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2009/9/6 Music of Movies at Hollywood Bowl 090509Last night I had a chance to enjoy the lengendary composer John Williams conducting LA Philharmonic at the historic Hollywood Bowl. Already a fan of his movie scores, especially Star Wars, I had to come.
We decided to try our luck at the Hollywood Bowl ticket office buying tickets, and it was pretty much sold out, especially in the last sections where tickets are cheaper. Gladly there were a pair of $36 tickets open in the mid section, and they were relatively good seats with fair visibility and good sound quality, and there was a jumbotron right in front of us.
  After conducting the orchestra on Star-Spangled Banner, John Williams introduced actress Lynn Redgrave, who would narrate the introduction of each Harry Potter scores. As it turned out, the first 45 minutes of the performance were spent on Harry Potter music. I felt kinda bummed out, and thought majority of the audience did too (an OK applause afterwards) ... We don't care about Harry Potter! Let's get on to the serious stuff.
  John Williams and Lynn Redgrave
 In the lower right hand corner, I thought the profile of the guy looks exactly like Harrison Ford in tuxedo from Indiana Jones & the Temple of Doom!
After the intermission, John Williams opened with a medley of some of the popular and familiar movie tunes, which was entertaining and a nod to some movie classics. The medley was followed by the suite from Catch Me If You Can, which was directed by Steven Spielberg. John Williams joked that his frequent collaboration with Spielberg was like "a marriage without arguments." It hit home with some of the older audience (and me) when they played "As Time Goes By" from the classic Casablanca, with violin solo by lead violinist Bing Wang. After a couple of theme songs, theme from Superman looked like the piece to close the show.
Just as I thought this was going to be a disappointing way to leave the show, John Williams came back from backstage for the encore, saying "here is a gift to my 800 year old friend," and the audience (incredibly many Star Wars fans) went into thunderous cheer, whipping out their lightsabers and waving in the air. Then the Yoda theme was softly played out in front of us. I had so much goose bumps that you wouldn't believe.
 A sea of lightsabers
When it was finished, John Williams turned around and led the orchestra for a thanks-bow. He saw and acknowledged a large presence of Star Wars fans waving the lightsabers by waving his baton. He left for backstage, and was welcomed back by standing ovation, and then the emotion boiled higher when the opening theme and Imperial March from Star Wars were played. The audience wanted more, but finally he showed a sleeping gesture as it was too late. The encore ran probably 20 more minutes, in addition to the 2 hour show. This is a holy grail for the Star Wars fans, including myself, to see the master conducting his own music that made the movies great. Worth every penny.
Samples of the night from a Youtube source
(More pictures can be found in my blog album) 引用通告此日志的引用通告 URL 是： http://jhsumich.spaces.live.com/blog/cns!7B4E02A48668C8AE!3286.trak 引用此项的网络日志
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