The Orchestra on Film

The Philharmonia Orchestra has had a long and distinguished association with cinema over the years. The Philharmonia's earliest work included such prestigious films as Olivier's Henry V with William Walton, Scott of the Antarctic and Nicholas and Alexandra.

1980s

In the late 1980s the Orchestra performed two enormously successful film music concerts.

On 10th March 1987 it performed a concert of the film music of the great film composer Jerry Goldsmith at the Barbican. This was the first time the composer had ever conducted a complete public concert of his own, anywhere.

The concert performed such film classics as Patton, Gremlins, Papillon, Chinatown, Sand Pebbles, Poltergeist and A Patch Of Blue, and the television classics The Man From Uncle, The Waltons and Dr Kildare. The concert was then recorded in the Walthamstow Town Hall and subsequently released by Decca.

A few months later Jerry Goldsmith was joined by two other film composers, John Scott and Elmer Bernstein, for a Royal Gala Concert at the Royal Festival Hall on 19th May 1987 to commemorate the birthday of the Hollywood composing legend Miklos Rozsa. In the presence of HRH Princess Anne, the concert performed such Hollywood classics as Ben-Hur, Spellbound, The Thief Of Baghdad, King Of Kings, El-Cid and Quo Vadis, and was an outstanding success.

In the 1980s the Philharmonia recorded for Silva Screen Records a series of classic film scores including Lawrence of Arabia, The Big Country and an anthology of music from the Hammer horror films.

1990s

In the 1990s the Philharmonia has positioned itself as one of the world's most sought-after orchestras for film music recording.

Its recent credits include re-recording and performing world-wide the music to Walt Disney's animated classic Fantasia 2000 and also Entrapment for 20th Century Fox with Christopher Young, Madeline with Michel Legrand and Sony Pictures, Alaska for Castle Rock, the animated King And I for Warner Brothers, Return To Nimh for MGM, 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea and Don Quixote for Hallmark, a major documentary series commemorating the 50th Anniversary of the State Of Israel for the Simon Wiesenthal Institute and the music for the Universal Theme Park in Florida, Islands Of Adventure.

Recent work

In 2001 The Philharmonia Orchestra recorded Paradise Found and the epic Channel 4 production Shackleton, starring Kenneth Branagh. It also recorded Shipping News for Miramax, starring Dame Judi Dench and Kevin Spacey, for which the score by Christopher Young received a Golden Globe nomination. In early 2004 it recorded Vanity Fair.

The Philharmonia looks forward to continued success in the film medium and loves being involved in recording the great contemporary film scores, although recently it has become involved with recording music for computer games. Its music for the Harry Potter (Chamber of Secrets) computer game in 2004 won a BAFTA, and the music for the latest Harry Potter (Prisoner of Azkaban) game has also been nominated for a BAFTA.

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