2001: A Space Odyssey Featuring Philarmonia Orchestra and Chorus

Yesterday night I probably attended the most emotional event of my life so far. Since I am obsessed with Kubrick's work I just couldn't miss the occasion of rewatching his masterpiece with live orchestra at the Royal Festival Hall.

The event was presented in association with BFI with support from Warner Bros.

A Word from Christiane Kubrick about Stanley Kubrick

"Stanley was very happy when he came across Richard Strauss' Thus Spoke Zarathustra. For him it expressed the overwhelming thoughts and longings we all feel when we as children look at the sun and the moon and the stars. How wonderful it would be if we could know more, understand more and be a million times smarter. That's what I feel today when I am looking at the latest Hubble telescope-wonders. Last time he was at Royal Festival Hall Stanley heard Verdi's Requiem; he could never have imagined that his film 2001: A Space Odyssey would years later be projected in this very hall over a live orchestra performance. Stanley was interested in the politics of power and his film expresses a deep wish for humanity to survive and to escape self-destruction. Is there outside help? Can we count on it? Stanley was not religious, but, like most of us, speculated in the face of the unknowable, hidden in an endless universe in which our little planet may not play any role at all. But it's all we have - it is a world to us."

Music and films are for me the most powerful combination of arts. As the amazing conductor, Benjamin Wallfisch, started preparing for the big opening sequence, my heart was pounding, I was feeling the whole range of emotions that the film text, the immensity of the universe, and the glorious Strauss' music, could possibly suscitate. 

The most impressive thing was that the conductor standing in front of the screen and his orchestra, directing all the elements, checking the timing and emotional impact of the musical language, was like Kubrick. In that moment he became the director, feeling, suffering, for his work of art. And entering someone else's feeling and their intensity is not something everyone can do.

I want to thank the Philarmonia Orchestra, whose work is of immense importance. Thank you for giving me a new and different way of looking at one of my favourite films of all time.

Don't miss out my next post in which I will talk about the The Rest is Noise Festival, and about the great events you can attend during the next three months.