Silent Film Classic Speaks Through Music

According to Executive Director Steve Apkon, when Yamaha artist Sara Davis Buechner sat down at the Yamaha C7 conservatory grand piano at the Jacob Burns Film Center in Pleasantville, NY for the November screening of the 1925 MGM silent film classic, Ben Hur, “You could feel the electricity. Ms. Buechner had the packed auditorium of film buffs in her grip, bringing extraordinary life to this very extraordinary film.”

Sara Davis Buechner practices the musical score for the 1925 silent film "Ben Hur"

Buechner—the highest ranking American prizewinner of the 1986 Tchaikovsky International Piano Competition—has an active interest in film music that has led her to record the film music concertos of Bernard Hermann, Alex North, and Franz Waxman on her CD The Paradine Case (Koch International), and she even provided an engaging and informative lecture on this silent screen epic.

A member of the faculty of New York University, where she lectures in piano literature in addition to teaching piano and chamber music, Buechner has performed with America’s most important orchestras, including the New York Philharmonic, the Philadelphia Orchestra, the Saint Louis Symphony and the National Orchestra in Washington, D.C., as well as esteemed foreign orchestras in Japan, Finland, and Spain. She has always been “passionate” about silent movies, watching them on TV ever since she was a child.

“During my pre-teen years,” says Buechner, “I was given an eight-millimeter projector, and I’d put on the record player and match certain music with certain themes in the film. I was absolutely fascinated by the whole process of matching music to movies, and as I’ve discovered over the years, there is a whole rich history to this that many people know little about.”

The Jacob Burns Film Center, a non-profit cultural arts center dedicated to presenting the best of independent, documentary, and world cinema, also presents programs in collaboration with the Film Society of Lincoln Center. Brian Ackerman, director of programming for the center, says he couldn’t have been “more thrilled to have a pianist of Ms. Buechner’s stature” do the accompaniment.

“She gave so much color and vibrancy to the film,” says Ackerman. “She immediately drew the audience in and had them riveted from beginning to end. She brought a wonderful life to the film through her performance, and made it a truly remarkable experience for everyone who was privileged to be a part of it.”

As for Buechner, she is convinced the performance was as successful as it was because of her piano.” Clarity is the most essential quality for me as a musician,” says Buechner. “The Yamaha piano has an incredible combination of power, brilliance, and clarity. I want to play an instrument that sings and rings and grabs people with every single note. A Yamaha does just that.”