★★★★★ John Wilson’s passion and panache has Sydney shouting Hooray for Hollywood.

Concert Hall, Sydney Opera House
June 16, 2016

The Golden Age of Hollywood may have lasted only 30 years, but what an era! The rich musical sound conjured up to accompany the early film industry was fermented out of late German and Russian Romanticism, with a soupçon of French Impressionism and dashes here and there of Schoenbergian 12-tone and jazz. The skills of a host of émigrés escaping European persecution were mixed with the local homebrew being developed by the likes of Gershwin and Copland. It was a heady mix. These scores exude craft – composers like Korngold, Steiner, Waxman and Herrmann were at the very top of their games – but the music was essentially functional, designed to help tell a story. It’s a rare pleasure then to hear it played in the concert hall where its piquant qualities can be savoured in full.

On the current musical scene, few advocates have done as much for the Hollywood sound as British conductor and arranger John Wilson. Still in his early 40s, his respect, love and passion for the period, in particular for the great MGM musicals, radiates...