Star Wars: In Concert

Last Wednesday night the Royal Philharmonic Concert Orchestra was here performing the music of Star Wars (website here). The following was the program order:

Main Theme
Duel of the Fates
Anakin's Theme
The Little People (concert version)
The Flag Parade
Across the Stars
Battle of the Heroes
The Imperial March

-intermission-

Entr'acte (consisting of a highly edited version of 'The Clash of Lightsabers' from The Empire Strikes Back)
The Asteroid Field (this seemed like a hybrid of both the film and concert versions)
Princess Leia's Theme
Binary Sunset/Cantina Band
Yoda's Theme
Here They Come! (The concert version of "TIE Fighter Attack")
Luke and Leia
The Forest Battle (concert version)
Light of the Force
The Throne Room and End Title (concert version)

The presentation was an entertaining multimedia experience. The HD screen on which clips of the movies were shown was absolutely huge and fantastic. The laser programming was highly polished and, not unlike the video clips, highly choreographed to the music itself. At the end of 'Battle of the Heroes' there was fire. Lots of it. I had to check to make sure my eyebrows were still intact (yes, we were that close). The narrator for the program was Anthony Daniels and when you watch his facial gestures while acting you begin to understand why his value is in his voice.

The performance by the orchestra was absolutely first rate. It was terrific. For the first time in my life I heard this music performed live by professionals playing the music professionally. There's something about the sound of the brass section in British orchestras that is practically unrivaled by anyone. Their sound is so huge, warm and round that it's difficult to beat. Most of the tempi corresponded roughly to their film versions. The only exception was "Here They Come!" in which the tempo is much slower and actually closer to that which Williams took when he recorded themes from the Star War Trilogy with the Skywalker Symphony on Sony back in the early 1990s. Conspicuously missing is the 'Parade of the Ewoks'. I suppose they thought they could represent both the forest battle and the Ewok theme by using the concert version of 'The Forest Battle'. One of the interesting things for me was that I could see the conductor's monitor from my seat and I could watch the series of streamers and hits on his screen as he was conducting the music.

My complaints about the presentation are few. The one thing I disliked was the cutting in of so much dialogue from the films. George Lucas has claimed that he's always thought of the Star Wars films largely as silent films. If that were the case the images alone would have sufficed. Also, one day I would like to see a presentation of the music that is more like what Howard Shore created for his Lord of the Ring Symphony (which, admittedly, isn't a symphony but is still damn cool) that reflects more the ebb and flow of the story using the actual score rather than trying to communicate the story through just the themes.

Still. Those are minor quibbles. The performance was terrific and I'm glad I got to experience it.