For the first of its two performances this weekend, the Chautauqua Symphony Orchestra is “pulling out the big guns” — as big as cannons on a pirate ship, said guest conductor Chia-Hsuan Lin.
Lin said it’s going to be a night of “total excitement” as the CSO takes to the high seas with a concert performance of Disney’s “Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl” at 7:30 p.m. Saturday in the Amphitheater.
While the film plays on the Amp’s big screens, the CSO provides the score — composed by Klaus Badelt, with Hans Zimmer as music producer — as a 16-person chorus of SUNY Fredonia students, alumni and faculty add the power of their vocals. The “atmospheric score” combined with the “intricate storyline” makes “Pirates of the Caribbean” one of Lin’s favorite movies, and she’s predicting the performance to be “completely epic.”
Released in 2003, and directed by Gore Verbinski, “Pirates of the Caribbean: Curse of the Black Pearl” is a swashbuckling blockbuster starring Johnny Depp, Keira Knightley and Orlando Bloom. Complete with morally ambiguous pirates and mysterious curses, this two-and-a-half hour film will feel like it sails by.
“(Watching the movie with a live orchestra) is just incredible — this is one of my favorite movies. I love the storyline,” Lin said. “It’s so adventurous, full of imagination and so much humor. It’s dark, and it’s whimsical.”
Since Lin was last in Chautauqua last July, conducting the CSO in a program of Samuel Coleridge-Taylor, Tyzen Hsiao and Antonin Dvořák, she has started several new positions with symphonies around the United States. Lin began her first year as music director of the Rochester Symphony in Minnesota and guest conductor at Richmond Symphony in Virginia, although coming back to Chautauqua is always a unique experience because it’s a “beautiful place to be” and has a “fabulous orchestra” with “warm people,” Lin said.
Remaining in tempo with the movie requires a great deal of intentionality from the conductor; Lin relies on three separate apparatuses for a smooth performance. She uses a click track — an audio metronome earpiece, the score marked with punches and streamers — visual cues to synchronize music with on-screen cues and a small screen of the movie with more tools available.
“It’s definitely challenging,” Lin said. “With all those very strong and powerful sections or scenes, (the musicians) have to play for a long time. It requires talented strength and durability to just maintain that powerful sound.”
Standing at the helm of the orchestra gives Lin an individual perspective in experiencing the full force of the symphony alongside the film.
“I feel like I’m standing inside the ocean and feeling the waves coming at me. It’s so much fun, because you feel that vibration,” Lin said. “What’s so beautiful about this film score is that it has those dramatic fights in the ocean on the ships, but there’s also very intimate moments with simple melodies from the strings or a solo line from the horns. (The movie) uses contrast well to create those intimate scenes.”
