Furniture Music

Auckland Chamber Orchestra

Musical Director Peter Scholes

presents:

Furniture Music + Silent Movie

It’s silent movie night! Live cinema with orchestra.

We have added to the programme a performance with film of Entr’acte (1924) directed by René Clair with music by Eric Satie.

Peter Scholes conducts the ACO in synchronisation with the film. Peter’s silent movie experience includes conducting Buster Keaton’s “The General”, Charlie Chaplin’s “City Lights”, Eric von Stroheim’s “The Wedding March” and Hitchcock’s “The Lodger”.

The cast included cameo appearances by Erik Satie, Marcel Duchamp, Man Ray, Jean Börlin (artistic director of the Ballets Suédois), Georges Auric (whose music we perform later in October), and Clair himself.

From the evocative legends of the Pacific to the charmingly unconventional sounds of early 20th-century Paris, this evening promises an immersive and contrasting musical journey that blurs the line between active listening and sonic atmosphere. Composed to be deliberately ignored, Satie’s "Furniture Music" is the historical precursor to ambient music. It's designed to blend into the background like a comfortable couch or a wallpaper pattern, while still maintaining Satie's wit and inventiveness. We invite you to chat, walk around, or simply let the sounds wash over you.

Written for a unique lineup of four strings and five woodwinds, Spohr's Nonet is a gloriously romantic work, symphonic in it's architecture and full of lyricism. It is true chamber music in that every instrument gets its moment in the spotlight. Especially featured is the dazzling violin part played by James Jin.

Program:

Eric Satie

• Vexations (extract)

• Musique d'Ameublement

  • Tenture de cabinet préfecturale (Curtain for a Prefectural Office)

  • Carrelage phonique (Acoustic Tiling)

  • Tapisserie en fer forgé (Wrought-iron Tapestry)

  • Un salon (A Drawing Room)

  • Chez un "bistrot" (At a "Bistrot")

• Entr'acte Silent Movie with score by Eric Satie

• — Interval —

Joshua Pearson Teine Sa

Louis Spohr Nonet in F major, Op. 31