On 25 October Hugo Ticciati leads the Lithuanian Chamber Orchestra in the local premiere of Jonny Greenwood’s Suite from There Will Be Blood from string orchestra.
The 16-minute selection from Greenwood’s score comprises six cues from Paul Thomas Anderson’s Oscar-winning movie: ‘Open Spaces’, ‘Future Markets’, ‘Hope of New Fields’, ‘Henry Plainview’, ‘Proven Lands’, and ‘Oil’. Greenwood’s music draws on his debt to the string writing of Penderecki with its multi-layered, slow-moving clusters for divided strings, creating a tense atmosphere of foreboding that captures the noir-feel of this Western. Elsewhere the writing is rhythmically rugged and jerkily aggressive, capturing the rough-hewn qualities of both landscape and character.
The Suite has been recorded by André de Ridder and the Copenhagen Philharmonic in 2014 and by Richard Tognetti and the Australian Chamber Orchestra live in concert in 2019; in May 2023 it toured with Clark Rundell and the Netherlands Philharmonic, including a performance at the Concertgebouw; it also features an optional part for the ondes Martenot that is such a distinctive feature of the soundtrack. The Suite has been performed over 100 times worldwide to date.
A recording of Greenwood’s complete score was released through Nonesuch in 2011. It is one of several acclaimed soundtracks by the composer and multi-instrumentalist that have made an impact in the concert hall; in 2018 other cues from the film were also reworked into a suite for string quartet (arr. 2018). Greenwood himself has played the ondes Martenot in live renditions of the complete film score with orchestra, which has been performed by the Los Angeles Philharmonic, New York Philharmonic, Melbourne Symphony Orchestra, and London Contemporary Orchestra.
From 17 October sections from Greenwood’s score to There Will Be Blood.will appear at the Royal Danish Ballet in Copenhagen as part of Am I doing it right?, choreographed by Carling Talcott-Steenstra for the triple-bill Koreorama no.2, the company’s new choreographic laboratory. The ballet, which is in rep until 6 March 2025, also uses music from Greenwood’s large-scale string orchestra works 48 Responses to Polymorphia and Popcorn Superhet Receiver, on which music for his later film score was based.