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Written by Shandy Casteel Saturday, 07 January 2006 18:00

Watching a masterpiece like City Lights while having a world-class symphony perform the soundtrack is an experience that hopefully comes around more than once in a lifetime.

 

Saint Louis Symphony Orchestra, Powell Hall, St. Louis, Mo.

Even the most geeked-up of technophiles would have found the Saint Louis Symphony Orchestra’s live accompaniment of Charlie Chaplin’s City Lights a stunning achievement of the old school over the new school. If a technological tussle would have broken out, it would have been rout. The proclivities of digital age are often cold, sensory hammers, where louder and bigger are always preferred. But, a funny thing can happen on the way to surround sound and larger screens—subtraction is sometimes addition. Nuances, which are often lost in the zeal for ear-popping ferocity, were readily at hand as Powell Symphony Hall relished the chance to relive its youth and parade around in its former role as a movie house, even letting the kiddies bring their popcorn and soda into the main hall during the performance.

There’s no telling what combination of things caused it, but there was added spring to Powell’s step. The New Year’s Eve show bubbled over with joy. While the time of the year and the decidedly younger crowd can take some of credit for the lighthearted mood, it was Chaplin’s film that stood as the uproarious heart.

The film was perfectly framed for ringing in the changing year. Released in 1931, City Lights held a rattled ground between the upstart talkies and their declining opposites of the silent variety. City Lights is partly a celebration of hope and fortune, and while not generally classified as a holiday film, ably captures the spirit of the season like few can. It’s an extraordinary piece of art, and Chaplin’s choice to limit the sounds of his film to effects and music is part of the work’s endearing charm. Even today, some scenes buzz with fortuitous wit. As the film opens, a crowd is taking in political speeches, which are comically played as a jumble of squawks. What must have been at the time a little jab at talking pictures is now the perfect caricature of current political discourse in the United States.

In the oeuvre of a cinematic master, this is his finest creation, an assessment Roger Ebert has made in the past: “If only one of Charles Chaplin's films could be preserved, City Lights would come the closest to representing all the different notes of his genius. It contains the slapstick, the pathos, the pantomime, the effortless physical coordination, the melodrama, the bawdiness, the grace, and, of course, the Little Tramp—the character said, at one time, to be the most famous image on earth.”

Chaplin wrote, directed, produced, and starred in City Lights. He also scored the music, which is where this particular showing was truly in a class of its own. For conductor David Robertson and the orchestra, City Lights proved a fruitful and lighthearted time. The orchestra’s comic timing was faultless, from piano bashing to the sniggering scene where the Tramp swallows a whistle. The fullness of the sound resounded through the hall with a cheerful pluck. Such auditory magnificence is unrivaled, no matter how much one spends on the latest equipment. Robertson, upon whom the Symphony is banking part of its future, was flush with liveliness, making jokes about snipers before the performance and bounding around his platform during the showing. Occasionally, the eyes of the conductor or odd orchestra member could be seen straying up to the screen, and a slightly detectable smile glimpsed. The good times were infectious at every turn. Watching a masterpiece like City Lights while having a world-class symphony perform the soundtrack is an experience that hopefully comes around more than once in a lifetime.