#sydney-symphony-orchestra — Public Fediverse posts

Marvel Studios Infinity Saga Concert Experience – Sydney!

It’s been less than two months since I was in Melbourne at the Marvel Studios Infinity Saga Concert Experience, so what is different this time?

Well, for a start, it’s at the Sydney Opera House and being performed by the Sydney Symphony Orchestra under the baton of conductor Benjamin Northey. Also, I had my wife B along with me, Alex staying home to study for exams next week. Tragic, eh, the parents watching superheroes with the kid being all serious and working!

Please see my Melbourne review for the structure of the concert, as this one followed the same pattern, except that conductor Northey gave a longer introduction. I think knowing what to expect helped me enjoy this concert even more than the first outing and allowed me to focus more on the orchestra than the film clips on the big screen.

The Sydney Symphony Orchestra were in fine form, really bringing the scores from the variety of composers to life. We had a great view of the string sections, with the ostinato of variations on Silvestri’s Avengers Theme keeping them busy, while Ramin Djawardi and Christophe Beck’s themes for Iron Man and Ant Man respectively gave the percussionists a huge workout. I noticed that the rock music drummer was kept in a clear plastic enclosure, probably for the safety of the musicians and audience. Drummers have a very wild reputation.

Once again, I thoroughly enjoyed Benjamin Northey’s dramatic conducting as you get the sense he really is channeling the music. So was I. This time I took pleasure in the variation of Patrick Doyle’s Thor and Pinar Toprak’s Captain Marvel, freed from the expectation of what they should sound like based on the soundtrack.

It was also fun sharing the experience with B and with the rest of the vocal audience, some of whom rose to give the orchestra a deserving standing ovation.

I certainly had a marvellous time!

#benjaminNorthey #concert #filmMusic #marvel #music #orchestra #sydneyOperaHouse #sydneySymphonyOrchestra

The Pines of Rome: I. The Pine Trees of the Villa Borghese (Live) 🌲
#CharlesDutoit #SydneySymphonyOrchestra
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v4-V8Sj6QnE

The Pines of Rome: I. The Pine Trees of the Villa Borghese (Live) 🎍
#CharlesDutoit #SydneySymphonyOrchestra
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v4-V8Sj6QnE

The Music of Hans Zimmer 2025

This year has certainly got off to a cracking concert start. It’s early February and I’m already up to my third film score concert of the year!

Back in the ancient days of June 2023 I attended The Music of Hans Zimmer presented by Art of the Score. Well, they’re back!

My previous review mostly still stands, but there are a few notable differences this time.

Firstly, the venue. Instead of the Sydney Opera House, this time it is at the ICC Sydney Theatre, which can host maybe 2,500 more attendees. Again,  I find the acoustics a bit harsh, the differences highlighted by the previous two concerts. At least I got one of the best seats in the house, right in the middle, nine rows back.

Conductor and Art of the Score member Nicholas Buc is currently off in the US conducting Singing in the Rain. Another Australian conductor, Jessica Gethin, replaces him. I saw Jessica conduct An Evening of John Williams at the Sidney Myer Music Bowl in Melbourne in February 2022. She is a dynamic and passionate conductor and it really shows tonight.

The second personnel change is a lot sadder. Previous soloist singer Jaqueline Dark passed away not too long after the first concert. I’m glad I had the opportunity to see Jaqueline perform live. Tonight she is replaced by Cassandra Seidemann, who is given a very challenging role, that of performing music from Dune.

The concert is anchored, as before, by Andrew Pogson and Professor Dan Golding from The Art of the Score. Lots of terrible dad jokes which I appreciate because, like them, I’m also a dad.

The track listing remains mostly the same, except The Holiday and The Da Vinci Code are out and Paul’s Dream from Dune has its very first Australian symphonic performance.

Again, what I really enjoy is that the live performance highlights different elements and instruments in Zimmer’s music, compared to his frequently over-processed recordings.

My favourite of the night is Journey to the Line from The Thin Red Line. After that first performance, I knew to listen to the mesmerisingly repetitive flute and tapping that begins the piece and continues through most of it. That component gets lost in the original recording.

The electric guitar work from Clive Lendich was also a focus during the Inception Suite. I must say it was a little jarring to see an older bloke in a black suit playing the electric guides and another the rock drum kit, but that’s orchestras for you!

Simon Cobcroft did a fine job of simulating the ehru on the cello for Kung Fu Panda. I do wish that orchestras could properly procure “ethnic” instruments though.

Hornpipe was the word I was looking for about the ship dances without a partner that inspired the music for Pirates of the Caribbean. That was a huge amount of fun to listen to again, as was the Interstellar Suite that took me back to the movie and watching it on a flight last year.

It was pleasing to hear the music of Dune incorporated into the program. Although it wasn’t my new Zimmer favourite of Beginnings Are Such Delicate Times, Paul’s Dream is a great choice and very vocally challenging. In an interview Zimmer intimated that the screaming probably isn’t great for the vocal cords!

The concert ends with a suite from Gladiator, including Now We Are Free, sung well by Seidemann. Well, guess what the next concert is (at this stage)?

Gladiator Live in Concert with the Sydney Symphony Orchestra!

The only negative for the night was the announcement that Art of the Score and the orchestra would be performing a Joe Hisaishi concert in Sydney in September after I had already bought tickets to see it in Melbourne in November!

If you get a chance to see one of these Hans Zimmer concerts or any others with Art of the Score, go for it!

#ArtOfTheScore #HansZimmer #SydneySymphonyOrchestra

Welcome to Berk.

No, not the small town in western New South Wales where the summer temperature always seems to be above 40.

That’s Bourke.

Berk is “12 days north of Hopeless and a few degrees short of freezing to death. Most places only have mice or mosquitoes. We have… Dragons!”

We certainly do! We also have the Sydney Symphony Orchestra under the baton of conductor, you guessed it, Maestro Nicholas Buc.

It’s How to Train Your Dragon and it’s in concert at the Sydney Opera House.

I have to admit that I’d never seen the movie before, despite it being in our movie library. But teenage Alex has. What’s more, he has songs from John Powell’s score in his mostly non-orchestral playlist, so How to Train Your Dragon in Concert is a great opportunity to bring the whole family along again.

English composer John Powell has written music for a number of other animated features, including Shrek, Kung Fu Panda and the Australian made Happy Feet series, along with the live action Jason Bourne movies and my favourite, Solo: A Star Wars Story.

The Opera House’s concert hall is absolutely packed for the sold out Saturday matinee performance. How to Train Your Dragon is a huge family favourite and there are many parents and children in the audience. We sit six rows back from the stage, dead centre, with excellent views of the conductor and strings (Hey Nick, look down, you might see a familiar face!). Behind the orchestra, larger than usual with a much expanded percussion section, is the big screen which will show the movie as the orchestra plays.

A roar goes up as the Universal logo and fanfare is played and we enter the animated world of vikings and dragons and an action packed overture introduces the leitmotifs for the main characters, including a love theme for Astrid, protagonist Hiccup’s love interest, and the dragons themselves.

The music is loud, it’s brash, full of string ostinatos, wood winds, synthesised choir and bagpipes played at a furious pace as the action unfolds on the screen. But there are tender moments too. Forbidden Friendship, where Hiccup befriends Toothless, the fearsome Night Fury dragon, is a gorgeous, playful piece with marimba, harp and percussion that brought a tear to my eye with its beauty.

Then we have the soaring Test Drive, the signature music for the movie, as Hiccup and Toothless take to the skies together.

The score also invokes some Celtic fiddle with the associate concertmaster, Harry Bennetts, providing the spirited solos, his delight obvious in the performance.

After a tough past few weeks at work and school, this is the perfect movie and the perfect score for weekend enjoyment. Easy to watch and listen to, but with enough depth to keep you interested and emotionally involved.

The Sydney Symphony Orchestra does stunning job of performing the score, the sound is rich and full, and Maestro Buc his usual sterling work keeping them to time and sharing the music with the audience. I don’t know that I’ve ever heard the Sydney audience applaud as loudly as they did today, but it was richly deserved.

The people of Berk may be tasteless, but the people of Sydney weren’t and today they too had dragons.

https://allrite.blog/2024/08/24/how-to-train-your-dragon-in-concert/

#FilmMusic #JohnPowell #Movies #SydneyOperaHouse #SydneySymphonyOrchestra

This was it. The BIG concert of 2023 with international virtuoso violinist Anne-Sophie Mutter performing the music of John Williams with the Sydney Symphony Orchestra conducted by Simone Young live in concert at the Sydney Opera House. And not just any John Williams music. This was the Australian premiere of Williams’ Violin Concerto Number 2, written explicitly for Mutter.

I arrive early at the Opera House after a delicious bonito ramen at Ippudo, a welcome addition to Circular Quay dining. The city skyline is bathed in the delicious golden light of a waning day, the rays permeating the rear glass atrium of the Opera House.

As I sit down to listen to the pre-concert talk the massive Ovation of the Seas is departing from the passenger dock, it’s huge bulk maneuvering its way out through the busy harbour behind us.

The talk is interesting. This concert does not only feature the music of Williams, but also Bernard Herrmann’s score to Hitchcock’s Vertigo and Nino Rota’s music to The Leopard. Other than the famous shower slashing scene, I’m familiar with neither, so it’s good to listen to some analysis.

The story behind Williams’ concerto is also worth relating. Apparently Mutter approached Williams to write some music for her but he was too busy with existing movie projects. So, for Christmas, Mutter sent over some cookies and Williams felt obligated to respond with a few bars of music. Mutter would send more cookies and Williams more music.

Eventually, the pandemic struck and Williams finally had time to combine the small compositions into a proper concerto for Mutter, and so was his Violin Concerto Number 2 born.

The concert begins with a suite of Hermann’s score to Vertigo, starting with swirling music evoking the dizziness of the title. The suite keeps my interest and I could definitely feel its influence on later film scores.

The stage is then rearranged with one of the two harps brought towards the centre and space made for the solo star of the show. A blonde Anne-Sophie Mutter strides to the stage to applause and the performance of John Williams’ Violin Concerto Number 2 begins.

Others can describe the piece in more detail, I don’t think I have the musical language for that, but if you were to compare the violin concerto with Williams’ film scores it would be an action piece, full of dissonance and changes of tempo. But unlike in a film, the music rarely resolves into one of his signature memorable themes as the hero triumphs.

Instead, Williams uses the freedom of the concert hall to experiment with tempo, tone and texture. You can almost imagine a child who cannot read music playing with random notes to an taking pleasure in the sounds they make rather than performing a melody. But, of course, it is more than that, with its own structures and consistencies as the violin, the harp, the tympani and the orchestra all in conversation.

If I recall correctly I’ve only heard one of John Williams’ classical concert works performed live before, his tuba concerto with the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra. I enjoyed that one a lot, but I have to say that I usually don’t derive as much pleasure from his concert works as I do from his movie scores and his Violin Concerto Number 2 is probably one of his harder listens. But I can certainly appreciate the complexity and skill involved in the performance of it.

And so the first half of the concert comes to an end. Or does it? Mutter and Young return to the stage with much applause and launch into a version of Williams’ Across the Stars, the love theme from Star Wars Episode 2: Attack of the Clones. This is Mutter’s version and, to be perfectly honest, I find her solo improvisation detracts from the lushness and emotion of the original. But is still very welcome to end part one with a memorable tune.

After the interval, the orchestra returns without its soloist for a couple of suites from composers other than John Williams. Nino Rota was best known for his music to The Godfather and its sequels, but here the orchestra performs music from The Leopard. This 1963 movie is from before my time and so is the music. There are some lovely orchestrations, but overall it doesn’t register much.

Australian composer Nigel Westlake’s Flying Dream Suite is the opposite and one of the night’s highlights. Paper Planes was one of my kid’s (and my!) favourite movies, about a young boy whose ability to make paper planes sees him compete in a international competition in Japan. Westlake’s suite evokes the image of a delicate piece of aerodynamic origami soaring above the land. The orchestrations are quite lovely.

Mutter now re-emerges to bring the concert home with some John Williams.

The Long Goodbye is from Williams’ pre-Star Wars days, when his jazz-derived influences played a larger role. I’m not sure I even own the soundtrack or if I have listened to it much. The theme is an instrumental version of a song he wrote with Johnny Mercer and is pleasant, if not particularly memorable.

The next piece is instantly recognisable, Hedwig’s Theme from Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone. Of all the music tonight, this is probably the most suited to Mutter’s solo interpretation. Perhaps it is because we have heard the theme used in so many ways by different composers throughout the series, or maybe the complex nature of the music itself, but Mutter weaves her magic into the orchestra, telling a new story with her violin.

That should have been it, but of course we need an encore!

Mutter returns to the stage and the orchestra launch into The Adventures of Tin Tin, an action filled piece from Williams’ score to Spielberg’s animated movie. I’ve never heard music from this score performed live before and it’s an absolute thrill, full of momentum propelling it along.

Yet more applause as Mutter and Young bow and leave the stage. And then…

John Williams’ most famous violin piece is probably the theme from Schindler’s List. I’m not certain if now is the right time to bring it out, but I chose to hear it as an elegy for all who suffer. Perhaps then, it is the perfect time for a reminder.

Mutter plays this piece straight, without her trademark improvisations. It is less than a month since I heard this piece performed live and I can hear the difference between a very good and a great soloist with Schindler’s List. There is no doubt that Anne-Sophie Mutter is great.

When she, the conductor and the orchestra take their final bows, it is to a standing ovation.

I have mixed feelings about this concert. On one hand John Williams, a fantastic orchestra, conductor and soloist. One the other is the violin.

The violin is a wonderful instrument and an orchestra without a string section is virtually unimaginable (or a brass band). But on its own, the violin can sound harsh even in the best of hands. Or maybe it’s just me and growing up listening to my sister screech through the Suzuki Method’s twelve variations of Twinkle Twinkle Little Star.

Do I think that the violin solos generally improved the pieces of music? No, not really. Instead, they were demonstrations of incredible skill, astounding in isolation, indulgences of a performer who has both the ability and opportunity to do what others in the orchestra may not.

I would suggest that those who can appreciate such a performance most of all are violinists and musicians themselves with the knowledge and experience to understand the skill required to produce it.

I am glad that I had the opportunity to attend such a performance in person. When I step out into the night I feel like I have experienced something special. But I still want more.

https://allrite.blog/2023/11/11/anne-sophie-mutter-and-the-music-of-john-williams-with-the-sso/

#JohnWilliams #SydneyOperaHouse #SydneySymphonyOrchestra

Dame Edna with the Sydney Symphony Orchestra, 2013. PART 2.
https://youtube.com/watch?v=heU1Ih37OGU&feature=share
@classicalmusic
#SergejProkofiev
#PeterAndTheWolf
#SydneySymphonyOrchestra
#DameEdnaEverage
#BarryHumphries

Dame Edna with the Sydney Symphony Orchestra, 2013. PART 1.
https://youtube.com/watch?v=dWvSE9xazF8&feature=share
@classicalmusic
#CamilleSaintSaëns
#PaulDukas
#SydneySymphonyOrchestra
#DameEdnaEverage
#BarryHumphries

So excited to hear Esenvalds' ecstatic Passion and Resurrection this afternoon with #SydneySymphonyOrchestra #SydneyPhilarmonuaChoirs conducted by #StephenLayton. And oh a piece by #Pärt and #JSBach Magnificat.