Film Symphony Orchestra – ODYSSEY Tour – Valencia – October 2026 [Concert Summary]

On October 2nd, the Odyssey tour by the Film Symphony Orchestra kicked off, under the baton of Constantino Martínez-Orts. Our friend and colleague Frederic Torres attended the concert held in Valencia on Saturday, October 3rd, and has left us a detailed special article, exclusively for SoundTrackFest.

 

ODYSSEY Tour, Film Symphony Orchestra. Constantino Martínez-Orts. 03/10/2026

For this new tour by the Film Symphony Orchestra, Constantino Martínez-Orts, its alma mater (the FSO’s artistic director, conductor and CEO), has latched onto this year’s cinematic buzzword, which is none other than “odyssey”, taking part in the cinematic event that British director Christopher Nolan’s film has become (for better or worse), as he has long been trying to turn trips to the cinema into “immersive experiences”. Getting ahead of the curve, Martínez-Orts had already announced at the end of the previous tour, Toon Story, devoted to animated films, that the next one, to launch in October after the summer, would be called Odyssey, well aware that Nolan’s film was set to premiere in mid-July.

 

And the curious thing is that the choice could not have been more apt, since general audiences, still caught up in the sheer scale of resources behind the film in question (shot on IMAX 70mm cameras, of which there are only around forty cinemas in the world able to project it, none of them in Spain), have perceived the FSO’s new offering as something epic and grand in scale. Despite not featuring the music of Ludwig Göransson, composer of The Odyssey (2026), on its programme, and probably not only for rights or orchestral-suite-adaptation reasons, but because that score, orchestrated in a rather particular way, made use of Bronze Age instruments such as the Greek aulos, or the Balkan kaval (an Albanian flute still used by shepherds in the south of the country), as well as a host of brass (gongs of all kinds), in order to transport the audience back to that distant era and so contribute to the “experience” Nolan set out to create.

 

However, that radical change of paradigm proposed by the Nolan/Göransson duo has not exactly been the one that has taken hold in concert halls when it comes to musically recreating the epic scope implied by a term as broad as “odyssey” (as confirmed by the very selection put together by Martínez-Orts); rather the opposite, with a preference for sticking to conservative, well-established and audience-tested paths when it comes to adapting the suites presented to an orchestral scale in which spectacle becomes the event’s main draw, setting aside what this year’s big hit offered as its fundamental musical contribution.

 

It was predictable that Nolan’s adaptation would prove a success, and Martínez-Orts has not been the only one keeping an eye on these trends, as other venues and orchestras have also, each in their own way and within their own means, aligned themselves with that epic quality which, for example, was already reflected in concerts such as the closing concert of FIMUCITÉ 20, last July, called Red Carpet Gala, made up of suites of American classics from various decades, including examples such as Out of Africa (1985), The Last Emperor (1987), and The Lord of the Rings (2001), coinciding with the repertoire programmed by the FSO, or the one named The Age of Empires, for the closing night of SONAFILM, in August, performed by the Universal Symphony Orchestra (read special article), with Trevor Jones in attendance as a guest, as well as the most recent one, almost coinciding with the launch of the FSO’s tour, named Music of Hollywood, by the Hradec Králové Philharmonic Orchestra & Choir of Prague, whose programme was put together exclusively from a substantial roster of epic works by Jerry Goldsmith and Basil Poledouris (read special article), to name just a few examples.

 

That being the case, the new tour opened at the Auditorio Nacional in Madrid on October 2nd, moving straight on, the very next day, to be performed at the Palau de la Música in Valencia, which is the concert I had the chance to attend. Clad in their characteristic outfits, somewhere between the elegant dress of a conventional orchestra and a few touches of “fantasy” (sequins, etc.), a look Martínez-Orts himself is the first to champion, with his now-unmistakable Matrix-style “cassock” (the outfit worn by Neo, the saga’s protagonist, especially from the second instalment onwards), and the colourful light shows that give such visual flair to their performances, considerably more restrained than on previous occasions.

 

The programme was as follows:

 

The concert began a few minutes past 18:30h with the overture to Thus Spoke Zarathustra, by Richard Strauss, which, as everyone now knows, Stanley Kubrick used for his legendary 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968). A spectacular opening which, however, perhaps lacked a touch of weight — not so much in the timpani, which delivered, but in the cymbals that precede them during the overture, in which the Palau’s organ was put to use (it would not be the only time).

After this opening, Martínez-Orts, as is customary, took the floor to introduce the tour and begin his educational explanations about the selected pieces, placing the music in context while briefly recalling plot aspects of the films in question, on this occasion at a pace that was perhaps a touch too fast, which at times made it hard to follow the thread of these well-meaning presentations, which ended up somewhat overwhelming the audience. It might perhaps be more interesting to trim their length in favour of a certain calm, although Martínez-Orts knows the project he is running very well, and his decisions are never taken lightly.

 

That was the approach taken to explain the inclusion of the main theme from Around the World in 80 Days, the classic by Victor Young, who won the Oscar for best score posthumously in 1956, a beautiful and striking waltz that the FSO performed without any trouble. Given how the later suites were presented, it might perhaps have been more interesting to present a suite devoted to the film, since Young’s music can by far be considered the best thing about it, as its end credits, with an animated summary-style presentation of the film, featuring all the varied themes used by Young, was quite well suited to being adapted for the concert hall. But that was not the case, and audiences had to make do with just the aforementioned waltz.

 

Next, the piece “I Had a Farm” was performed, from Out of Africa (1985), which is, in effect, the film’s overture, and which also brought its composer, John Barry, one of his five Academy Awards. The well-remembered British composer’s calm, “romantic” style was the key to Martínez-Orts’s presentation, who conducted the piece with assurance, although the amplification betrayed slight reverberation at certain points, as was the case with the horns.

 

From there, we moved on to the first suite of the night (even though the programme, now virtual — as has by now been firmly established at FSO concerts — only specified that a “Theme” would be performed), consisting of the music composed by Japan’s Ryuichi Sakamoto for The Last Emperor (1987), which, in the end, would also bring him the Oscar, as it did too for the Scottish (also naturalised British and American) David Byrne, and the Chinese Cong Su, co-writers of the score. Here, Byrne’s well-known central theme was set aside in favour of focusing on Sakamoto’s gorgeous music, which the FSO performed aptly and with restraint, with the string soloists shining in particular. It was undoubtedly one of the best musical moments of the night.

 

Next, the selection based on Hollywood’s golden statuettes was set aside (at least for the time being), to focus on two suites from two notably successful nineties titles, namely Dragonheart (1996), with music by Randy Edelman, which proved entertaining and striking, with a significant contribution from the horns (which once again sounded somewhat overloaded due to the amplification), and the stratospheric  Stargate (1994), by Britain’s David Arnold (and not “Arnolds”, as the virtual programme states — a small typo that could do with correcting), whose suite proved spectacular, if a little less so than one might expect for those who have had the chance to hear it in its original choral version, given that the FSO performs without any choir. Martínez-Orts’s explanations grew rather lengthy and detailed as he tried to briefly outline Arnold’s career, mentioning his involvement in James Bond films in the late nineties and early new century, before finally linking back to the convoluted plot of the selected science-fiction film.

 

The first half drew to a close with a brilliant performance of the “End Credits” from Star Trek: The Motion Picture (1979), by the master Jerry Goldsmith, which adapted the popular mid-sixties television series for the big screen, and in which the Los Angeles-born composer set aside the famous sixties theme by (usual) orchestrator Alexander Courage, in favour of a brand-new fanfare of his own (which, in turn, would go on to lead the relaunch of the television franchise in the late eighties, with Star Trek: The Next Generation, -1987/94-), which ultimately earned him an Oscar nomination that year.

 

Next came a suite from the unavoidable Gladiator (2000), by Hans Zimmer, the current leading figure in the music of Hollywood blockbusters. Here, a suite of the score was performed with considerable fidelity (electric guitar included), in which one could note the influence of Richard Wagner on the battle sequences, and especially that of Gustav Holst’s The Planets), and which also included the seed of the theme Zimmer would later gift to his protégé, his fellow German Klaus Badelt, to be used as the main theme of the hugely popular Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl (2003). As if that were not enough, Seville-born Anaís Santa Cruz (or Sancruz, according to the programme), a regular at FSO concerts, sang (with microphone and amplification) the song “Now We Are Free”, performed by Lisa Gerrard on the original soundtrack, adding a distinctive touch to this much-admired score.

 

After the interval, the concert resumed with the usual Hollywood quiz for two people, in which, on this occasion, around ten pieces composed by John Williams were performed, each lasting just a few brief seconds, in the process promoting the upcoming tour devoted to this saga, to mark the anniversary of its birth in 2027, which delighted the audience, a highly cross-generational crowd but one very well-versed in Williams’s popular music, probably one of the most successful and widely recognised bodies of work in the history of cinema. Next, Martínez-Orts once again turned to the Oscars to open the second half, bringing in, as in the first, a suite from a classic such as The Wizard of Oz (1939), which brought Herbert Stothart, the composer of the incidental music and a composer rather little known to the public, Academy recognition in the form of the Oscar (Martínez-Orts’s own particular guiding light, and something of an obsession of his), at the expense, no less, of the magnificent score Max Steiner composed for Gone with the Wind (1939).

 

The suite sounded very good and took in the entire film footage of this important musical work, which included the famous song “Over the Rainbow”, which also won the Oscar that year, and which went to Harold Arlen (who is credited as its author in the FSO’s programme), once again brilliantly performed by vocalist Sancruz. The concertmaster of the orchestra, Amanda Ochoa, also shone, in the performance of the “Theme” from Cinema Paradiso (1989), originally composed and performed on piano for the film by Andrea Morricone, the son of the maestro Ennio (to whom the theme in question is credited in the programme), who, fitted with the amplification provided by a microphone set up specially for the occasion, performed her solo with sensitivity and in fitting style. Although the audience were left charmed by the piece, which is always a crowd-pleaser, its inclusion in a “general” programme of the kind put together for this Odyssey tour does raise reasonable doubts. Although it did not matter all that much either, since it remains a piece of music that charms audiences all the same.

 

The surprise grew even greater when, straight afterwards and without any explanation, the FSO launched into the brief main theme of the television series Falcon Crest (1981-90), by the great Bill Conti, whose inclusion Martínez-Orts justified with no small amount of humour and cheek, confessing that he had long wanted to perform it (being very much a child of the eighties), but that the piece had never quite fitted into any of the tours put together so far, and that, whether it made sense or not, this time he was going to perform it on stage regardless. A shame he did not think of some other work by Conti, such as The Right Stuff (1983), a film about the space race that ticked two indispensable boxes for inclusion as a suite of its music, namely, a plot centred on the odyssey involved in the selected American pilots becoming astronauts, and the fact that it earned Conti an Academy Award that year (one of Martínez-Orts’s particular weaknesses, as has already been noted).

 

With this whim satisfied, things returned to their usual course and the FSO performed a powerful suite from Avatar (2009), with Sancruz contributing on vocals, and a brilliant performance from the flutes, in which the music of the late James Horner shone in its own right, even though it ultimately lost out at the Oscars to the delightful score Michael Giacchino composed for Up (2009), Pixar’s delightful and moving animated film. It seemed as though Martínez-Orts had skipped one of the programme’s titles, since Horner’s suite should have been performed after the piece “Fratelli Chase” from The Goonies (1985), by Dave Grusin. But it was only a momentary slip, as it was recovered straight afterwards, to the delight of the popcorn-munching audience in attendance, who enjoyed the lively scherzos and pizzicatos of the strings, as well as the drum kit’s contribution, cleverly integrated into the body of the orchestra.

 

The latter also lent its power and muscle to the following two suites, the one devoted to the imposing Interstellar (2014), by Zimmer, which featured an interesting contribution from the organ, just as in the original score, and from which a suite was put together featuring the film’s three central themes, which left the audience all but stunned, with Martínez-Orts trying to top it off with another no less spectacular suite from the trilogy devoted to The Lord of the Rings (released in cinemas gradually between 2001 and 2003), the work of Canadian Howard Shore, which also earned him a fair few Academy Awards, and in which Sancruz’s contribution once again stood out, especially in her performance of the song “May It Be”, evoking Ireland’s Enya, who sang it for the first film, also winning the Oscar for best song of the year. The whole orchestra shone, with the strings taking the lead in the piece devoted to the Shire and the hobbits, and the brass and percussion (with the percussionist striking the anvil like a blacksmith) for the epic battle sequences.

 

After this climax of crescendos, and after receiving the audience’s warm applause, Martínez-Orts launched into the customary encore, which turned out to be the main theme of the popular series Game of Thrones (2011-2019), by Ramin Djawadi, which the audience recognised to a greater or lesser extent, despite its success, owing to the passage of a few years and how difficult it is to replicate the sound of the instruments used in the original recording. The final touch was provided by the piece “Cantina Band”, from Star Wars (1977) by John Williams, in a thoroughly festive spirit, with every section dancing and showing off its own gags, and with the string players’ bows turned into lightsabers, as is customary for the closing piece at FSO concerts, save for the odd exception at some thematic concert (Wanted, for example – read special article).

 

An epic concert, bolstered with a touch of amplification to dazzle the expectant audience, who once again thoroughly enjoyed the programme put together by the FSO’s leader, who, as ever, posed at the end for the photocall set up in the hall of the Palau de la Música with the usual costumed film characters (in particular, from the Star Wars saga).

 

The formula is well and truly established and tested: programmes striking in both content and form (though virtual, so as to require downloading the app, and, for those who wish, taking part in competitions), centred on spectacle, whatever the theme happens to be. As seasoning, classics from Hollywood’s golden/silver age are brought back, with a heavy helping of eighties and nineties titles (mostly drawn from the “Williams school”), Martínez-Orts’s own personal musical “Golden Age”, who, true to form, continues to steer clear of including works that are not just Spanish, but not even European, avoiding anything lacking a commercial, popular appeal for the sacred general public. As noted earlier, an Odyssey without The Odyssey. And yet, perhaps precisely because of that, it triumphs time and again without showing any sign of weakness or fatigue. Quite a phenomenon.

 

Article by Frederic Torres

Photos by Javier Bragado/FSO