“Danny Elfman taught himself how to write symphonically and became one of the most successful composers in Hollywood,” writes Tim Greiving in Sunday’s (3/31) Los Angeles Times. “He’s … writing ambitious works for orchestra and ballet. His two latest, a violin concerto and a piano quartet, were just released as a single album on Sony Classical. The concerto, ‘Eleven Eleven,’ will be performed Thursday … in Northridge.… His film scores include … the macabre songbook for ‘The Nightmare Before Christmas’ (1993).… The composer has taken his venture into concert music seriously … without losing his signature impishness. The piano quartet, performed on the album by the Philharmonic Piano Quartet Berlin, is based on the timeless children’s taunt: ‘Nya, nya, nya, nya nya!’ … Elfman wrote the violin concerto for Sandy Cameron [who] performed solos in his score for the Cirque du Soleil show ‘Iris.’ … The work is a co-commission with Stanford Live and the Royal Scottish National Orchestra, who will accompany Cameron in Northridge. … Elfman said, ‘Listen to the second movement of [Shostakovich’s] first violin concerto, which is almost like cartoon music for me, it’s so insane. It’s like this constant reminder: There are no rules.’ ”
Posted April 2, 2019
