A DIFFERENT BEAT
POLICE DRUMMER STEWART COPELAND SCORES CONCERT DATES WITH ‘ BEN- HUR,’ CSO
For anyone who only knows Stewart Copeland as the drummer for the Police, the iconic 1970s and ’ 80s British rock band, his latest project involving a musical score for a 1925 silent film might seem like a startling departure.
But it so happens that Copeland also has had a major career as a television and film composer, starting in 1983, when director Francis Ford Coppola asked him to write the music for “Rumble Fish,” and continuing with such movies as “Wall Street” ( 1987) and “Very Bad Things” ( 1998).
What’s new is that the rock ’ n’ roller is bringing his film work into the concert hall, starting with his score for “Ben- Hur: A Tale of the Christ.” It will be screened Oct. 14 with Copeland and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra providing live accompaniment.
“I have absolute confidence that the movie will blow everybody away,” he said.
To recruit new audiences and boost sagging ticket sales, more and more symphony orchestras around the country are jumping into movie music, offering programs of excerpts, such as “Pixar in Concert,” and screening complete films like the “The Matrix” with the scores performed live.
“It just seems like folks want more to look at,” Copeland said, “and orchestras are not that great to look at for a long period of time. The club owners— that’s rock ’ n’ roll for concert presenters — want a spectacle, and so a film provides that.”
The Chicago Symphony first ventured into this realm in April 2001 with a group of live performances of Charlie Chaplin’s score for “City Lights” alongside screenings
of the classic silent film. The success of that essay led to the establishment in 200405 of a series now called “CSO at the Movies,” with many of the concerts led by pops conductor Richard Kaufman, who joined MGM in 1984 and supervised music for the studio’s television projects for 18 years.
“There was interest on the part of our musicians and some of the public to have the orchestra perform more film music, and we were excited by that and interested in presenting some of these phenomenal scores,” said James Fahey, who oversees the series.
“Ben- Hur” is one of two add- ons to this year’s edition of “CSO of the Movies,” which features “Pixar in Concert” ( Nov. 28) as well as concert screenings of “2001: A Space Odyssey” ( March 13, 2015) and “Metropolis” ( May 29, 2015).
Kaufman recommended the silent- film version of “Ben- Hur” to Fahey, who was immediately enthusiastic because of the importance of the film, which was added to the National Film Registry in 1997, and the opportunity for the orchestra to work with Copeland and draw on his fan base.
The composer never set out to create a program that would be suitable for the concert stage, but instead arrived at in in a roundabout way. Franz Abraham, whom Copeland describes as a “mad Bavarian impresario,” hired him to compose the accompaniment for “BenHur Live,” an arena show, in which the key points of the story were enacted live, including chariot races. It debuted in 2009 in London’s O2 Arena and toured Europe.
Afterward, Copeland sought a further use for the music, which is tinged with some of the exotic, atmospheric sounds he heard growing up in the Levant in the Middle East. “I did get kind of carried with the whole thing and I was pleased with the musical results,” he said.
His manager, Derek Power, suggested setting it to the action- packed 1925 version of “Ben- Hur” by director Fred Niblo— the most expensive film of the silent era. The composer spent three years securing rights to the film, editing it to a more compact length of 90 minutes and adapting his music into a workable score.
“I’ve really approached this film with great respect,” Copeland said, “and I think it stands up. As I was working on it, I couldn’t help but drink the Kool- Aid and become a great acolyte of Mr. Niblo and all the artistry he put into it.”
The resulting concert screening, which features Copeland performing on drums and other percussion alongside the orchestra, debuted at the Virginia Arts Festival in April and will be presented for just the second time by the Chicago Symphony. Future performances are scheduled internationally through 2016.
Copeland hopes the event will draw not only film buffs and his fans, some of whom have perhaps never been to Orchestra Hall before, but also regular symphony- goers who want to experience something different.
“I would love for Chicago Symphony folks to come and see what this outsider, this ex- rock star has got to say,” he said. “I think the Virginia Symphony really enjoyed playing it, and their patrons, their season- holders seemed to really like it.
“I use an orchestra in a different way than Mozart. I do bring what I’ve learned from popular music to the orchestra. I know where to put a bang and where to put a whimper—[ things] that I learned from being onstage and scoring film.”