice. Both the main theme and the “grave” theme were there.
Sleepy Hollow : with a young boy soloist, the whole choir, and a real organ. The new arrangement was a mix between the young Ichabod theme and the end titles.
Very dark and powerful.Mars Attacks was fun, again with the theremin. We heard the Main Titles, pretty similar to the original piece.
Big fish was almost fully rewritten. All the themes were represented, but in new orchestrations. The violin was very present. Even Jenny’s theme was played by a piano dubbed by a country-like violin. Very interesting and fresh.
Batman/Batman returns started with the original main titles, then faded into Descent into Mystery, and Up to the Cathedral. Very big and powerful. With organ and chorus. The Joker’s waltz was enhanced. We then heard the penguin’s theme, followed by Selina’s theme. There were tiny parts of the Batman returns main titles as well. The whole piece ended with the grand Batman 1 finale.
After the interval :
Planet Of The Apes : they got away pretty good with the main titles. I was really worried about how they’d do it. There were some recorded samples, but a lot of the percussions were played live. The only problem is that they were too loud and we sometimes couldn’t hear the rest of the orchestra properly.
Corpse Bride was beautiful. The Victors Piano Solo finally got an ending. A beautiful, technically complex pianistic ending (a la Serenada Schizophrana).
Then, they played the wedding song, sung by the choir. It was nice, but I was hoping we’d get some jazzy tunes instead. Richard Kraft told me later that it would have been complicated playing the jazz tunes because they would have needed more musicians.Dark Shadows was very impressive. The sad theme, and the main theme were here, and it was loud, dynamic and GOOD!
Frankenweenie was nice. The synchronization between the images and the music was clever, but for some reason, I’ve never been a big fan of this score.
Then, at this moment, the orchestra was supposed to start playing Nightmare Before Chrismas (according to the beautiful program booklet) but they played Edward Scissorhands instead. For a moment, I thought Elfman had given up singing… But hopefully that wasn’t the case.
So, Edward Scissorhands was a very touching moment. Main titles, followed by the storytelling theme, some suburbia theme, and a wonderfully extended Edward Barber theme on the violin. That part was a real treat. It ended up with the ice dance, along with images of Kim under the snow. Beautiful.Then, Nightmare Before Christmas started :
The main titles, first. Then Elfman arrived and did Jacks Lament, and “something’s up with jack”.
Helena Bonhan Carter showed up and charmingly sang Sally’s song while Danny was seating in a chair in front of the audience, watching her.
Than, he sang “poor jack”. All this songs were arranged in a very smooth way, fading into one another. Christmas Montage was played at some point as well.
Danny’s interpretation was wonderful. I can’t see why he was so concerned. It was outstanding. I’d say it was even better than the originals. He really got into the interpretation and it was unbelievable.Then, the orchestra played the Alice in wonderland Ouverture (with lyrics).
After that, Elfman came back for an Encore. He talked to the public thanked us, and said this was probably the best moment of his life.
He took the microphone, and started singing Oogie Boogie song, while moving and dancing like he used to in the old Mystic Knights times.
A few times, he was going to walk in front of the stage but didn’t. It felt like his old Boingo reflexes were coming back.
His rendition of the song sounded like his version of Minnie The Moocher in Forbidden Zone, along with all the moves. it was outstanding!!!!
He seemed kind of shy in the beginning of his first song, but at the end, he looked amazingly comfortable in this very last song. Even the conductor John Mauceri put his Santa hat on, and sang the Santa Claus parts.After that, Tim Burton joined him on stage, with Helena Bonham Carter, and John Mauceri, and they said goodbye to the audience.
At the end of the concert, a lot of people waited (for a loooong time), and got to see John Mauceri, Richard Kraft and Danny Elfman. The three of them took time to sign, take pictures and talk with each and everyone. They were very nice and thankful.
Of course, filming and taking pictures were forbidden. But of course, pretty much everybody filmed parts of the show and took pictures. So, I guess you’ll end up seeing stuff on YouTube.
Can’t wait to hear about the next shows.
Maybe, if we get together at the end, we might try to go and meet and greet him.
After all, this is the only real and respectful forum and website… We might be accepted don’t you think?Very Brilliant work! Great orchestrations, beautiful harmonies, and I can definitely hear the elfman influence.
You are very talented!Thank you for sharing
No, I haven’t received my tickets, but the lady on the phone said we only get a confirmation e-mail, and the tickets will be sent out way later (in several months I think)…
The second russian link doesn’t sound like Elfman at all. More like a Media-Ventures style videogame music in my opinion.
I just got the cd, and this is by far the BEST ELFMAN SCORE in 2012 in my opinion.
I was kind of worried after hearing the samples and reading elfboy91’s reaction to the score… And I thought I’d be disappointed… But it really isn’t the case.The score is a huge come back to Elfman’s late 80’s and early 90’s scores. It has that “Nightbreed” vibe that I love.
It’s dark and romantic. The orchestration is very similar to Edward Scissorhands, Nightbreed or even Nightmare Before Christmas. It’s a very nice hommage to Bernard Herrmann, and it’s and homage to Elfman’s original styleThe main theme is very reminiscent of one of Edward Scissorhand’s musical phrases.
I think it’s just the PERFECT DARK HOLIDAY SCORE, and I had not heard anything like this for years!
I can’t wait to hear what you guys think about it.
Just got the cd and I have to say I’m pretty disappointed. I was expecting a way more melodic score. There are a few leitmotives, specially one that almost quotes the Batman theme (except the 4th note that is lower), but there are no melody line. If I wanted to sing or play the theme on the piano, I wouldn’t even know what melody to play.
It sounds like some unused melodyless parts of Edward Scissorhands, or Meet the Robinsons, or Charlotte’s Web. It’s nice. But nothing I’d remember. It probably fits the movie perfectly. But on CD, it’s not consistent enough…SAMPLES :
My favourite swiss online cd-shop has samples
http://www.cede.ch/fr/music-cd/frames/frameset.cfm?aobj=964845
Love the Elfman Disney Logo
I just saw the movie… I liked it… But I was very surprised by the lack of poetry…
Usually, Tim Burton’s movies are very poetic, even when they’re really dark, and even when they sing Broadway-like songs like in Sweeney Todd. But here, I felt there were way too many characters, and he didn’t get to explore them enough. At least not enough for the audience to feel anything for them. It was beautiful, funny at times, but too cold.
And in my opinion, a lot of the humor was based on jokes we had already seen in other movies. I couldn’t help but think of Disney’s Hocus Pocus, when whiches wake in the 20th century and react when they first see a car, a street, or the TV. Nothing new here… And, one must be very patient to finally hear Elfman’s music. I have a feeling that a lot of his music has been replaced by songs. I didn’t hear the track “Dark Shadows – reprise” and I was wondering if it wasn’t supposed to be played during the main titles, instead of “Nights in white satin” …? It was surprising to see a Tim Burton Main Titles without Elfman’s music… Interesting, yes, but surprising…What did you guys think ???
I recieved the cd saturday, and finally got to listen to it.
It’s much more quieter than I thought. A lot of sensitive moments, but very dark. I thought we might get a lot of 70’s influenced music, but hopefully it’s not the case.Can’t wait to see the movie!
It’s a shame they messed up the back print of the cd though… The film credits have been slightly cut by the album credits. It’s not a big deal, but I’m surprised Sony Music doesn’t check the artwork before printing so many copies…
Well, I noticed that there aren’t many new posts lately, but I’m pretty sure that a lot of people have no idea that the site still exists. It took me a long time to find it…
Anyway, I don’t want this web site to disappear. I know that Facebook and Twitter are a good way to communicate, but it will never replace this web site and this forum.
It’s been part of my life ever since I was a teenager. Every morning, I check my e-mail, and I visit this web site. I’d feel pretty much like an orphan if it should disappear….Thank you so much. I’m happy if anyone liked it
I’ve been adapting Elfman’s music for the piano ever since I was 12 years old. But this is the first time I do it with a non-released piece of music. So, I thought I’d post it so you could hear it.–> elfenthalsmith : I use a Yamaha Silent Grand Piano, as a midi keybord AND for its great piano sound, some Vienna Strings in Logic Pro, and a lot of Roland synthesized instruments.
From what I know, and my source is very reliable, Elfman and Burton had their first big, I mean BIIIIG fight at the end of the Batman Returns premiere, back in 1992. Elfman was really disappointed concerning the sound effects mixing, and the fact that a lot of the beautiful details of his score couldn’t be heard properly in the final mix. At that time, Elfman had already been working on Nightmare before Christmas for a while, and he finished it in 1993. I know there were some disagreements about the credits for NBC, but I don’t know exactly the details. What I do know is that Burton wanted a very specific tone for the Ed Wood movie, and he really wanted someone to compose in the style of another composer, and Danny wasn’t interested at all in doing that.
So, it’s not a unique reason that lead to this “vacation from each other”, but it was a serie of events that all started with Batman Returns.Here’s that piano main theme I was talking about, along with Danny Elfman interviews
Hey, Ca fait bizarre de parler français, ici. Je suis de Genève, en Suisse. Je serai à Los Angeles en juillet, mais je ne suis pas un grand fan de cirque. Pensez-vous que ça vaille tout de même la peine d’aller voir ce spectacle?
Hey, it’s strange to speak french here. I’m from Geneva, Switzerland. I’ll be in L.A. in july, but I’m not a big Circus fan. Do you think it’s still worth going to see this show?
-Eric
Wow… man, i had no idea there was more “Music Box” suites… I really hope that all the background music on these videos appear on the cd’s OR on the USB key…
What about the release date? Ryan, any idea?
Here is a very high definition picture, from the Sony Classical album “Serenada Schizophrana”.
I think it’s about 4 years old :http://www.uncsa.edu/pressreleases/Releases2007/May07/D_Elfman_207_R2.jpg
