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There don't seem to be any reviews or comments on this so hope nobody minds mine! Fundamentally, it was a terrific evening, and a welcome celebration of a wonderful composer, made even more wonderful by his effusive and warming personality. There was a pre-concert talk between the LSO's chief flautist and Doyle which the interviewed introduced by saying that he wouldn't have to say much as once PD was off and talking, he wouldn't need any more prompting. Not quite, but close. PD comes across as much an actor in his witty anecdotes and general comments about composing. He managed to mix being both gregarious as well as modest; he commented that it took him some time to consider himself a "composer".
The concert itself was a well balanced overview of his career to date, including the previously mentioned premiere of music from the next Jack Ryan film. My experience has been that world premiering something at a concert often results in disappointment and a track that you'd never get at a concert in 10 years' time, but happily the Jack Ryan cues were most enjoyable. Having said that, Doyle commented that they are very electronics heavy so they may not be representative of the score as a whole.
The other selections were all well chosen and a couple featured some theatrical friends. The Picnic from Much Ado had Emma Thompson (sporting a Scottish accent) reciting the "sigh no more" speech that appears on the score album and My Thoughts Be Bloody from Hamlet with the speech performed by Derek Jacobi. He was a little drowned out, despite his RADA projection and being miked up, but a thrilling mixture of speech and music.
The end credits song, I Find Your Love, from Calendar Girls featured three of the four Doyle progeny in a lovely performance which they pulled off well despite the obvious pressure of performing with the LSO in front of their dad... some other guest soloists did fine turns, notably both Irish and Scottish pipers performing in the (slightly disjointed, but enjoyable) suite from Brave (the Scottish bagpiper perhaps showing just what a true Scotsman has under his kilt when h sit down). The leader, Tomo Keller, performed the violin solo from Corarsik for Violin and Orchestra, a mini violin concerto written for Emma Thompson's 50th birthday, which is available on iTunes (better than nothing) via Pale Blue. Well worth the investment, a lovely work evoking the Corarsik region of Scotland.
Perhaps the only oddity was the lack of any encores, but the programme didn't feel like it was missing anything absolutely essential, although the other perhaps minor issue was that some of the selections could have been longer. Many were cues of only barely 3 minutes and it might have been nice had they been arranged into suites. Minor quibbles though, an excellent night all round. The only personal disappointment was being too polite to interrupt PD as he did a luvvie infested walkabout during the interval to get my copy of Brave signed which others seemed happy to do, but I felt like it might be an intrusion. On the other hand, I did get a photo with and autograph from Peter Capaldi...
Programme as follows:
Much Ado About Nothing - The Picnic & Overture
Hamlet - In Pace
Eragon - Main Title
Sense and Sensibility - My Father's Favourite & Weep You No More, Sad Fountains
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire - Harry in Winter & Potter's Waltz
Henry V - St Crispin's Day Speech & Non Nomis Domine
Interval
Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit - Faith of Our Fathers & Ryan, Mr President
Corarsik for Violin and Orchestra
Hamlet - My Thoughts Be Bloody
Calendar Girls - I Find Your Love
Rise of the Planet of the Apes - Caesar's Home
Wah-Wah - Train Away
Brave - Suite
Much Ado About Nothing - Strike Up Pipers
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The orchestra turned to a page titled "The Creation" (Frankenstein) for the encore, but shortly after got up and walked off.
As well as Capaldi, the audience had many celebs from Potter movies, Richard E Grant, Alan Rickman, not to mention Howard Blake.
Gosh, I didn't notice that. It did seem strange at the time that there was no encore, even just a repeat of something already performed. Maybe they forgot?! Or Overran? Mind you, I've just assembled the tracks performed into an iTunes playlist and it only comes to 1 hour 5 minutes (excluding the Jack Ryan tracks which likely add no more than around 10 minutes more and not being 100% sure which tracks were included from Brave) so it wasn't exactly a super long concert in the first place.
I also spotted Miriam Margolyes from the Potter films, didn't see Alan Rickman. Richard E Grant cried during Wah-Wah, one of the few films represented I've not seen. Clearly it meant a great deal to him.
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