Hans Zimmer Live 2023 – Bilbao – Concert Summary [Asier G Senarriaga]
Today, Friday, come the last 3 concerts of the Hans Zimmer Live 2023 tour, which began on April 23 in Germany and will end on June 23, 24, and 25 in Paris (read more).
In SoundTrackFest we brought you the special article ‘Hans Zimmer Live – Madrid 2023’ by Reme Díaz and today is the time to enjoy the great and detailed review of ‘Hans Zimmer Live – Bilbao 2023’ by Asier G. Senarriaga.
HANS ZIMMER LIVE - BILBAO - 11 MAY 2023
After approximately 40 years of career and more than four decades creating film music, Hans Zimmer, German-born Hollywood composer, musical trendsetter based on an unfathomable ability to bring freshness with new ideas and formats, to quickly leave them behind and create new ones, soon left his self-assumed and confessed stage fright behind, to dedicate several tours to his vast career. Thus Hans Zimmer Live and The World of Hans Zimmer were born, the second of which came to Bilbao for the first time in December 2019. Now and visiting the Villa as the beginning of his cycle of concerts in Spain, a renewed, expanded and apotheosic new version of the first one, came to us, lucky spectators of Bizkaia this past May 11, 2023. And what we experienced that day, as Paul Atreides himself would say in Arrakis:
“It was worth living.”
After receiving us an event venue as grandiose as the Bizkaia Arena, with a stage that was focused on us, the spectators enveloped by a yellow and blue light in tribute to many of the musicians of the show, belonging to the Ukrainian orchestra of Odessa, the concert was to begin with the lyricism of the female voice of Loire Cotler, placing us in a world known as Dune. And giving way to the solemnity of rock roots, and added Scottish bagpipes, the theme of the House of Atreides made the audience vibrate as the beginning of the party and opening of an intense, intoxicating, and triumphant tour of the career of an unleashed Zimmer, who was to dominate with his powerful presence the rest of the concert.
The thunderous sound power of the quintessential action motif of Inception, with the theme Mombasa, would transport us to a universe of percussions and blows of effect that perfectly defines the danger of the world of dreams, even if your name is Cobb and you are the best in the business.
After that, Zimmer began a gallery of presentations of the songs that were going to be played throughout the concert. Based on the interaction with his audience, he was great with his initial “Hello Bilbao, Hello Spain, Hello Bizkaia!!!”, with his musicians, the wonderful and charismatic artists, Pedro Eustache, brilliant with all types of instruments, especially the flutes of all kinds, Juan S. García-Herreros (Snow Owl) one of the best bass players in the world, (if not the best), Rusanda Panfili or Tina Guo (exceptional violinist and cellist respectively), who brought their charismatic presence, and their comedic timing to accompany Hans in hilarious translations between languages and sympathy in abundance, commenting on the next musical block to be interpreted, giving way to each new section.
Particularly inspiring was the mention of the female part of “The Band”, to start the melodic grandeur and adventurous symphonism of the superheroine par excellence, as Pedro said in Spanish, “Mujer Maravilla”. And the score of Wonder Woman 84 is one of those jewels that are not forgotten once heard for the first time. Hans Zimmer recreates the Island of Themyscira with a beautiful choral rendition, which gives respect, heraldic grandeur and magical sumptuousness to the Amazons, and then surrenders to the sensational thematic material for Diana Prince: first with the totality of the musicians giving way to the sense of wonder, never better said, and then giving Tina Guo the overwhelming grip of her solo cello to exploit the central theme and bring the Bizkaia Arena to the true ecstasy of the adventure.
After which, a Hans at the piano unraveled Clark Kent’s motif for Man of Steel, which kicked off a Suite full of sound beats and electric guitars at full power with Guthrie Govan and Nile Marr, to lead us to the final showdown between the Man of Steel and General Zod.
It is at that moment when we get the first great moment that is forever etched in the memory, the wonderful entrance of the legendary voice of Lisa Gerrard in a journey through the purest emotion and the most unleashed action, in the world of Ancient Rome, Gladiator. What this woman’s apotheosic voice made us all feel remembering the loss of Maximus Decimus Meridius and the betrayal of the New Emperor, brought many of us to tears. Pedro Eustache‘s rapturous interpretation on the duduk, took us to the battles in Ancient Germania through an exacerbated and wonderful lyrical feeling. The musicians placed us in the center of the battle itself, with that mythical Zimmer moment, which always gives us goose bumps, and which always characterizes his greatest works, in this case the attack of the catapults, until concluding again with the incomparable voice of Gerrard, as if telling each and every one of us in our ears, as if the message was only for us, “Now We Are Free”. Exhilarating.
And the first part concluded, as it could not be otherwise, with an indispensable Suite, for one of the greatest franchises of this century, to the sounds of the theme of a unique pirate by the name of Jack Sparrow. The selection of this film pentalogy, for the moment, focused on the lyrical and emotional side mainly, with Jack’s motif with the playful cello leading the way, followed by Davey Jones’ opening leit-motif, and Will and Elizabeth’s love theme from the third film as the centerpiece. Beautiful with those violins shelling out the melody, while the cellos carry the counterpoint of equal beauty, until exploding in a romantic motif that was only used once in the saga, and that is pure emotion, exploding in the “Up Is Down”, wonderful jovial pirate hymn and full of joie de vivre that derives in the sonorous explosion of the already mythical “He’s a Pirate” concluding in a magnificent way the Suite.
After twenty minutes of intermission, where all of us took the opportunity to comment on our favorite moments and how much we were enjoying, the second part arrived, which began with a very heartfelt and moving double tribute by Hans. Firstly, to his friend and author of the piece, the “Top Gun Anthem”, Harold Faltermeyer, and secondly to his director, tragically no longer with us, the incomparable director and visionary, Tony Scott. And the electric guitars and bass took us to the Danger Zone and brought us back safe and sound, perhaps with a wet eye in the process.
The visit to the Far East was very well received at that moment with the exciting and intense score for The Last Samurai, which took us on a journey of discovery parallel to its protagonist, Nathan Algren, of Japanese culture and the samurai world. With lyrical cello passages, thrilling violin interactions, Pedro Eustache bringing his magic on the oriental flutes, and taiko percussion, plus the grandeur of some action scenes that Hans respectfully composed to include voices and instruments of Japanese tradition. Especially epic was “Red Warrior” with the battle cries accompanied by a montage on screen, with written Japanese characters getting bigger and bigger as the chorus became more and more intense, until culminating in Algren’s theme transformed into the character of the title, losing its western-like melody and making it totally Japanese. Magical.
The concert reached a new point of paroxysmal intensity, when Hans’ voice presented the timbre of Christian Bale as Batman:
“The”
“Dark!!!!”
“Knight!!!!!!”
And the whole band gave everything to reflect the chaos of the Joker, the willpower of The Dark Knight and the mythical confrontation between the two, with the theme “Like a Dog Chasing Cars” in a new memorable concert version thundering the venue and a stratospheric Tina Guo leading the way. But it is then when Hans himself disappears from the stage and the spotlights show him in the stalls with his own pedal guitar touring the spaces with his fans, and giving a grandiose gesture of thanks to all of us for being there with him.
After that, I found the only piece of the concert that I did not know previously, as Hans said, the film was not seen by anyone, but some of these pieces for films that do not get success at the box office, do deserve to be in a concert like this. And so came X-Men Dark Phoenix, with original female voices in the foreground (I thought I understood that they repeatedly sang the word “Lithosphere”) of a first-rate synthesized work in a frenetic dramatic crescendo, until reaching an apotheosic sound wall of overflowing epicity, and gradually descending again to a silence driven by deep basses and the conclusion of the piece returning to the voices and synths playing with the previous development.
At that moment everything was in darkness and to our left next to my location a Bene Gesserit from the world of Dune sang the central theme of the film, to be relieved by another member of the same order to the right of the pavilion, and then another in the very center, being followed by the voices on stage, with the impressive Loire Cotler, and the band taking the sound spectrum to the rhythms of “Paul’s Dream”. Undoubtedly, the right moment to wish
“The spice must flow!!!”
It was time for what many, including myself, consider his masterpiece of the last decade, Interstellar, starting with its exciting and complex yet simple central theme, which gains in textures and multiple meanings as we get to know its protagonists and understand the effect that an interstellar journey can have on a family at an emotional level in its most biblical sense. The notes of Hans shelled by the piano give way to the organ, synthesizers, strings, and percussion, and to great songs like “Stay” and especially the spectacular boast of “No Time For Caution” or the musical definition of suspense at the highest level, to conclude with orchestral fierceness and emotionality to the surface in an absolutely perfect Suite. The huge disco ball hanging from the ceiling of the venue, which was illuminated from multiple positions and then began to rotate, and thus filled the room with “stars”, made us get even more into the sidereal space.
However, although still with goose bumps from the previous moments, I can point out that the highlight of this second part, and I think the reader will agree with me if he/she was there, was the entrance on stage of the living myth, Lebo M. to interpret in a heartfelt way the portentous song “He Lives In You”, starting the Suite of The Lion King. The chilling vocal power and charisma of the African singer, who I must admit, even brought tears to my eyes at the moment of “To Die For”, with the death of Mufasa, and in the triumphant final conclusion, in which the artists gave their all. Tears of emotion could be seen in many musicians, tears shared by a totally devoted audience, until a rapturous vocal finale with “Circle of Life” brought a well-deserved standing ovation. No matter how much time passes, we will never forget that ending.
And to face Spectra for the last time, an agent whose name we will never forget, whose number is the history of cinema and his music, No Time To Die entered the stage. With a Snow Owl giving the best of his art on bass, a Nile Marr with a “bond” guitar in hand, an unleashed Pedro Eustache as soloist, Rusanda Panfili on violin and a choreography including Caribbean dances, the James Bond theme gave way to Cuba Chase, with the Trumpet in arrangements by Arturo Sandoval, adapting to the Score the mythical “Chateau Fight” from Thunderball. A suite that took us in unbridled orchestral magic to the most glorious version of the Bond theme, to close the musical montage and prepare us for the last step of the journey, an end that is paradoxical Origin as a musical circular culmination of the day.
And an immeasurable Hans Zimmer at the piano, paying homage to one of his most immortal motifs, “Time”, served as a colophon to the concert, while a Totem, made up of a spinning top, was shown on the screen to the sound of the magical notes of the final theme of Inception. And while Hans played the piano, chills ran through the auditorium and goose bumps were a sure consequence of the emotion experienced, and of the communion between an exceptional band, a legendary composer, and a devoted audience, who felt rewarded.
And a thunderous ovation followed that last note broken by silence, after which all of us in the audience chose that the spinning top would keep on spinning and never break.
And the music of the Hans Zimmer Live Tour would continue to play with us long after this concert, which was already history, in every sense of the expression.
Article by Asier G Senarriaga
Pictures by Gorka Oteiza
