Bits ‘n’ Pieces: Vancouver Symphony goes to the movies

As that massive spaceship lumbers through the interstellar darkness, the gigantic sound it makes is … totally absent.

That’s scientific fact. In space, nobody can hear your rockets roar. Sound waves require a medium to move through; space is the lack of any medium at all. So no matter how impressively huge and fast and generally wicked-awesome your vessel, it can’t make a peep up there.

Underwhelming, huh? That’s why moviemakers add special-effects sound, even where it doesn’t belong. And it’s also why they punch up the whole deal with soundtrack music, the more stirring and unforgettable the better.

Stirring and unforgettable is exactly how it was in Barcelona, Spain, in late December, when Maestro Salvador Brotons conducted two concerts featuring the music from “Star Wars” and other films by American composer John Williams. Some of the most recognized movie themes of all time — including “Jaws,” “Indiana Jones” and “Jurassic Park” — were penned by Williams.

Stirring and unforgettable is also a pretty good description of the concert venue, the Palau de la M?sica Catalana, which is considered one of the most ornately gorgeous auditoriums on this planet. Now complete that ear- and eye-popping scene with a garrison of stormtroopers and their wicked leader, Darth Vader, who took the stage and stood around looking menacing while the Camera Musicae Orchestra played and the Youth Choir of the Catalan Choral Society sang. (If Vader was wheezing in that scarily asthmatic manner of his, it couldn’t be heard. Or maybe he saw his doctor at last. Or his mechanic?)

Brotons, a native of Barcelona, is the long-running and jet-setting leader of our own Vancouver Symphony Orchestra, and he happens to be here this weekend for a run of concerts. When The Columbian caught up with him Monday, he said he loved participating in that forceful Williams extravaganza. Doesn’t matter that it’s not the most seriously artistic classical work, he said.

“It’s phenomenal music, great music,” Brotons said. “It’s brilliant. It’s beautiful. It’s melodic.” Furthermore, he said, a concert like this “is enjoyable for everybody because of the movies. Two concerts were completely full, full of young people. That’s very unusual.”

Such a cultural moment is a great way to turn people onto the classics. The printed program made sure to convey, as Brotons put it: “If you love this music, you should know that the inspiration for John Williams” came from great predecessors such as Holst, Prokofiev and Dvorak.

“We invite you to come back again and hear more,” he said.

“Believe me, on this day, people saw the power of symphonic music and the power of the orchestra,” Brotons added.

Silent music

Surely almost as stirring and unforgettable as Barcelona’s Palau de la M?sica is Vancouver’s own movie palace, the Kiggins Theatre. And almost as eye-popping as Darth Vader and the Death Star is the mournful mug of Buster Keaton as he rides a speeding locomotive straight at the camera.

That classic film image, from “The Goat,” was originally accompanied by a different sort of silence than outer-space silence: It was released in 1921, when movies had no sound, unless, that is, they were accompanied by live music, usually a pianist or organist perched right below the screen.

But when the Kiggins Theatre screens three silent comedy classics from the 1920s on Jan. 24, an accomplished quintet will add musical excitement with no light sabers whatsoever: visiting silent-film pianist-arranger-conductor Rodney Sauer of Louisville, Colo., and Vancouver Symphony Orchestra players Stephen Shepherd (violin), Dieter Ratzlaf (cello), Bruce Dunn (trumpet) and Igor Shakhman (clarinet).

Shakhman, who is also the VSO’s manager, is well familiar with pumping up the musical theatrics. A few years ago, as the long-running clarinetist in a touring performance of “Fiddler on the Roof,” Shakhman donned a costume and took the stage to play the big clarinet solo during the “bottle dance,” and avoided flying bottles and breaking glass now and then, he said. He performed eight shows per week for more than 500 performances. “Incredibly intense” is what he calls that experience. “Lots of fun memories.”

Providing music for this triple-bill of silent comedies should be plenty fun but a little less demanding, he said. Showing on the Kiggins’ big screen at 3 p.m. Jan. 24 are “The Goat” starring Keaton, “Never Weaken” starring Harold Lloyd and “Mighty Like a Moose” starring Charley Chase. Tickets are $25 and $5 for students with ID.

And if you can’t get enough of silent comedies with VSO accompaniment, mark May 15 on your calendar, too, when Keaton races back into the Kiggins for a showing of his 1928 feature-length masterpiece, “Steamboat Bill Jr.” Symphony musicians will provide the live soundtrack.

Wine, beer, soft drinks and other refreshments are available for sale and can be enjoyed in the theater, at 1101 Main St. in Vancouver.

How’s that sound?

Bits ‘n’ Pieces appears Fridays and Saturdays. If you have a story you’d like to share, email bits@columbian.com.