Show features songs of space oddities and Jedi knights

June 7, 2016

In a way, Benjamin Rous feels like there are two kinds of people in the world — those who love symphonic music, and those who have never heard it.

Almost no one, he says, dislikes hearing a live orchestra. So for those who haven’t yet discovered that experience, it’s just a matter of exposing them to it. And Rous, resident conductor for the Virginia Symphony Orchestra, has two shows this weekend that could bring in some of that new audience.

On Friday night at Chrysler Hall in Norfolk, the symphony will play the songs of musical changeling David Bowie, who died earlier this year at age 69. On Sunday night at the Ferguson Center in Newport News, the symphony will focus on John Williams‘ spectacular score for the “Star Wars” movie series.

“A lot of people who wouldn’t think to attend an orchestral concert, it’s just because it isn’t on their radar,” Rous said. “It’s not that they don’t like it. Just about everyone I’ve ever encountered loves live symphonic music the moment they hear it, whether it’s Shostakovich or John Williams. You just need a way to reach as many people as you can to get it on their radar.”

The “Star Wars” show Sunday — which will feature vocal contributions from the Warwick, Bethel and Hampton high school choirs — will showcase music from all seven films in the series. In 2005, the American Film Institute named the score from the original 1977 “Star Wars” film as the most memorable score of all time.

In a 2002 interview marking Williams’ 70th birthday, “Star Wars” creator George Lucas told the Los Angeles Times that he initially came to the composer with the idea that these scores would be just as important as the ones that had to carry the action in the silent films of the 1920s: “About 90 percent of the ‘Star Wars’ films are music. It’s done in a very old-fashioned style, as silent films, so that the music kind of tells the story. A lot of the emotional content is carried through the music as much as through the scenes themselves. … He understood completely.”

The material from last year’s “The Force Awakens” that provides a special treat, because full film scores are rarely made available to symphonies so quickly after the film’s release.

But Williams, whose 50 Academy Award nominations are second only to Walt Disney, likes to make his music accessible.

“This is a credit to John Williams and his great commitment to American symphony orchestras,” Rous said. “It’s unheard of to get the music this quickly. It’s a rare exception.”

And it provides rare opportunities.

Rous says he is more a fan of the “Star Wars” scores than of the actual films, but he is coming around. He knows the hardcore fan base has dissected the score of “The Force Awakens” and noted connections between the motifs of new characters and the music associated with familiar ones from earlier films.

These similarities may foretell links in the story arcs between the different generations of characters. Rous said he plans to “do some music proofs of those theories” on Sunday night at the Ferguson Center.

“The wonderful thing about playing John Williams’ music is that you don’t have to get it arranged,” Rous said. “The way he publishes it, a symphony orchestra can just play it and it will sound exactly as it does in those movies. Except there’s not all those sound effects and all that dialogue covering up his wonderful scores. Every note we play will be original John Williams. It hasn’t been monkeyed with.”

Friday night’s David Bowie show at Chrysler Hall will be a bit different. The symphony will be joined by a touring band, Jeans ‘n’ Classics, that will provide vocals and the rock elements of Bowie’s songs.

The eclectic performer spent almost a half-century working in different genres, spinning musical tales and taking on exotic characters and personas. Rous said he was first introduced to Bowie’s oeuvre by a musicologist who placed the singer within the context of the history of musical composers and explorers.

“Bowie was one of those pop artists who cared about the surface of his music — the sound palette,” Rous said. “A good number of popular bands will play the exact same instruments, the electric guitar with distortion over and over. That music has a definite appeal, but it’s not what Bowie was about.

“He was a sound artist as well as being a pop artist. That sensitivity to sound is what’s going to make this a good show. Orchestras are very good at recreating those kinds of sounds that Bowie used in his music.”

The symphony’s website provides a list of songs that could be on Sunday night’s set list — from early hits such as “Space Oddity” and “Rebel Rebel,” to more pop-oriented compositions such as “Modern Love” and “Under Pressure,” and even the glam rock anthem “All the Young Dudes,” which he wrote for Mott the Hoople.

If the Bowie and “Star Wars” shows help the symphony reach some new ears this weekend, that would make Rous happy.

But he doesn’t consider these shows to be specific reach-outs to the uninitiated.

“These shows are really a part of our core mission,” he said. “Playing great pop music and great film scores are two excellent uses of a symphony orchestra. It’s not about appealing to new audiences. It’s just about playing great music. That’s what we try to do with every show.”

Holtzclaw can be reached by phone at 757-928-6479.

Info: virginiasymphony.org or 757- 892-6366.

Want to go?

Friday: The Virginia Symphony Orchestra plays the music of David Bowie, 8 p.m. at Chrysler Hall in Norfolk. Tickets are $20.

Sunday: The Virginia Symphony Orchestra plays the music of “Star Wars,” 7 p.m. at the Ferguson Center in Newport News. Tickets are $25.