World Soundtrack Awards 2024 – James Horner Tribute Concert [SUMMARY]

On Thursday, October 17, the World Soundtrack Awards held a special concert in Ghent, entitled ‘James Horner Tribute Concert‘ in honor of the legendary American composer James Horner (read more).

 

Our friend and colleague Sergio R. Ortiz attended the concert, and here is a great summary exclusively for SoundTrackFest.

 

Ghent celebrates the legacy of James Horner

This year within the concert program of the World Soundtrack Awards – Film Fest Gent a tribute to the legendary American composer James Horner was held. The festival features the Brussels Philharmonic and conductor Dirk Brossé who are in themselves a guarantee of quality for all those who have enjoyed it previous years. This tribute was no exception.

 

The concert program consisted of twelve pieces representing 10 of Horner’s most celebrated works, selected by Simon Franglen, who was also present at the concert. The perfect ingredients for an unforgettable evening.

 

Presenter Carlo Siau helped to give context to the pieces played, giving a brief pause between blocks of two or three themes. These moments also served to present a video summary of the composer’s career (accompanied by the End Credits of The Name of The Rose), to thank the presence of Sara Horner, to whom the organization was kind enough to present a bouquet of flowers, or to have a brief chat with Simon Franglen on stage where we discovered details of the first time he worked with Horner on Titanic. Franglen also took the opportunity to read a few words on behalf of James Cameron that the director had written for the occasion.

 

The concert featured suites already known by some fans in previous tributes to the composer such as the one dedicated to Aliens or Avatar, the “Main Title ‘ from Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, ’The Ludlows” from Legends of The Fall or For The Love of a Princess from Braveheart. On the other hand, we could enjoy other less frequent pieces such as “End Credits ‘ from The Rocketeer (in an abbreviated version where we only heard the central theme), with which the program began, or ’And The Blind Shall See ” from Sneakers.

 

Although without a doubt the biggest surprises of the program along with the aforementioned piece by Sneakers were “Samuel’s Death” by Legends of The Fall and the spectacular ’Riding the Firemares” from Krull. Both performances were the big highlights, especially Krull thanks to some outstanding arrangements commissioned for the occasion.

 

The program also offered two songs, indispensable for a tribute to the American composer with more than a dozen singles in his filmography. The first was a change in the program with the theme “A Kaleidoscope of Mathematics” from A Beautiful Mind, replaced by the song from the same film ’All Love Can Be”. The second was the famous song from Titanic “My Heart Will Go On” which, preceded by the theme “Distant Memories & Take Her to Sea, Mr. Murdoch”, was an emotional closer and brought the whole room standing.

 

As an Encore, the event surprised once again with an extended version of the theme “Sexy Dance” from The Mask of Zorro, ending the concert on a high and joyful note that brought the last and long ovation from the audience.

 

The orchestra had a remarkable performance, rising to the challenge of difficult pieces, bringing tears to the audience’s eyes with delicate interpretations of The Ludlows or capturing all the epicness of Avatar and Aliens. Their maestro, Dirk Brossé, was excellent, displaying elegant gestures by raising the scores on several occasions with his eyes to the sky.

 

The soloist in charge of interpreting the songs also played an outstanding role, as both interventions were brilliant. The concert hall, Muziekcentrum de Bijloke, although not being able to compete with those of other events, did offer us an interpretation free of microphones, natural and clean, which brought an air of freshness to the music that is not found in halls with larger capacity. They also made use of the usual resource of a screen to show images of the films during the interpretation of the scores.

 

Nine years have passed since a tragic plane crash took James Horner from us. There have been several tributes to his prolific work. This Film Fest Gent and its World Soundtrack Awards has been the latest to face the difficult task of summarizing such a long career full of memorable works in a concert hall and, although other past attempts may have been more spectacular, Ghent has offered us an intimate encounter with Horner’s work, where we could share with his family the magic of his music. Hearing “Riding the Firemares” for the first time in concert will be a gift that those of us lucky enough to be there will always have to thank this festival, and possibly Simon Franglen for it.

 

Article by Sergio R. Ortíz

Pictures by Jeroen Willems (World Soundtrack Awards)