The Lord of the Rings Symphony - London Philharmonic & London Voices - Royal Albert Hall - September 22 2004

[Miz 139]

Is there a definitive full programme of Shore's LOTR Symphony, and what cues are contained within it? I'm going to the London performance of the symphony and though this thread touched on its contents, I'd like to know if anyone has a full list.

[Mr. Breathmask 555]

From the Antwerp concert:

THE FELLOWSHIP OF THE RING

Movement One

- The Prophecy

- Concerning Hobbits

- The Shadow of the Past

- 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-dûm

- Lothlórien

- Gandalf's Lament

- Farewell to Lórien

- The Great River

- The Breaking of the Fellowship

(Intermission)

THE TWO TOWERS

Movement Three

- Foundations of Stone

- The Taming of Sméagol

- 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

- Andúril

Movement Six

- The End of All Things

- The Return of the King

- The Grey Havens

- Into the West

The Symphony was also performed like this at its World Premiere (November 29 2003, Wellington, New Zealand), so I assume this is the official form.

- Marc

[#SnowyVernalSpringsEternal 10,265]

I wonder if the symphony might change after the longer version of ROTK is out.

Music from the extended FOTR is included in the current LOTR symphony, so Shore might update it with new ROTK music.

[Miz 139]

Thanks for that Mr. Breathmask - it looks like it's going to be an amazing concert! The White Tree is in there, so I'm happy! Are the cues abbreviated in concert, or kind of combined? Because it looks to be a rather long performance if each of those cues (either in album or film presentation, or a bit of both) is played fully.

[Mr. Breathmask 555]

Umm... I don't quite recall. Steef'll know. He has better reference material than I have.

[Miz 139]

Last night, I went to see the LPO, the London Voices (200 strong) and Howard Shore at the Royal Albert Hall, and on the whole it was superb. The published tracklist looked like this, however it was rather confusing to one who knew the scores well:

THE FELLOWSHIP OF THE RING

Movement One

- The Prophecy

- Concerning Hobbits

- The Shadow of the Past

- 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-dûm

- Lothlórien

- Gandalf's Lament

- Farewell to Lórien

- The Great River

- The Breaking of the Fellowship

(Intermission)

THE TWO TOWERS

Movement Three

- Foundations of Stone

- The Taming of Sméagol

- 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

- Andúril

Movement Six

- The End of All Things

- The Return of the King

- The Grey Havens

- Into the West

Cues (skip ahead for conclusion)

Shore came onto the podium and said nothing, but I found the opening electric - it was probably just the because it was the very first notes I'd heard of this music played live. The Prophecy was just as good as I expected, and during the its lower-key end fed nicely into Concerning Hobbits. This was performed less 'coherently' than on album, but that is to be expected live - the pipe solo (I'm sure it's some kind of small pipe) was good. Only a middle section of The Shadow of the Past was played before leading bombastically to The Black Rider, played from the very beginning with pleasant gusto during the accelerated 'crop' part - then he used the Nazgul theme to segue to A Knife in the Dark: the first real aggressive part of the symphony was great and it was good to see the strings at work during such a theme. The choir were also flawless at this point and were used very well - it made me realise how good the theme is.

Many Meetings was a good opening piece for Movement 2, with tubular bells which I hadn't heard in the cue which added to the piece nicely. I should have predicted the segue into The Ring Goes South (past 'Mithril', at the Hobbit theme) - there was then an Extended Edition piece I didn't recognise (I'm not yet familiar with them) featuring a toned-down appearance of the Fellowship theme before the grand, slow one I know. Almost all of A Journey in the Dark was played, the low choir at the start just as impressive as the humbling theme at the old dwarf city. The tension of the orcs was played very well on strings, and its crescendo didn't use the silence presented on album but fed wonderfully with brief timpani into The Bridge of Khazad-Dum. The whole orchestra performed this piece brilliantly, but was let down by the choir - good on the lower chanting, but during the louder parts there simply weren't enough males, and it sounded like they were barking. Erk. Anyway, the stair segment was omitted (making this abbreviated piece far more presentable live) and the mourning of Gandalf was actually quite touching (it's one of my favourite mellow pieces from LotR), with solo choirboy handling his part perfectly. Then Lothlorien, in full, and the Lament to Gandalf - a female solo that was adequate, but paled in comparison to the unique vocals of the album. Farewell to Lorien was another extended piece, as I recognised the beginning (melancholy Fellowship theme) and end (onto the river). I assume this is the cue presented on the cash-in Two Towers album, and scores the goodbye dinner and gift presenting with Galadriel. Then the action part of The Great River (one of my favourite 'Fellowship' cues since I realised it was based around the Gondor themes), was played superbly on all parts, and suprisingly followed the film's presentation - choir during Boromir's charge, further ascending Gondor theme, then the Uruk-Hai theme with impressive and aggressive percussion. The Gondor hymn was another wonderful choir piece, abbreviated before the end to lead into The Breaking of the Fellowship. Lyrical strings, as expected, a small middle part of the cue omitted before In Dreams, sung very well by the boy choir (my favourite song because it uses a core theme) before a grand ending.

Only the apprehensive opening of Foundations of Stone was played before jumping to The Taming of Smeagol at the slow 'night-time' part. The weird orchestration of Gollum was nice to behold, including that strange horizontally-barred xylophone instrument (I've forgotten its name). The tense string segment fed into the middle of The Riders of Rohan, which was a presentation of the Rohan theme - the orchestra played with bombast and fiddle solo was good, but not as good as on album. This led, suprisingly, into The Black Gate Is Closed, shrill and harsh at the start as it should be, with nice background persussion during the middle section. Little was performed of Evenstar, the solo vocals being lacklustre compared to what I'm used to, but the beginning of The White Rider was good, as was the strings performance of the theme towards the end of the cue. Then the mood changed a lot with Treebeard, again with odd orchestration that was a joy to watch, and superb choir which added to the atmosphere superbly; this segued predictably into the middle of The Forbidden Pool, with the slow rising Gondor theme followed a nice conclusion of the Gondor hymn sung by boy choir.

The Hornburg began Movement 4 brilliantly with the Lorien Elf theme/march straight away - the parts of the orchestra seemed more seperate when heard live, the timpani very pronounced and the strings more staccato than I'm used to. Still, a brilliant performance that led into an abbreviated beginning of Forth Eorlingas - the silence was used, but the charge seemed to lack the power of the recording, perhaps because the tempo was slightly different. Disappointingly, choir wasn't used at the appearance of Gandalf, but the White Rider theme was again presented well on strings. As the piece died it led into the Nature theme of Isengard Unleashed - boy choir as good as ever, but the vocal solo leading to the build-up a bit lacking. The full orchestra was used to great effect, and once the choral part began building it was fantastic. This was one of the few pieces that got my heart racing. The brilliantly sudden conclusion was ruined by a segue to Gollum's Song, performed well by orchestra but (in my opinion) poorly by the female vocalist. Lacking the style of Emiliana Torrini (whatever you think of it) she just made it sound like a love song. Rather weak, but the orchestral Rohan finale made up for it.

I found Hope and Memory slightly confusing, as it was performed from the beginning and at some point seemed to segue to Minas Tirith, at the point where the boats cross the river (low, menacing brass). The female vocal solo was (again) slightly lacking, and before the bold Gondor theme at the end the piece led into the start of The White Tree. Of course, this blew me away. Seeing the slicing strings working so hard and seeing every layer of music performed as the cue builds and builds....then goosebumps rushed over me as it exploded into the Gondor theme. This had to be the highlight of the symphony for me. The Steward of Gondor was performed without the vocal solo, then Cirith Ungol as on the album (I wish he had replaced such a lacklustre cue) and Anduril, again rather unexceptional.

Given the tracklist I expected a cataclysmic opening to the last movement, but instead was treated to a slow beat and a quiet Gondor theme. Half-wishing this was some extended cue which might entail that full-choral, full Fellowship theme on the slopes of Mount Doom, I then realised it was The Fields of the Pelennor. The choir surpassed themselves, though during the Nazgul part it seemed the trombones were a note behind - perhaps a layer of music I hadn't noticed in the album mix, but it did make the performace sound strange. The whole piece was brilliant though, with full brass for the Rohan charge finale, which then quietly led into the apprehensive ascending Gondor theme as heard in Hope Fails. This segued seamlessly with timpani into The End of All Things (don't ask how), which was performed in full superbly. As a whole, this was one of the best pieces for live performance, and the mellow 'eagles' conclusion led straight into Return of the King. This was performed in full, and the male vocalist was, surprisingly, not as good as Viggo Mortensen. After the Shire themes it led into the pipe solo beginning of The Grey Havens, then (rather appropriately) cut straight to the 'Gandalf/mourning' choir theme and then to gentle completion. I was strangely tired by this point and I felt strangely 'monged out' - the long conclusion to the symphony also reflected on the protracted end of the film. Into the West was sung without exception, again making it sound like a generic love song, and the string conclusion to the piece flourished towards the end for a lush, lyrical finale rather than a bombastic one.

Conclusion

Applause rang for ages, and Shore came back on stage at least 5 times to bask in it further. The audience continued to clap expecting an encore, but he just kept coming on, giving the lead vocalist flowers, making the orchestra bow, the choir bow etc. until the lights went out, and we got no encore. (My friends and I nicknamed him 'Howard Shore - Attention Whore'). A sore disappoinment, which kind of reflected on the way the symphony interacted with the audience as a whole. With movements ending on quiet, low-key pieces like The Forbidden Pool and Anduril, the audience didn't know if he was about to start another cue and was left in embarassed silence (I began the applause on the former, knowing it was the end of a movement: a lone, enthusiastic clapper up in the gallery for a brief moment. Hehe). I agree the symphony should be in film order, but the way in which huge pieces finished, begging for applause, and then just led into quiet ones seemed a little clumsy. It were as if it wasn't a concert, but a performance we happened to witness. As for the lead female vocalist, she cannot be expected to replicate the styles of the different individuals in the recordings of the score, but she seemed lacklustre on almost every performance. I think this is partly because she approached the microphone after singing the first note, to gauge how close she should be. I know the feeling, but when a voice should come in suddenly and it kind of drifts in at another time, it feels a little disappointing (this was most prominent in Minas Tirith, the part where Gandalf's staff illuminates).

Overall, the orchestral and choir performances were fantastic - loud, impressive action pieces handled well (brass not sounding as good as on album, but that's to be expected), and quiter pieces performed even better. It's the presentation of the pieces that let the symphony down a bit, especially the lack of encore - the audience felt let down. There aren't really any other pieces that could be played, but he could always repeat an impressive one like The White Tree or Isengard Unleashed. Still, I enjoyed it nonetheless, and am glad I've heard all my favourite pieces played live, as there were some little surprises.

[Olivier 5]

Thanks a lot for this remarkably detailed account, Miz!

[diskobolus 3]

Wish the BSO would do this, but I doubt they will.

Is there any news on when the extended scores will be released?

[Jim Ware 526]

I was planning on asking Howard Shore about that, but I didn't get the chance in the HUGE crush at the stage door after the concert. He did sign my programme though.

[Jim Ware 526]

including that strange horizontally-barred xylophone instrument (I've forgotten its name)

It was a hammer dulcimer.