A masterclass in performance, staging and orchestration
Picture the scene, pardon the pun, as this is a mini-review of an evening of some of the best film scores…
A very clever stage, where the band is central and then surrounded by a fabulous orchestra, conducted by the architect of soundtracks, Matt Dunkley. Every seat in the house was full, the audience sitting quietly in anticipation of a night of musical magic.
I had arrived at the venue early and patiently waited as the 30-minute, 20-minute and 5-minute calls were announced over the tannoy. The bars were closing, and there was an air of the Oscars mixed with a movie premiere.
I was kindly escorted into the arena and had a generous 20 minutes to capture some of the magic of what was the opening night of : The World of Hans Zimmer’s latest European tour. Perched just to the side of the front-of-house sound command centre, I watched the masterclass unfold.
The treasured scores were being read from a mixture of iPads, old-school sheets of music, and a huge score book in front of the conductor himself. He was flanked by shining trumpets, with which the audience was treated to a wonderful solo in the second piece of the evening.
The guitarists brought their fully fledged pedalboards, while central to the front row of the band were Maya Levy and Timothée Berte Renou on violin and cello. Their wonderful chemistry and eye contact made the soundtracks feel even more alive, as they seemed to court one another through their effortless musicianship and stagecraft.
After the first two pieces, the stage started to transform like a high-end Broadway or West End production. Spotlights highlighted different areas of the symphony orchestra, while wonderful choirs appeared in industrial-style gantries a nod to the soundtrack of the moment and screens became textured backdrops.
As the conductor spoke to the audience after the second piece, he was humorously interrupted by Mr Zimmer himself on the big screen, who told him to get the music going again. It would be interesting to see, as hologram and stage-avatar technology progresses like the work of Units 1 with Katie Tunstall, how these interactions could work in the future.
Although I was only present for one of these curations by Hans, it added a nice moment of contemplation for the audience between the different musical moods of the night.
Before the third and fourth pieces, the band were introduced to rousing applause from the audience, waving to the crowd and loving every moment of it before getting on with the order of business, music business.
And then, like a movie that ends abruptly, my 20 minutes was up. Before I knew it, I was back in the foyer, pondering what wonder was happening back in the arena and wishing I could have stayed to watch the next scene unfold.
Hans Zimmer — A New Dimension photos:
Photos & words – Wayne Polley @hawkeye_polley_photography