London Star Wars Concert

- There was virtually nothing surrounding it. A few people walking around the restaurant area dressed as Darth Vader and some Storm Troopers.
- Daniels told the story VERY loosley. If you hadn't ever seen the films it would not be enough to explain what was going on.
- There were just lots of video montages, and over the final piece they showed a few photos of the original scoring sessions.
- The "exhibition" was just a tiny collection of props and costumes they'd used. I'd seen it before at the London Museum of Film and TV so didn't bother looking this time around.

Other than that all they had were some posters up and the merchandise stand selling t-shirts for 20 quid.

Bulloch and Davis were there???
Yet only Daniels took the stage?

What a missed opportunity.
I still can't shake the feeling of 'missed opportunities'... almost no surrounding show, no additional stars (taking the stage, at least), Williams not conducting... It's all so... "almost", if you understand my meaning.

God, what a nerd.

What the felgerkarb does he have to do with Star Wars?

I'm sure he is, but why
?

Was anyone rooting for him to do his comic book guy thing again?

Well, there was only a one in roughly 15,000 chance, so the odds against that were huge to begin with.

I think it's worth taking some CD covers along to concerts, you never know what oportunity might present itself!?

Mind you, I'd never have guessed that Poledouris was going to be at a Barry concert? Now I have the rare distinction of having a John Barry music program signed by Basil Poledouris

Good for you Lars

As the concert is over and a marvelous time was had by all, I'm unstickying this thread.
Unsticky.
UNSTICKY.
Now there's a word worth using more during casual conversation.
It's pretty darn pookin'.

At a very last minute decision, I went to see the concert last night in the Sportpaleis in Antwerpen, with a very old friend back from primary school. We never actually meet up anymore...except for Star Wars related events (the last time was the Revenge Of the Sith premiere ).

The mood was well set with a number of semi-professionals and enthusiasts in the building with home-made costumes that ranged from the gobsmacking (members from the Belgian chapter of the 501st legion were in attendance) to the slightly embarassing (throwing a dark towel over your head and brandishing a toy sword does not make a Dark Lord...

What was amusing was to see the amount of second generation fans: balding, potbellied dads proudly dressed up as Jedi, with their beaming sons next to them, dressed in the exact same garb.

It was all in good fun!

I was slightly apprehensive about the concert at first.
I know this music so well I could probably transcribe it by heart, so any mistake or change would be immediately noticeable to me!

But I needn't have worried.
The Royal Philharmonic Concert Orchestra did a smashing job interpreting the rousing material, under conductor Brossé's tout and powerful direction. With obvious feeling for the material, the action material was punctuated by strong brass and percussive presence, while the softer material was approached softly and gently (which is quite hard to pull off in a hall as huge as the Sportpaleis).

A special note should be made of the humongous and incredibly good brass section, who continuously blew their heart out (and the audience away). I don't think I've seen so much brass in one orchestra ever! Some surprisingly strong solo performances by the flutist and violinist in Princess Leia's theme added to the overwhelming sense of sheer professional power. This is a very fine orchestra!

The hundred head choir making cameos for Duel Of The Fates and Battle Of The Heroes certainly helped cement the impression of a gifted performance.
I secretly wished they would have stayed for a Shadows Of The Empire like choral rendition of the Force Theme (which appeared twice in the concert, once in the Binary Sunset cue, just before the break, and once right at the end in the Rebel Briefing cue), but alas.

While most of the cues were true to their original form, there were a few surprises: the aforementioned Rebel Briefing was extended to include both the concert variation AND the film variation in one track, which really worked quite nicely. And the final piece -The Throne Room / End Title- incorporated quite a long variation on the Throne Room material, which I've never heard before! No idea if it was created by Brossé or Williams for the concert specifically, but whatever the case, it worked like a charm, charming even an old-timer like myself with a truly new and surprising take on so well-known material.

Oh, and special mention should be made of the unexpected twist to the Binary Sunset cue, which suddenly and unexpectedly erupted into a foot-tapping, soaring rendition of the Cantina Band!
Most of it was played by a combo specifically set up at the edge of the stage, but the bassline was played by one of the double bass players in the orchestra, and it was qite funny to see the entire orchestra sitting silently while this one man was plucking the strings like a maniac!

Other memorable performance highlights included an absolutely thunderous, slightly extended Flag Parade from The Phantom Menace, which was done very well. A simply beautiful and very moving rendition of Across The Stars, and one of the finest takes on Anakin's Theme I have ever heard.

Aside from the already mentioned Throne Room and Rebel Briefing, the tracks from the original trilogy were played competently and enjoyably, though not with any truly added sense of emotion, except the very surprising choice of The Duel from The Empire Strikes Back as the entrance piece after the intermission (accompanied by one hell of a laser show), which was great, and the encore version of The Imperial March.
It was very clear that Brossé and the orchestra had been holding back on its first appearance just before the break, as they completely let loose in the encore, with brass and timpani battling the furious violins for supremacy in tone and volume. Man, what a rush! Absolutely phenomenal, and very rightly rewarded with an ovational applause.

Anthony Daniels very adequately glued the pieces together with some OK (but a little tiresome) vignettes, including one funny stint where he "accidentally" slipped into his Threepio role and displayed a gold vest under his jacket. But all in all he'd clearly being doing this for some time, as there was no real sparkle or energy to his otherwise flawless performance.

A wonderful additional surprise was that in the break I found I was more or less sitting right next to Thomas, Gilles and Mario! I was so late in making my decision that I had no time to inform anyone. Sadly now I've learned Bregt was there as well, but I missed him (lost his number).

So, was it all wine and roses?
Well.
No.

What utter, demented, braindamaged, incompetent, asensitive, philistine FUCKWIT thought it would be a good idea to accompany the (wonderful!) scenes on the humongous film screen behind the orchestra with DIALOGUE and SOUND EFFECTS, effectively drowning out the orchestra for about a fourth of the time in EVERY SINGLE CUE?
Did it not even possibly occur to said gentleman that the audience came to listen to the MUSIC (seeing as this was a CONCERT and all)? Might he not have conceivably hit upon the notion that PERCHANCE we would actually like to HEAR said music, rather than series of random explosions and lines abouy 90% of the audience knows by heart ANYWAY?

And would said gentleman also not consider the reaction of the not so casual concert goer, who, having paid a LOT of money for ringside seats, might be slightly less than wildly enthusiastic about these artistic choices, and who might in fact take the whole arrangement as something of a personal affront, irreparably damaging what little emotional and psychological boundaries he had left in his already deeply troubled mind?

In fact, dear boy, if by any happenstance you chance upon reading this:

Run.

I'm coming for you.



PS: I strongly recommend and support de Sportpaleis for any futur endeavours and meetings.
In the intermissions they serve CHAMPAGNE!

Well said Martijn, you were right about everything
And it was indeed funny to see you just sitting a couple of seats from us, despite you've ordering your tickets at the last second, and we a couple of months before you

To my suprise it wasn't sold out (although there was a pretty good attendance)!



Oh yeah!
Incomparable!
This orchestra and choir were SO much better it puts the Lord Of The Rings concert to shame!
(On the other hand, that one didn't feature any dialogue and sound effects... )

How odd, there wasn't any dialogue when they premiered it at the O2 last year.

YOU WERE THERE?

You were told but Jedi mind tricks can have that effect.