Trouble a brewin' in the orchestra pit of the Oscars? That's what we're hearing. And now a blogspot has popped up and is airing the internal grievance publicly.
The gist is composer Michael Giacchino ("Ratatouille," "Star Trek," "Up") was offered the gig as conductor/composer for the Academy Award ceremony by Oscar show producers Laurence Mark and Bill Condon, (formerly a position held by Bill Conti who did the job successfully for 21 years) but Giachhino is apparently what they call in the score industry a "hummer" - he can't actually read or write music and this is causing some major issues. And Conti apparently didn't know this before he hired the composer. In fact, he just found out according to this report.
"Yesterday's rehearsal with the orchestra was not good. The orchestra was polite (they all have a lot of money riding on the continuing charade of Mr. Giacchino's orchestral output), but afterwards were discussing the possibility that Mr. Giacchino's conductor Tim Simonec would be needed to come in to add some 'professional help."Our source is telling us this is a real actual problem happening in the here and now. The report continues.
"When Mr. Giacchino took the job the hope had been that most of the music would be pre-recorded and Mr. Giacchino would get a nod from the host like Mr. Conti had gotten and no one in the audience would be the wiser.So the rumor/word is now that Giacchino just might be replaced at the last minute. Seat of the pants Oscars? Will Simonec take over, period? Word is they're doing their best to have everything fixed and pre-recorded, but some of the professional musicians are out and out amazed (and potentially outraged) that this is happening.
However, when there are five nominees and the conductor has to know the tempos and time signatures for all five themes and do it live, then a degree of competence is required. Especially in front of a billion or whatever people."
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9 comments:
That's a shame about Giacchino if it's true since his scores are always great. The Ratatouille is one of my favorites. Hopefully it's all blown out of proportion and other things are causing the problems.
It's too bad there are people who choose to be
so negative and destructive. If they only knew how
talented and knowledgeable Michael Giacchino truly
is. I've worked on all his big orchestral films and am
truly awed by his knowlegde of so many genres of
music, to say nothing of his knowledge of film making.
KUDOOS to you, Michael
a colleague
What? sounds more like this was written by someone who didn't get the gig they wanted. Maybe next time.
But I'm glad you were sooo wrong about everything. The maestro was fantastic as usual.
malicious and spiteful. A number of the "old guard" crew were the ones that got the axe and it looks like someone is upset and hopefully your sources were trustworthy because you just reported on a story that was just wrong - Shame on you.
Bravo Giacchino for the job well done.
The entertainment value of last nights performance was amazing and the music was part of that.
What a joke! And shame on The Playlist for giving voice to an anonymous and unsourced attack on Giacchino. Since when does attending Juliard School of Music for composition studies make you a "hummer"? The report was dripping with Schadenfreude - but the problem is there was no Schadenfreude to be had. Just someone who was angry that they were either passed over for the job or not asked to join the orchestra. I'm sure they'll eventually find out who wrote it. And I'm just as sure their phone will be ringing even less when they do.
From a source that makes extremely good points.
let it be known that we like the guy and his scores. The cues were sloppy through the night too.
"Sorry for many reasons to report that the blogspot was right on the money.
They hid Giacchino through pre-record and drapes. Not sure if you saw the pre-show where they promised to have the band playing all sorts of stuff.
In the end, Giacchino was provided a “click” track for the one thing done live- the score medley.
If you noticed, the orchestra all had headphones on and are paying little attention to the conductor.
That said, the prerecord stuff sounded small and tinny for just about everything"
Rodrigo Perez:
I am writing you to clear up the many falsehoods in your article dated 2/20/2009 “Michael Giacchino Getting The Axe As Oscar Conductor?”
First of all, you say that Michael Giacchino is a “hummer” who “can’t actually read or write music”. This is completely untrue. Michael Giacchino studied at the Julliard School of music. It would be impossible for anyone to go through that school and not be able to read or write music. I have been working in the recording studios for over 25 years, and I can tell you that Michael has a reputation in the business of being a brilliant and extremely versatile composer – not of being a “hummer”. I don’t know where you are getting your information, but it is completely wrong. I have played on many films for Michael, and it is quite obvious that he is a true and complete musician.
Next, you talk about an Oscar rehearsal that went bad. I was a member of the Oscar orchestra, and was at the rehearsals and pre-records. None of the rehearsals or pre-records went bad. Your “source” is completely wrong! I never heard any talk of having Tim Simonec or anyone else replace Michael as the conductor. The few times the producers spoke to us musicians, they were very happy with the musical direction that Michael was taking, and spoke of the extreme confidence they had in Michael – not only as the composer/arranger, but also as the conductor.
If you watched the Oscars, you saw Michael doing a great job conducting. Everything connected with the music (not to mention all the other parts of the show) went smoothly. This Oscar show was by far one of the best shows ever done in the history of the Oscars, and a big part of the credit goes to Michael Giacchino.
If you have any sense of honor and integrity, and if you want your blog “The Playlist” to have any amount of credibility, you will publish an apology to Michael Giacchino. You should also “fire” all the sources who
contributed to the falsehoods you published.
Rodrigo, you should know better than to publish something without checking to see if it is true or not. Any first year journalist could have told you this. How you handle this will speak volumes about what kind of person you are.
PS You later posted a comment about the Oscars, saying “they hid Giaccchino through pre-record and drapes”. Anyone who has done live TV knows that it is the norm for the orchestra to be out of sight, either in the pit, or behind a curtain, or to the side of the stage. It is also normal to have pre-records. You also said “the orchestra had headphones on are paying little attention to the conductor”. Once again, in live TV it is normal for all the musicians to have earphones or headphones. In fact, all the performers and actors had earphones. As for the musicians paying little attention to the conductor, the fact the performance was great proves how much attention was paid to Michael. By the way, the score medley was not the only thing done live.
So once again you seem to be relying on a source who has no clue about what they are talking about – in this case live TV and the Oscars.
To the last anonymous poster -
Just a question, I totally believe you as well - Giacchino is a talented composer and I am sure he did a fine job - what all was preformed live as opposed to pre-recorded?
Glad to see most everybody here knows this is suspicious information
Having interned for Giacchino, I can say he absolutely knows his stuff. His sketches are even composed from piccolo to double bass - very complete!
While its true he isn't the best conductor in town, he is certainly not a "hummer" by any measure!!
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