Quppa

Edit: Beaten to the punch. I wish Mr Williams a quick recovery. Very disappointing to have traveled from the Antipodes and for this to have happened, though it was always a risk given his age. I'm sure the experience with the LSO in the RAH will still make it worth it.

At the risk of dragging this thread back off topic, it's interesting listening to this podcast interview with Yates having read the above. He gushes praise about James Newton Howard's work for Fantastic Beasts and mentions that the studio wanted more Hedwig's Theme and he wanted less.

I'll be curious to hear how different this release will sound compared to the 2016 'Ultimate Digital Collection', the audio of which was 'transferred from the original LP masters using the highest resolution (up to 192kHz/24bit)'.

I don't remember, and the IOC is as strict as ever about protecting its copyright, but here's another (better) performance from the same pair:

The Jyn Erso & Hope Suite from Rogue One also made an appearance in the medley. Sadly their performance wasn't perfect - Yu had a few tumbles. Still nice to hear the music.

Scored a seat in Box 81 in the Second Tier - if my view isn't obscured by anything I should have a pretty good view of the stage based on http://www.mapaplan.com/seating-plan/royal-albert-hall-seat-numbers-chart/high-resolution/royal-albert-hall-seating-plan-01-seat-row-numbers-arena-stalls-circle-loggia-grand-second-tier-boxes-detailed-chart-high-resolution.htm

666. Ominous!

879. Not getting my hopes up, but at least I'm in the queue - out of interest I opened a different browser to see what number I'd get, but apparently even the queue is full

1385. Wish I'd known it was possible to queue before the advertised 9am time.

Seriously considering my first trip to the UK around this, assuming I can get good tickets when they go on sale to the general public on Friday.

To my ear they did really well - just watching the strings play all those notes was exhausting There are surprisingly long stretches during the Battle of Yavin with no music at all, so they did have some opportunity to rest, at least. The throne room scene is actually a great way to end the film when it comes to a live-to-projection concert - no dialogue and minimal sound effects means basically uninterrupted music for several minutes until the credits finish rolling. After listening to the score combined with the film audio it was nice to hear the Imperial March just by itself with no distractions (everyone sat very quietly!).

Embarrassingly I forgot about the pre-concert talk and missed it this time around Empire will be at MCEC (the Plenary). The Hamer Hall was good as always - the Palais might have sounded good, but it was sweltering towards the back where I was sitting for TFA. Apparently the refurbishment didn't include good air conditioning, or at least it wasn't turned on that evening... The Cantina Band music wasn't played live. Jabba's theme was there for the Special Edition re-inserted scene. The interval was just after the Millenium Falcon gets caught in the tractor beam (I think track 2-04 on the Special Edition soundtrack). The audience gave a standing ovation after the credits (seemed like everyone in the stalls was on their feet - don't think I've seen that before, and I've been to many concerts there) and they played the Imperial March concert suite as an encore after they announced the Empire performances coming in December.

Just attended today's Melbourne Symphony Orchestra's performance of A New Hope. I enjoyed it even more than The Force Awakens last year (which was already fantastic), perhaps because of the huge upgrade in sound quality in hearing it live compared to the original recording. I'm hardly qualified to judge, but it sounded technically very accurate, too, and I didn't hear any notes out of place even during the busiest sections. TIE Fighter Attack was as fun as I'd hoped. The worst part was having to watch some of the more egregious Special Edition 'enhancements'. They're performing the Empire Strikes Back on the 15th and 16th of December (though they might well add more dates if history is any guide) - the pre-sale code is (hopefully they don't get mad if some John Williams fans get early access :)).

Got so excited I managed to post in entirely the wrong thread...

The Melbourne Symphony Orchestra just announced performances of A New Hope (a couple of weeks before the Sydney performances, too!). No word on Episodes V and VI yet.

It was an appropriate time to applaud, but I'm still kind of annoyed that the audience drowned out the short march starting at ~7:30 of Journey to the Island during the MSO's performance of Jurassic Park. That's one of my favourite moments from the score!

The Melbourne Symphony Orchestra has announced a fourth performance of The Force Awakens (2017-12-07). Some tickets are still available for the other dates.

The Melbourne Symphony Orchestra will be performing the Prisoner of Azkaban in November next year - tickets are now on sale. There are still tickets available for the Philosopher's Stone and the Chamber of Secrets next month.

I'm thoroughly enjoying Victoria & Abdul - it's quintessential modern Thomas Newman with some Indian influences to match the subject matter. There's nothing really new here, especially if you're already familiar with his work for the Best Marigold Hotel films or He Named Me Malala, but it's a pleasant listen all the same. I'm hoping Desplat's absence doesn't mean his relationship with Stephen Frears has soured, but if Newman is to be his replacement I can't be too upset.

I hope this means the MSO will also do the OT - I note the MSO page for TFA highlights that it will be the Australian premiere while the SSO page for ANH does not. It seems Nicholas Buc will be conducting both the MSO and SSO (he also conducted the MSO's performance of Star Trek (2009) a couple of years ago).

The Melbourne Symphony Orchestra will perform The Force Awakens on December 8, 9 and 10 - tickets go on sale tomorrow (6/09) at 11:00: https://www.mso.com.au/whats-on/2017/star-wars-the-force-awakens/ Sadly there have been no announcements regarding concerts for the Original Trilogy.

Having listened to the album a few times (in the digital release track order, for what it's worth), I'm rather enjoying it, yet I imagine I would have been a bit disappointed if his planned Rogue One effort had turned out something like this. I haven't seen the film yet, so it's probably not a fair comparison, but nothing on the album grabs me as much as the Godzilla opening titles did when I first heard/watched them. The strings from 0:26 to 0:46 in Spaceship Chase sound like almost a direct quotation of Stravinsky's The Rite of Spring.

Monumental Meltdown is easily one of my favourite Giacchino cues from recent years. As saulocf noted, it would have been nice to hear Brian Tyler's Iron Man theme instead of the throwaway melody that we got. Perhaps Tyler's falling out with Marvel has stymied any chance of musical continuity with his MCU scores. At least we got snippets of Silvestri's theme!

Zootopia is ASCAP's Film Score of the Year.