CONCERT: Titanic (Antwerp, October 2017)

[bollemanneke 3,342]

JACK! ROSE! I NEED YOU TO SWIM! I WENT TO TITANIC IN CONCERT!

 

Okay, before I begin, I sincerely hope that there will be no formatting issues this time. My Hans Zimmer review didn’t come through properly on the message board because apparently Notepad can’t even handle someone adding text after they saved the original file, so I’m using Word now. Also, please note that I will not be discussing any specific score-related things as I’m not sufficiently familiar with it to be able to discuss any changes they might have made in detail.

 

I had only watched Titanic once. That was a year ago when I got an MP3 file which was recorded from a special VHS tape (the DVD/Blu-Ray do not contain audio description) and I had to watch the second half on headphones. Back then, I liked the score a lot. Tonight, I LOVED IT.

 

This concert took place at the Koningin Elizabethzaal (Queen Elizabeth Hall). The hall had been unavailable for years because it needed alterations. All the previous live to projection concerts I attended (Lord of the Rings 1-3 and Harry Potter 1) took place at the Sportpaleis (Sports Palace), a huge contraption that can play host to enormous amounts of people and where they seem to be doing literally everything except organizing classical concerts. The sound always came from one speaker. Sometimes, the idiots in charge would even reduce the volume of the orchestra if it threatened to drown out the sound effects or dialogue (so why call it concerts?) The new hall is far less spacious, but didn’t need any amplification whatsoever. The orchestra just played as loudly or softly as they pleased, no strings attached (and no pun intended). This also meant that some of the dialogue was sometimes hard to catch during the sinking scenes, but I cannot even begin to describe how immensely superior the sound in this hall was. The slight reverb made a real difference and this was the very first time that the sound was coming to me from two sides (both score and soundtrack were played in stereo). At the Sportpaleis, instruments were amplified individually, which was nice because I could really distinguish individual instruments. Here, the only really detailed soundscape consisted of cellos, double basses and bass clarinets. Things like rapid violin work during noisy passages tended to get lost in the mix, but overall, it all sounded so complete, so full, so vibrant, so alive.

 

In spite of all this, it needs to be said that the practical organization really wasn’t good at all. When we came in, some girls were helping people to find their seats, a nice gesture which would have been useful had they actually known something about the seating arrangements. More about that later.

 

When we had found our seats, there was a lot of chaotic activity going on in the orchestra. From what I could pick up, it sounded as though everyone was rapidly going over tricky parts they found a little difficult to play without anyone coordinating the whole process and it all sounded rather funny. This rehearsing was restricted to high-pitched violins, clarinets, horns and trombones. The person accompanying me said that the Antwerp Symphony Orchestra consisted of 50 members, which I found a rather small number for such a score. Thanks to the booklet, we also found out that they would be accompanied by (or that they would accompany, rather) a children’s choir, a very pleasant surprise as nobody had ever mentioned a choir before and I was already assuming we would be listening to synth voices. Luckily, Belgium never seems to be short of choirs. The children’s choir, however, didn’t contain children, but youngsters. Whether they were male or female, I do not know (female, I assume), but they were certainly up to it. If Home Alone ever comes to Antwerp, I won’t have to worry anymore and I really don’t understand why they didn’t involve those people in the Lord of the Rings concerts. They sounded quite mature and properly trained and only when they had to sing at the top of their voices during the sinking, you could hear their vocal chords weren’t really strong enough, but not a false note anywhere, unlike the disastrous performances of Nature’s Reclamation.

 

Now, the score. Over the past few days, I’ve been listening to a lot of utterly worthless crap – pardon me, Hans Zimmer scores, so it was thrilling to finally hear some proper music that wanted to tell a story rather than please crowds who should sit in third class on any boat. I sort of knew what it all sounded like, but my goodness, did it sound magical in this hall. I think I spent the first ten minutes shivering from top to bottom because of the sheer magnitude of the sound. Well, not the very first minute. They began by playing the 20^th Century Fox fanfare, which was kind of amusing. I had no idea Fox was involved with this movie. But then, the piano solos came. And the harp. And the choir. And the penny whistle. And it simply sounded divine and swept me away. I especially liked all the Celtic party music, but somehow found that some of it could have been played with a little more energy, although that might have been because I just wanted it to be a tad more feisty. (Is this still Horner’s work and would an expanded release contain this music?) Then I also got goose bumps during a rather frantic and desperate horn solo forcing itself through the love theme during the sinking.

 

The score did make a rather chopped-up impression at times and during the sinking, I got a bit confused because the album arrangement is so different. My favourite part, when the choir is singing in D minor, just wouldn’t come and I was starting to think someone must have forgotten to include it, but then it finally came and it was really satisfying to hear it live. I’ve never been so moved by a piano in my life either, even stopped playing it myself because I was convinced you couldn’t express any feelings and emotions with it. When they started playing ‘Rose’ and when ‘A building panic’ began, I felt like I was being carried off to another world. At such moments, the plot didn’t matter anymore. Nothing did. I simply let James Horner’s enchanting masterpiece guide me through the story. If only it could have lasted longer.

 

Some notes about the performance. It was mostly excellent, except for an unfortunate, badly-tuned oboe during one of its solos and a few horn mistakes. The woman who ‘replaced’ Sissel and sang the song did a fine job, though her voice didn’t resemble Sissel’s and she sometimes needed to find her balance. The pensive theme that opens ‘An ocean full of memories’ was performed a little more slowly and delicately, but other than that, I didn’t notice any real differences. In one of the latter cues, I could have sworn I heard some synth choir too, but there was no doubt that the teenagers were singing the bulk of the material.

 

What I found rather surprising was that all the mucic the live orchestra was playing on the boat wasn’t performed here. Maybe they chose not to do that because the combination of an orchestra playing on-screen and a real orchestra doing the same thing simultaneously might have looked rather awkward, but it would have been appropriate to have the ‘privilege to play with you tonight’ remark when the real orchestra was playing and ‘Nearer my God to thee’ might have been that extra bit touching from a symphonic point of view had the actual musicians played it. It also begs the question why they did perform all the Irish party music, which I was of course extremely happy with.

 

Something curious was going on with the soundtrack too. I have no idea whether they made a special effort for Titanic or whether the Sportpaleis was to blame in all the other concerts, but they had removed 95% of the sound effects. I never really heard a lot of water or chattering and don’t even remember hearing the boat crash into the iceberg. Of course, this tactic worked brilliantly whenever the orchestra was accompanying the picture, but when they weren’t, it made the whole thing sound rather shallow, artificial and superficial. But no matter. This was 20 times better than hearing the volume of the sound effects being turned up whenever the orchestra dared to play too loudly. I’ll never forgive the person who muted the players and choir during For Frodo.

 

The break takes place at a moment I found very appropriate, right after they say that it is a ‘mathematical certainty’ that Titanic will sink. The first half lasts around 20 minutes longer than the second half because of that, but the split really worked perfectly. During the break, the lift that took us to the ground floor to buy drinks did some weird things as well – were they trying to give us a taste of what precarious situations feel like before the sinking of the ship? Buying drinks wasn’t easy either: first you had to buy tickets which would then result in drinks, but nobody really knew if you could buy tickets with a card or cash. Luckily, the woman in front of us saved the day. Looking back, it might have been wiser to have bought drinks before the break, but I felt we were already cutting it close, though they started 20 minutes too late in the end.

 

The audience was a rather quiet one, but then again, the Harry Potter approach wouldn’t have worked here at all and I’m so glad they didn’t try it. Nevertheless, there were a few predictable moments that led to some mirth, notably the moment Rose spat in Cal’s face and when the orchestra performed the 20^th Century Fox fanfare. Surprisingly, they didn’t burst into applause right after the end credits had started rolling. No, they waited until that stupid song was over. My heart will go on to wonder what’s so great about it, why it ended up in the score, why it needs percussion and why they can listen to that quietly while insisting on drowning out the first 30 seconds of Southampton. Will they ever learn? Oh well.

 

All in all, I am very, very glad I attended this concert. When we were on our way back, an elderly woman in the lift had this to say: ‘It was really fantastic. And the live music was great too!’ Fingers crossed for a Black Friday release of the complete score by La-La Land Records and I sincerely hope that future film concerts will be organized in the Elizabethzaal. The Sportpaleis might be able to sell more tickets, but they never sell out and tonight’s overwhelming sound made all the difference.

 

[Jay 37,346]

Wow Boll, that sounds so incredible!  I will absolutely see this one live if it ever comes to New England for sure!

[Gruesome Son of a Bitch 6,488]

Unfortunately, while Titanic Live has toured all over foreign countries for years, only Illinois has experienced it in the US.

[Naïve Old Fart 9,514]

Very well done, Bolle; a great piece of work.