Howard Shore concert moot report!
We rode up with Scott and Mrs. Scott, met up with Penny and Ramius, and went to dinner at a very nice seafood restaurant right on the Seattle waterfront, out at the end of a pier. You can see a busy ferry landing in the background here.
Ramius played "name that beer" (got it on his second guess)
The view was lovely... we could see all the way to the Olympic Mts, and could watch huge container ships coming into port.
After dinner, we headed for the concert hall and found our seats way up in the nosebleed section. As someone who has been to symphony performances fairly often, I was struck by the different crowd there... this was ~not~ your usual "arts and croissant" symphony audience. There were lots of kids, and a few folks in strange outfits. And unusual hair...
The performance included a full chorus, boys chorus, huge orchestra, and soloists. The screen in the back displayed concept art and sketches by Alan Lee, and was much more subtle than I expected. It made a nice addition to the music, though. Howard Shore looks like he would be a hard conductor to follow, since he did not use a baton, but it seemed to work out fine.
Everyone performed wonderfully, the orchestra brass section especially shattering in sections like "The Bridge of Khazad-dum." Made me kind of wish I could be on stage playing it too. The vocal soloist, Sissel, had a lovely voice, and sang "Gollum's Song" and "Into the West," along with a few other sections such as "The End of All Things." The boy soloist on "The Breaking of the Fellowship" did quite well, I can't imagine having to face that kind of performance pressure at such a young age.
Only a couple minor quibbles on my part... There were a few minor sound system glitches, bumped microphones, feedback and such, which can probably be attributed to opening night jitters. There was a whistle soloist who did the hobbit theme, but when he played Pan Pipes on "The Steward of Gondor," it was a little hard to hear.
I noticed that "May It Be" was not included in the symphony. I wonder if it is due to Enya's co-writing credit, and it is considered more her song than Shore's.
It was a superb performance, and if any of you have the opportunity to see it, I would highly recommend it. Check out the schedule at HowardShore.com. Among the upcoming performances are Hartford, the National Arts Center, Dallas, Chicago, and Pittsburgh.
