Interview: There Will Be Blood

Hugh Brunt talks to Joe Fuller about performing the stunning, visceral score of There Will Be Blood live with a 55 person orchestra and an exciting rare chance to hear an Ondes Martenot

Could you tell me about the Brighton concert?
Yeah sure, it’s a screening of There Will Be Blood which picked up a couple of Oscars and has an amazing score. In my opinion it’s one of the most important scores of the last few decades. We’ll be bringing 55 musicians to perform the score live so it’s a pretty conventional orchestra with strings, woodwind, brass and percussion and we have three soloists.

One of those is playing a really interesting instrument from the 1920s called the Ondes Martenot. Only a handful of musicians have mastered it: we have Cynthia Millar performing for us and she’s one of the best in the world, if not the best so we’re very lucky to have her.

There will also be violin soloist Galya Bisengalieva and cello soloist Oliver Coates who will perform two works: the last movement of the Brahms Violin Concerto which features a couple of times in the film and then the cello accompanied by piano also for Arvo Pärt’s Fratres. It’s a full rendering of everything in the film including those pre-existing works alongside all of Jonny Greenwood’s writing [Radiohead’s guitarist].

Will pieces be truncated or elongated?
No it’s exactly how you would experience it watching the original film. With this though, it’s going to have a heightened atmosphere and tension because all those musical cues are being performed live. A lot of time goes into the preparation and rehearsal process to refine all those tempos, to make sure the pacing’s right. It’s a much freer way of working and really enjoyable.

The music has been stripped out of this print of the film and all that’s left in is the dialogue and the SFX. So that’s all mixed live and balanced in a very detailed and intricate way so that all audio elements have the space that they need.
It’s a constant conversation between what the orchestra is doing live and what our wonderful sound team do on the mixing desk.

Is it a challenge for you as a conductor without a click track? Is there a lot of pressure on you?
We performed this a few times now. We feel really secure. We’ve spent a lot of time since we first performed it in 2014 in rehearsals and general preparations. There’s always a little bit of adrenaline but we’ve worked hard to ensure that all of those elements are really tidy and exciting for the audience.

I’m keenly interested in bridging the classical divide and think this concert is a great way of reaching a wider audience.
That’s very true. It’s a really good way to introduce a first-time concert-goer to the potential of what an orchestra can do. The score has such a visceral impact and is so raw and earthy. In this context that music will speak very directly to the audience. It’s a big screen, a big orchestra and in a very beautiful big space as well.

Have you performed at the Dome before?
I visited it but never performed. This is the LCO’s first performance in Brighton so we’re very excited about it. All those elements come together to offer something bespoke I feel. It’s such a different experience to seeing it in a cinema when you have the communal aspect of it. You have thousands of people enjoying this film with the music live. It does heighten the energy and the atmosphere.

To me, focusing the attention on the music is one of the exciting things about it: framing the whole experience in a different way.
There will be times when the audience are more drawn to what the orchestra are doing but sometimes hopefully times where they forget there’s an orchestra there at all. That means that everything is being balanced effectively and subtly. There are dramatic peaks and troughs where the audience will realise if there’s an orchestra there or not.

London Contemporary Orchestra: There Will Be Blood Live,
Concert Hall, Brighton Dome,
Monday 6 February, 7.30pm,
£10-£45, brightondome.org
01273 709709