Signifying nothing: 2001 live at the Royal Festival Hall
2001: A Space Odyssey Live
André de Ridder, Philharmonia Orchestra, Philharmonia Voices
Royal Festival Hall
Stalls XX42, £20
28 April 2018
Southbank page
The last time I saw 2001 on a properly big screen was at Stratford Picturehouse, where some snafu with the speakers meant that all sound above quite a low decibel threshold was horrendously clipped. This made for a bathetic experience without the comedy. Needless to say, having an entire orchestra there to play the music for you derisks that particular unhappy scenario, and all in all I tremendously enjoyed seeing this wonderful film on the grand scale of the Royal Festival Hall with soundtrack in tact.
I do, though, wonder what is the point of these things. Of course, a huge amount of work is needed to get from a film to a live ‘with orchestra’ performance, from creating the music-free soundtrack to the nervy accuracy needed on the night to match live performance to image, for any film but most particularly for a Kubrick film and arguably most, most particularly for 2001. It is, unquestionably, a feat.
But the point? What can a live orchestra offer that the soundtrack cannot, when the present instrumentalists are constrained absolutely to replicate to the finest detail possible the musical decisions made by their recorded forebears? It is exciting to hear an orchestra in a concert hall, but I’m not sure it’s necessarily more exciting than hearing an excellent print in an excellent cinema, especially given the RFH’s provisions for the non-musical soundtrack (speakers placed around the hall) in no way matches the quality of even a so-so cinema. And sound is only part of it; though the Southbank’s screen is deliriously mammoth it still feels a long way away from row XX, and image quality is impeded by the lights needed for the flesh-and-blood musicians on stage.
What is she complaining about, you might ask. The orchestra and singers were superbly unnoticeable, the film is a marvel, it is enjoyable to feel a part of a large-scale event and to see the Royal Festival Hall full for once (though that carries a sadness of its own). I have no complaints; only a more than niggling feeling that I could have had a more complete experience, done away with a certain amount of silliness and saved myself £10 if I’d gone and seen it at the BFI next door.
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