The Verse’s Lou Clement previews There Will Be Blood: Live, ahead of the London Contemporary Orchestra’s performance at the Dome on the 6th February.
When I first saw There Will be Blood in the cinema, I had mixed emotions. I liked it, I was entertained, but it was a difficult watch. The film’s aesthetic was brutal, the acting was superb and the storyline had plenty of jaw-dropping scenes. Daniel Day-Lewis played the intense and unforgiving Daniel Plainview, an aggressive capitalist living at the turn of the twentieth century, hell-bent on success.
Radiohead guitarist Jonny Greenwood memorably scored the film, and it is this orchestral accompaniment which is the focus of the upcoming event at the Brighton Dome on 6 February. The soundtrack captures the emotions and themes of the brooding and violent film throughout, and includes samples from composers Brahms and Arvo Pärt. Greenwood shares the influence of experimental and unsettling compositions, which had led to some of the most memorable Radiohead tracks.
I had gone to see the film because of the director, Paul Thomas Anderson. I’d loved his dark and odd but less-than-successful Punch Drunk Love (2002) which starred my favourite actor, Philip Seymour-Hoffman, in a supporting role. There Will Be Blood followed the critical success of this film and his previous more mainstream effort, Magnolia (1999).
The performance of Greenwood’s orchestral score promises to be something very special. The London Contemporary Orchestra will perform the show, with over 50 musicians delivering the unsettling and epic soundtrack.
Following the Southbank show on Monday 30 January 2017, the orchestra plays Birmingham’s Symphony Hall on Sunday 5 February, Brighton on Monday 6 February and Bristol’s Colston Hall on Tuesday 7 February.
There Will Be Blood: Live plays four dates across the UK from the 30th January, arriving at the Brighton Dome on February 6th. Tickets are tiered at £10, £25, £35 and £45. For more details, go here.
