Moscow International Performing Arts Center

Svetlanov Hall

«Chaplin's Hour» Subscription Series

February 26, 2019

Part 1

Charles Spencer Chaplin. «The Kid» (1921/1971)

Film screening with live orchestral accompaniment

Composer – Charlie Chaplin, with Eric James's assistance

Score reconstruction – Carl Davis (1995/1996)

Part 2

Ibert. «Paris», Symphonic Suite

Gershwin. «An American in Paris», Symphonic Suite

Conductor – Vladimir Spivakov

 

March 8, 2019

Charles Spencer Chaplin. «City Lights»

Film Screening with Orchestral Accompaniment

Arrangement and orchestration = Arthur Johnston and Alfred Newman

Score reconstruction – Timothy Brock

Conductor – Vladimir Spivakov

 

“All films by Charlie Chaplin appeal to man, to his spiritual side, - says Vladimir Spivakov. - In his first full-length movie, 'The Kid', a compassion theme appears. Chaplin seems to have got a special mercy gene. After all, this is a Gospel theme, and it says: 'I desire mercy, not sacrifice.' There is still hope in the film, and everything ends well.”

 

In 2009 Vladimir Spivakov included the showing of the immortal Chaplin’s movie «City Lights» with live music into the Fifth Edition of the "Vladimir Spivakov invites ..." Moscow Festival, and the project was great success. Subsequently, the Maestro and the NPR presented it in many cities in Russia and abroad. (In 2004 American conductor Timothy Brock reconstructed the "City Lights” score, and five years later Vladimir Spivakov paid attention to it.)

 

Soundtrack to «The Kid» Chaplin shaped himself only 50 years after the release of the picture, taking us back to his youth – the English Music Hall culture. In the 1990s, American composer and conductor Carl Davis reworked the score of “The Kid” for concert performances. In Russia "The Kid" with live music was screened for the first time at the opening of the XIV Concert Season of the Moscow Performing Arts Centre in October 2016. The National Philharmonic Orchestra of Russia was conducted by Vladimir Spivakov.

 

The Chaplin Programs were among the most rewarding discoveries of Vladimir Spivakov and the NPR. Film screenings of Chaplin's immortal movies with live orchestral accompaniment have united audiences of all age categories and social groups in joined spontaneous empathy. But now the wide public has got the opportunity to enjoy Chaplin's two films with the NPR's "live" accompaniment not as part of a festival or other fashionable event, but in the special subscription series devoted to Chaplin at the Moscow Performing Arts Centre.