Music of Mystery and Magic

Mysteries and scary stories fascinate children and adults alike, and in this year’s edition of the annual Family Fanfare concert, the Malta Philharmonic Orchestra will be exploring a dark musical world in an interactive concert under the direction of Robert Hodge, which seeks to highlight just how strongly the right piece of music can make us feel.

The concert opens with two short classical pieces, starting with Saint-Saëns’ Danse Macabre, a musical depiction of the dead rising from their graves on Halloween to dance all night, until the break of dawn forces them to return to their rest for the next year.

Mussorgsky’s Night on Bald Mountain, meanwhile, was made famous through Disney’s Fantasia, and seeks to depict a similarly macabre night.

Excerpts from Stravinsky’s ballet The Firebird, based on Russian fairy tales of the magical firebird that provides both a blessing and a curse to those who own it, are then followed by excerpts from two iconic film soundtracks.

The screeching strings used in the pivotal shower scene of the film Psycho helped make the scene one of the best known in the history of film. While Hitchcock initially planned to use no music during this scene, he was so impressed with Bernard Herrmann’s proposed music that he nearly doubled his salary.

John Williams has penned many of the most recognisable film scores, and Jaws makes the list for its brilliant musical depiction of the menace of an approaching shark.

Programme
Camille Saint-Saëns – Danse Macabre
Modest Mussorgsky – Night on Bald Mountain
Igor Stravinsky – The Firebird (selection)
Bernard Herrmann – Psycho (selections from the soundtrack)John Williams – Jaws (selections from the soundtrack)