All pride, no prejudice

By Sonia Mohinani  

MARCH 24, 2011 12:13 p.m. (0)

Academy Award-winning composer Dario Marianelli  performed a world premiere of his “Pride & Prejudice” suite in a concert with the Spartanburg Philharmonic Orchestra.

Award Winning Film Score Night was the fifth in a series of Masterworks Concerts, performed at the Twichell Auditorium. Along with the new piece, the concert  also featured Marianelli’s “Atonement” suite, “Clair de Lune” by Debussy, arranged by Stokovski, and “Le tombeau de Couperin” by Ravel.

The performance of the “Atonement” suite was originally scheduled to be performed by the Spartanburg Philharmonic Orchestra last year, but was canceled because of weather.

Sarah Ioannides, the orchestra director, said she is excited that they were finally able to perform the music.

Marianelli composed soundtracks for “The Brothers Grimm,” “The Soloist” and “V for Vendetta.”

He won Best Original Score for “Atonement” at the Academy Awards and has received Oscar nominations for Best Achievement for Motion Pictures and Original Score for “Pride & Prejudice.”

Ioannides and Marianelli have known each other and worked together before this performance. “We’re good friends. We keep in touch regularly,” she said.

They both attended the Guildhall School of Music in London at the same time when Ioannides was studying conducting and Marianelli was studying composing. Over the years, Ioannides has worked on some of his music before, including directing and helping in the recording booth for the film score “The Warrior” in 2001.

In an e-mail interview, Marianelli said he never performs in public.

“But Sarah is a great friend and colleague, and I really cherished the possibility to work with her.”

During the performance, the orchestra  used a typewriter, just like in the soundtrack for “Atonement” and there were solos by both the cello and the clarinet.

“The orchestra actually sings in part of it, that’s another rare thing,” said Ioannides.

Marianelli described “Atonement” as the best representation of his work because it contains elements found in almost all his scores.

“A love of counterpoint and horizontal writing, a desire to bring different sounds into the orchestration, and most of all, a desire to move people,” he said.

“The music has got such strong recollections, pulling back the images of the movies,” she said. When composing his music, Marianelli said writing music for films brings him in contact with a lot of interesting and talented people. He described filmmaking as “the ultimate collaborative art: working with other people always brings up unexpected things.”

Marianelli recently released the score for “Jane Eyre,” which is opening in the United States.