Tom Tykwer is one of the few internationally renowned directors who are also responsible for the music scores to their film projects. As in all his hit movies to date, he has also composed the music for PERFUME, together with the musicians Johnny Klimek and Reinhold Heil, who are also his friends. The trio have been together for nearly 10 years, call themselves Pale 3 and apart from composing soundtracks, they also plan to release their own album in the near future. Tom Tykwer wanted the score to PERFUME, his most expensive and ambitious film to date, to be equally ambitious and to be performed by no less than the best: “While I was composing, I asked myself how the music should actually sound, and I quickly found the answer: Like the Berliner Philharmoniker!“ Tykwer did not think the cooperation with his first-choice candidate was going to happen at first. Everyone involved deserves the credit for the trio’s compositions actually being played by the Berliner Philharmoniker, conducted by Sir Simon Rattle. And it was not only Sir Simon Rattle who was enthusiastic about the project and Tykwer’s ideas the internationally renowned conductor’s record label, EMI Classics, and Constantin Film also enthusiastically supported the cooperation…
Sir Simon Rattle was already familiar with the work of the German director. When the British star conductor was voted artistic director and head conductor of the Berliner Philharmoniker in 1999, friends recommended Tykwer’s worldwide hit RUN LOLA RUN as a good way of getting to know his new domicile, Berlin. “Ever since then I have admired Tom and thought: ‘We both live in Berlin, we really should meet!’“ said Rattle. Although this was to take several years, the adaptation of PERFUME, a worldwide bestseller in novel form, was the ideal opportunity for the two to meet.
Predicted in advance to be the shining moment of contemporary film history, PERFUME marks the first film soundtrack to spring from the celebrated artistic liaison between Sir Simon Rattle and the Berliner Philharmoniker.
Johnny Klimek and Reinhold Heil are very impressed with the result of the cooperation with the Berliner Philharmoniker. “It was very moving to hear the music interpreted by this massive orchestra for the first time. The sound of the Berliner Philharmoniker is more beautiful than we could ever have dreamed“, enthuses Johnny Klimek. And Reinhold Heil is no less impressed than his colleague: “Working with the best orchestra on the planet was a real stroke of luck for us!“ Tom Tykwer himself says: “Sir Simon Rattle has used the personality and energy of the orchestra to add a whole new dimension to our music.“ Just as Tykwer the director succeeded in transforming Grenouille’s olfactory genius onto the screen, Tykwer the composer also set to work with burning ambition. The congenial music makes the world of scents magically and sensuously perceivable.
THE BERLINER PHILHARMONIKER AND SIR SIMON RATTL
The Berliner Philharmoniker have become one of the best orchestras in the world with conductors such as Wilhelm Furtwängler, Sergiu Celibidache, Herbert von Karajan and Claudio Abbado. Engaging Sir Simon Rattle, who took over in September 2002, meant taking on one of the most successful conductors of the younger generation. The conversion of the orchestra into the public “Stiftung Berliner Philharmoniker (Berliner Philharmoniker Foundation)“, which took place at the same time, created a modern framework both for new creative space and the economic stability of the 129-strong orchestra. Sir Simon Rattle’s career includes the Philharmonia Orchestra, the London Philharmonic Orchestra, the London Sinfonietta, the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra and the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, of which he was Artistic Director from 1980 to 1998. He has also worked closely with the Boston Symphony Orchestra, the Philadelphia Orchestra and the Vienna Philharmonic. Simon Rattle, who was knighted in 1994, has received many awards in recognition of his artistic work, including the Royal Society of Arts Albert Medal and, in 2003, the “Echo Klassik“ record prize in the “Conductor of the Year” category. Sir Simon Rattle and the Berliner Philharmoniker were awarded a Grammy for their performance of Gustav Mahler’s 10th symphony and in the award-winning documentary, RHYTHM IS IT, the experiment-loving conductor and his brilliant orchestra also excelled in front of the camera. Sir Simon Rattle and the Berliner Philharmoniker have recently performed "Rheingold" from Richard Wagner’s "Ring der Nibelungen" in Berlin. The Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung called it a prelude “practically unparalleled for its radicalism”. This could also just as easily apply to the soundtrack of PERFUME.