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STAR WARS - Live To Projection Concerts


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  • 1 month later...

The Melbourne Symphony Orchestra is performing Star Wars: A New Hope again under Nicholas Buc's baton on 2023-01-28 (2 performances in 1 day!).

 

They've previously done the original trilogy and The Force Awakens. I'd be keen to see TLJ and TROS in the future, movie quality aside.

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1 hour ago, Quppa said:

The Melbourne Symphony Orchestra is performing Star Wars: A New Hope again under Nicholas Buc's baton on 2023-01-28 (2 performances in 1 day!).

 

They've previously done the original trilogy and The Force Awakens. I'd be keen to see TLJ and TROS in the future, movie quality aside.

The New Jersey Symphony Orchestra in the USA is re-doing the LTP concerts of the 1st three Star Wars--they did ANH this past May, they’ll be doing ESB this coming May, and it’s a good bet that they’ll do ROTJ in May, 2024--and that is in lieu of rescheduling TFA and TLJ which were originally scheduled for 2021, but neither one of them took place.

POSTPONED Star Wars: The Force Awakens in Concert | New Jersey Symphony (njsymphony.org)

POSTPONED Star Wars: The Last Jedi in Concert | New Jersey Symphony (njsymphony.org)

 

Also, this past September, the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra redone ANH after first doing it back in July of 2018. And that orchestra has never done TFA nor TLJ.  I guess these orchestras are getting cold-feet on doing concerts from an unpopular 3rd trilogy.

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3 hours ago, Quppa said:

The Melbourne Symphony Orchestra is performing Star Wars: A New Hope again under Nicholas Buc's baton on 2023-01-28 (2 performances in 1 day!).

 

They've previously done the original trilogy and The Force Awakens. I'd be keen to see TLJ and TROS in the future, movie quality aside.

 

TLJ would be a fantastic score live (especially the big action set pieces), but I can only assume orchestras are a little anxious about scheduling those films given the sour taste TROS left in everyone's mouth. The OT is a much safer bet. 

 

I'm not sure I'd even want to see a TROS LTP, all things considered. I'd love to know what percentage of that film even uses Williams' intended music. Would be shocked if it was above 50%.

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Yes, I'm worried the moment has passed for Sequel Trilogy LTP concerts, unless Taika Waititi's movie and/or Rian Johnson's trilogy (a) actually happen and (b) are tied in to the ST, neither of which seem likely (which is fine by me, though a Waititi/Giacchino collaboration with a longer run up would be a good chance for the latter to atone for the understandably undercooked Rogue One).

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  • 2 months later...

For those of you who've attended a Star Wars live to picture, how are the source cues handled?  For example, in ANH, are the cantina band sequences played by the orchestra musicians?  

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2 hours ago, karelm said:

For those of you who've attended a Star Wars live to picture, how are the source cues handled?  For example, in ANH, are the cantina band sequences played by the orchestra musicians?  

I don't really remember, but I believe they were not?

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6 hours ago, karelm said:

For those of you who've attended a Star Wars live to picture, how are the source cues handled?  For example, in ANH, are the cantina band sequences played by the orchestra musicians?  

 

3 hours ago, Clockwork Angel said:

I don't really remember, but I believe they were not?

That's my recollection, they just use the original audio.

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9 hours ago, karelm said:

For those of you who've attended a Star Wars live to picture, how are the source cues handled?  For example, in ANH, are the cantina band sequences played by the orchestra musicians?  

 

Here you go 

 

 

On 19/09/2017 at 7:42 PM, Jay said:

The concert Friday evening was wonderful!

I'm not familiar with the intricate details of the minute differences between all the various versions of Star Wars that have existed post-1997 SE, so to me this seemed like the Blu Ray cut - it featured the full 20th Century Fox logo in the beginning (which the orchestra played, which was great), and the better CGI Jabba as opposed to the first CGI Jabba from '97.

 

The intermission was oddly placed, I thought.  It was in the middle of The Death Star cue, as the Millennium Falcon is being pulled into The Death Star.  Basically on the wide shot of the Falcon approaching the screen, it just faded out, and the music kind of faded away (I can't recall exactly how they handled it).  Upon returning from intermission, they replayed the loud glorious Rebel Fanfare from the cue to a black screen, as the same shot we had already seen of the Falcon being pulled faded in during the music, and the film and cue continued from there.

 

As far as I could tell, everything they played matched the final cut of the film exactly.  This means Dianoga ("The Water Snake" ) and the music dialed out of The Walls Converge was not restored, and of course the sections trimmed from The Dune Sea Of Tatooine ("Desert Song") and Chasm Crossfire ("The Swashbucklers") are still gone.  This also means the 1997 SE alterations had to be recreated, ie the extended "Look Sir, Droids!" scene, and the extended arrival at Mos Eisley.  Honestly, though, when performed live both sections sounded COMPLETELY fine, nothing un-musical about them at all -- and hey, we get to hear most of Dianoga this way!  More annoying was the Jabba The Hutt scene, since it was all ROTJ music, and always seems out of place (they did play it perfectly fine, though!)

 

The orchestra played tremendously, and flawlessly from what I could tell!  The strings and brass especially nailed everything throughout the evening, really only the percussion sounded different from the original recordings - and it wasn't BAD, just DIFFERENT.  Whoever was in control of the cymbals was particularly aggressive, making some really loud crashes happen at times, which was kind of funny!

 

David Newman didn't say a word before or after the performance which I thought was a bit odd, though he did return to the stage TWICE after departing after the end credits.  I thought he was going to do an encore of Princess Leia's Theme or something when he came out a second time!

 

I've seen this film countless times, so everytime the orchestra was playing I found myself watching them exclusively, and only really watched the film in between orchestral cues. Both Cantina Band cues came from the speakers, they were not performed live, which I wasn't expecting them to be (it would be kinda weird if they did; I noticed this time while watching the film that the second Cantina Band cue actually loops for a long while due to the Greedo scene!)

 

The audio mix for the evening was perfect, IMO.  Every time the orchestra was playing, it was the loudest part of the mix, which is perfect - it's why you're there!  This occasionally meant some dialogue got drowned up completely, which is fine by me! (others might take issue with it).  I did notice after it was pointed out to me that the left and right channels seemed to mostly be not playing - since most of the dialogue and sound effects come from the center channel this was't a big issue, and I did notice the surround channels were working at some points, there was other points when it was obvious the other channels weren't doing much.  Again this wasn't an issue for me, since I've seen the film countless times and I'm there for the music - and the music was always mixed PERFECTLY.

 

Overall a very successful evening, because the score is THAT good; one of my favorites of all time, and a pure pleasure to hear live.  This had to have been the first time the Force Theme has been played for a live audience this many times... forever!  There are too many musical highlights to mention, but really the entire concert is a treat.


Yes, it is indeed a bummer that it's the SE cut of the film and not the original, but that is truly about the only negative thing I can say about the whole experience.  The music still shines, and even the SE-altered music isn't an abomination to the experience.

 

I hope I get the chance to see TESB, ROTJ, and TFA in this setting as well!

 

 

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15 minutes ago, greenturnedblue said:

I think in the performance of RotJ I saw in Vancouver, the orchestra played the horn when the Ewoks do that little 4-note 'alarm' up in the trees

That's right. 

 

Karol

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When I saw Azkaban in Indianapolis, they had a women's choir doing Double Trouble and A Winter's Spell live, plus the Patronus stuff, they brought the house down during the climax. 

 

But no choir when I saw ROTJ in Chicago. I wonder what they did when they performed Azkaban. 

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12 hours ago, SyncMan said:

@karelm

For ROTJ, 'Jedi Rocks' is handled the same as the 'Cantina Band' source cues--no orchestra is playing on stage, the music is coming from the film's audio track.  However, the music for the 'Victory Celebration' sequence (as well as the sequence where the Ewoks 'escort' our heroes to their village) is performed on stage with live percussion-- rattles, xylophone, bass drum--but no live choir.

 

Ewok Feast was pretty awesome to hear live.

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3 hours ago, mrbellamy said:

It was a little disappointing not to have it for ROTJ, "A Jedi's Fury" didn't hit quite the same.


I wish they’d at least included optional choir parts for the ROTJ LTP, but they didn’t.

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On 27/1/2023 at 7:31 AM, Jay said:

I think Azkaban only tours where a choir can be booked

From what I understand the choir parts are performed by Synth Voices if there is no live choir (I believe it’s marked in the LTP score). 

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9 hours ago, Pat_S said:

From what I understand the choir parts are performed by Synth Voices if there is no live choir (I believe it’s marked in the LTP score). 

There are sets of the Harry Potter LTP concerts that includes a live choir and a prerecorded choir.

 

 https://www.jwfan.com/forums/index.php?/topic/26122-harry-potter-live-to-projection-concerts/&do=findComment&comment=1392392

 

 

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Man I'd hate to go see Azkaban and not have a live choir there! When I saw it in London, the choir was glorious! 

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2 hours ago, Jay said:

Man I'd hate to go see Azkaban and not have a live choir there! When I saw it in London, the choir was glorious! 

Azkaban had choir when I saw it as well, the one I experienced that should have choir but didn't was Home Alone 

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19 hours ago, Jay said:

Oh wow, I'm shocked they'd do Home Alone anywhere without live choir!


That's one of my favorite LTP shows!

Loved it when I saw it too - just wished that the movie was less funny so the audience made less noise during the trap sequence so I could more easily pay attention to the score :P

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On 14/11/2022 at 11:38 AM, Quppa said:

The Melbourne Symphony Orchestra is performing Star Wars: A New Hope again under Nicholas Buc's baton on 2023-01-28 (2 performances in 1 day!).

 

They've previously done the original trilogy and The Force Awakens. I'd be keen to see TLJ and TROS in the future, movie quality aside.

 

The MSO is following this up with 4 performances of the Empire Strikes Back in October this year.

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  • 4 weeks later...
On 19/09/2017 at 7:42 PM, Jay said:

I hope I get the chance to see TESB, ROTJ, and TFA in this setting as well!

 

 

Perhaps you can.

ROTJ

Boston Pops Orchestra. Keith Lockhart, conductor.

Symphony Hall. Boston, MA

May 25, 26, and 27, 2023

https://www.bso.org/events/star-wars-return-of-the-jedi

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On 23/02/2023 at 10:14 AM, SyncMan said:

A USA booking for TLJ.

Cincinnati Pops Orchestra.  Anthony Parnther, conductor

December 29 & 30, 2023

 

Star Wars: The Last Jedi | CSO (cincinnatisymphony.org)

 

 

One step closer to a TROS LTP... will it ever happen?

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@PoggoAOTS would the MSO consider booking concerts for TROS (and TLJ) in the future?

 

I saw TFA performed at the Palais and it was sensational, and clearly the OT concerts are always popular. But you could probably have the world premiere of TROS in concert at this rate! :D

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  • 1 month later...
  • 2 weeks later...
On 25/02/2023 at 1:32 AM, crumbs said:

@PoggoAOTS would the MSO consider booking concerts for TROS (and TLJ) in the future?

 

I saw TFA performed at the Palais and it was sensational, and clearly the OT concerts are always popular. But you could probably have the world premiere of TROS in concert at this rate! :D

Sorry I missed this...

I'm actually not at the MSO anymore (I now run my own concert production company called Concert Lab www.concertlab.com.au)

I'd sorta be surprised, at this point, if they went there though. The MSO have just started pumping out the OT again...

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  • 4 weeks later...
  • 2 weeks later...

Long overdue, but here are snapshots of the Empire Strikes Back LTP concert from May 19

 

One thing that I didn't expect, and somewhat irritated me, was the decision to include subtitles for the film. @Matt S., was there subtitles for the ROTJ concert?

IMG_2514.jpg

IMG_2519.jpg

IMG_2517.jpg

IMG_2518.jpg

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5 hours ago, Corellian2019 said:

Long overdue, but here are snapshots of the Empire Strikes Back LTP concert from May 19

 

One thing that I didn't expect, and somewhat irritated me, was the decision to include subtitles for the film. @Matt S., was there subtitles for the ROTJ concert?

IMG_2514.jpg

IMG_2519.jpg

IMG_2517.jpg

IMG_2518.jpg

Yes, they all include subtitles. E.T did as well. I would assume they all do. 

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2 hours ago, aj_vader said:

Yes, they all include subtitles. E.T did as well. I would assume they all do. 

All the ones I've seen at the Royal Albert Hall have had subtitles. I do rather wish they would dial down the dialogue and sound effects a bit more, or maybe remove them completely, and not bother showing the film. Oh and removing any post-production edits to the music. ;-)

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51 minutes ago, Tom Guernsey said:

All the ones I've seen at the Royal Albert Hall have had subtitles. I do rather wish they would dial down the dialogue and sound effects a bit more, or maybe remove them completely, and not bother showing the film. Oh and removing any post-production edits to the music. ;-)

I agree, it's far too loud (dialogue, sound effects). The best mix was when I saw A New Hope by the LSO in 2018 (Royal Albert Hall) [Saturday Evening showing], however it was still too loud for my liking. 

 

The worst one was Empire Strikes Back in the Albert Hall (Dirk Brossè and London Philharmonia). I was sat in the stalls right behind the engineers/producers and someone went down and collared one of them, essentially asking them to turn the sound and dialogue down as the music in places was barely audible. I couldn't hear everything said as it was the interval, but it seemed to be a little heated. The engineer ultimately said something along the lines of, "it's standardised and we can't change it". The London Philharmonia are obviously a great orchestra, but they don't have the same 'clout' as the London Symphony Orchestra, so the Empire concert was easily the weakest of the original trilogy presentations there at The Royal Albert Hall. 

 

I saw E.T. at The Bridgewater Hall in Manchester and thats a much better venue for this (I think), the balance was excellent throughout. 

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17 minutes ago, aj_vader said:

I agree, it's far too loud (dialogue, sound effects). The best mix was when I saw A New Hope by the LSO in 2018 (Royal Albert Hall) [Saturday Evening showing], however it was still too loud for my liking. 

 

The worst one was Empire Strikes Back in the Albert Hall (Dirk Brossè and London Philharmonia). I was sat in the stalls right behind the engineers/producers and someone went down and collared one of them, essentially asking them to turn the sound and dialogue down as the music in places was barely audible. I couldn't hear everything said as it was the interval, but it seemed to be a little heated. The engineer ultimately said something along the lines of, "it's standardised and we can't change it". The London Philharmonia are obviously a great orchestra, but they don't have the same 'clout' as the London Symphony Orchestra, so the Empire concert was easily the weakest of the original trilogy presentations there at The Royal Albert Hall. 

 

I saw E.T. at The Bridgewater Hall in Manchester and thats a much better venue for this (I think), the balance was excellent throughout. 

I can't recall exactly what days I went, but think we went to Star Wars and Empire the same weekends! I have to admit that I don't recall exactly what I thought of the sound mixes other than at various points I wasn't entirely sure if the orchestra weren't just miming since it all goes through the speakers and once it's mixed together the "liveness" of the orchestra isn't especially noticeable. I did notice enough differences to satisfy myself that they weren't miming but the fact that it crossed my mind did rather suggest that the sound isn't ideally mixed.

 

My enthusiasm for LTP screenings has certainly waned quite a bit as I end up watching it like a regular movie when I actually want to concentrate on the score, but then can't really hear it quite well enough to enjoy it on its own.

 

I imagine the engineers at those events don't have much latitude, indeed I wouldn't be surprised if their job is to keep it standardised rather than what is actually the best for the venue. It's not that I think Disney hate all of their IP, but I can imagine them being the kind of company that dictates stuff without really thinking as to whether it works or not.

 

I might have to look out for LTP events in Manchester. The Royal Albert Hall isn't really an especially great venue (aside from its wow factor) for lots of events. I mean, for Cirque du Soleil it's terrific but for orchestral concerts, less so and don't get me started on the toilets*. Funnily enough, my memory is so shonky that I can't recall if I've seen ET LTP. My other half swears blind that we haven't and I think he's probably right, but in my head I can't believe I haven't so my brain tries to convince me that we must have done. Either way, I need to see it (again or for the first time as an LTP!).

 

*Too late. JWFan hint: if you need the toilet at the Royal Albert Hall, go to the very top floor, they are almost always empty. My only caveat is that you sometimes get shooed away by unnecessarily officious security people - "you can't sit up here mate" - "I'm not, I'm sitting downstairs, but I want to wee without being in a queue with 374,520 other people". I have complained about this aggressive approach in feedback surveys and suggest anyone who is shooed away also complains, security people like that can fuck right off. Totally unnecessary.

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