Composer Amelia Warner has been presented with the International Film Music Critics Association Award for Breakthrough Composer of the Year by IFMCA members Johannes Ruckstuhl and, yours truly, Pete Simons. Warner was honoured for her enormously impressive mainstream debut work scoring the literary drama based on the life of the groundbreaking horror author Mary Shelley.
We had the pleasure of visiting Amelia at her home in the countryside, present her with the award and have a chat afterwards. Here is the interview Johannes and I conducted with her on behalf of the IFMCA.
Originally released for the first time as part of Varese Sarabande’s Little Box Of Horrors set, Richard Stone’s score for the 1988 cult-classic Pumpkinhead is now available on NoteForNote Music with new designs and and liner-notes by Edwin Wendler. The film, a bit of a create feature, was directed by Stan Winston and starred Lance Henrikson as a father who’s out for revenge on a group of teenagers who are responsible for the death of his son.
The Prosecutors offers an extraordinary insight into the work of prosecutors tackling an organised criminal gang flying drugs into prisons; and a shadowy network using children as slaves in UK nail bars. The original score sees composer Miguel d’Oliveira venturing into new territory, whilst still offering a few familiar elements.
Ralph Fiennes’ third film also marks the third collaboration with composer Ilan Eshkeri. Here the composer faces the challenge of creating a score that interacts with classical ballet pieces from the likes of Pyotr Tchaikovsky, Ludwig Minkus and Alexander Krein, as the film tells the true story of Russian ballet dancer Rudolf Nureyev’s defection to the West in 1961.
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Two years ago the Prague orchestra requested that Danny Elfman compose a violin concerto for Sandy Cameron. Elfman responded by composing the concerto as his first free-standing orchestral work. That he loves the late Romantic idiom and especially its masters shines through clearly in the Violin Concerto, which he subtitled Eleven Eleven. Performed by the Royal Scottish National Orchestra, conducted by John Mauceri it really is quite spectacular.
