A New Hope as NZSO
Having wowed Wellington fans earlier this year, the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra (NZSO) is spreading the Star Wars love around.
The NZSO has announced a three-centre, five-concert tour, in which audiences in the capital, Auckland and Christchurch will be treated to screenings of A New Hope and The Empire Strikes Back as they’ve never seen them before.
Under the baton of NZSO associate conductor Hamish McKeich, the orchestra will perform John Williams’ iconic scores live. It’s a concept they successfully ‘‘trialled’’ during this year’s New Zealand Festival in March to rave reviews.
Writing for Stuff, selfconfessed ‘‘Star Wars-nerd’’ Kylie Klein-Nixon paid the orchestra the highest compliment when she admitted, at times, she ‘‘forgot they were there’’.
‘‘The thing about film scores is that if you’re noticing them too much, they’re doing it wrong.
Here, they ‘‘totally nailed’’ all their cues and did it ‘‘with all the precision of a crack rebel team blowing up an Imperial base, like The Force is flowing through every finger, along every bow, between every pair of lips’’.
‘‘At times – the floating notes of a bass clarinet during Luke’s Tatooine scenes, the thunderous brasses heralding the Death Star – the hairs on my arms stand straight up.
‘‘Even the lighthearted moments – early scenes with Jawas and robots, for example – which on film recordings seem lightweight and inconsequential, have more charm and joyfulness in the phrasing here. You can feel how much the orchestra enjoys playing this music.
‘‘It’s awesome, in the proper sense of the word.’’
McKeich, who has his own time-coded screeners of the movies to prepare for the concerts, told Stuff earlier this year that he believes a well-