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Posted: |
Jan 27, 2020 - 10:14 AM
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By: |
Thor
(Member)
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Damn these headline restrictions! 
OK, so while all of you were in Vienna for the John Williams concert on January 18th (and apparently had the time of your lives), I hosted a John Williams concert here in Oslo (well, actually a suburb of Oslo called Lørenskog). Most bizarre collision of events ever! Nils – who is a member here, and will no doubt chime in soon – plays clarinet in the Lørenskog band, and was more heavily involved in the event than I was; I just a hired hand, really.
In any case, several hundred audience members showed up for this concert in the new Lørenskog House of Culture. The performers this evening were the Lørenskog band, accompanied by the Skala Opera Choir. Also featured were soloists from within the band, as well as an external soloist – violinst Aja Humm who has played with major orchestras, like the Oslo Philharmonic, and has her own string quartet called Fine Nordic Strings.
Although I was pissed to miss out on the Vienna concert and history being written down on the continent, this particular concert had one great advantage over that one – the world concert premieres of “Hassle in the Castle” from CHECKMATE and “Mambone” from BACHELOR FLAT! Both of these were newly arranged by composer Knut Avenstroup Haugen (perhaps most famous internationally for his AGE OF CONAN game scores). Everyone knows how much I obsess over early/obscure Williams and the chance to hear it live, so that was a treat. And then there were more classic selections, of course. That was also thrilling, especially the epic performance of “Duel of the Fates”.
There was apparently a video recording of the concert, but all I have at this moment is an audio file with medium sound quality (you can barely make out my own comments between the pieces…but that’s probably for the best, LOL!). I’m not sure I’m at liberty to post any of the audio clips here; Nils would have to approve first.
In any case, I just wanted to tell about this event, since it’s so rare to have the two aforementioned pieces performed live. Here’s the full concert programme:
1. Superman: The Movie: “The Planet Krypton”/”Superman March”
2. Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone: “Harry’s Wondrous World”
3. Checkmate: “Hassle in the Castle”
4. Jurassic Park: “Suite”
5. Schindler’s List: “Jewish Town”/”Theme” (violin: Aja Humm)
6. Catch Me If You Can: “Selections” (saxophone: Øivind Hansen)
7. Saving Private Ryan: “Hymn to the Fallen” (w/Skala Opera Choir)
8. Indiana Jones: “Keeper of the Grail”/”The Raider’s March”
- INTERMISSION –
9. Star Wars Saga: Main Title / Yoda’s Theme / The Imperial March / Princess Leia’s Theme / The Throne Room/Finale
10. The Terminal: “Viktor’s Tale” (clarinet: Christin Kolden)
11. E.T.: “Adventures on Earth” (selections)
12. Bachelor Flat: “Mambone”
13. The Phantom Menace: “Duel of the Fates” (w/Skala Opera Choir)
14. Amistad: “Dry Your Tears, Afrika” (w/Skala Opera Choir)
15. Encore: “The Olympic Spirit”
I’m waiting for pictures, videos and (better) audio to come in, but meanwhile, here’s a brief video snippet of the rehearsal of Schindler’s List the day before the concert, as posted on Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/lorenskog.musikkorps/videos/2558047010927474/
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Posted: |
Jan 28, 2020 - 3:22 AM
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By: |
Nils
(Member)
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Thank you, Thor, for doing an amazing job hosting our show!
(I was the one who hired Thor, so I’m at least partially responsible for him having to skip the Vienna event, which was announced after our concert date was set. Sorry, Thor! )
Your presentations were excellent, with just the right length and a great mix of interesting, relevant information and fun facts. People from the audience have told me they would have liked to meet you after the concert to congratulate you on your job and tell you how your introductions really enhanced the concert experience for them. Kudos!
Cool also that you joined us for the after-concert party. 
It was exhilarating to perform a full concert of my favorite composer’s music, and playing the never-before-performed-live (as far as we know) "Hassle in the Castle" and "Mambone" was a blast! Of course, we’re only non-professionals, so there were some rough spots – performing a two hour concert with some quite difficult symphonic music is a challenge!
The selections with the (really excellent) Skala Opera Choir were definitely some of the high points. They were located on two high balconies on each side of the hall, which gave the choir pieces a marvelous, majestic “surround” sound. As a 12 year-old in the audience commented on "Duel of the Fates": "That was epic!"
Yes, we did both audio and video recordings of the event. I’ll check with the guys responsible for the recordings – hopefully we can post some of it here later.
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Thank you so much for sharing these files.
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