The New York Philharmonic has been busy of late, preparing for its gala opening-night concert tomorrow and the start of its subscription season on Wednesday. Yet it found time on Friday night to present a program, mostly of film music, conducted by John Williams. Also taking part was the director, choreographer and dancer Stanley Donen, who introduced scenes from his movie musicals, including “Singin’ in the Rain,” which, let’s face it, is the greatest movie musical of all time.
This was not just an evening of offbeat fun for the Philharmonic. The substantive program included a lot of bustling film music by Mr. Williams and others that few of the musicians may ever have played before. They seemed to enjoy themselves, though, as did an eager audience. This performance and two others over the weekend were nearly sold out.
Mr. Williams, who at 75 still conducts with kinetic energy, has taken flack from patronizing (and no doubt jealous) “serious” composers for the hyperexuberance and heart-tugging sentiment of his film scores. Still, he is a highly skilled and creative craftsman with dramatic flair, a keen ear for harmony and a proven knack for writing uplifting themes that are impossible to forget.
For this program he chose some of his lesser-known music: “Sound the Bells!,” for example, a celebratory piece written for the 1993 wedding of the Japanese Crown Prince Naruhito and Masako Owada. In this restless score, with its skittish brass riffs and sustained chromatic string chords, Mr. Williams deftly evokes Asian scales and instrumental colors.
His seldom-heard suite from “Jane Eyre,” a 1971 television movie, was a captivating surprise, especially the first movement, “Lowood,” with bittersweet harmonic language that recalled Vaughan Williams. Not surprisingly, an entrancing suite from the Harry Potter films had young people throughout Avery Fisher Hall sitting bolt upright in their seats.
Mr. Donen, wiry and affable at 83, seemed genuinely touched by the tribute to his work. Scenes from the films were shown on a screen above the orchestra as it played, posing difficult issues of coordination. When the films were made, the dancing was coordinated to recorded music. Here it was the opposite.
Five dance sequences were presented, all timeless achievements from movies Mr. Donen directed, alone or with Gene Kelly, or worked on. The segment began with Fred Astaire in “You’re All the World to Me,” from “Royal Wedding”: the number in which Astaire’s character, delirious in love, appears to dance on the walls and ceiling of a small furnished room. It ended, of course, with Kelly in the title number from “Singin’ in the Rain.”
The program ended with a montage of scenes from “Jaws,” “Star Wars,” “Indiana Jones” and “E.T.,” with Mr. Williams conducting patched-together excerpts from his scores. The audience applauded as each familiar theme sounded, then rose for an ecstatic ovation. Let high-art types gripe about Mr. Williams. Among those whose medium has been the orchestra, he is surely the best known, most popular and richest composer in history.
