BWW Interviews: John Wilson on COLE PORTER IN HOLLYWOOD, Sondheim And The Proms!

In the 50th anniversary of Cole Porter's death, celebrated conductor John Wilson thinks it's high time to celebrate this great composer of the first half of the 20th century. Wilson's new album - Cole Porter in Hollywood - and live tour will focus on Porter's Hollywood greats and he hopes to bring the music to a new audience.

The John Wilson Orchestra has been together 20 years now, but came to fame in 2009 when he recreated the original orchestrations of the great MGM musicals from scratch after they were destroyed by the studio.

For Wilson this was a labour of love and something that had to be done.

"Those orchestrations are the most pure and sympathetic settings of those songs and more importantly a lot of those songs they are the first orchestrations of those songs," he explains. "The film orchestration of High Society represents the composer's and orchestrator's first final intention. They have to be restored because any other versions of them is going to be slightly phony."

Wilson's work has focused on the great musicals of the first half of the 20th century, but what is it about that period that so appeals?

"The musical material is cut from a very high grade cloth," he says. "The great theatre composers of the first half of the last century were supremely gifted and completely uncompromising. You could play a Harold Arlen or a Richard Rodgers tune on the piano without any embellishment or any orchestration and it's just inherently quality."

So is the great age of the film musical no more?

"The studio system's not there any more," he says. "You had people doing the same thing every day of their lives for 30 years, so by the time you get to the 1950s you've got a conveyor belt of expertise. All the talent was in one place. The facilities were there to keep the talent there so everybody got really good at what they were doing and of course they had time to perfect everything so you're not going to see that again."

His Proms shows have become one of the hottest tickets each summer - and for Wilson, performing there has been a special experience.

"Performing at the Proms is like entering the kingdom of heaven because it's the greatest audience in the world," he declares. "I mean, there is rapt concentration: there is no audience like them."

He says going on tour is one of the highlights of his year, and he's expecting a mixed crowd at the shows.

"It's a combination of people who remember the material first time round, older people who are nostalgic about it, people of all ages who've seen it on the telly and younger people who are getting into musicals through Glee."

Although he claims not to be an expert on modern musicals ("I'm a conductor with an enthusiasm for songs!") he is a fan of one very special living composer.

"I have got boundless admiration for Stephen Sondheim because i think he's one of those composers who can write startingly original music and the music he writes could not have been written by anybody else."

He's even had dinner with Sondheim more than once, so could we see a John Wilson-Sondheim collaboration one day?

"I'd love to conduct one of his pieces. I've been asked to conduct some of his operatic pieces - Sweeney Todd - but I've never been free."

Intriguing - so if the timing works, could he conduct a Sweeney Todd?

"I'd love to - it's a masterpiece."

Cole Porter in Hollywood is released on Warner Records on October 6. The John Wilson Orchestra is touring the album from November 9, finishing at the Royal Albert Hall on November 25.

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