No Los Angeles Philharmonic season is complete without a film music concert at the Hollywood Bowl, and this year is no exception. John Williams, the maestro of music to the cinema (and my all-time favorite composer) returned to Hollywood this weekend for his annual appearance to conduct the Philharmonic under the stars, and I got to attend… yet again.
This was my fourth John Williams concert, if I am not mistaken, and I believe my fifth or sixth time doing the refreshing Hollywood Bowl experience. If you’ve never done the Hollywood Bowl experience, I highly recommend you guys try it out, even if you are not into classical music. You basically pack up high-class gourmet food, picnic in or around the open-air venue for a few hours, chat with the people you go with, drink wine, all while having the Hollywood letters on the hill in sight, and then watch the night’s performance under the (few) stars that you can glimpse in LA. Very much like the magnificent Getty Center, it's a must-thing to do if you call yourself a true Angeleno.
John Williams' program tonight consisted of the following (in chronological order):
Liberty Fanfare
- I like this piece, it was composed for the re-opening of the Statue of Liberty on July 4th 1986 following extensive repairs. It’s a very good classical piece and can't be found in any of his movies.
Theme from Close Encounter of the Third Kind
- It’s alright. Luckily, he didn’t conduct the entire full-length 15-minute piece, because I can imagine that this would not be for the masses.
Two pieces from War of the Worlds
- It’s alright; I had high expectations for War of the Worlds, because of its infamous soundtrack from the non-Spielberg version, but the pieces that he chose didn’t really stand out to me much (yes, Minh hasn’t bought War of the Worlds yet, shame on him).
Pieces from Jerry Goldsmith, David Raksin, Elmer Bernstein and Miklos Roza
- 2004 was the year the film music industry remembers as the year where we lost these three great film music composers (Roza died in 1995), and John Williams conducted selected pieces from these composers. Williams was even mentioning how he was a student of the late Jerry Goldsmith at the age of 12 or so. I really like Goldsmith’s music very much as well. I even attended his premiere of Disney’s Mulan at the Hollywood Bowl just five years ago!
After intermission, Williams continued with
Montage of Villains, Beauties and Heroes
- Ah.. the usual montage of tons clips from movie classics, joined with over-used themes like Jaws, Indiana Jones and Superman. It’s the kinda montage that the Academy Awards does over and over again, but apparently the audience loves these things.
Theme to Far and Away
- Me like, but no comment
Theme from Amistad
- The Cal State University Fullerton choir came in for this, and I believe that he arranged a slightly different variation found on the CD. Unlike what I remember from the CD, this version divides the choir into the female and male group, and Williams had different segments sang by one group only and in the end combining them both. Nice effect!
Theme from Schindler’s List
- LA Philharmonic violin soloist Bing Wang had the honor to perform John Williams’ masterpiece, and boy, she did it sooooo well. It’s moving, it’s touching, it’s heart-wrenchingly sad.
Three pieces from the Star Wars trilogy
- “Battle of the Heroes”, “Luke and Leia’s Theme” and “Duel of the Fates” were chosen to conclude the evening, and I guess these are very good choices. Besides two of them being main themes, “Luke and Leia’s Theme” is probably another very recognizable theme from the Star Wars saga, and a very beautiful one to perform to a non-classical audience, too.
Encores
- Of course, no John Williams concert is complete with a series of encores, and this wasn’t the first time Williams had four additional bonus performances given the audience’s demand for it. Unfortunately, John Williams is doing what he always does at every concert; he conducts “Yoda’s Theme”, “Theme from Indiana Jones”, “Star Wars - Main Theme” and finally concludes with “Theme from E.T”, no surprise here, huh?
All in all, it was a pleasant night, but no big surprises. I wish that John Williams would play something different as an encore for a change, but apparently the audience always loves those pieces. I also wish that Williams would perform “Journey from the Island” from the Jurassic Park album some day, as I still believe that that’s one of Williams’ best compositions ever, but well.... looks like I need to write my fan letter after all.
This being my fourth Williams concert at the Bowl, I think it’s time for me to eye other events. Let’s see.... my next goal that I wanna accomplish in life before I die: attend a film music concert at the much-talked about and publicly-appraised Walt Disney Concert Hall in downtown Los Angeles, attend a Williams concert with the Boston Pops Orchestra or… (boy, can I even allow myself to wish this out loud?) attend a film music concert with the world-renowned London Symphony Orchestra --- that would be the ultimate cool-thing-to-do.
Let’s look at some pictures, shall we?
The Bowl changes colors with each piece. On big concert nights, it even has fireworks on the Bowl's circumference.
If sold-out, the Bowl can seat up to 17,000 people