Lavonardo

Spent Saturday evening in Tampere, enjoying an orchestral version of Howard Shore‘s composition to the Lord of the Rings trilogy.

The concert was one of the three in Finland – all given in Tamperetalo.

The show was sold out, saw one empty seat in the house.

The symphony is an abbreviation of the full score, but included many familiar elements from the saga. Especially the main theme was brought forward from the nether reaches of memory.

The large orchestra was accompanied by a large choir and a couple of soloists. Of whom the boy soprano executed himself truly well in the couple of pieces in the first book.

Another accompaniment was the inclusion of images (from the familiar artists Alan Lee and John Howe) on the backing screen. The maps, and illustrations were an excellent lead into the songs.

The soundtrack was as powerful as I remembered. Alternating between impressively crescendoing pieces and gentler songs was a great way to recall moments from Peter Jackson’s movies. The fading of Into the West was illustrated with a simple coal drawing of the tail of an elven ship – bringing to mind the melancholy ending in the Grey Havens at the very end of the Return of the King.

The audience thanked the musicians profusely – the applause took more than five minutes to subside at the end.

According to the handout-program, a book about the music, called The Music of the Lord of the Rings Films will be published in the fall. Doug Adams, its author, unsurprisingly has a blog where the topic is handled. The triplet of of concerts in Tampere is already covered, with plenty of reviews written in the comments to the original entry.

It’s definitely time to re-watch the films. The extended versions, of course. But first: Hunt for Gollum, the amateur-powered prequel released today.