HOWARD SHORE\u2019S THE LORD OF THE RINGS SYMPHONY WILL RECEIVE THREE PERFORMANCES BY THE WORLD-RENOWNED CLEVELAND ORCHESTRA UNDER THE DIRECTION OF THE COMPOSER FEBRUARY 10 \u2013 12, 2006 IN SEVERANCE HALL
\nFEBRUARY CONCERTS WILL BRING TOTAL NUMBER OF PERFORMANCES OF THE SYMPHONY TO MORE THAN NINETY SINCE DEBUT IN WELLINGTON, NEW ZEALAND IN NOVEMBER 2003<\/p>\n
\u201cShore’s symphonic journey certainly echoes J.R.R. Tolkien’s dark and wonderful story, with its mysterious swirling mists, majestic sweeps and whimsical touches where needed. But nothing can match the impact of Shore’s most powerful passages drawing upon full brass and percussion.\u201d<\/em> \u2013 Pittsburgh Post Gazette<\/p>\n New York, NY, January 23, 2006\u2013 Howard Shore\u2019s The Lord of the Rings Symphony: Six Movements for Orchestra and Chorus reaches a milestone next month when the world-renowned Cleveland Orchestra gives three performances of the work under the direction of the composer. Concerts in Cleveland\u2019s Severance Hall on February 10, 11 and 12 \u2013 and in Lyon, France, also in February \u2013 will bring the total number of performances of the work to more than 90 since its world-premiere in New Zealand in November 2003.<\/p>\n Looking ahead to the occasion of conducting the justly celebrated ensemble, Howard Shore comments, \u201cTo be working with one of the great orchestras in the world is truly an honor.\u201d<\/p>\n Founded in 1918, The Cleveland Orchestra has long been regarded as one of America\u2019s \u2013 indeed the world\u2019s \u2013 greatest ensembles. Under the direction of a series of extraordinary maestros \u2013 including the legendary George Szell and, more recently, Christoph von Dohn\u00e1nyi and current Music Director Franz Welser-M\u00f6st \u2013 the orchestra has been acclaimed by audiences and critics alike for the breathtaking beauty of its sound and the exceptional breadth of its repertoire.<\/p>\n Peter Czornyj, Artistic Administrator, said, “The Lord of the Rings Symphony has a double appeal of not only being a compelling and evocative piece of music but also a work that will allow us to continue to bring new, diverse, and younger audiences into Severance Hall to hear the Cleveland Orchestra.”<\/p>\n Shore has led a number of previous performances of the two-hour-long symphony as well as the enormously successful soundtrack recordings that accompanied director Peter Jackson\u2019s three record-breaking films in The Lord of the Rings series. Shore also conducts the complete score to the first of the three \u201cRings\u201d films, The Fellowship of the Ring, on a new deluxe four-CD set released In December 2005 by Warner Reprise. The set contains all the music Shore wrote for the film’s extended version, plus a DVD offering the score in Dolby Surround Sound.<\/p>\n Near the time of the Cleveland performances\u2013 but across the Atlantic \u2013 the Orchestra National de Lyon will present two performances of the symphony (February 10 and 11). In the spring, the Colorado Symphony Orchestra will also give two performances in Denver (May 19 \u2013 21).<\/p>\n Since its premiere performance in Wellington, New Zealand, on November 29, 2003, Shore\u2019s The Lord of the Rings Symphony has been performed nearly 90 times on four continents. Audiences from Sydney and Tokyo to Los Angeles and London have greeted the two-hour work with rousing ovations following performances in some of the world\u2019s most famous venues \u2013 including Sydney\u2019s Opera House, London\u2019s Royal Albert Hall and Moscow\u2019s Kremlin Palace Theater.<\/p>\n Some of the world\u2019s leading international orchestras \u2013 including the Philadelphia Orchestra, the Pittsburgh Symphony and the London Philharmonic \u2013 have performed The Lord of the Rings Symphony in addition to regional orchestras across the United States. In summer 2005 the symphony was played in the Odeon Herod Atticus in Athens, Greece, one of the city\u2019s most famous outdoor theaters; at the prestigious Schleswig-Holstein Festival in Germany; and in Oslo\u2019s Frognerparken, where Norway\u2019s acclaimed Oslo Philharmonic played it for a crowd estimated to have topped 70,000. The same orchestra gave another performance a few days later in Bergen for a crowd estimated at more than 30,000. The first two movements of the symphony, comprising The Fellowship of the Ring \u2013 the first installment of Tolkien\u2019s trilogy \u2013 was performed on a program entitled \u201cThe Rings: Myth and Music\u201d with music by Richard Wagner at New York\u2019s Carnegie Hall last November.<\/p>\n Shore takes particular pride in the fact that performances of The Lord of the Rings Symphony all over the world have been given not by a single touring orchestra but almost entirely by local performers:<\/p>\n \u201cThe symphony has been presented around the world, but regardless of where it has been done the performances have been given by local artists. That\u2019s the real joy of it for me: this work is helping awaken community interest in the symphony orchestra.\u201d<\/p>\n In addition to Shore, five other conductors have performed the piece internationally: John Mauceri, Alexander Mickelthwate, Markus Huber, Alastair Willis and Terry Edwards.<\/p>\n Howard Shore is currently working on an opera based on his film collaboration with David Cronenberg \u2013 a commission of The Fly for Los Angeles Opera. His score for The Aviator (his third collaboration with director Martin Scorsese) won both Golden Globe and Critics\u2019 Choice awards and was just nominated for a Grammy. His soundtrack for The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King and the song \u201cInto the West\u201d both won Grammy Awards last year as well as two Oscars and two Golden Globe Awards. His soundtracks for the previous installments of the trilogy \u2013 The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers and The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring \u2013 were also honored with Grammy awards. Shore\u2019s score for The Fellowship of the Ring also earned him an Oscar for Best Original Score. Earlier this month the National Board of Review of Motion Pictures presented Shore with its 2005 Career Achievement for Film Music Composition award.<\/p>\n About The Lord of the Rings Symphony: Six Movements for Orchestra and Chorus<\/u><\/strong><\/p>\n Howard Shore wrote his six-movement The Lord of the Rings Symphony for symphony orchestra, adult and children’s choirs, as well as solo instrumentalists and vocalists, totaling more than 200 musicians on stage. Working with conductor John Mauceri, who first suggested that the music of The Lord of the Rings be preserved as an independent work for the concert hall, Shore created a two-hour symphony drawing from the nearly 12 hours of music he composed for Peter Jackson\u2019s phenomenally successful film trilogy. (Shore received three Oscars and four Grammy awards for the soundtrack recordings.) The six movements of the symphony correspond to the progression of the epic through the six books that were adapted for the film trilogy. These movements capture the enormous complexity and limitless imagination of J.R.R. Tolkien\u2019s creation \u2013 from the simple, pastoral beauty of the hobbits\u2019 Shire to the magic and mystery of the Elves and the monumental battle scenes \u2013 in music by turns explosive, ethereal and, ultimately, transcendent.<\/p>\n As Doug Adams, author of the soon-to-be-published book The Music of the Lord of the Rings Films explained in a Chicago Tribune interview, \u201cThere\u2019s a different style of music for each culture of characters: hobbit, elf, dwarf. If you go to the symphony performance it\u2019s very much like an abstract version of Tolkien\u2019s story.\u201d<\/p>\n Shore achieves this enormous feat by the ingenious use and juxtaposition of a plethora of recurring motifs \u2013 close to 80 in all \u2013 associated with the various characters and places in the books. Shore\u2019s employment of some instruments foreign to the traditional Western symphony orchestra \u2013 and of choral settings in Tolkien\u2019s languages \u2013 help conjure up the ancient beauty of Middle-earth, its diverse inhabitants, and the harrowing struggle between the forces of good and evil.<\/p>\n Shore likens the daunting experience of writing the music for the three The Lord of the Rings films to that of the humble hobbit asked to carry the ring. \u201cWhen I started,\u201d he told the Chicago Tribune, \u201cI was the hobbit with the ring saying, \u2018I will do this. I will take the ring to Mordor, although I do not know the way.\u2019\u201d Shore considers his work on The Lord of the Rings to be the culmination of everything he has done in his first 40 years of writing music.<\/p>\n Critical acclaim for Howard Shore\u2019s The Lord of the Rings Symphony<\/u><\/strong><\/p>\n \u201cIt wasn’t the crowd that typically attends an orchestra concert, but it was an uplifting sight to see \u2013 and one that has been repeated around the world as Howard Shore’s \u2018The Lord of the Rings Symphony\u2019 draws new audiences to the symphony\u2026This symphony\u2026is breathtaking. Shore’s music takes listeners into new worlds, evoking a panorama of emotions that cut to the heart including love, serenity, pain and fury. It deserves to be enjoyed long after the movies have left the multiplex.\u201d<\/em> \u201c[Howard Shore\u2019s] instinct for melody is superb, his integration of legitimate ancient music sources with contemporary-sounding tonal clusters and harmonic invention is terrific, and, most of all, he creates, as both Jackson and Tolkien did before him, an entire imagined universe that is both detailed and consistent.\u201d<\/em> “There’s no denying the sweep and rich texture of the work, with its Celtic-like tunes, moody pop songs, and effective use of choral voices (think Carmina Burana, only darker). And Shore’s nod to Richard Wagner’s Ring Cycle at the very end, with the orchestra reveling in the healing power of a major chord, makes a satisfying coda. \u2026When the last notes dissipated, it sounded as if the demonstrative audience would keep the ovation going until long after all signs of Elvish had left the building.\u201d<\/em> “Shore’s musical opus is every bit as impressive as Tolkien’s literary one, standing on its own as a sweeping, operatic experience, even when liberated from the majesty of Jackson’s trilogy.\u201d <\/em> \u201cAmong the highlights of the six-movement [The Lord of the Rings Symphony] was \u2018The Prophecy,\u2019 featuring a lonely ney flute that evoked the other-worldliness of 5,000-year-old Middle-earth. The chorus swelled and climbed with urgent excitement in \u2018Concerning Hobbits,\u2019 and a solo fiddle added effervescence to \u2018The Shadow of the Past.\u2019 Heavy percussive drive on \u2018The Bridge of Khazad-dum\u2019 sweepingly suggested a history of classic cinema spectaculars. Emotional interludes included \u2018Hope and Memory\u2019 and \u2018The Riders of Rohan\u2019; \u2018A Knife in the Dark\u2019 pulsated with \u2018Camina Burana\u2019 excitement.\u201d <\/em> Howard Shore\u2019s The Lord of the Rings Symphony: Upcoming Performances<\/strong><\/u><\/p>\n Friday, February 10, Saturday, February 11 and Sunday, February 12<\/strong> Friday, February 10 and Saturday, February 11<\/strong> Friday, May 19, Saturday May 20, Sunday, May 21<\/strong> HOWARD SHORE\u2019S THE LORD OF THE RINGS SYMPHONY WILL RECEIVE THREE PERFORMANCES BY THE WORLD-RENOWNED CLEVELAND ORCHESTRA UNDER…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[15,21,138],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-24172","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-events-concerts","category-shore","category-old-special-reports"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1tLoH-6hS","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theonering.net\/torwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24172","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theonering.net\/torwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theonering.net\/torwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theonering.net\/torwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theonering.net\/torwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24172"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.theonering.net\/torwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24172\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theonering.net\/torwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24172"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theonering.net\/torwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24172"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theonering.net\/torwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24172"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\n\u2013\tBuffalo News<\/p>\n
\n\u2013\tNewark Star-Ledger<\/p>\n
\n\u2013\tBaltimore Sun<\/p>\n
\n\u2013\tThe Seattle Times<\/p>\n
\n\u2013\tVariety<\/p>\n
\nCleveland Orchestra and Chorus conducted by Howard Shore
\nCleveland, OH (Severance Hall)<\/p>\n
\nOrchestre de Lyon conducted by Terry Edwards
\nLyon, France (Hall of Tony Garnier)<\/p>\n
\nColorado Symphony Orchestra conducted by Markus Huber
\nDenver, Colorado (Boettcher Hall)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"