Radio 3's American Road Trip: Los Angeles

Radio 3's American Road Trip: Los Angeles

If I struggled to associate Dallas with orchestral music, Los Angeles will naturally follow suit. Or so I thought. Georgia Mann presents Day 4 of BBC Radio 3's American Roadtrip - the final leg from LA. The show opens and it immediately clicks with me: Hollywood. The movies. Film scores! Yes - the focus of this programme will, inevitably, be music that has featured in or been composed specifically for film. But this is Radio 3, so it will hold a different character to Classic FM at the Movies with Jonathan Ross (which does have its own merits, if one looks hard enough).

We're off to a good start with Gershwin's gentle piano and some sort of piece from Strauss (think it was Richard).

There is music from the film Sunset Boulevard, which I have on DVD in the loft - must dig that out again. I remember the film well, and Georgia Mann says it was a very 'meta' offering from Hollywood - and I know exactly what she means, because I am down with the kids. Who could forget Gloria Swanson's camp dame, in her semi-schizophrenic effort to stay youthful and relevant? True of so many of our internal monologues - certainly is of mine. If all goes to plan, my brother Adam and I will be cruising Sunset Boulevard proper in just over two months time, and I do hope we take the time to savour our own precious moment in the sun.

We move across to Hollywood Bowl, which is a famous venue. I've certainly heard of it, but what does it look like? I head to Google Images. It's like a modern open-air amphitheater, I realise. 

It is lovely to hear Charlie Chaplin's Smile played; this is a tune I know well due to the Eric Clapton connection (he's known to sing it once in a while).

There are themes to To Kill A Mockingbird, and The Dam Busters, both of which are great. And then it gets darker with Bernard Herrmann's prelude to Psycho. The Psycho franchise is an old favourite of mine, and *possibly* we will catch the Bates Motel set if we have time to do the Universal Studios tour on our trip. And there's another offering from Herrmann a bit later, with The Man Who Knew Too Much - I recognise those unnerving waves instantly. This one has become a new favourite since hearing it at The Last Night of the Proms, last summer.

BBC Radio 3's great American adventure ends here, in the very same place ours will in May. What will we make of LA when we get there, after driving all the way from Chicago? At the moment I haven't a clue, but I will keep in my mind the following sentiment from this programme: for those without means, paradise becomes hell.

Image by Lindsay_Jayne from Pixabay