Hey folks, Harry here... Oh man - I'd kill for this to come to Austin. ARGH! This would be so freakin' cool! Well read and weep that you were not there too. I wonder if John Williams will create a Star Wars Symphony after this "final" chapter next year. What say you?

Harry --    

Hey, I know this isn't a scoop along the lines of ALIEN VS. PREDATOR 2: ELECTRIC BOOGALOO (starring Hulk Hogan), but my wife and I just got home from seeing composer Howard Shore conducting the Columbus Symphony Orchestra in the first U.S. performance of his LORD OF THE RINGS SYMPHONY.  I thought the performance was amazing and wanted to pass along my review before finishing Warren Ellis' GLOBAL FREQUENCY: PLANET ABLAZE trade paperback and heading off to bed.    

(One bit of advance warning:  I'm not a regular symphony attendee, so if I don't know my bassoons from my contrabassoons, or my piccolos from my pan flutes, well, that's why.  Feel free to blame a tragic, misspent youth raised on Police, Ramones and '80s new-wave music...)    

Anyway, for the LOTR SYMPHONY, Howard Shore has successfully managed to arrange his scores for the trilogy into a condensed, Cliff Notes version that works incredibly well.  There are six Movements in all, two from each film, and the arrangement went as follows:    

THE FELLOWSHIP OF THE RING  

MOVEMENT ONE  

The Prophecy -- Concerning Hobbits -- The Shadow of the Past -- A Short Cut to Mushrooms -- The Old Forest -- A Knife in the Dark    

MOVEMENT TWO  

Many Meetings -- The Ring Goes South -- A Journey in the Dark -- The Bridge of Khazad-dum -- Lothloriem -- Gandalf's Lament -- Farewell to Lorien -- The Great River -- The Breaking of the Fellowship    

INTERMISSION    

THE TWO TOWERS  

MOVEMENT THREE  

Foundations of Stone -- The Taming of Smeagol -- The Riders of Rohan -- The Black Gate is Closed -- Evenstar -- The White Rider -- Treebeard -- The Forbidden Pool    

MOVEMENT FOUR  

The Hornburg -- Forth Eorlingas -- Isengard Unleashed -- Gollum's Song    

THE RETURN OF THE KING  

MOVEMENT FIVE  

Hope and Memory -- The White Tree -- The Steward of Gondor -- Cirith Ungol -- Anduril    

MOVEMENT SIX  

The End of All Things -- The Return of the King -- The Grey Havens -- Into the West    

The Columbus Symphony Orchestra was accompanied by The Otterbein College Concert Camerata Choir and Concert Choir, Columbus Children's Choir New World Singers, and Sissel, Soloist.  Sissel (yeah, that's her name...according to the program, she's Norwegian) was an extremely powerful vocalist and she put Annie Lennox's Oscar performace to shame with her killer rendition of "Into The West."  The choirs, meanwhile, were equally impressive and would give any serious LOTR fan goosebumps during certain parts.    

Matthew Sorrels, an 11-year-old listed as Boy Soprano, was on-key about 90% of the time, but recovered pretty well during the lackluster 10%.  Brian Gray, a baritone soloist, did okay for the most part, but the timbre of his voice sounded far too different from Viggo Mortenson for my wife's liking.    

To complement the performance, there were three video screens (one large main screen, two smaller ones on each side) that displayed the LOTR concept sketches by John Howe and Allan Lee.  Some sketches of note were two detailed Gollum facial designs that looked as though they were pencilled by John (PLANETARY) Cassaday, the Balrog, Treebeard, and a crudely-done layout of the various RETURN OF THE KING battles that resembled a 30-second map drawn on a sheet of copy paper for a D&D campaign.    

And there in the Ohio Theatre's loge balcony, among the well-dressed and the would-be elvish princesses with Frodo ventriloquist dolls (I wish I was kidding about that), my wife and I sat for over two hours, mesmerized by the brilliance that is Howard Shore.  In my opinion, if Shore can land another well-received fanboy film trilogy or two, he might well become the heir apparent to John Williams.    

The sold-out theatre responded to Shore by giving him, the CSO, the choirs and soloists a five-minute standing ovation.  Shore seemed genuinely moved by the enthusiastic cheering and graciously accepted a bouquet of flowers and a gift bag from a female fan next to the stage.  So needless to say, I definitely recommend checking out the LOTR SYMPHONY if you're fortunate to have it in or near your town.  And for those of you Xander Harris disciples still living large in your mom's basement, you might want to check this out too...Who knows, there might be an elvish princess in your future...    

Your friendly neighborhood C-bus connection,  

SpyGuy