FEBRUARY 21, 2018 — The International Film Music Critics Association (IFMCA) announces its list of winners for excellence in musical scoring in 2018, in the 2018 IFMCA Awards.

The award for Score of the Year goes to British composer John Powell for his score for the Star Wars spin-off story “Solo,” which looked at the early life of the legendary rogue and intergalactic smuggler Han Solo. The film was directed by Ron Howard, and starred Alden Ehrenreich, Emilia Clarke, and Donald Glover. In describing the score, IFMCA members Asier Senarriaga and Óscar Giménez called Solo “a spectacular score that combines the classic ideas of Williams with the talent of Powell,” and proclaimed it “the score of the year,” while IFMCA member Jon Broxton – speaking about the score’s multitude of recurring character themes - said that the way Powell “incorporates all the thematic complexity into his score is masterful, but best of all is the way he allows them to develop organically; this is not just a rigid leitmotif score where mathematics trumps emotion. Instead, Powell engages in sensible and appropriate development, meaning that when the emotional outbursts do come, they pack a real wallop, and satisfy both the heart and the brain in equal measure.”

The score is also named Best Original Score for a Fantasy/Science Fiction/Horror Film, while John Williams’s contribution to the score, the standalone piece “The Adventures of Han,” is named Film Music Composition of the Year. These are the seventh and eighth IFMCA Award wins of Powell’s career; he previously won the Score of the Year award for “How to Train Your Dragon” in 2010.

James Newton Howard is named Composer of the Year, and takes home the award for Best Original Score for an Action/Adventure/Thriller Film for his work on the controversial Jennifer Lawrence Cold War spy thriller “Red Sparrow,” for which he wrote an astonishingly powerful classical overture for the film’s opening ballet sequence, as well as some intense action and suspense music. IFMCA member Mihnea Manduteanu described Red Sparrow as “beautiful and passionate” and “melodic and furious”.

Howard’s other work in 2018 was just as outstanding, and included the second Harry Potter spinoff film “Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald,” and the lavish fantasy “The Nutcracker and the Four Realms,” which was inspired by Tchaikovsky’s seminal ballet. IFMCA member Christian Clemmensen called Fantastic Beasts an “accomplished and mature fantasy score” which “sits comfortably with Howard's accomplished genre works and competes favorably for a place amongst 2018's best scores.” These are the ninth and tenth IFMCA Awards of Howard’s career. He previously received IFMCA Score of the Year honors in 2006 for “The Lady in the Water”.

British composer Amelia Warner is named Breakthrough Composer of the Year for her enormously impressive mainstream debut work scoring the literary drama based on the life of the groundbreaking horror author “Mary Shelley”. IFMCA member Peter Simons said that Mary Shelley was “a wonderful score … mesmerizing … unlike anything I’ve heard in a long time, if ever. The use of synth and vocals over strings and piano is just exquisite. There is always something interesting going on, either melodically or aurally … it’s one of the most exciting scores of the year”.

The various other genre awards are won by Max Richter for his classically-inspired music for the historical drama “Mary Queen of Scots”; Marc Shaiman for his loving, nostalgic homage to Walt Disney and the Sherman Brothers on the comedy musical sequel “Mary Poppins Returns”; Mark McKenzie for his spectacularly beautiful, reverent score for the Mexican animated film “Max and Me”; and Pinar Toprak for her broad, adventurous, expansive orchestral score for the yacht-racing documentary “Tides of Fate”. With this win Toprak is now the only person with more than two IFMCA Award nominations to win every time she has been nominated – her previous wins were for “The Lightkeepers” (Comedy, 2010) and “The Wind Gods” (Documentary, 2011).

In the non-film categories, composer Christopher Lennertz wins the award for Best Original Score for a Television Series for his bold, exciting score for the rebooted version of the classic sci-fi series “Lost in Space,” while composer Bear McCreary wins the award for Best Original Score for a Video Game or Interactive Media for his thrilling score for the action adventure game “God of War”.

Burbank, California-based La-La Land Records is named Film Music Record Label of the Year in recognition of their ongoing excellence in restoring and releasing the most beloved film scores of the past. Acclaimed album producer Mike Matessino receives both Archival Awards: one for his work restoring and releasing John Williams’s classic score for the 1979 Frank Langella version of “Dracula” on the Varèse Sarabande label, and one for his work in putting together the lavish box set of John Williams’s three Harry Potter scores - “Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone,” “Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets,” and “Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban” – for La-La Land Records. Producer Robert Townson shares the award for Dracula, and album artist Jim Titus worked on both releases.

#######################################

 

FILM SCORE OF THE YEAR

• SOLO, music by John Powell

 

FILM COMPOSER OF THE YEAR

• JAMES NEWTON HOWARD

 

BREAKTHROUGH COMPOSER OF THE YEAR

• AMELIA WARNER

 

BEST ORIGINAL SCORE FOR A DRAMA FILM

• MARY, QUEEN OF SCOTS, music by Max Richter

 

BEST ORIGINAL SCORE FOR A COMEDY FILM

• MARY POPPINS RETURNS, music by Marc Shaiman

 

BEST ORIGINAL SCORE FOR AN ACTION/ADVENTURE/THRILLER FILM

• RED SPARROW, music by James Newton Howard

 

BEST ORIGINAL SCORE FOR A FANTASY/SCIENCE FICTION/HORROR FILM

• SOLO, music by John Powell

 

BEST ORIGINAL SCORE FOR AN ANIMATED FILM

• MAX AND ME, music by Mark McKenzie

 

BEST ORIGINAL SCORE FOR A DOCUMENTARY

• TIDES OF FATE, music by Pinar Toprak

 

BEST ORIGINAL SCORE FOR A TELEVISION SERIES

• LOST IN SPACE, music by Christopher Lennertz

 

BEST ORIGINAL SCORE FOR A VIDEO GAME OR INTERACTIVE MEDIA

• GOD OF WAR, music by Bear McCreary

 

BEST ARCHIVAL RELEASE - NEW RELEASE OR NEW RECORDING OF AN EXISTING SCORE

• DRACULA, music by John Williams; album produced by Mike Matessino and Robert Townson; liner notes by Mike Matessino; art direction by Jim Titus (Varèse Sarabande)

 

BEST ARCHIVAL RELEASE – COMPILATION

• HARRY POTTER: THE JOHN WILLIAMS SOUNDTRACK COLLECTION; music by John Williams; album produced by Mike Matessino; liner notes by Mike Matessino; art direction by Jim Titus (La-La Land)

 

FILM MUSIC LABEL OF THE YEAR

• LA-LA LAND, MV Gerhard, Matt Verboys

 

FILM MUSIC COMPOSITION OF THE YEAR

• “The Adventures of Han” from SOLO, written by John Williams

 

Bernstein: CBS Music; A Bernstein Birthday Bouquet
Sao Paulo Symphony Orchestra/Marin Alsop
Naxos 8.559813
Total Time:  53:46
Recording:   ****/****
Performance: ****/****

Bernstein: Fancy Free; Anniversaries for Orchestra
Sao Paulo Symphony Orchestra/Marin Alsop
Naxos 8.559814
Total Time:  52:25O
Recording:   ****/****
Performance: ****/****

This year marks the centenary of the American composer and conductor Leonard Bernstein (1918-1990).  His impact on symphonic music was a result of his long tenure at the New York Philharmonic where he would champion Mahler, modern American music, create programs for young audiences, and work to establish the orchestra as the best in the nation.  He would become a major advocate for Copland’s music.  As a composer, Bernstein would try his hand at every genre from Broadway theater to film music, opera to hybrids of religious texts and musical styles, ballet, and orchestral music.  Of the many protégés he mentored, one is Marin Alsop who has in many ways continued this legacy with her own dedication to American music.  Alsop has been recording Bernstein’s music for Naxos between the Baltimore and Sao Paulo orchestras.  The two discs presented here were recorded mostly in December 2016 with the two primary works on 8.559814 recorded in 2017.  Both albums bring together some peripheral extras from Bernstein’s catalog, including some world premieres.  They are both quite short though by modern CD standards.

In the first of these albums (8.559813), we are treated to a host of treasures in what reveals itself as a quite intelligently-chosen program.  There are some brief selections from Broadway.  The album opens with the “Mambo” from West Side Story with its concert ending.  It receives a crisp and clean exciting performance.  The “Times Square Ballet” from On the Town is the other end of the miniature Bernstein program here which sets up the final set of variations on the release.  In between we are treated to his gift to his close friend Mstislav Rostropovich, Slava! A Political Overture (1977). The piece has a blend of Shostakovich and reworks two pieces from Bernstein’s failed opera, 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.  Some of the music here would also be reused in other pieces and has been crafted into a cantata as well.  Charlie Harmon put together an orchestral suite that further illustrates the tenuous straddling of Neo-Classicism and American musical theater.  The five segments woven together here include a march, gavotte, calypso, a ballad, a chorale, and a finale that is essentially a reworking of Candide’s “Make Our Garden Grow”.  The orchestrations are quite beautiful.  One of the more interesting and welcome additions is the premiere recording of Bernstein’s CBS Music (1978).  This was written to accompany a retrospective for the network’s 50^th anniversary and accompanied a collage of photos to this music for the finale which aired on April 1, 1978.  In many ways, the five sections here are good companions to the earlier suite.  They illustrate this blend of Bernstein’s integrated modern jazz, sense of dance, and updated modernism that always feels like the next step after Gershwin’s artistic jazz works.

The real charm of this album though lies in the collection of A Bernstein Birthday Bouquet (1988).  Seiji Ozawa and the Boston Symphony Orchestra had a celebration of the composer at Tanglewood for his 70^th birthday.  To mark the occasion, eight composers were chosen to create a set of variations on “New York, New York” from On the Town.  This is the reason the “Times Square Ballet” number appears as it was used to open that part of the program to help the audience familiarize themselves with the tune.  Each of the composers chosen had a connection to Bernstein having family connections to the NY Philharmonic, a composition either commissioned or performed by Bernstein, or connections to Tanglewood and the BSO.  The composers (Luciano Berio, Leon Kirchner, Jacob Druckman, Lukas Foss, John Corigliano, John Williams, Toru Takemitsu, and William Schuman) are almost a Who’s Who of late 20^th Century composition.  This is the first time the pieces have been heard together since the original concert.  Williams would record his contribution (“To Lenny! To Lenny!”) more recently as the piece For New York.  Kirchner would further expand his “N.Y.-Connotations-N.Y” into his Music for Orchestra II.  But the real delight is the way each composer uses quotation both of Bernstein’s own music as well as some of the many pieces of classical music that he was famous for conducting.  Herein lies the sheer delight in this collection that amounts to just over 20 minutes.  It makes this a must-have disc and the performances are stunning here.

The second of these two new releases (8.559814) also features the composer’s lighter and more intimate sides.  The album is bookended by two overtures.  It opens with one of his most popular works, the “Overture” to Candide and concludes with the one to 1953’s Wonderful Town.  The latter is one of the composer’s many pieces that share his love for New York.  Fancy Free (1944) is one of the pieces that exhibits the composer’s integration of urban Americana and jazz in his favorite city.  It melds a host of musical influences from Offenbach to Shostakovich with a little Billie Holiday thrown in for good measure.  The jazz piano makes this an almost concertante work.  This recording omits the jukebox tune (“Big Stuff”) which seems a bit odd as there is plenty of time for it on the CD (though it is a common practice).  This aside, this is just a stunning performance that should become one of the standards in the catalogue (holding its own against critical favorites by Leonard Slatkin, and Andrew Litton which pop up in re-issues along with the composer’s own required version).  The orchestra manages to really nail the rhythmic vitality of the piece and maintains a steady sense of fun and excitement.  The album also includes the Anniversaries for Orchestra.  Garth Edwin Sunderland collected and orchestrated this set of eleven remembrances that Bernstein wrote piano vignettes for over the course of his life.  They are a very personal collection of pieces that honor composers, family, performers, and assistants in his life.  It is a sort of peripheral picture of the composer.  These manage to honor their piano versions in more intimate writing here as well.  Still, it would be nice to have the originals to better compare someday.  That said, Bernstein fans, will find them intriguing at the very least.  The real reason to grab this disc is for Fancy Free.

These two releases are both excellent additions to the Bernstein catalogue and are just more amazing examples of Marin Alsop’s ability to draw invigorating performances from her orchestras. Each work receives committed performances with excellent detail and a real sense of Bernstein’s style.