Symphonic Star Wars: Royal Albert Hall, London
October 2017
Alex
For one day only, the Royal Albert Hall and the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra put on two shows celebrating the music of Star Wars and its composer John Williams. In future podcasts, you will hear me talking about my love of the Star Wars music and how the movies without the powerful score wouldn’t resonate as much. So this was going to be a real treat for me!
Set in the famous London venue, a packed audience, some in cosplay, sat and watched the Orchestra play iconic themes from all seven movies. Unlike “Star Wars: In Concert” from 2009, which was accompanied by scenes of the movies, this was purely a musical concert.
Starting with the classic 20th Century Fox intro theme leading into the Star Wars ‘Main Title’, it could have easily been the start of A New Hope! I was waiting for the scroll to being somewhere but alas, it didn’t.
Alex
For one day only, the Royal Albert Hall and the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra put on two shows celebrating the music of Star Wars and its composer John Williams. In future podcasts, you will hear me talking about my love of the Star Wars music and how the movies without the powerful score wouldn’t resonate as much. So this was going to be a real treat for me!
Set in the famous London venue, a packed audience, some in cosplay, sat and watched the Orchestra play iconic themes from all seven movies. Unlike “Star Wars: In Concert” from 2009, which was accompanied by scenes of the movies, this was purely a musical concert.
Starting with the classic 20th Century Fox intro theme leading into the Star Wars ‘Main Title’, it could have easily been the start of A New Hope! I was waiting for the scroll to being somewhere but alas, it didn’t.
|
rom then on we were introduced to Marc Silk who would be our guide taking us through the journey of Star Wars through music. Marc is a voice actor and has played the role of Scooby Doo, various Go Jetters and was also the voice of Aks Moe in the Phantom Menace! The first half of the performance was the Prequel Trilogy, which received a Luke warm reception in comparison to the cheer of the second half original trilogy and Force Awakens!
Playing in chronological order, the orchestra played 3 themes from the Phantom Menace. Starting with ‘Anakin’s Theme’, the ‘Flag Parade’ and finishing with ‘Duel of the Fates’. Duel of the Fates got the second loudest applause of the evening after the Imperial March’s second appearance (more on that later). The Attack of the Clones set was shorter as they played the Anakin and Padme ‘Across the Stars’ love theme, ‘Yoda and the Younglings’ followed by the ‘Imperial March’. Personally, I was let down here as Episode II has some great scores they could have picked instead of putting in the Imperial March. For instance ‘Confrontation with Count Dooku’ is great as is ‘Tusken Camp’! An iconic scene where we see the start of real decline of Anakin Skywalker. |
Episode III was even shorter! Only playing the ‘Battle of the Heroes’. Which is a fantastic piece of music and sounds amazing live, however there are far more pieces to play from Revenge of the Sith. ‘Enter Lord Vader’, a menacing piece, or even ‘General Grievous Theme’.
After the intermission, Episode IV started with the famous ‘Trench Run’ piece before Marc joined us again to take us through the second half of the performance. Next up was ‘The Cantina Band’, it flowed swiftly into ‘Leia’s Theme’ and a round of applause was given at the end with the mention of Carrie Fisher. Which I thought was a wonderful touch. A New Hope has many pieces they could play but after these initial 3 moved on to Empire Strikes Back.
As the clapping faded, our host said some kind messages passed to the audience from John Williams who couldn’t attend and also mentioned that “2 members of the cast were in the Hall that evening, but asked not to be named…but Good Evening Natalie!” This led to a few gasps in the audience, followed by lots of looks around the hall. I thought it would be Natalie Portman as she was the first Star Wars “Natalie” I could think of.
The Episode V suite was short as well only playing the ‘Asteroid Field’ piece followed by ‘Yoda’s Theme’. I felt it odd that ‘The Imperial March’ wasn’t played here as it is an iconic moment in the franchise seeing Vader arrive to this during the Hoth battle.
After the intermission, Episode IV started with the famous ‘Trench Run’ piece before Marc joined us again to take us through the second half of the performance. Next up was ‘The Cantina Band’, it flowed swiftly into ‘Leia’s Theme’ and a round of applause was given at the end with the mention of Carrie Fisher. Which I thought was a wonderful touch. A New Hope has many pieces they could play but after these initial 3 moved on to Empire Strikes Back.
As the clapping faded, our host said some kind messages passed to the audience from John Williams who couldn’t attend and also mentioned that “2 members of the cast were in the Hall that evening, but asked not to be named…but Good Evening Natalie!” This led to a few gasps in the audience, followed by lots of looks around the hall. I thought it would be Natalie Portman as she was the first Star Wars “Natalie” I could think of.
The Episode V suite was short as well only playing the ‘Asteroid Field’ piece followed by ‘Yoda’s Theme’. I felt it odd that ‘The Imperial March’ wasn’t played here as it is an iconic moment in the franchise seeing Vader arrive to this during the Hoth battle.
|
Return of the Jedi followed and the ‘Luke and Leia Theme’ started us here, ‘Leia’s News Theme’ was followed by ‘The Battle of Endor’ suite. There was no sign of the ‘Victory Celebration’ or even any ‘Yub Nubs’!
So we then moved on to the most recent of the Star Wars’ scored movies by John Williams, The Force Awakens. Starting with ‘March of the Resistance’ (one of my favourite pieces from TFA) followed on by ‘Rey’s Theme’. This piece received a huge cheer at the end of it. It finished with ‘Scherzo for X-Wings’. As the concert came to a close, there was time for one more piece, the finale and that was ‘The Throne Room’! What a way to wrap up the proceedings and it gave the orchestra a standing ovation! I did wonder why they hadn’t played this during the Episode IV suite and this was why. As the crowd finished clapping, our host Marc came back on stage and asked the crowd “Would you like one more?”….this was met with a definitive YES followed by a cheer from the audience and the orchestra proceeded to jump into ‘The Imperial March’ for the second time! Atmospheric lighting accompanying the piece, making the stage “Vader lightsaber red”. |
With that, the concert was brought to an end and another standing ovation was given to the orchestra. It was an amazing evening and highly recommended if this happens again. From the choice of scores, the accompanying lighting during the performance to the timing of the pieces were excellent!
The Force was strong with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra during this concert!
The Force was strong with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra during this concert!