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icepixie*eyes e-mail and flist* Tidal wave. Lemme tell ya.
Anyway. So last night was the Howard Shore/LOTR concert. Shockingly enough, it was the American premiere--one would think that would be in New York or Chicago or somewhere like that, not in Columbus, especially since New York is one of the three stops the program is making in the US. It was sooooooo good.
First of all, the Ohio Theatre? Really, really cool. It's an old theatre from the turn of the century or the twenties or something, I guess, 'cause it definitely had the very ornate wallpaper, carpets, winding staircases, ornate water fountains, old-looking marquee outside, painted ceiling in the theatre, giant chandelier hanging over the orchestra seats (which we got to see real good 'cause we got cheap, discounted-for-SCA-members-and-friends seats in the nosebleed section of the second balcony...which was perfectly fine, because, dude, it's music, not a play). It was one of those theatres where you'd expect to see "Isadora Duncan in Swan Lake" out on the marquee, and women in sparkly dresses wearing hats with ostrich feathers on them wandering about. (This one just had people in fancy-ish clothes and/or Middle Earth costume and/or SCA garb. ;)) It was definitely a place I'd love to spend, like, an entire summer exploring. Tangent: did anyone else read a trilogy of children's books about a girl named Nina ("Nine") Tanleven or something, whose father bought an old, haunted theatre and who had adventures in said theatre? Was it just me?
The Columbus Symphony Orchestra played the music, and there was a choir from Otterbein College (you would've thought Ohio State...) and the Columbus Children's Choir. Howard Shore conducted, of course. There were three sections, one for each of the movies. They did maybe a third to half of each soundtrack. There were three projection screens on which they showed concept art for the sections of the movies the music went with. It was all pretty similar to the soundtracks, really, with about three differences. One was that they listed "The Steward of Gondor," and they did all of it...except Pippin's song. We were sad. They did do "The White Tree," and the part where they show the lighting of the beacons was fabulous, as always. Unfortunately, the orchestra didn't really play the frantic strings part where Pippin is climbing up the beacon to light it as frantically as it sounds on the soundtrack, which I didn't think was as good. Same with "The Bridge of Khazad-Dum" in the FOTR section...the basses are goin' to town on the soundtrack, all quick with the half-singing, half-grunting stuff, but it was slower in this one, and it didn't work as well.
The other changes I did like were the insertion of guitars into the track that's actually titled "Return of the King." That was really nice. (I may be biased as guitar player...well, a bad one, but still...) They added more of them in "Into the West," which was good, but the mandolin they added in the second half wasn't. Too much going on, really. Oh, and the soprano soloist who did "Gollum's Song" and ITW (I assume they couldn't do "May It Be" because of legal issues with Enya having written it)? SO GOOD. "Gollum's Song" sounded so much better, and even though I really like Annie Lennox's version of ITW, it does sort of call out for someone with a higher range than her, IMO. So, yeah, that was nice.
We didn't get back to Kenyon until after midnight (mostly 'cause it took forever to get out of the parking garage), but it was worth it, even though I had to get up at 8:30 for this "mandatory" OCS pre-departure meeting. They gave us forms that we could very well have filled out on our own. We played a stupid card game. It was one of the most wasted three and a half hour chunks of time I've lived through. Gah.
Anyway. So last night was the Howard Shore/LOTR concert. Shockingly enough, it was the American premiere--one would think that would be in New York or Chicago or somewhere like that, not in Columbus, especially since New York is one of the three stops the program is making in the US. It was sooooooo good.
First of all, the Ohio Theatre? Really, really cool. It's an old theatre from the turn of the century or the twenties or something, I guess, 'cause it definitely had the very ornate wallpaper, carpets, winding staircases, ornate water fountains, old-looking marquee outside, painted ceiling in the theatre, giant chandelier hanging over the orchestra seats (which we got to see real good 'cause we got cheap, discounted-for-SCA-members-and-friends seats in the nosebleed section of the second balcony...which was perfectly fine, because, dude, it's music, not a play). It was one of those theatres where you'd expect to see "Isadora Duncan in Swan Lake" out on the marquee, and women in sparkly dresses wearing hats with ostrich feathers on them wandering about. (This one just had people in fancy-ish clothes and/or Middle Earth costume and/or SCA garb. ;)) It was definitely a place I'd love to spend, like, an entire summer exploring. Tangent: did anyone else read a trilogy of children's books about a girl named Nina ("Nine") Tanleven or something, whose father bought an old, haunted theatre and who had adventures in said theatre? Was it just me?
The Columbus Symphony Orchestra played the music, and there was a choir from Otterbein College (you would've thought Ohio State...) and the Columbus Children's Choir. Howard Shore conducted, of course. There were three sections, one for each of the movies. They did maybe a third to half of each soundtrack. There were three projection screens on which they showed concept art for the sections of the movies the music went with. It was all pretty similar to the soundtracks, really, with about three differences. One was that they listed "The Steward of Gondor," and they did all of it...except Pippin's song. We were sad. They did do "The White Tree," and the part where they show the lighting of the beacons was fabulous, as always. Unfortunately, the orchestra didn't really play the frantic strings part where Pippin is climbing up the beacon to light it as frantically as it sounds on the soundtrack, which I didn't think was as good. Same with "The Bridge of Khazad-Dum" in the FOTR section...the basses are goin' to town on the soundtrack, all quick with the half-singing, half-grunting stuff, but it was slower in this one, and it didn't work as well.
The other changes I did like were the insertion of guitars into the track that's actually titled "Return of the King." That was really nice. (I may be biased as guitar player...well, a bad one, but still...) They added more of them in "Into the West," which was good, but the mandolin they added in the second half wasn't. Too much going on, really. Oh, and the soprano soloist who did "Gollum's Song" and ITW (I assume they couldn't do "May It Be" because of legal issues with Enya having written it)? SO GOOD. "Gollum's Song" sounded so much better, and even though I really like Annie Lennox's version of ITW, it does sort of call out for someone with a higher range than her, IMO. So, yeah, that was nice.
We didn't get back to Kenyon until after midnight (mostly 'cause it took forever to get out of the parking garage), but it was worth it, even though I had to get up at 8:30 for this "mandatory" OCS pre-departure meeting. They gave us forms that we could very well have filled out on our own. We played a stupid card game. It was one of the most wasted three and a half hour chunks of time I've lived through. Gah.
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Date: 2004-03-28 12:38 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-03-28 11:03 pm (UTC)