RSNO Ghostbusters Usher Hall Edinburgh Review 31st October 2025
Image © 1984 Columbia Industries, Inc.
RSNO at the MOVIES – Ghostbusters (1984) was at the Usher Hall on Halloween night itself – perfect timing for a combination of ghosts, film and music.
The score for Ghostbusters was written by one of the most prolific and successful composers of film and television music – Elmer Bernstein (1922-2004). In a career spanning over five decades, Elmer Bernstein composed over 150 original film scores and music for around 80 television productions. As well as the music for Ghostbusters, he also scored the music for classic films such as “The Magnificent Seven”, “To Kill a Mockingbird” and “An American Werewolf In London” (to name only a few of them). By the time the musical score for Ghostbusters was written, Elmer Bernstein was already recognised as one of the great composers of film scores. The music for films and television was, however, only a part of his larger musical creativity.
The advertised conductor for the Ghostbuster concerts, Anthony Parnther was unable to do these due to illness, and Peter Bernstein replaced him in that role. A more perfect replacement conductor for “Ghostbusters” could not have been found, for as well as being a respected conductor and composer in his own right, he is the son of the composer, Elmer Bernstein. Peter also worked as a musical arranger on the film too.
The theme song for “Ghostbusters”, written and performed by Ray Parker Jr may be the most instantly recognisable music from this and other Ghostbusters films to many people, but here tonight, as performed by the RSNO, and conducted by Peter Bernstein, it was clear that it was the musical score by Elmer Bernstein that gave this film so much of its atmosphere.
Normally much of the score for any film is designed to add a layer of extra feeling and emotion to any scene and, as such, can be sometimes overlooked a little bit by cinema audiences who are mostly often concentrating on the scene and dialogue of the film first. All of this changes when you have an orchestra like the RSNO on-stage performing the film score live, and so many subtle moments of that music are now more in immediate focus to audiences.
When you have someone like Peter Bernstein conducting a film score that he knows so well, extra layers of this music become not only more accessible, but how much they have added to the film that is being shown behind the orchestra is also far more obvious. To prove this point, it is a long time since I have seen “Ghostbusters” and I had missed first time around (original cinema release) just what a wonderful work of music Elmer Bernstein’s “Dana’s Theme” is, particularly this arrangement performed tonight by the RSNO with Peter Bernstein conducting.
The RSNO at the MOVIES concerts are always pretty much sold out shows, but there is something extra about them too. These concerts are often real family nights out and, like tonight, the audience age range is from young children to much older people. Tonight, some people young and old were obviously having a lot of fun watching Ghostbusters whilst listening to the music and doing it all dressed up as their favourite characters. More than a few Halloween costumes from the Usher Hall staff and the audience added to a fun night out for everyone.
Review by Tom King © 2025
www.artsreviewsedinburgh.com
The score for Ghostbusters was written by one of the most prolific and successful composers of film and television music – Elmer Bernstein (1922-2004). In a career spanning over five decades, Elmer Bernstein composed over 150 original film scores and music for around 80 television productions. As well as the music for Ghostbusters, he also scored the music for classic films such as “The Magnificent Seven”, “To Kill a Mockingbird” and “An American Werewolf In London” (to name only a few of them). By the time the musical score for Ghostbusters was written, Elmer Bernstein was already recognised as one of the great composers of film scores. The music for films and television was, however, only a part of his larger musical creativity.
The advertised conductor for the Ghostbuster concerts, Anthony Parnther was unable to do these due to illness, and Peter Bernstein replaced him in that role. A more perfect replacement conductor for “Ghostbusters” could not have been found, for as well as being a respected conductor and composer in his own right, he is the son of the composer, Elmer Bernstein. Peter also worked as a musical arranger on the film too.
The theme song for “Ghostbusters”, written and performed by Ray Parker Jr may be the most instantly recognisable music from this and other Ghostbusters films to many people, but here tonight, as performed by the RSNO, and conducted by Peter Bernstein, it was clear that it was the musical score by Elmer Bernstein that gave this film so much of its atmosphere.
Normally much of the score for any film is designed to add a layer of extra feeling and emotion to any scene and, as such, can be sometimes overlooked a little bit by cinema audiences who are mostly often concentrating on the scene and dialogue of the film first. All of this changes when you have an orchestra like the RSNO on-stage performing the film score live, and so many subtle moments of that music are now more in immediate focus to audiences.
When you have someone like Peter Bernstein conducting a film score that he knows so well, extra layers of this music become not only more accessible, but how much they have added to the film that is being shown behind the orchestra is also far more obvious. To prove this point, it is a long time since I have seen “Ghostbusters” and I had missed first time around (original cinema release) just what a wonderful work of music Elmer Bernstein’s “Dana’s Theme” is, particularly this arrangement performed tonight by the RSNO with Peter Bernstein conducting.
The RSNO at the MOVIES concerts are always pretty much sold out shows, but there is something extra about them too. These concerts are often real family nights out and, like tonight, the audience age range is from young children to much older people. Tonight, some people young and old were obviously having a lot of fun watching Ghostbusters whilst listening to the music and doing it all dressed up as their favourite characters. More than a few Halloween costumes from the Usher Hall staff and the audience added to a fun night out for everyone.
Review by Tom King © 2025
www.artsreviewsedinburgh.com
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