Concert Review: The Long Dark Road

The Lord of the Rings concludes at Lincoln Center.
by Paul J. Pelkonen

Down with the King: Viggo Mortensen as Aragorn in The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King.
Photo © 2003 New Line Cinema/Wingnut Films.

On Friday night, at Lincoln Center, the 21st Century Orchestra and Chorus, under the baton of music director Ludwig Wicki, premiered the score from The Return of the King, the third and final chapter in his ground-breaking film trilogy The Lord of the Rings. The performance, at a packed David H. Koch Theater, presented the performers with a considerable challenge, a three-hour gesamstkunstwerk that incorporated the motifs from the previous films, forcing conductor and massive ensemble to keep shifting gears to keep up.

Concert Review: The Road to Isengard

The 21st Century Orchestra and Chorus takes on The Two Towers.
by Paul J. Pelkonen

Gollum (played by Andy Serkis) in The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers.
Frame from The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers © 2002 Wingnut Films/New Line Cinema.
Used here for promotional purposes only. 

The 21st Century Orchestra and Chorus took the next steps on their journey to Mordor on Thursday night, with the first live performance in New York of the complete orchestral score to The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers. This is the second volume of Peter Jackson's award-winning film trilogy based on the works of J.R.R. Tolkien, and a film that won two Academy Awards after its premiere in 2002. Towers was the third concert of the orchestra's five-day stand at Lincoln Center's David H. Koch Theater. As before, the score was conducted by music director Ludwig Wicki with the movie shown on a wide screen above the stage.

Concert Review: A Journey in the Dark

The 21st Century Orchestra and Chorus plays The Fellowship of the Ring.
by Paul J. Pelkonen

Sir Ian McKellen as Gandalf in The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring
 Credit: © 2001 New Line Productions/Wingnut Films. Screen capture by Pyxurz

The long tradition of concert music in Western culture has spent much of the last century intersecting with the motion picture industry, starting with composer Erich Wolfgang Korngold's emigration to Hollywood in 1935. On Tuesday night at Lincoln Center's David H. Koch Theater, the 21st Century Orchestra and Chorus and their music director Ludwig Wicki took the next steps in that journey, performing the complete score to the 2001 movie The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring in concert with a screening of Peter Jackson's film.

Concerning Hobbits, Wizards and Leitmotifs

An introduction to the other Ring cycle.
by Paul J. Pelkonen

Frodo Baggins (Elijah Wood, center) Sam Gamgee (Sean Astin, left) and
Gollum (Andy Serkis, right)in a tense moment from The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers.
Image from The Two Towers © 2002 New Line Cinema/Wingnut Films, used for promotional purposes only,

This week Superconductor will visit the other massive Western art-work concerned with some dwarves, some heroes and a Ring of Power that these creatures will kill to possess. We will be attending and writing about the 21st Symphony Orchestra and Chorus's current stand at Lincoln Center's David H. Koch Theater. There,  conductor Ludwig Wicki will lead 250 musicians and singers in composer Howard Shore's orchestral score of The Lord of the Rings in conjunction with screenings of the Academy Award-winning trilogy.