Rachel Portman in Conversation

In this edition of Sound of Cinema the Academy Award-winning composer Rachel Portman is the programme’s special guest alongside the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Ben Palmer, in a concert given at the orchestra’s Salford studio foregrounding some of Rachel’s best loved film scores. Tom McKinney is in conversation with the composer and together they look back on a rich and varied career which has provided such enduring music to popular movies such as Chocolat, Belle, The Duchess, Oliver Twist, Bel Ami, The Cider House Rules, and the Academy Award-winning Emma.

Rachel talks about working with directors Lasse Hallström, Amma Asante and Roman Polanski; about how she approaches scoring a film - her methods of creating and shaping themes to convey character and situation; about the range and variety of her work, whether a literary classic, a family adventure, or a great period drama; and she talks about how she often finds herself drawn to movies with strong female protagonists.

The programme was recorded in July last year before an invited audience.