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My questions: Did it work?

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Hell yes.

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How did it work? Did it enhance your experience of Film and/or music? If you were new (hard to imagine, right?!) to Film or music, would this be the best way to start?

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Personally, I think this would work better as a 'silent' film experience - I found the dialogue distracting.

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Let's have details on Maestro Shore's comments...

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Nothing new really.

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Any particular moment visually or aurally stand out?

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It was all quite stunning, but the first choral outburst in the Prologue packed a punch.

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How does this compare with the usual theatrical experience, the home experience of Film and CR's?

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It was a unique, indescribable experience quite unlike any other concert I've attended before.

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Audience reactions during and after... Was it a special communal experience? Etc, etc, etc...

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There was a huge ovation at the end of the concert: my hands still ache!

I can't wait until March 2009. More comments later (including details on musical tweaks to the score) when I've had some sleep!

Yes, it did work. The concert was awesome! The orchestra was excellent (as always). The live-experience of the whole score just blew me away (I have to admit though, that I focused more on the music and the orchestra than the movie itself, so it didn't 'enhance my experience' of the movie...).

I can't be compared to the usual theatrical experience, since the music comes to the fore - you couldn't hear the dialogue at some points, but since I'm more of a score-fangirl, I really didn't mind. And there was a 'special sound mix' that just included some key-soundFX. That was perfect for me, for I always thought that dialogue and soundeffects spoiled the listening-experience

Shore put back in some of the music, that didn't make it to the final cut (the aleatoric horns at the Ford of Bruinen and some Isengard-material, for instance - I'm sure, Jim can elaborate on that matter ).

Maestro Shore was asked about the Hobbit and he said 'Yes, I'm very happy to say we are working on The Hobbit [I take that as an official statement that he's definitely involved], I've been thinking about it for many years. They're starting on the sreenplay and the production will start soon.'

AND: The Two Towers-Live-Performance will take place in March 2009! So everybody, who missed it this time, make sure, you'll make it to Lucerne next year, it's absolutely worth it!!

That's it. I have to get some sleep now, but I'll post more (including pictures and a transcript of the pre-concert-talk) asap.

Brutus', Jim's and my post overlapped -> sorry for any overlapping content...

More tomorrow (after the Oscars), but I'd like to express my sincere thanks to Basil, Jim, Sabsi, Andy and all the others (including Messrs Shore, Wicki and a fantastic orchestra & chorus!) for an awesome weekend!

Even without Doug, I am *very* glad indeed that I decided to go.

One other Q: How does it compare with The Symphony?

Timdalf, never known for being restrained!

PS: The Met has "seat titles" (i.e. each seat back has a subtitle display), so no dialogue need be missed! That is if you could take your eyes of PJ's visuals!!

And wouldn't this be the biggest coup for the Met since they stole Wagner's "Parsifal" from Bayreuth in 1913!!! Think of all those box office receipts, Mr. Gelb!!! Your chunk of the 3 bil and counting JRRT-PJ are racking up (with the ever cooperative help of those scalawags at New Line!)....

[Message edited by Timdalf on 02-24-2008]

In the slim hope of recognising you there, I also brought the SUN CD, which was, of course, superfluous.

Once there, I thought "Well, that's screwed up, but there's no reason I won't have a good time."
Once again, so sorry, but that day, the masochistic god of mayhem wielded a power to great to control.

Now, on to the concert.

The pre-concert lecture was nice, nothing that we didn't know before, of course, but since this was a last minute set-up after Doug cancelled, it did pretty well.
And yes, Howard Shore did say "we are currently working on the screenplay", and that pre-production is about to begin, so I took that as a clear "Yes, I'm on board."

The concert itself held a few surprises. First of all, it took me by surprise that they performed the theatrical cut, not the extended one. At first, that was a bit dissapointing, but it turned out to be just the right length!
The movie was in English with German subtitles, but Jim Ware is right, the dialogue was almost always completely drowned by the music. It didn't bother me a bit, since the music should be in the spotlight anyway, and to tell the story, you need dialogue.
Ludwig Wicki did a very good job conducting; I was sitting above the orchestra, so I could see the conductor's screen with the movie and the sync points, which was a fascinating little detail.
There were a few spots, however, where the orchestra let it slip a little. For instance, the shrieking string chord when Bilbo tries to grab the ring in Rivendell was way too late, and at Amon Hen, when the ring is trying to seduce Aragorn, the boy choir missed its entry, causing some noticeable confusion amongst the violins
These two were really the only ones that stuck out, the other few are neglectable; obviously this is a live concert, and not a scoring stage, so these little things make it come alive.

Howard Shore said before the concert that he added a few pieces that weren't it the movie, but to be honest, I didn't hear them. There were no "new pieces" per se, but some additional orchestral colourations at some points.
You also notice plenty of details that aren't as obvious even on CD.
The end credits are presented as on the Complete Recordings, which sounds a lot more coherent and concise, performed live.

After the concert, Howard Shore took his time to sign all kinds of merchandise, and I'm continuously struck by his calmness. Since I wasn't forced to swim along with the crowd on the floor, I got out pretty quickly, and it took me just five minutes to get to the maestro himself.
He was kind enough to personalise the DVD from the FOTR CR, and to sign a FOTR music sheet with Happy Birthday for a special lady friend of mine
I brought the booklet, which I wanted to get signed by Doug, in the remote chance of him being there, but that will have to wait for another time.

So, the concert started at 19.30, was over by 23.30, and I was back in my room by midnight, sleeping like a stone.

First a general note: anything that was dialled out in the final film was left out, including the end of A Conspiracy Unmasked, the end of Weathertop and part of Parth Galen.

And some specific notes:

A Conspiracy Unmasked - Gandalf and Frodo's teatime conversation had some unfamiliar sounding music using the 'Descending Thirds' motif.

The Nazgûl - The 5/8 Isengard theme was introduced earlier, at the start of the 'build me an army worthy of Morder' scene. This piece ended quickly, and the unused piece (with male chorus under the Isengard theme) did not appear.

Give Up The Halfling - The aleatoric horns were present at the end of this sequence. A few bars of this section appear to be missing on the Complete Recordings.

Rivendell - This was the alternate version (as presented on the single disc album) with strings instead of flute in one section.

The Great Eye - In the last section prior to the grand introduction of the 'Fellowship Theme' the Shire material was performed by strings as on the single disc album.

Balin's Tomb - More bowed cymbals here as Gandalf reads from the book? (edit - they are on the CR, just more subdued)

The Fighting Uruk-Hai - Male chorus under the Isengard theme at the start of this piece.

The Sword That Was Broken - additional trumpet parts when the Rivendell material is introduced at the start of this piece.

I also had something to add about stopped horns, but I can't for the life of me remember what it was...

Thanks.

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Originally posted by Timdalf:
On other question: There must have been intermissions judging by the start and end times. How was that handled?

Thanks.

Tdalf

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Hello together

this concert was absolutly awesome! I can't wait for March 2009!!!

Is Howard Shore ill? Because he walk so strange I thougt...??

Then, I saw, that on the screen that was in front of the conducter, that there before a cue starts, cames a green shape on the screen from left to right and when this shape was out of the screen the music starts to play!

I hope you understand what I mean!

the small screen in front of Ludwig Wicki indicated when the music started (violet streak followed by green), ended (red) or some notable change was about to appear (blue). There also were dots indicating the tempo.

CK

PS: Jim, I also remember hearing stopped horns at a point where I didn't know there were stopped horns. Must've been somewhere in part I, as the only stopped instruments I knew about (trumpets in the Moria sequence) came after that.

Then we mean the same.. I only answer to the question of Timdalf!

But the concert was so great. I gave one ticket as a birthday-gift to my mother. She was so positive surprised about the standovation at the end... she never realized, that moviemusic is so popular!

This is my first post here, although I have been reading the forum for quite some time now. Some of you may remember me as Barin_Katharad from SMME message board (hello Magpie!), but since then I've been very busy studying and working at the same time, so there wasn't much time for online stuff...

I was in Lucerne this weekend for the premiere of Fellowship of the Ring LIVE and all I can say is that it was astounding.

The city of Lucerne is beautiful, with it's architecture, history, all the lakes and Alps surrounding it… it reminded me of Misty Mountains, so the atmosphere was perfect for the event
The talk with Howard Shore before the concert was nice, although for us "hardcore fans" of the music, nothing new was said. Except, of course, The Hobbit announcement, which is excellent news!
Performance by the orchestra, choruses and soloists was excellent – it surprised me how well they played and sounded almost as if listening to the LSO on the soundtrack. Everybody poured their heart and soul into this project, and it showed. Of course, there were some tiny mistakes, as there always are with live performances, but nothing that would jeopardize the whole experience. It is also interesting to hear little differences in the mixing of the instruments, and how the sound balance of the live performance differs from the recordings.
Big congratulations has to be given to the maestro Ludwig Wicki for his gargantuan task of leading the orchestra and chorus through such complex three-hour-long composition with sudden and harsh changes of tempo and constrictions (synchronization-wise) of the movie but still delivering an emotional performance.

This was everything I have hoped it would be, and much more!

Interesting discovery for me was the relationship of the movie and music now that the music is in the spotlight – in normal circumstances movie is in the front, and music is in the background, no matter how well you know the music, you still concentrate more on the film while watching it. But now when the positions are changed and music is the most important part of the experience, the movie, for me at least, was almost distracting, I rarely watched the scenes, I was much more concentrated on the music itself. Maybe that's because I am a musician, but in any case it is interesting...

I had the chance to talk to Howard Shore and some of his people after the concert, and it still amazes me how nice and "normal" he is – you would never guess that you're talking with three-times-Oscar-winner and the composer of the best film music of all time.

I hope that all of you have the chance to experience FOTR live, it is an amazing event, one definitely worth attending.

Don't apologize for the long post, Danijel. Those of us who couldn't make it appreciate all we can get.

Doug Adams posted some pictures from the event {links at his blog) and there was one of the mountains. They were beautiful. (You have to drive a ways to see mountains when you live in the Midwest US. I've only been to the Rockies once. If the Appalachians and Berkshires count, I've been a few times. But they hardly count.) I almost called my husband in to look at the picture.

Your description of Howard Shore as 'plain folk' doesn't surprise me from other reports I've read. But, like you, it does amaze me.

"Warner Bros. gobbles up New Line"

Thank you for your kind words
It's been very busy past couple of years (composing, studying and working two jobs at the same time...), but I'm hoping to be more involved in discussions from now on.
Also, I'm planning to take another look at all the new lyrics, now that we have (almost) all original poems.

I saw pictures on Doug's blog, a dozen of them are from me as well (pics 27-37)

It took some time to sort things out but now it can finally be officially announced.

Howard Shore and Doug Adams will attend the two Fellowship-Live concerts in Lucerne, Switzerland, to talk about the music and the up-coming LotR-book and other projects!!!

Saturday, 29th of March 2008, 6:30 pm pre-concert-talk with Howard Shore and Doug Adams, 7:30 pm concert beginning

Sunday, 30th of March 2008, 5:30 pm pre-concert-talk with Howard Shore and Doug Adams, 6:30 pm concert beginning

I hope, a lot of fans will make the way to Lucerne to listen to this incredible music and to Doug Adams and Howard Shore!

Maybe that's something inquiring minds could ask Doug at the Q&A in Lucerne next weekend...even though I'm pretty sure he won't have much more information.

Odd, definitely.

[Message edited by Aman from Middle-Earth on 03-19-2008]

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Originally posted by PeterK:
I've just learned that the label has pulled LOTR ROTK complete from major distribution... I wonder if we can get a word in from Doug on this. Suppliers just say "it's been dropped" and that's it... no other info, understandably. They are just a supplier.

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Anyway, I decided to order mine from Amazon.com after all, since they still claim to have it in stock. €51 including shipping is ok, but I expect to pay an additional €20 or so for customs, which sucks.

Trying to see what's going on. Will post when/if I hear.

Please know that your frustration is shared.

-Doug http://themusicofthelordoftheringsfilms.blogspot.com/