Blood-curdling movie night with live music!

Nosferatu is one of the first films to define the vampire genre. To get around copyright laws, the elegant Dracula was transformed into the monstrous Count Orlok, and plot and setting were altered. However, Stoker's widow was not to be swayed and had the film seized, except for one copy.... Guaranteed a blood-curdling movie night with live music!

A Symphony of Horror

What do we experience just before the fingers of the hand close around the innocent neck of a young woman? Fear is invisible and is brought to life by our imagination. Music is the catalyst par excellence in driving emotions. Not for nothing has the combination of silent film with live music become cult in recent years. It promises to be a very special evening. Friedrich Wilhelm Murnau's Nosferatu - A Symphony of Horror is the mother of horror cinema. Nor is it business as usual for the conductor and orchestra. In film music, the conductor cannot afford rhythmic liberties, as often happens in symphonies. The music must run precisely sync with the scene on the screen. 

What does fear sound like?

When the young protagonist opens a coffin in Count Orlok's palace, you hear the brass scream in terror. You hear the timpani thunder. The double basses constantly stir up the tension. Hans Erdmann's original film score, reconstructed by Berndt Heller, has succeeded in evoking a constantly menacing atmosphere.

Music

Erdmann's music is the same as in Heller's later version. Both versions have a similar artistic approach, the main difference being the scenes set in Romania. In addition, the version presented by the Residentie Orkest tonight begins with the overture of DER VAMPYR by Heinrich Marschner. This music was also historically played before the curtain opened on the film screening.

The missing music for the scene in the Transylvanian bar was specially composed by Romanian film composer Alexei Turcan. The music heard at the castle is an arrangement of Eduard Caudella's Memories of the Carpathians. The music at the proclamation was composed by Nikiforos Chrysoloras, in the style of Hans Erdmann.

Credits: EFPI FilmPhilharmonie Presentation | Film by courtesy of Friedrich-Wilhelm-Murnau-Stiftung | Music by courtesy of Boosey & Hawkes | Image credit: Friedrich-Wilhelm-Murnau-Stiftung