CARL DAVIS/CBSO at SYMPHONY HALL

17-10-2006

Three silent movie classics performed overa weekend by CBSO under the leadership of Carl Davis. You couldn't go wrong could you? No, says Martin Longley

In celebration of his seventieth birthday, Mister Davis gets to screen three of his favourite silent movies over a single weekend. The flick-obsessed composer has become accustomed to an annual Symphony Hall visit, presenting a long feature supported by a suitable short.

This time, he united three of comedy's pioneer kings for a compare-and- contrast laughing fiesta, with Buster Keaton's Our Hospitality (1923), Charlie Chaplin's Modern Times (surely the latest of silents, at 1936) and Harold Lloyd's Safety Last! (1923 again).

Down in the pit lurk the CBSO ranks, and luckily, the wing-haired Carl is still so sprightly that the dash from stage to conducting podium is easily manageable. This orchestral relationship, with an initial long gap, has been going on since the opening year of Symphony Hall itself.

Keaton, Chaplin and Lloyd: as the years roll by, these three seem increasingly anarchistic. They're troubled loners, battling the enormity of gross misfortune, almost nihilistic and misanthropic, with their tenderness reserved for The Girl (as the female lead is invariably termed).

In the time of silence, physical choreography was all, and these three are its masters. Savage criticism of societal convention is given free rein as Chaplin and Lloyd are placed in a serving (or servile) position, either as a waiter or shop assistant, whilst Keaton is really running scared, a victim of an endless family feud, way outWest.

Everything is debunked, mocked and subverted, but always with a mischievous smile (well, except in the stony-visaged Buster's case). The Keaton and Chaplin flicks are absolutely brilliant, perfectly formed in every way, and the Lloyd's not far behind, although Harold does seem somewhat lightweight when set beside those two rebellious scamps. By comparison, Lloyd is more of a straight-ahead guy, a single-layered comedian, but not lacking in his own astounding stunt-skills.

Of course, in a way, a silent movie composer is meant to be ignored. If the audience starts to listen to the CBSO as they would during a conventional concert, then the music would obviously be too distracting from the images. Carl's aim must be to complement, to enhance the mood and emotions of the narrative.

His style is very smooth, themes gliding from one scene to the next, only jarring the senses when there's some definite reason for a stylistic shift, to illustrate a dancefloor scene, for instance. Even though the orchestra is only visible to those in the upper tiers, the aural effect can create a spatial illusion, as if the Symphony Hall acoustics are creating a veritable surround sound effect. Percussion booms seem to bounce off the walls, careening around the edges of the hall.

In the end, it's difficult to see how this audio-visual feast could be topped next time around, but long may Carl Davis return to his special place in the pit of the picture palace.