Hollywood’s new go-to composer is a German pianist
NewsThe unexpected winner for Best Original Score at last night’s Oscars was the German musician Volker Bertelmann, known in classical circles as Hauschka.
A Rhinelander who lost his way in 1990s rock, Hauschka took an East-European pseudonym and reverted to classical roots.
He came to wider attention with a 2005 album, The Prepared Piano, that followed up creatively on a John Cage innovation. He followed up with a DG album with Hilary Hahn, bringing him major-label promotion. In 2015 he was appointed artist-in-residence at MDR Leipzig Radio Symphony Orchestra. I heard him soon after on tour and was impressed by the organic intensity of his audience rapport.
Last night, aged 57, Hauschka won an Academy Award for All Quiet on the Western Front.
Cue for a toast.
Well deserved. The music in this film has a starring role and, well, sets the tone for the carnage.
Interesting guy. Here he is with the WDR Radio Orchestra: https://youtube.com/watch?v=2E2UaweW2IY
I heard the “main title” of Hauschka’s Oscar-winning score this morning on the radio.
Gaming music or worse.
Other cues sound like stolen from Arvo Pärt.
There’s hardly more to say.
Except for two questions:
Where can I go and see the film?
Does Netflix sell popcorn?
I agree. High ‘muzak’ factor. But these are new times who want their own heroes. Excellence is not the point. It’s about ownership. Certainly John Williams wrote much better, excellent, music, from a tradecraft POV. But he is not the current generation’s man.
Unexpected? He was the odds-on favourite and had been for some time, not least because he also won the Bafta.
I just wish the Oscar orchestra had played some other excerpts from the score, instead of that wearying four-note motif (taken from Bruckner?) over and over again. (John Williams did it earlier, and better, with the two-note motif for “Jaws”.) The rest of the score, of which we heard snatches in its promo for the best-picture nomination, sounds much more interesting.
He won the Academy Award…that doesn’t mean he is “Hollywood’s Go-To Composer”. It remains to be seen if many ‘Hollywood’ production companies will be engaging him on a go forward basis.
Yeah, for actors, winning the Oscar can be the end of the career.
https://www.unilad.com/film-and-tv/oscars-curse-academy-awards-507145-20230310
Funny that a German had to take a foreign name for classical commerce.
How does winning an Oscar make him “Hollywood’s new go-to composer”? Also, do people here actually take the Oscars seriously?
The IFMCA (International Film Music Critics Association) tends to do a much better job when it comes to assessing a year’s best scores, imo.