Concert ‘The Universe of J.A. Bayona’ at the Liceu of Barcelona – Summary
On Friday, December 8th, one of the most anticipated concerts of the year was held at the Gran Teatre del Liceu in Barcelona, Spain: ‘The universe of J.A. Bayona’, performed by the Orquestra Simfònica del Vallès conducted by Fernando Velázquez and with the participation of the choir Cor Madrigal (read more).
Following you can read two extensive and detailed articles, from our tireless collaborators Coque Cano and Frederic Torres.
THE MUSIC IN THE FILMS OF J. BAYONA by COQUE CANO
It is usual that, in order not to repeat the word “concert”, I incorporate in the articles variants such as “event”, a word that I will certainly keep in the future but that perhaps deserves a more exclusive treatment, given the meaning of the RAE (Real Academia Española de la lengua – Royal Spanish Academy of language) that defines it as “important and programmed event, of social, academic, artistic or sporting nature“. Its use in the present article responds better than ever to these parameters, because without a doubt the recent concert held on Friday, December 8, 2023, at 7:30 p.m. in the Sala Gran of the Liceu, in Barcelona, can be justly catalogued as an Event.
There is no doubt that certain characteristics make some film music concerts stand out above others, such as the repertoire, the conductor, the presence of the composer, the theme, even the orchestra, or the place where they are held. Uniqueness is an added value, as long as it goes hand in hand with quality.
Well, the concert at hand stood out above the average in practically everything indicated because, although Fernando Velázquez‘s scores had already been performed before, as for example in the wonderful open-air concert of July 20, 2018, at the Jardins de Terramar Festival in the town of Sitges (read more), which also enjoyed the intervention of the director J. A. Bayona (who acted as presenter/introducer of the concert), the truth is that the joint presence of both of them after some projects in which they have not collaborated, the preparation of clearly more ambitious suites, the interpretation of the two titles in which the chosen composer has been the Oscar-winning Michael Giacchino (also a participant from a distance through a funny video), and above all the fact that it was a concert dedicated to the career of a director, made it more than just another concert of film music.
The first question that underlies in an event like this is what makes such a concert special, being dedicated to the work of a film director who is also so young and is practically at the beginning of his career? Well, something as simple as the fact that we are probably facing one of the active filmmakers who has understood the importance of music in films the most and the best. With only five feature films directed to date (“The Orphanage”, “The Impossible”, “A Monster Calls”, “Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom” and “Society of the Snow”), as well as two short films (“Mis vacaciones” and “El hombre esponja”) and the first two episodes of the series “Penny Dreadful” and “The Rings of Power”, if anything evidences his work is that music is as important as the script itself, as the staging, even as the actors’ performance.
When in that first concert in Sitges and now at the Gran Teatre del Liceu in Barcelona, filmmaker Juan Antonio Bayona has talked about the music of his films, he has always done so from the point of view of emotion, from the intangible that nevertheless manages to be exposed through music. With statements such as that sometimes it is not an idea that you want to convey in a film, but a feeling, and that this, thanks to music, makes the film much bigger, or that cinema is a medium that allows you to communicate things when they cannot be told in words and that there again is the music the instrument to achieve it, it is clear that this respect for music, on the other hand, so difficult to see in a filmmaker today, vertebrates and justifies an event like this.
The truth is that for this reason, and although we are in front of a concert where music is of course a priority, I wanted to wait to write this article to see the latest film proposal of the director, “Society of the Snow”, and see what the music of the composer, here Michael Giacchino, included in the program as a premiere, contributes to it. And, moreover, it is this title that served in part as an attraction, given the (almost) coincidence of dates between the concert and the premiere in theaters only 5 days later in Uruguay and 7 days later in Spain (the premiere on the Netflix platform, producer of the film was almost a month later, specifically on January 4, 2024).
Well, we can safely say that, whether with Fernando Velázquez or Michael Giacchino, the cinema of “Jota” (as he is often called) flows with every note of the otherwise marvelous scores of two composers, gifted not only with a technique and musical inspiration worthy of being performed in concert, but above all, with enormous cinematographic wisdom. The suites performed have a lot of great musical pieces, of course, but also a lot of narrative, of immersive experience, managing to connect with the essence of stories as different and at the same time intertwined as those of the director’s five feature films. It was more than ever a concert of Film Music. Or Cinema made Music in a concert hall if you prefer.
For this, we had two fantastic ensembles, the Orquestra Simfònica del Vallès and the Cor Madrigal, under the baton of the maestro Fernando Velázquez, who managed to transmit to an imposing full house at the Liceu, the brim all the emotions that his music and that of Michael Giacchino’s (plus a surprise that we will talk about), have provided to the cinema of the director born in the Trinitat Vella neighborhood of Barcelona.
As it could not be otherwise, the program began with a generous suite from “The Orphanage“, perhaps the most famous debut in memory of a composer in Spanish cinema and one of the best soundtracks written for the horror genre. Distressing and beautiful in equal parts, the selection of the themes interpreted was like revisiting the film. Undoubtedly a perfect compendium of the best of this masterpiece by Fernando Velázquez, which began what we can consider as the trilogy of maternal-filial relationships in Bayona’s films, all of them films scored by the Basque composer.
This sensational way of starting showed the credentials of the concert, both in terms of what could be expected from the music as well as its interpretation by a very inspired Orquestra Simfònica del Vallès and Cor Madrigal, who were justly praised by the composer. It also served us to verify the care with which Bayona had wanted to show his cinematographic work, because in addition to the music, he made people with a direct relationship with some of the projects whose pieces were interpreted participate in the concert. This was the case in The Orphanage, which benefited from a nice interlude by the actor Roger Príncep (who played Simon, the son of the main character played by Belén Rueda in the film).
Although I usually opt for the chronology of the program to comment on a concert, I prefer to do it here by the chronology of Bayona’s career, which also coincides with the collaboration of the two composers with whom he has worked in movies. In a decision that I suppose has to do precisely with not separating the contributions of two similar musicians (both are practicing symphonists and melodists) but in essence different, the concert did not strictly respect the order of the films, so the works of both were mixed, and although it cannot be said that it did not work, I think that the real evolution of the filmmaker’s career was lost a little.
Therefore, I will continue with what was Bayona’s second film, the well-known “The Impossible”, a film that deals with the devastating tsunami in Thailand with one foot in the most realistic catastrophe cinema possible and another in the human drama of a family on vacation in the area and especially with an eye on the experience of the mother and her eldest son. It was quite an experience that the presentation of the suites chosen by Velázquez was made by the real protagonist of the story, María Belón, in what turned out to be the most emotional moment of the concert, with words of gratitude to both the director and the composer for understanding and telling with images and above all with music the hard story of survival that her family lived through.
The music of the composer from Getxo is another of his major works, perhaps the most profound of his career, and that was noticeable in the almost reverential silence that reigned in an excited Sala Gran of the Liceu. On more than one occasion throughout the extensive thematic representation that Velázquez gave, I focused my gaze towards the audience, noting a feeling and a total connection of the public with the score, in one of the most moving moments I have ever experienced in a concert.
And as it could not be otherwise, the third feature film of this unique trilogy, entitled “A Monster Calls“, again shows the excellence of a composer in a state of grace, here also a winner of the Goya Award for best score, which had resisted him on the two previous occasions of his collaboration with Bayona, despite achieving two nominations. Once again, the suite was very successful, including not only the most beautiful parts of his work, with a predominance of the solo piano that accompanies the child protagonist during the film, but also the most powerful or even epic themes, which were enhanced by the magnificent vocal contribution of the Cor Madrigal. Another great moment that was well worth the ticket.
To finish with Fernando Velázquez’s part, although not with his participation in the concert as he not only conducted his music but also that of Michael Giacchino, we had the opportunity to listen to the suite of what was actually the first collaboration with Jota, the latter’s second short film, entitled “El hombre esponja” (The Sponge Man). It is a score that, besides being a precursor of the composer’s melodic forms, is also pure fun, at times very indebted to the more adventurous John Williams. This same suite, included in the CD released by Quartet Records entitled “Concert suites/ Music for films” was already performed in the aforementioned concert in Sitges, and undoubtedly surprising for the quality of its then first-time composer.
Speaking of Williams, it was a surprise that, within the part dedicated to “Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom“, the suite with the two main themes of the first part of “Jurassic Park” was interpreted in its entirety, something that particularly did not seem to me too successful, obviously not for the quality of the music that is excellent, but because it was like a foreign body to be alien to the career of Bayona, even though he was chosen by Steven Spielberg himself to take charge of the second part of the trilogy of Jurassic World. In addition, there was a mismatch in the interpretation of the piece, being strangely cut.
This brings us, now, to talk about the two themes chosen to give a good account of the vindicable composition of Michael Giacchino for “Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom”, which also benefited from the introduction by the composer himself in a funny video in which his chemistry with Bayona was evidenced. The explanation that he approached the writing as if it were a film of Count Dracula was really well brought and achieved that what, a priori, could seem to the audience the most commercial and impersonal score of the program, was one of the most applauded. Of overwhelming force, it was one of the most stimulating tours de force for the orchestra, which was made to shine by a Fernando Velázquez absolutely committed to his colleague’s work. It should be noted that the two themes were performed in separate parts of the concert.
Finally, and also ending the so far very successful career of the Catalan filmmaker, a suite of the estimable “Society of the Snow“, a film that will represent Spain at the next Oscar ceremony and that explains again the tragic story of the plane crash in the Andes of a plane carrying an Uruguayan rugby team, was played for the first time. A story of survival that was already the subject of Frank Marshall‘s film “Alive”, with a majestic musical creation by James Newton Howard, which now acquires a new vision from the hand of Juan Antonio Bayona, much more realistic and raw, which has allowed Giacchino to compose a less complacent work, close at times to his soundtrack for the series “Lost”, something that could be seen at the beginning of the chosen suite, which also managed to show the touching part of the score by containing the theme of the rescue, where not only the guitar but also the choirs had their moment of brilliance.
There was room for more (the scores by Abel Korzeniowski for “Penny Dreadful” and Bear McCreary for “The Rings of Power” are outstanding and would have opened Bayona’s musical range even more), but it was everything it should have been and above all it was what it promised to be, a tribute that goes beyond the career of a director, a tribute to the music composed for the seventh art.
The embrace of sincere mutual gratitude between Bayona and Velázquez on stage was the embodiment of that unbreakable union between two filmmakers who, with the help of a camera and a baton, create cinema with capital letters.
THE UNIVERSE OF J.A. BAYONA by FREDERIC TORRES
In such an extraordinary setting as the Gran Teatre del Liceu in Barcelona, on December 8, a concert dedicated to film music took place, focusing on “The Universe of J.A. Bayona”, by the composer Fernando Velázquez, author of all the scores of the filmmaker before his jump to Hollywood, where he began to collaborate with Michael Giacchino, whose works were also part of such a special program. And this, because for the first time a concert dedicated to the specialty took place in a building as emblematic as this one, with respect to what music means per se, and secondly, because it distanced itself somewhat from the usual medleys that are usually programmed to attract the audience, either for cinematic or purely emotional reasons.
Yes, it is true that there was a theme centered around a successful director like Bayona, who has been chaining one after another consecutively in a professional crescendo that has allowed him to lead franchises such as Jurassic World, or the recent television blockbuster The Rings of Power, a prequel to the saga of The Lord of the Rings, in charge of the first two episodes. But the fact of not exceeding half a dozen titles in the program allowed the development of a series of suites (some even double), in which especially Velázquez was able to extend his music comfortably. A music that was impeccably performed by the experienced Orquestra Simfònica del Vallés, a regular in these matters since it usually alternates its classical music concerts (which also include zarzuelas and symphonic pop-rock) with others dedicated to film music, with repertoires ranging from Williams to the next Italian tribute starring the duo Nino Rota-Ennio Morricone, scheduled for the next festivities at the end of the year and beginning of the following one. Thus, in collaboration with the Cor Madrigal ensemble, Velázquez took the stage to certify that this was going to be a very special night, observing the full house of the Barcelona venue, dispelling any doubts about the program on such a complicated date, in the middle of one of the most difficult long weekends of the year.
Attentive to the program, the start paid tribute to this singular circumstance by offering an overture to The Orphanage, the first title in the competition, and initial success of the duo formed with the director (who debuted in the feature film with this title in 2007), unpublished until now to be exposed as it can be heard fragmented in the film, as the composer-director himself explained to me at the end of the concert, since the recordings made for the various discographic editions have a different arrangement, which could have caused some confusion to more than one diehard follower. Then the actor Roger Príncep, who was a child when he played the role of Simón in the film, made an appearance to tell his impressions and remind the audience of them, after which Velázquez followed with two long and generous suites devoted to this work that put both Bayona and the composer on the Spanish film scene. Such was the power of its overture and the impact on the audience’s memory of the film in question, that a casual seatmate, apparently a normal young man accompanied by his partner, chose to cross himself at the first bars of the suite and close his eyes to concentrate absolutely. After overcoming the initial surprise, I could only recognize in my inner self that it was not for less, given the fusion between orchestra and choral formation, always accompanied by a screen showing the title of the film interpreted on a conceptually minimalist design (depending on the graphics used), sufficiently present, but without distracting or hindering the enjoyment of the music. And here, beyond the functional scope of Velázquez’s proposal in the narrative plot, it was not a matter of viewing the film in question, but of evoking it through its music, as splendid as it was inspiring.
More of the same can be said of the suite of A Monster Calls, which meant for Velázquez his Goya for best score in 2016 (the composer has been nominated on four other occasions), in which he exposed the main themes of the film, highlighting in particular the solo piano performance in a lyrical theme that at times, with those sustained notes interspersed between brief silences, recalled the style of his other musical interlocutor, the American Michael Giacchino, of whom an amusing video made for the occasion was shown, since he was the protagonist of the second part of the concert when a suite from his stupendous Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom (2018), after prior listening to the well-known seminal suite by John Williams, led by the ceremonious central theme of Jurassic Park, and the more dynamic and spectacular Journey to Isla Nublar. In the case of Giacchino’s work, the orchestra lived up to the tenebrous central “monster” theme, with great orchestral and choral display, and with the subtext of the original theme of the new franchise conceived for Jurassic World, in 2015, directed by Colin Trevorrow. In addition, some descriptive theme of jungle character was incorporated into the suite, a terrain in which Giacchino has always moved with ease since he intervened in the remembered television series Lost (2004-10), the musical frontispiece of the American, from which has abundantly flowed any recognizable reference in the development of subsequent works, as is the case.
After this vitamin-packed orchestral and choral display, it was time for the appearance of María Belón, the Spanish doctor who was caught by surprise by the 2004 tsunami while on vacation with her husband and two children in Thailand, and who Bayona used as the basis for his catastrophic film, The Impossible (2012). Her reflective words about the motivation to live and the dialogue she engaged in with her children about it moved the audience, who were ready to listen to the two extensive suites corresponding to the film with a lump in their throats.
After the exciting moment came another of the highlights of the evening with the appearance of the protagonist, the very driving force of the event, Juan Antonio Bayona, who embraced Velázquez, his regular collaborator until the director decided to explore Hollywood territory with the aforementioned sequel to Jurassic World, and before Trevorrow himself regained the reins of the franchise to finish the trilogy in 2022, with Jurassic World: Dominion (also with music by Giacchino). In any case, once again the American composer was summoned to premiere a complete suite from his new joint work with Bayona, Society of the Snow, the latest film by the director that narrates the adventures of the Uruguayan rugby team that survived the plane crash suffered in one of the most inhospitable areas of the Andes, after almost three months of intense survival. A dramatic work, of deep lyricism, which relies on the acoustic guitar as a contextual motif, but also of an expressive nature with respect to the vicissitudes experienced by the twenty-nine survivors (of the forty-five in total who were on board the plane). There was expectation among fans to know if Bayona would count again on Velázquez in his future projects, but the friendship developed with Giacchino, whom the director met at the Festival de Úbeda back in 2009, when they apparently became good friends, and their coincidence in the Jurassic saga almost a decade later, seem to have tipped the scales in favor of the latter, who here carries out one of his most memorable works, despite the oblivion suffered in the Golden Globe nominations.
With the audience enthusiastic about the Orchestra’s performance and Velázquez’s confident direction, he repeated a brief suite from Fallen Kingdom, which proved once again that this is Giacchino’s darkest and most personal approach to the trilogy, before concluding the concert with a suite from the short film, El Hombre Esponja (The Sponge Man), the first joint work of Bayona and Velázquez, which became a magnificent culmination of such an unforgettable night at the Liceu. A plethoric suite, well prepared and very complete, in which a stupendous and catchy march stood out, which said goodbye to this anthological, before melting in an embrace the four participants of the same after leaving together to greet the public, completely devoted and surrendered to the musical proposal raised.
The departure of Velázquez to the very door of the Liceu to greet the fans, sign CDs and discuss the ins and outs of the concert, as well as some souvenir pictures, was the perfect end to a pioneering night in the history of film music in these parts, due to the proportions of the project and the chosen setting. Surely there will be more, after the pleasant experience that undoubtedly meant for the promoters. At least, we hope so, because the quality is guaranteed.
Articles by Coque Cano & Frederic Torres
Pictures by Coque Cano, Frederic Torres & Pedro Prados
