Film Music
Scott Lawton has conducted nearly every well-known masterpiece of orchestral film music in concerts. His affinity for this genre is rooted thirty years of collaborating with the German Film Orchestra (Deutsches Filmorchester Babelsberg). With this elite ensemble, he has conducted hundreds of film music concerts. These often follow a thematic concept, for example “Adventure Films”, “Outer Space”, “From Babelsberg to Hollywood”, “Westerns”, “Jazz in Cinema”, “John WIlliams meets Hans Zimmer”, “Halloween in the movies”, etc.
Here is a video from a performance of John Williams’ “Adventures on Earth”, performed with the German Film Orchestra open-air at the Sansoucci Park in Potsdam, Germany
Parallel to conducting concert film music, Scott Lawton has also performed many live film concerts, such as silent film masterpieces like Chaplin’s “City Lights” and “Gold Rush,” as well as Fritz Lang’s “Metropolis” and “Dr. Mabuse.” After a series of live performances of “Pirates of the Caribbean” with the German Film Orchestra in Hamburg, he conducted the first live orchestral performances of Disney’s “Fantasia” in Germany, first in Munich, then in Stuttgart, Cologne, and Potsdam. He also conducted the first live performances of the films “The Lodger” (directed by Alfred Hitchcock, music by Irwin) and “Wickie and the Strong Men” (directed by Bully Herbig, music by Wenglmayer) with the German Film Orchestra in Potsdam.
The Hamburger Abendblatt described “Pirates of the Caribbean” as follows: “At the end, the musicians on the stage of the CCH couldn’t hold back anymore: the German Film Orchestra Babelsberg had played the score of ‘Pirates of the Caribbean’ with discipline for almost two and a half hours, literally in the shadow of the large screen, where the cult pirate film flickered in the original with German subtitles. Then, during the encore, the musicians no longer had to follow the film’s tempo and played with freedom and abandon. The music in Hamburg (and on CD) has never been heard so dynamically, precisely, and powerfully. US conductor Scott Lawton pushed the already bombastic action sound of Klaus Badelt and Hans Zimmer to the extreme in the encore… in this moment, when the audience’s attention in the two-thirds-filled Hall 1 of the CCH was no longer on the film but solely on the orchestra, it became clear what an enormous performance was delivered.”
For the past ten years, Lawton has conducted and moderated film music concerts in the Berlin Philharmonic Hall. The next concert in this series is on December 25, 2023.
Lawton’s insights on current film music are sought after by radio producers in Germany, for example in February 2022 with Deutschlandfunk Kultur in connection with the 90th birthday of John Williams or with West German Radio after the death of James Bond composer John Barry.
John Barry
Cologne Philharmonic
Lawton conducted a concert with the Cologne Philharmonic of film music by the Sir Malcolm Arnold, in the presence of the legendary composer. This concert programm was complemented by major compositions of Bernard Herrmann, including the complete music from „Taxi Driver“, whereby the the monologues were performed live for the first time by the Robert DeNiros „German voice“ Christian Brückner.
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