This intimate musical celebration was a lovely way to mark the 25th anniversary of Peter Jackson’s epic trilogy and its iconic score.
It’s hard to believe that a quarter of a century has passed since I first watched The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring at the cinema. Since then, I lost count of how many times I re-watched the trilogy on screens big and small, and I jumped at every chance to hear Howard Shore’s majestic score live, sometimes with mixed results. Ideally I would have wished for a full orchestra to bring The Lord of the Rings music to life in all its glory, but having already been to the Candlelight Hans Zimmer concert, I looked forward to what a string quartet could do with some of the greatest film music ever written.
I took an earlier train to the city than intended, and arrived at the Collingwood Town Hall early enough to be near the front of the queue. I was ushered in to a seat in the second row from the stage, where you could really bask in the atmosphere created by the hundreds of candles. The heavily tattooed young woman next to me sported plastic elf ears, but otherwise I didn’t spot any dressed-up fans like I did at some of the movie screenings. Once again, I enjoyed the beautiful Art Deco architecture of the venue, quite distinctive for a government building.
The Eclective string ensemble didn’t waste time launching straight into the haunting, ominous musical opening of The Fellowship of the Ring, and I could pretty much hear Cate Blanchett’s Galadriel narrate the prologue in my head. Even this relatively minimalist strings arrangement gave me instant chills, and I was totally hooked and entranced for the rest of the night.
The concert was in four parts, each one a medley of the trilogy’s most popular themes, moving in a roughly chronological order from the prologue to The Grey Havens and Into the West (sadly without a guest appearance by Annie Lennox). I might have wished to hear some of my favourite parts of the score in full, but overall I thought that the medleys had a nice flow and were a great tribute to Shore’s masterpiece. One of the surprises was the inclusion of the cheerful jig from Bilbo’s birthday celebrations, which, alongside the whimsical theme for the Shire, is one of trilogy’s few lighthearted musical moments. The melancholy and bittersweet side of The Lord of the Rings stands out more and more to me with years, and the strings seem to bring out these emotions even more so.
My personal highlights were the utterly gorgeous Evenstar and the plaintive yet stirring Rohan theme, which drew a big cheer from the crowd as it should; the Rohirrim are by far my favourite people in the trilogy. I was also impressed with the quartet recreating the menacing industrial feel of the Isengard score sans its trademark clanging percussion. All the members played beautifully, but the standout for me was the expressive, emotive performance from the lead violinist who was just mesmerising to watch. Naturally, jokes were made about the multiple endings of The Return of the King.
Now of course I’ll have to do an umpteenth Lord of the Rings marathon back home!
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