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CONCERT: Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone (Antwerp, March 2017)


bollemanneke

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Well, I'm back. I promised myself not to write a long review, but what better way to put as many memories as possible into writing, to relish and savour every moment of the evening and to contribute to this great forum? I have tried to limit every subject to one paragraph so that you can all read the parts you are interested in. Here goes.

In order to get into a Williams mood, I spent most of the last two days listening to the new JW/Spielberg album. Re-visiting all the old favourites in anticipation of this concert was a great idea. After Marion's theme, it was time to go.

This is the first time that 'the journey there' to a live to projection concert is worth mentioning. On one of our trams, some French girls suddenlys started humming Hedwig's Theme. When we were waiting for the second tram, the signs announcing their arrivals only displayed the message 'There is no internet connection'. Luckily, the sounds of soothing and rousing classical music quickly started emanating from an unknown location.

When we entered the Sportpaleis, we somehow had the impression that this concert had attracted more people than the Lord of the Rings concerts, though it was by all means not sold out. Some of the spectators were even dressed in Harry Potter clothes. Merchandising included House scarves and, of course, the soundtrack. When we sat down, we had already found out that Chamber of Secrets was planned for December.

We were fifteen minutes early, during which they first showed the JW part of the 'Creating the World of Harry Potter Part 4' documentary (the music sounded deafening, the dialogue normal), and after that I could briefly listen to the flutes and piccolos rehearsing the ending of Hedwig's Theme.

And then, the familiar, slightly elderly announcer made his obligatory appearance. To receive our attention, he said loudly and rather stupidly: 'Yyyyyyyup.' He then used exactly the same text he used to announce LOTR (spectacular film series etc). During his Return of the King announcement in December, he had already informed us that they'd be performing 'Harry Potter and the Philoffoffoffer's Stone' in March. Would he manage to pronounce the name now, I wondered? No, he wouldn't. This time, we were watching the 'Philofoser's Stone'. All this begs the question: why not just use the Dutch or French title if you announce the thing in Dutch and French? Talking about languages, the French subtitles apparently had sync problems during the show, which surprised me because I expected them to use the official subtitles. He also informed us that the choir conductor's first name was Hedwig!

Then, unlike in the LOTR concerts, the orchestra conductor introduced himself. He was British, which sort of surprised me as well as the choir and orchestra were both Belgian. But then again, for LOTR, the conductor was Russian. Anyway... He said this wouldn't be an ordinary concert. We were allowed to clap, cheer and totally go nuts when our favourite moments, music or characters appeared. At that moment, I had serious misgivings: would this turn into a concert where the audience clapped along during orchestra-only moments? But I need not have worried. At first, we were very restrained. But then, some people suddenly burst into applause when Ollivander showed up. And from that moment on, things got underway and I must say that I had a blast and even joined in, forgetting my objections to such practices. Lots of reactions were, of course, predictable: the entrance of Harry, Molly and Hermione (I joined in there), Ron, Draco, Dumbledore, McGonagall etc. Snape's first appearance got applause too, but two hysterical Snape fans sitting on my left in the back had yet to reveal themselves. They positively screamed and shouted feverishly when Snape said 'Mr. Potter' in the Potions class, came to wish Harry good luck before Quidditch (that one was really weird) and after 'Now, what would three Gryffindors be doing...' Other surprises came when Hagrid bought Hedwig, and, my favourite of them all, when the witch with the sweet trolley appeared! Predictably, the first part of the end credits were obliterated by thunderous applause, and then they also gave it their all when Rickman's name appeared. Some people briefly started clapping along during Hedwig's Theme, but then the orchestra slowed down a bit, which luckily silenced the rascals.

My only remaining question now was whether they would have fixed the sound mix problem. It was perfect during LOTR1 and 2, with incredibly detailed amplification of every single instrument and choir member, but in LOTR3, I couldn't pick out individual violins at all: quite frankly, it sounded like a CD recording and the choir was way too soft. But then, the tuning began (always great to hear), the performance started... and the sound mix was absolutely perfect. John Williams' score was literally being broken apart in front of me (very badly formulated, I know). The choir could have been a tad louder and the harp a little softer, and during loud moments in the film, the orchestra was sometimes difficult to hear, but no matter.
 
The level of detail was simply stunning. I especially discovered lots and lots of 'hidden' harp and string work: there were staccato notes for violin/viola as Harry entered the mirror room, there was celesta during the flying theme in The Friendly Reptile and there was an extra clarinet note (C-sharp) in the Norbert music, plus lots of busy string writing at the end of Three Note Loop. Also, does The Mirror Scene really end in a G major chord? I know that this will sound very negative, but it isn't meant that way at all: not a single player tried to be quiet, which resulted in a total re-discovery of the score for me. It also meant that subtlety wasn't really on the agenda, but if, like me, your only intent was to study John Williams' material, you had the time of your life.

The performance itself was mostly excellent. A few cues were truly magical: Harry Gets His Wand and Entry Into The Great Hall, to name only two. That latter cue's march was performed so warmly. When Harry got his wand, the maestro's musical depiction of magic was taken to an entirely new level: it made the original recording sound like something from the '50s. During Mr Longbottom Flies, the brass section was really outstanding, during Hagrid's Christmas Tree I felt like a five-year-old having a carefree Christmas, when Harry saw his parents in the Mirror of Erised, I was deeply moved and the cellos in Filch's Fond Remembrance were magnificent. Also, the brass and woodwinds chose to play lots of things rather staccato: the music after 'up to something, for instance.' Quite an interesting choice. A note about the celesta: it sounded exactly like a normal celesta, so you could hear the player touch the instrument as opposed to the warm, 'vague' original sound. Sometimes, he touched it a little too hard. And the final part of You're A Wizard, Harry -- the piece missing from the recording sessions -- was performed so delicately and tenderly! The same can be said about the family theme in Checkmate -- quivring violins are amazing. Incidentally, is it me or are strings the only orchestral section that really sounds totally different in concert? In the end, I was so immersed in the performance that the film and story just passed me by. It was all over way too quickly.

Bblimey, I haven't even mentioned the choir yet! Fine Fleur was yet again divine. They excelled during Arrival at Hogwarts. I will try to attach a very low-quality video of the rehearsals, posted by the organisers, in which you can briefly hear them. I just LOVE their singing style: no trembling voices, just crisp, steady notes. One woman got out of breath during the Mirror of Erised scene, but I nevertheless felt like crying. Every 'ooh' and 'aah' was simply enchanting.

During a few cues, some musicians were slightly losing their rhythm (The Friendly Reptile, Hedwig's Time Transition). But even that 'flaw' had a huge advantage. When it happened at the very beginning of Mail Drop, it resulted in a rather chaotic mass of flutes that resembled flying birds, which I really loved. So at the end of the day, the horn mistake in Christmas Norning and the tiny trumpet blunders in the Chess Game and Hedwig's Theme weren't big deals. They also started playing Leaving Hogwarts too soon, during Percy's speech, but stopped in a very orderly way and just started again at the appropriate time. At the very beginning of Gryffindor Wins, the celesta forgot to play as well (or wasn't properly being amplified, I think that was it). The violins had some difficulties playing the rapid notes at the beginning of Hedwig's Theme, a bit like the City of Prague Philarmonic, but unlike that orchestra, they didn't mess up half of the rest of the material. And whenever something like that happened, I just ignored it and focused even more on the detailed soundscape.

And now, some notes about the score as it was performed. Stefancos and Incannus have already mentioned this, but just for completeness sake, I'll repeat it again: every change that the score underwent in the film was retained. There are, however, a couple of things that might be of interest to some people here:
- The Prologue: The celesta played in a higher octave. So, to be clear, it didn't sound like the start of the OST track, but exactly like the performance in Escape from the Dursleys from Chamber of Secrets. The octave thing also happened at the start of Arrival at Hogwarts.
- WB Potter Logo V1 (Alternate): This cue was entirely performed during You're A Wizard, Harry (the long, quivering violin ending wasn't dialed out and the low contrabass/cello note (E) was included). the transition from the original cue to this one sounded almost natural, although I could tell that one instrument was still playing a note from that cue when the tracked material came in.
- The Wizard's Pub was retained in the film audio.
- The intermission takes place after the troll scene. To close the first half, they play the Arrival at Hogwarts part that also opens the Halloween banquet. To open the second half, they perform the finale of Escape from the Dursleys. It sort of worked.
- Cast a Christmas Spell is also retained in the film audio.
- BUT: Christmas Music Box was performed live! That was such a pleasant surprise. Beats me why the choir couldn't do the ghosts. After all, the orchestra did accompany them with the Invisibility Cloak music.
- And there was also something intriguing going on with that Invisibility Cloak music: It sometimes sounded like it was being played in another key (F minor), but musically it kept making sense. The effect also sounded different from the original 'wha-wha' thing on the recording.
- In The Library Scene, when Snape tries to grab invisible Harry, I only heard an oboe playing as opposed to the vibraphone (?) and other instruments in the recording.
- Hedwig's Time Transition had choir at the end!
- Hagrid playing the flute was retained in the film audio.
- Fluffy's Harp, however, wa performed live.

All in all, it was a fantastic evening. I'm definitely going back for Chamber of Secrets! If anyone has any more questions, I am here.

 

EDIT: Amazing YouTube link added!

17341326_275098569600642_3833326386911641600_n.mp4

 

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