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Posted: |
May 13, 2013 - 10:11 AM
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By: |
foxmorty
(Member)
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The concert and presigning events were a blast! It was awesome to see so many friends in the same room with all of the composers and such awesome musicians. The signing part went well, mostly Giacchino, Debney, Eidelman, Tyler, Isham, Navarro and Lennertz sat down to sign most of the time. Elfman slipped in quietly and no one saw him until his moment on stage at the end. After that, he slipped out faster then anyone and had an entourage that looked like the Secret Service. Hans Zimmer also slipped out and avoided the crowds. Myself, along with a couple other folks (including my dear friend Peter Hackman) managed to snag Hans Zimmer while he was smoking outside. I calmly went up to him and apologized for interruping his smoking and kindly asked him to sign...and to my surprise he signed everything I brought with me. He said he was nervous about the concert, and I assured him that he would do quite well and not to worry. He performed well. The concert was amazing in every sense of the word. John Powell sat in the audience but also came and went before anyone could stop him to sign anything. With the exception of a couple of us catching Zimmer earlier in the day, he, Powell, and Elfman were the hardest to catch up to and didnt shop up for any pre-events or signing.
yeah i will try not to dwell on the negative too much. but it would have been nice for some of these guys to at least stop at the afterparty where people donates a pretty penny to attend. so disappointing in that respect for sure.
but not to be bogged down in grumbling what a class act some of those other composers are. eidelman, tyler and giacchino. giacchino in particular. he's won the oscar and is still so down to earth and approachable. such a good sport about signing things while there and delivered an amazing performance of into darkness. he made the evening, hands down.
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Yeah Giacchino is a true champ. He shocked the heck out of everyone with an amazing performance of a suite for Into Darkness...and conducted the whole thing! It was the first time (to my knowledge anyway) that anyone has seen him conduct...and he was damn good too!
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Seeing him and Brian Tyler conduct are perhaps highlights of the evening for me. Mr. Tyler had such energy while conducting AVPR and the orchestra kept up!
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Posted: |
May 13, 2013 - 12:29 PM
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By: |
Morricone
(Member)
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It took me one or two years of going there before I thought people should see this little group in San Pedro whose repertoire was mainly film music. They got so good I started threads like this one:
http://www.filmscoremonthly.com/board/posts.cfm?threadID=26484&forumID=1&archive=1
I would do reviews hoping I could get someone down there and THEY would become enthused and bring a couple more fans down.
Well saturday everyone I could imagine showed up. Every fan who could make it, was there. And composers were coming out of the woodwork. Don Davis was in the restroom. Christopher Young was in the concession line, I think. Chris Lennertz sat behind me, John Powell and Brian Tyler across the aisle. The 1500 seat picture palace was packed.
I don't think I have to entice anyone anymore. People like bigbearla (in the above post) will do it for me.
So all I need to do here is be elated that Steven Allen Fox has now arrived. The GSPO is film music concert central.
The concert was the most chaotic I'd been to there. But rather than nitpicking on piddling stuff that may have been going wrong here and there I just want to bask in how overwhelmingly ambitious and entertaining it was. It was like some film music fan's wet dream with composer after composer doing score after score throughout the night. And there they were playing their own work! Each composer seemingly demanding different things from the orchestra to make their piece come alive and be distinguished. From the jacketless John Powell whose no-nonsense let's get-this-job-done funkiness which made his already glorious HOW TO TRAIN YOUR DRAGON moreso, to Michael Giacchino's almost humorous let's-go-for-it brand of conducting which brought STAR TREK INTO DARKNESS a standing ovation, the GSPO was given the workout of their lives. Perhaps the two I was surprisedly most impressed with was Diego Navarro and Austin Wintory. They gave unbelievably passionate renditions of music that was not their own, SPARTACUS and TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD. For someone who can plum the depths of feeling, all in the name of Alex North and Elmer Bernstein, I say thank you! The contrasts were dramatic too! The touching Joel McNeely IRON WILL against the steely intense Brian Tyler ALIEN VS. PREDATOR against the exotic John Debney THE ANT BULLY.
And being a hardcore Goldsmith fan, the embarrassment of riches of 4 pieces from Jerry almost bothered me. But when I took a couple steps back and realized how it happened it made sense. Townson probably chose only two, RUDY movingly conducted by Cliff Eidelman (who was on the scoring stage when Jerry originally did it) and THE FINAL CONFLICT, Robert’s first soundtrack of 1200 he released. But he wanted an overture and entr'acte for the night too. The first was given to Steven Allen Fox and Victor Pesavento and the second Christopher Lennertz to concoct from the Varese library. The fact I have always found Goldsmith to be a favorite of more composers than anyone else made this Jerry top heavy night OK. They simply picked Goldsmith also as a favorite, which is not a surprise. BTW those two intros provided the most opportunity for other composers to shine like James Horner (ALIENS), Michael Kamen (IRON GIANT), Bruce Broughton (THE BOY WHO COULD FLY), Basil Poledouris (ROBOCOP), Don Davis (THE MATRIX), Brad Fiedel (TERMINATOR) and someone named Erich Wolfgang Korngold (THE SEA HAWK).
Special mention to Sara Andon, the flutist who made Delerue’s A LITTLE ROMANCE, Bernstein’s TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD, North’s SPARTACUS and Debney’s THE ANT BULLY all the more special!
And now for the two headliners! Hans Zimmer had his little group perform with the orchestra DRIVING MISS DAISY (which drove our own Drivingmissdaisy to tears) but as a bridge played MAN OF STEEL. Now THAT is original, weird but original. As for Elfman’s PEE WEE’S BIG ADVENTURE I considered it a twofer, as much a Rota tribute as an Elfman piece (and he has as much as said so in the past). The highlight being their mutual admiration society curtain call!
Again the multi-facted Steven Allen Fox filled in for every composer either not known for their conducting like Mark Isham or no-shows like Miklos Rozsa  .
And his orchestra played so consistently well over the most chaotic circumstances imaginable THEY must be given top honors for the night along with the Golden State Pops Chorale led by Maestra Marya Basaraba!
I am sure others will give their take on this piece of history.
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Posted: |
May 14, 2013 - 8:48 PM
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By: |
bigbearla
(Member)
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Thanks, Morricone and everyone for posting your thoughts, photos and videos from Saturday night’s concert. Morricone, I must have been sitting just behind you. I was in row D, and Christopher Lennertz and the lady he was with were seated to my right.
To answer Lokutus’ question about the pre-concert signing - GSPO had an 8' table just inside the theatre past the red carpet. A bunch of us lined up around 7 pm. If I recall correctly Michael Giacchino, Brian Tyler and John Debney sat down first. They all signed for a long while, and the others came in to sign for various short times. There was quite a crowd lined up, but the composers all seemed very friendly and willing to sign items from the Concert and items that people brought with them. I was able to get everyone’s signature plus Steven Fox, Bob Townson and Christopher Young.
Hans Zimmer and Danny Elfman did not sign. I went to the stage door after the performance, and they were both polite enough to sign my program and 35th Anniversary CD on their way out.
I plan to put the complete autographed Concert Program Book and a copy of the Varese 35th Anniversary CD up for Auction in mid-June for a fundraiser I am co-producing in LA. The fundraiser is for an entertainment charity that provides financial support and social services to professionals work in film, theatre, television and music - including composers, musicians and concert professionals. The auction might be available for people online as well. I’ll keep the group posted, or if anyone is interested please PM me. Thanks!
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You hear that, Thor?
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Posted: |
May 15, 2013 - 12:23 AM
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By: |
Morricone
(Member)
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Thanks, Morricone and everyone for posting your thoughts, photos and videos from Saturday night’s concert. Morricone, I must have been sitting just behind you. I was in row D, and Christopher Lennertz and the lady he was with were seated to my right.
To answer Lokutus’ question about the pre-concert signing - GSPO had an 8' table just inside the theatre past the red carpet. A bunch of us lined up around 7 pm. If I recall correctly Michael Giacchino, Brian Tyler and John Debney sat down first. They all signed for a long while, and the others came in to sign for various short times. There was quite a crowd lined up, but the composers all seemed very friendly and willing to sign items from the Concert and items that people brought with them. I was able to get everyone’s signature plus Steven Fox, Bob Townson and Christopher Young.
Hans Zimmer and Danny Elfman did not sign. I went to the stage door after the performance, and they were both polite enough to sign my program and 35th Anniversary CD on their way out.
I plan to put the complete autographed Concert Program Book and a copy of the Varese 35th Anniversary CD up for Auction in mid-June for a fundraiser I am co-producing in LA. The fundraiser is for an entertainment charity that provides financial support and social services to professionals work in film, theatre, television and music - including composers, musicians and concert professionals. The auction might be available for people online as well. I’ll keep the group posted, or if anyone is interested please PM me. Thanks!
That is supercool. Maybe we should meetup at the STAR WARS concert.
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I snagged Powell on my 3 disc FYC How To Train Your Dragon, he he he. Btw when I got up to tinkle and I came back he was in my seat. I chuckled. Only me would a hard to get composer be in my seat.
I have no complaints. Fun night all around and I was tired the next day from all the excitement. Marcus scored BIG with Hans! I got my special edition Simpsons sdtk box signed on the front.
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Posted: |
May 16, 2013 - 12:07 AM
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By: |
dogplant
(Member)
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I believe Townson has bemoved all the performance Youtubes of this event
My little curtain call video survived, so far, but I made a point of not intruding on performances. I had a direct line of sight with Hans Zimmer at the keyboard for Driving Miss Daisy, from just four rows away, but it is so much more memorable to be in the moment, 10 yards or so from the maestro, letting the experience wash over you, rather than peering at it through a viewfinder. Too many iPhones in this world rob the magic from live music events, in my opinion, and it's a pain to be seated behind someone with their little video screen upraised while all that epic music is blasting all around. It was fantastic to watch Hans having fun and swapping keyboards back and forth, Brian Tyler just electric with his AVPR performance, and Giacchino tripping the light fantastic. Having said that, I have a couple of cool photos for you, Henry, from the front of the theatre.
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