The day started off on a great note when I watched the last hour of Independence Day while working out on my elliptical machine. Not only is that movie incredibly heroic, but the victorious experience of watching that movie is enhanced by the adrenaline of exercise.
After this I continued my reading of Atlas Shrugged. Coincidentally, I had reached a section in which the heroic characters are featured prominently at their best. Given the nice weather, I decided it would be perfect to leave for my New York Philharmonic concert early and spend the afternoon in Bryant Park, under several skyscrapers, reading Atlas Shrugged. I also thought it quite fitting to read it on a train! (Yes, I am that much of a dork).
So, after hours of walking through the city and reading Atlas Shrugged in the park, I made my triumphant return to Avery Fisher hall and prepared myself for what I knew would be an amazing experience: John Williams conducting the New York Philharmonic. Additionally, I had an amazing seat: front and center, where the acoustics are absolutely perfect. But to boot, I would in a few minutes be only 50 feet away from John Williams!
The crowd erupted in applause as he came out on stage. I have never witnessed a crowd so thrilled to see another human being in my life. The first song, "Sound the Bells!" was commissioned for a wedding in Japan in the early 90's. True to form, it was a heroic march and the crowd went wild after its conclusion. The Philharmonic sounded incredible. I do not know if it was the acoustics, the increased presence of the brass typical of Williams' music, or both; but it was phenomenal. It was so powerful that I saw the second violinist fighting back tears, already, after just the first piece!
The next several pieces were all commissioned for the film projects of Hook, Jane Eyre, and the Harry Potter films. Needless to say, they were quite enjoyable! Every moment of it I was captivated and awestruck.
To close out the first half of the performance, they performed a Williams arrangement of music from Fiddler on a Roof. I was skeptical of it going in, but I figured it would at least be pleasant. I was quite wrong. What followed was an eruption of glorious music that rivaled anything I had heard that night. Prominently, the principal violinist was featured with a prolonged solo that brought the house down upon its climax. The end of that piece brought the first of many standing ovations for the evening.
The second half of the concert featured five arranged pieces based on very famous movies of the 40's and 50's, particularly those with elaborate dance numbers featuring actors like Fred Astaire and Gene Kelly. Again, I figured this portion of the concert would be mildly pleasant. What I was really looking forward to was the last two pieces which returned to Williams' own music. Boy, was I in for a surprise. And, so were the rest of us, as a matter of fact.
The first piece to open the second half was a Williams arrangement titled "Hooray for Hollywood!" It was an incredible medley of widely known themes associated with Hollywood, and it was a fantastic surprise.
The next five pieces all came from movies directed by legendary filmmaker, Stanley Donen. For example, he was the director of Singin' in the Rain. Before Williams was to conduct the first piece, he got on the microphone and gave us a little background of what we would be seeing. A film projector was lowered, and we were to be privileged to see how an orchestra records a soundtrack to a movie! I could even see the video screen that Williams used to perfectly time the music! I felt like I was witnessing the re-creation of incredible music history!
But the biggest surprise came when Williams invited a special guest to come out to help him set the stage for the scenes we were about to witness. It was Stanley Donen himself! The crowd, which consisted of mostly people in the generation living at the prime of Donen's career, went absolutely bonkers. We were privileged to hear the detailed background of how Donen set up these incredibly elaborate dance scenes, and then watch them be performed on screen with a live orchestra! I cannot describe how cool that was.
The first scene he described consisted of Fred Astaire "dancing around the room." Literally, in the film shot, you see Astaire dancing on the walls and ceiling as he is singing about his love interest. It's an amazing sight! Donen explained that in order to get the shot, they spent months setting up an elaborate system. They constructed a huge turning wheel, then constructed a square set inside of it. Everything on the set was bolted down, including the camera, to preserve the illusion. The only thing left was months of rehearsal so that they could make Astaire dance perfectly within that set. Can you imagine how hard that must of been? Apparently that alone took months. But when we saw the final product, it was astounding. There was no way to tell that the ENTIRE set was spinning for Astaire to dance on the walls and ceiling. Add a great live soundtrack to that, and it was quite the spectacle.
The presentation of the other four dance numbers proceeded in the same manner, and all four were a delight to watch. The second involved an elaborate "dance fight" between seven brothers and a group of townspeople. They were competing for the love interest of seven girls in the town, so the progressively try to out-do each other with crazy dancing stunts. There is one scene in particular in which they leap onto a thin beam of wood and progressively attempt crazier stunts upon it. That scene alone was one of the coolest things I have ever seen!
Next, we got to see a dance number by Gene Kelly done entirely on rollerskates! He is in love (seems to be a pretty common theme in Donen's movies, hehe) and is dancing through the streets of New York City proclaiming his joy. Being an awful skater myself, it was astounding to see someone have such incredible control in skates. I could literally hear people seething in anticipation of pain as though Gene Kelly were about to have a disastrous fall. That is how impressive the dancing was.
The fourth dance number some of you may be familiar with, since Family Guy did a little parody of it. If you have seen Stewie in a dance number with a live action man in the middle of an episode, you saw Gene Kelly in one of Donen's films. That scene, in fact, was the first film scene between a cartoon character and live action human. It was so much fun. And finally, there was the scene from Singin' in the Rain, which I am sure just about everyone is familiar with.
In their own right, each of these dance numbers, and Donen's explanation of what went into creating them, were very exciting. But with the live music on top of them, particularly to see Williams time the music masterfully to the film scene, was just plain incredible. Upon the conclusion of the last dance number, the crowd jumped to their feet and gave Donen and Williams a huge standing ovation. At that moment I was witnessing the culmination of a lifetime's ambition in filmmaking. I cannot fully describe how inspiring that was.
For the "final" two pieces of the evening, the program returned to original Williams music. We were treated to Sayuri's theme from Memoirs of a Geisha, featuring a heart-wrenching solo by the principle cellist of the New York Philharmonic. It is interesting to note that this piece did not really seem to fit with anything else in the program. Everything else, especially the five pieces from Donen's films, were filled with such overwhelming optimism and heroism. The crowd responded so positively to this affirmation of optimism throughout the concert, but gave only mild applause to the one work that featured suffering. Very interesting indeed...
And then, the piece that absolutely everyone was dying to hear: "A Tribute to George Lucas and Steven Spielberg." To our utter delight, the audience was treated to a film montage of the films featured in the music as they were being played. Williams lifts his arms, we see a shark fin appear on screen, and the opening notes of the brilliant Jaws theme. The crowd went absolutely nuts. The music builds and builds, hitting its climax, it's about to musically resolve, and then trumpet fanfare! Star Wars! Again, the place went absolutely insane with delight. The themes from the Indiana Jones Trilogy followed next, with "The Flying Theme" from E.T. rounding off the medley. For those of you familiar with the ending of The Flying Theme, you can imagine how unbelievably amazing the whole thing was. I have never witnessed a more heroic and triumphant spectacle in all my life. A quote from Atlas Shrugged is very appropriate to express what it was like:
The music of [his] Fifth Concerto streamed from his keyboard, past the glass of the window, and spread through the air, over the lights of the valley. It was a symphony of triumph. The notes flowed up, they spoke of rising and they were the rising itself, they were the essence and the form of upward motion, they seemed to embody every human act and thought that had ascent as its motive. It was a sunburst of sound, breaking out of hiding and spreading open. It had the freedom of release and the tension of purpose. It swept space clean and left nothing but the joy of an unobstructed effort. Only a faint echo within the sounds spoke of that from which the music had escaped, but spoke in laughing astonishment at the discovery that there was no ugliness or pain, and there never had to be. It was the song of an immense deliverance.The entire crowd jumped to their feet and literally howled with delight. There's no possible way to describe how powerful the energy was in that concert hall. I have never experienced anything like it. The woman next to me, as a matter of fact, was bawling her eyes out, shaking even. My hands have never hurt so much and never have been as red after clapping as hard as I did. And I too was shaking and short of breath.
After several minutes of applause, Williams got on the microphone, thanking us, and asking us to sit. We were then treated to an encore featuring the principal flautist (who also did an amazing job with a solo in the music from Jane Eyre). The piece was his theme from the movie Sugarland Express. It was enjoyable, but not how I expected the concert to end. Indeed, I had thought to myself, I was disappointed that nothing from his Olympic music had been performed.
As I was thinking this, alas, he announces that they will now perform one of his Olypmic themes with a film montage of the best highlights from the 1988 Summer Olympics in the background! We watched countless athletes achieve victorious moments after years of brutal training and preparation, all to the sounds of one of Williams' most heroic themes! My smile and utter joy could not be contained at this sight. Again, at the conclusion of the piece, the crowd erupted in joy, launching to their feet the moment it was possible. That was the third massive standing ovation by that point.
So after several minutes of this, Williams comes out on stage, makes a funny face at the audience, and quietly reaches over to a podium and picks up another score! Triple encore! He gets on the microphone and tells us that they are now going to play his commissioned music for the NBC Nightly News theme. He jokes that what he conceived of as a 6-minute symphonic work, was being used by NBC for 15 seconds. They told him that if they ever had a slow news day, they would play the entire thing at the end of the broadcast. He said that he's been waiting a long time for that day, but it has not come yet! Surprisingly, the expanded version of the theme was incredibly good, and true to form, quite heroic. At its conclusion the crowd gave what must have been the fourth standing ovation of the evening. After several minutes, Williams finally left the stage for good and the orchestra packed up. By this time, the concert had lasted almost 3 hours!
I walked out of that concert hall in a total daze, into the most inspiring city on Earth. I must have looked a little insane, walking through the streets at a very fast pace, with a huge smile on my face. The experience left me feeling like I was in another world, one in which pessimism and suffering had absolutely no place. That is why that night was most certainly the best in my entire life. Nothing else that I have ever experienced compares in form and intensity!
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