Film is an integral part of our cultural lives and so many of them stay with us for several reasons - the story, the magnificent camera work, the superlative acting but more often than not it is those passages of the classical music repertoire that spark off a whole train of images. So for our summer concert KPO is excited to take you down memory lane with a selection of some of the most iconic pieces of cinema music.

Fantasia comes immediately to mind as the go-to reference point and we don’t disappoint with the Bach’s mighty Toccata and Fugue in D minor arranged by Stokowski - who can forget that initial sequence of side profiles and dancing coloured bows? -  while Mussorgsky’s Night on a Bare Mountain finishes off the whole film with the huge-winged bat monster lowering with his luminous dead eyes summoning the skeletons on horseback, only for a train of monks to appear at dawn as calm is restored.

Mahler’s claim to cinema fame came with Visconti’s use of his Adagietto from the Fifth Symphony for his Death in Venice  - the achingly beautiful music summed up the agony of obsession with its final shot of the black hair dye trickling down Dirk Bogarde’s face as he finally expires on the deserted beach - unforgettable!

A change of mood as we remind you of one of the most amazing dance sequences on film - a whole 17 minutes of Gene Kelly and Leslie Caron in American in Paris. Gershwin’s music takes us on a ride through jazzy Paris with its bustling charm and energy, not forgetting its parping car horns!

Stanley Kubrik was renowned for his amazing choices and none more so than the title sequence for Eyes Wide Shut with Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman arriving at the hotel only to be embroiled in a fantasy sequence of masked balls - what better music to choose than the laconic Waltz no 2 from Shostakovitch’s Jazz Suite no 2?

So revive your senses and relive the images from your cultural reserves with the KPO’s dizzying kaleidoscope of cinematic memories - a feast for ear and inner eye!

Book your seats at kpo.org.uk