On 22 and 23 September John Storgårds conducted the Lapland Chamber Orchestra in Carl Davis’ score to Buster Keaton’s silent cinema classic Our Hospitality at Korundi House of Culture in Rovaniemi, Finland.
Carl Davis’ 1984 music for the film is scored for 18 players. Excerpts from his score were recorded in 2021 on Buster Keaton: The Carl Davis Soundtracks along with other selections The General, Steamboat Bill, The High Sign, One Week, The Scarecrow and The Playhouse.
Our Hospitality, released in 1923 and co-directed by Keaton and Jack Blystone, is regarded as one of Buster Keaton’s finest comedies and a ground-breaking work of comic cinema; it was Keaton’s first feature-length production with a single narrative arc, lasting 70 minutes. Highlights from the film’s many remarkable sequences include the daring waterfall rescue and pratfall-ridden train journey, where Keaton straddles two separating railway carriages.
Davis’ score has received performances at a host of major international venues, including the Teatro Verdi, Birmingham’s Symphony Hall, the Queen Elizabeth Hall in London, and the Luzerner Theatre in Switzerland. On 19 August the Orchestre de la Suisse Romande, conducted by Philippe Béran, performed Davis’ score to another silent movie masterpiece Safety Last! in an outdoor concert as part of the Festival Genève-Plage; 2023 will be the centenary of the Harold Lloyd classic.