On 17 May Sony Classical released the world premiere recordings of three works by Danny Elfman from the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra – his Percussion Concerto (2022), Wunderkammer (2020/22), and Are You Lost? (2023). The recording features Colin Currie as soloist with the RLPO conducted by JoAnn Falletta, and female voices from Kantos Chamber Choir. Listen to the album here.
Elfman’s Percussion Concerto is cast in four movements - Triangle; D.S.C.H; Down; Syncopated – and lasts 25 minutes. Its outer movements are imbued with a motoric energy from the get-go, whilst its two inner parts are comparatively more laid back, entailing a waltz-like tribute to Shostakovich and the shimmering, atmospheric ‘Down’. In addition to the soloist’s extensive collection of instruments – the score lists 12, including an assortment of pots and pans and a metal ‘gizmo’ – five orchestral percussionists make their own thrilling contributions.
‘In the outer movements what you might call a maximisation of the minimalistically motoric makes for an infectious confection which keeps Currie on the move. Only the slow movement ‘Down’ seeks out repose as strings take the lead and tuned percussion – like the seductive marimba – lend embellishment and shimmer. I love the spooky John Carpenter-like ending of this movement. Pure Elfman.’
Gramophone (Edward Seckerson), June 2024
‘This is a virtuoso piece which will attract more performances.’
Financial Times (Richard Fairman), 23 May 2024
Elfman says of the work,
Percussion has always been an important part of my life. Beginning in my travels though West Africa when I was only 18 years old, when I began collecting and learning to play ‘balafons’ (kind of like the African version of a marimba), through my years of playing in metal-based Indonesian Gamalan ensembles in my twenties, as well as building my own strange metal and wood percussion ensembles in my early theatrical performance years, it has always been a lifelong obsession.
Currie, who premiered the work in 2022 with the London Philharmonic Orchestra and Ludwig Wicki, introduces the work here. Since its debut Currie has performed the work with the Utah Symphony, Colorado Symphony, MDR Sinfonieorchester, Greensboro Symphony, City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, and Pacific Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Carl St. Clair, who gave its US premiere.
Currie and Falletta return to the RLPO on 14 November to perform the concerto in Liverpool as part of an Elfman residency that also includes a performance of the orchestral suite Wunderkammer (jointly with the Liverpool Philharmonic Youth Orchestra) and an evening devoted to his Tim Burton film scores. The Percussion Concerto will receive a further performance in the 24/25 season from Viva Vassileva and the Nürnberger Symphoniker, conducted by Johannes Fritzsch, on 22 February 2025.
The Percussion Concerto appears on the Sony album alongside Elfman’s Wunderkammer, which premiered on a UK tour (including the BBC Proms) by its commissioners, the National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain, and Andrew Gourlay in 2022. It appears in a slightly reduced orchestration on the RLPO disc. The Arts Desk noted the 3-movement, 23-minute showpiece for orchestra – bolstered by female voices or a children’s choir – “lived up to its name”:
Elfman made the most of his massed ranks, with the female players supplying an eerie vocalise line on top of their instrumental contributions, and bravura work from the formidable squadron of percussion. Like any spooky movie spellbinder, Elfman loves the celeste. That made its mark here, with glockenspiel, chimes, growling brass and pizzicato strings – and a battery of harps – adding to the almost-comic house-of-horror vibe… both cooks and diners relished every cleverly-spiced mouthful.
Gramophone were equally keen to sing the work’s praises:
‘It’s a kind of Rubik’s cube of orchestral possibilities… Percussion – some of it tuned – is the engine room of the first movement propelling us forward until in one glorious moment a whole vista opens before us – a kind of Bluebeard’s Castle fifth door chord sequence – only to vanish into the ether as quickly as it arrived. And yes, before you ask, Elfman’s signature wordless childlike voices are briefly in the mix, too. The second movement takes us deeper, emotionally speaking, with mystical winds and then strings searching out higher ground, and the third is a whirling carousel of triple-time with solo piano alluding towards a salon-like decorum at one point.’
Gramophone (Edward Seckerson), June 2024
The record is completed by Elfman’s Are You Lost? - an orchestration of a work originally written for voice, violin, and piano. It was taken from a set of songs, collectively called Trio, which Elfman created for a joint recording venture with fellow Hollywood composers John Powell and Marco Beltrami. With a text by the composer, this new version of Es-tu perdu? begins with cello and piano alone, before expanding to incorporate much larger orchestral and choral forces:
‘… women’s voices again invoke that Elfmanesque airborne quality which is fantastical in itself, though this time the images are in one’s head not up there on the silver screen’
Gramophone (Edward Seckerson), June 2024