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Aliens: Live To Screen Concert London, November 6


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Aliens books a Royal Albert Hall date with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra

 

Shortly after ticket sales of the Royal Albert Hall’s orchestrally-accompanied screening of Jurassic Park went gangbusters, the austere old dome has announced that it’ll be swapping T-Rexs for slathering xenomorphs and playing host to another Empire favourite. Yes, James Cameron’s Aliens - and its James Horner score - will be celebrating its 30th birthday with the full Royal Philharmonic orchestra treatment.

The two shows are taking place in London on November 6, with tickets on sale on February 18. Judging by the response to the live Jurassic Park, which sold 10,000 tickets in a few hours, you’ll have to get in quick. There’ll be M577 Armored Personnel Carriers backed up on Kensington Gore that night.

 

This is rather interesting. Especially considering the score as featured in the film is radically different from what Horner intended. I wonder which version they will perform?

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Somehow it would feel logical to go with the composer's original intentions and eschew the edits and other normal post production hurdles since they are spotlighting the score in these concerts. Retain the final film versions of revised material and present those unedited but taking the synchronization with the film to account and restore unused music to its proper place in the film. That is how I would do it.

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Wow, what an odd choice!  As Stefan said, the final score in the film is almost never what Horner intended.  Goddamn do I love this score though - it's one of my absolutely favorite scores of all time.

 

November 6th, that's the same week they are doing JP.  Damn, maybe I can turn this into a vacation???

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Well I don't think its that odd, considering the fact that they're probably catering to a broader audience that finds both the film and its score pretty darn popular. 

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Cool trailer

 

I wonder if the orchestra will perform the non-Horner stuff?

That would be the snare drum cue for the combat drop, the Robert Garrett cue for Ripley with the Queen, and the Goldsmith cue from Alien for the Queen following her to the Elevator.

 

 

It would be amazing if they performed Horner's intended combat drop cue in place of the rescore there

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On 2/17/2016 at 2:56 AM, Stefancos said:

This is rather interesting. Especially considering the score as featured in the film is radically different from what Horner intended. I wonder which version they will perform?

 

I posed this question myself in a reply to the FB post earlier this morning. It was really just noodling on my part--wondering out loud whether they would treat the audience to "Resolution and Hyperspace" during the climactic moments at the end. To my surprise, I got a reply less than ten minutes later:

 

"Sorry to say, but we have no information concerning the actual score that will be played. For such information we advise you to contact the performers or concert venue."

 

Not sure who the performers will be (other than those Penderecki, Khachaturian, Shostakovich and Mosolov guys Sharky mentioned, and I don't have their emails). But it's possible getting in touch with the venue could get an answer.

 

I tend to agree with Incanus, though: I doubt they'll be going through the fairly monumental task of trying to sync up the original concept music with a movie that was further edited afterward. It would require the arrangers to make their own creative decisions as to how to transition through the changes, what to cut out or expand on, etc. Too much work for an event like this . . . and if they were inclined to do it, I imagine they would make it a big part of their advertising promo (Horner's original composition performed LIVE!).

 

If I were to learn that they were actually doing it, though, I'd consider that worth hauling the Mayflower out of mothballs and sailing back over for the viewing. . . .

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It actually wasn't edited that much after Horner recorded his score.  Most of his compositions still line up with the final film.  Haven't you watched that special feature on the blu ray?

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That's the big one. If I found out they were going to do "R&H" in place of the second one, I'd probably be on a plane in November.

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  • 6 months later...

Official website:

 

http://www.aliens-live.com/

 

 

 

Aliens

TOUR DATES

DAY DATE VENUE CITY TIME TICKETS
Friday 23 September 2016 Bord Gáis Energy Theatre (Preview) Dublin 7:30pm TICKETS
Saturday 24 September 2016 Bord Gáis Energy Theatre (Preview) Dublin 7:30pm TICKETS
Sunday 6 November 2016 Royal Albert Hall (World Premiere) London 3pm TICKETS
Sunday 6 November 2016 Royal Albert Hall (World Premiere) London 7:30pm TICKETS
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On 9/13/2016 at 1:59 PM, Stefancos said:

They can't be playing Bishops Countdown twice, right?

 

You could ask the same thing about the movie, they can't use Bishop's Countdown twice within 10 minutes of each other?

 

I actually think that Horner's original "Resolution and Hyperspace" would have been absolutely fine in film.

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I was hoping to get to this in Dublin but it looks like that's fallen through. 

 

Ive never seen the film so I was going to use it to see what it's like to experience a film for the first time in this way. 

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Yea, I've never gone to a live to projection concert for a film I didn't already like.  Would be an interesting experience to see a film for the first time that way

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2 hours ago, Jay said:

Yea, I've never gone to a live to projection concert for a film I didn't already like.  Would be an interesting experience to see a film for the first time that way

 

I liked Alien, like Cameron movies, and I love Horner's music. Thought it'd be a great experience but I have other priorities between the hurling at the start of September and the Harry Potter studio tour at the start of next month. 

 

RTÉ concert orchestra teasing the performance:

 

 

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  • 1 month later...

I didn't spot any restored music at all. So that means Combat Drop is not in this. And while it disappoints me slightly, the performance and mixing were absolutely phenomenal.

 

Karol

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12 minutes ago, crocodile said:

I didn't spot any restored music at all. So that means Combat Drop is not in this. And while it disappoints me slightly, the performance and mixing were absolutely phenomenal.

 

Karol

A missed opporturnity. But I guess it would have involved much more work, conforming Horner's original recorded versions to the final cut of the film. Not to mention there must be legalities involved that would have stopped that anyway.

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It is probably still a lot of work, given how thry needed to essentially create brand new score and parts out of film edits.

 

But it actually still works very well. 

 

Karol

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  • 2 weeks later...

Sure, @Jay. What would you like to know?

 

I went to the afternoon showing but was told James Cameron, Sigourney Weaver and Gale Anne Hurd attended the evening showing.

 

The mixing was fantastic. As was the performance. Even knowing it was essentially a butchered version, it still sounded fairly seamless.

 

Having said that, I still find it to be a bit of a strange choice for this type of concert. Because of editing and long music-less stretches. But really enjoyed it in the end.

 

There was some music that introduced intermission. It was right after the dropship crash and when Newt says they're not going anywhere. Can't remember the cue. And there is also a short piece that slowly fades away when the second part starts. Not other changes that I managed to spot.

 

Karol

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Wow that would actually be interesting to learn what the intermission pieces are; Hopefully they took the opportunity to play Horner music that wasn't ultimately used in the film.

 

So for the combat drop sequence, they just had a guy on stage doing the martial drum roll and that's it?

For the end, they orchestra played the cue from Jerry's Alien score?

 

And the orchestra played live that weird pulse cue when she's in the egg chamber?

 

How did the audience react to the film itself - laugh at the right spots, cheer for any particular moments or names in the cast?

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  • 2 years later...
On 11/20/2016 at 3:23 PM, Jay said:

For the end, they orchestra played the cue from Jerry's Alien score?

I found this conversation on FilmScoreMonthly Forums:

 

http://www.filmscoremonthly.com/board/posts.cfm?threadID=113907&forumID=1&archive=0

 

One guy asks:

Quote

Can anyone tell me if the two tracked "Alien"(1979) cues, Sleepy Alien and Parker`s Death (used in the shots where Ripley and Newt make their escape from the queen in the elevator) were performed at that concert?

Another member replied:

Quote

Yes they were. As I said all the tracked music was performed

 

According to this webpage:

http://www.aliens-live.com/tour-dates/

(see photo below)

…this concert played in Dublin and Moscow (see photo).  So, I would like to join Jay and ask if any of you that attended these concerts to tell us what music was played during the intermission and the entr’acte—the music that begins act 2.

Aliens Lilve.png

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  • 1 year later...
  • 3 months later...
On 12/11/2019 at 10:21 AM, SyncMan said:

April 18, 2020

Bunkamura Orchard Hall. Tokyo, Japan

https://avex.jp/classics/aliens-live2020/

 

Edit:

Tokyo Philharmonic Orchestra. Pierre O'Reilly, conductor

 

Cancelled! (see announcement on link above).

image.png

 

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  • 1 year later...
  • 1 year later...

Other than the 2 shows in Ireland--Bord Gáis Energy Theatre, 2 shows in the UK--RAH, and one show in Moscow, were there any other shows performed of this concert anywhere in the world?

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