Tag Archives: STAR WARS AT THE SYMPHONY

STAR WARS AT THE SYMPHONY

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Via Starwars.com:

LISTENING TO THE EPIC JOHN WILLIAMS SCORE PERFORMED LIVE IS MORE POWERFUL THAN YOU CAN POSSIBLY IMAGINE.

I’ve watched Yoda lift Luke’s X-wing out of the murky swamp and cheered as the Millennium Falcon navigated through the treacherous asteroid field in The Empire Strikes Back more times than I can count, but seeing these scenes unfold with a live orchestra Friday evening was like no other viewing before it.

Leia’s theme takes on a new poignancy and the Battle of Hoth a fresh urgency when you’re sitting in the room where the score is being played in real time. In fact, the entire film, shown with subtitles on the big screen hovering just above conductor Emil de Cou inside theLouise M. Davies Symphony Hall in San Francisco, was full of new discoveries, musical nuances, and even lines that, much to my dismay, I had never before noticed.

The recent series was just one of many international concerts that bring the original trilogy to life in this way. The Los Angeles Philharmonic will present screenings of A New Hope and The Empire Strikes Back on the Hollywood Bowl’s big screen Aug. 7 through Aug. 11, with other showings set at venues across the country and around the globe, including shows in London and beyond.

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STAR WARS AT THE SYMPHONY

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Via Starwars.com:

STARWARS.COM TALKS TO THE RENOWNED CONDUCTOR ABOUT HOW JOHN WILLIAMS CHANNELS RICHARD WAGNER AND WHY FILM SCORES HAVE BECOME AN IMPORTANT PART OF OUR COLLECTIVE CONSCIOUSNESS.

Music, not unlike the Force itself, has an awe-inspiring quality that surrounds us, penetrates us, and binds the galaxy together. When you settle in to watch any of the Star Wars saga films, it’s the score by John Williams that ushers you into the far-off adventures, a resounding and thunderous welcome that’s as unmistakablyStar Wars as gleaming white armor and glowing lightsabers.Beginning tomorrow night, the San Francisco Symphony will perform the epic original Star Wars trilogy in a multi-night series live in concert with guest conductors Sarah Hicks, Emil de Cou, and Jack Everly each taking on one of the films. Recently, StarWars.com caught up with The Empire Strikes Back conductor de Cou, whose career has not only taken him around the country as a conductor — from Carnegie Hall in New York to northern California — and beyond the stars as a musical consultant for NASA, but also on a journey through some of the most iconic cinematic moments of our time. Long before he devoted his life to music and was hired by Mikhail Baryshnikov to be the conductor of the American Ballet Theatre, de Cou was a kid entranced by the silver screen and the legendary orchestral scores that he believes may just be our country’s greatest contribution to modern culture and art.

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