Last Friday I went to the Davies Symphony Hall next to the San Francisco Civic Center and saw The Legend of Zelda Symphony of the Goddesses. This was my third symphony event in the past two months and it was also the one I was looking forward to the most, the other two having been Pixar in Concert and Disney/Pixar: A Musical Journey into Animation. I really, really love going to the symphony because our orchestra is amazing and it's a really unique way of watching movies that I've found myself enjoying much more than just sitting down in a theater.
Above is a picture from where I was sitting. I've decided to aim for seats in this section because the pricing isn't super expensive and for the events like these where you watch what's on the screen you get a great view of both the screen and the orchestra. For the Zelda symphony I actually ended up going by myself because when I went to get the tickets there was only about ten left and none of them were together so I just got myself a ticket. I didn't have any worse of a time because I was alone, but walking through and taking Bart to San Francisco by myself for the first time was a bit unnerving. The Davies Symphony Hall is really beautiful inside and out, and very accommodating. They sometimes set up exhibits about the event happening inside, like for the Pixar one they had a concept art gallery for some of the movies. You can also bring food and drinks into the hall.
(Here are some Snapchats I took during the symphony)
The Zelda Symphony isn't anything particularly new. I believe they've been doing this since around 2011 and I went last year, but they continually add new pieces to the show. This year featured a Breath of the Wild arrangement to feature the new game's music and it was amazing. I couldn't even really remember what music was in the game because of how quiet and understated it is, but when they performed it, it brought back all of my memories and made me want to replay it again. The conductor this year was also great because of how enthusiastic he was; he kept turning around after a song to smile at the audience and used the plastic replica Windwaker baton they sold for the Windwaker part of the show. The whole place was excited to be there, people were dressed up in cosplay and would cheer whenever someone was shown on the screen. It gave the event a really fun, lighthearted atmosphere.
The other two symphonies I went to had more of an emphasis on film and actually brought in some of Disney/Pixar's top producers to talk about the movies they had worked on and how the music for the movies was brought to life. I loved the Disney symphony mainly because they played a lot of the anthems from the princess movies. I love Pixar just as much as Disney, but they don't have that many princesses. The Disney symphony featured Don Hanh who produced Beauty and the Beast and The Lion King, and the Pixar symphony featured Ronnie Del Carmen, who co-directed Inside Out. These two symphonies were basically snippets of various Disney/Pixar movies and the soundtracks were entirely orchestrated. They showed the first fifteen minutes from Up both times and that brought everyone to tears because of how nice the music was and how sad those first fifteen minutes are.
All in all I think everyone should head down to the symphony hall at least once in their lives. They do regular symphonies and they also do even more film centered events. One other thing I was considering going to was North by Northwest, where they show the film but the music is played by the orchestra. I think this is a really easy way to get out of the house and enjoy yourself, and if you're tired of watching movies in the theater you can come and watch them here! For a much higher price, but it includes the symphony experience after all.
-Bookwyrm
No comments:
Post a Comment