Not Only Opera

There will be blood and ondes martinots: There Will Be Blood in concert at the Southbank Centre

There Will Be Blood in concert
London Contemporary Orchestra
Royal Festival Hall
30 January 2017
Rear Stalls WW29, £20

I'm in two minds about cinema showings with live orchestra: while a live orchestra can sound more exciting than a recorded one, recorded voices in venues set up for live, unmiked music is always going to be problematic – and is it ok to tear open the soundtrack in this way?

Unsurprisingly, the least problematic experiences I've had have been with silent film – such as Piccadilly at Wilton's Music Hall. To be honest, that was problematic in a different way; without knowing the venue I'd booked for side stalls, meaning half the screen was obscured. We moved after the interval but, you know. In terms of music, though, no problem – intimate acoustic, well selected band, inventive improv, all in all a good idea.

I saw Casablanca at the ROH; the score was extremely exciting and the film moved me in ways it never has (Casablanca police, I must admit I have troubles with the representation of women in the film, particularly in its second half). I enjoyed the sensation of the live orchestra so much I didn't even mind when they got out of synch with the video (most alarmingly when they sang the Marseillaise: orchestra one place, voices from the embedded soundtrack somewhere else). I enjoyed the music and the film in different ways from when I've seen the film before, at home or in cinema. But the fly in the ointment that I had trouble forgiving was that they had to use subtitles: the echo of the soundtrack was so great that the words were almost completely inaudible. Hardly an ideal film experience.

Those particular problems were much less in evidence for There Will Be Blood at the Royal Festival Hall, mostly because the RFH is much better set up for film than the ROH. Words were almost always audible, except for the very occasional moments when they were hidden behind the orchestra. Thanks to two big beasts of projectors, the image was impressively crisp and bright, even with the lights on the orchestra. The film is a great film, the score a great score, and I enjoyed the evening a lot.

Wouldn't I have enjoyed it more, though, if I'd seen it in a cinema? With a film of this nature you can and maybe should assume everything has been chosen precisely. There's no reason to think that the filmmakers have not selected the relative levels of soundtrack and diegetic sound with absolute precision. There's no reason to think that they didn't use the Mutter Karajan recording of the Brahms Violin Concerto because that's the recording they really wanted to use.

So at the Southbank the levels weren't perfect: words were occasionally lost, the orchestra occasionally insensitively amplified. When I first saw the film I remember feeling the rightness of the Brahms over the closing credits. This time I was feeling how much I prefer hearing the Brahms unamplified and with more of the right notes (no disrespect to the soloist – it must be a pretty stressful gig).

And I felt distracted from the film. I know that's slightly the point. But I was annoyed with myself for scanning the orchestra for the soloist when the Brahms first comes around (not in sight – played offstage or from a recording? No idea), when I should have been watching the film. I was annoyed at myself for thinking how little Jonny Greenwood had to do on the ondes martinot, and what it must feel like to be hearing that film and that soundtrack for the millionth time and whether that was enjoyable. Films fare this process in different ways and of course affect different people in different ways – many film fans leaving the auditorium sounded like they'd had a great time. But for me, I think Anderson needs the immersive cinema experience.

I still think these performances are great things, particularly for how they bring a different crowd into concert halls. Maybe some will come back to hear the Brahms the way it usually sounds in the RFH.