Last night, the Perth Concert Hall became a sanctuary for film buffs and music lovers alike as the Western Australian Symphony Orchestra (WASO) presented ‘Art of the Score: The Music of Hans Zimmer’.
Being a movie buff or music lover is not even a prerequisite however– this is the show to see if you are the person who plans a ‘museum day’ on a holiday (even if rain isn’t forecast). It’s about looking behind the surface value of a score or moment and understanding what’s happening underneath. A museum of Zimmer, if you will.
The premise of the production centres around a ‘live’ version of the existing podcast ‘the Art of the Score’ usually hosted by Dan Golding, Andrew Pogson and Nicholas Buc. This time, Golding and Pogson fulfilled their duties as the charismatic hosts while Buc busied himself as the (charismatic) conductor. A worthy deviation.
The banter among the three was organic, friendly and informative, setting the stage for what was to be an enlightening exploration of Zimmer’s genius.
The Music of Hans Zimmer. Photography by Daniel J Grant.
Zimmer’s music, known for being both ‘minimalist’ and ‘maximalist’ – which is explained over the course of the evening – was dissected before our very ears. The orchestra played through ten of his most well-known suites, with the unexpected highlights being ‘The Holiday’ and ‘Batman: the Dark Knight’ among well known favourites of ‘Lion King’, ‘Interstellar’ and ‘Pirates of the Caribbean’.
The show was at its best when the audience was taken through the history, imagery and motifs of several scores with an explanation by Golding and Pogson combined with expertly curated samples by Buc, leading the orchestra. These samples played with timing, tone and design to ‘show the working out’ behind each suite (our Math teachers would be proud).
While the ‘Da Vinci Code’ is no body’s favourite film (I am prepared to back myself in on this) it was enthralling to follow the themes, understanding how Zimmer uses a single, simple melody to convey emotions. The conductor and orchestra demonstrated how this melody can transform to match the evolving narrative of a film.
The Music of Hans Zimmer. Photography by Daniel J Grant.
We then moved to understand the genius use of only two keys in ‘The Dark Knight’ to create a sense of brooding superhero masculinity, or the blend of a piano with a traditional organ to give ‘Interstellar’ its familiar but also spacelike-eery quality. The audience was treated to the live demonstration of these techniques, with the orchestra masterfully switching between the soft whispers of strings and the bold, brassy declarations that Zimmer is famous for.
The balance between the 10 suites, host banter and educational forays could afford to be rejigged. For many of Zimmer’s most iconic suites, like Lion King and Gladiator, we missed out on taking a looking under the hood – but obviously were still comforted by the big bold sounds WASO had to offer.
The Music of Hans Zimmer is presented by the West Australian Symphony Orchestra from May 9-11.