Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire
Screenings of a movie with a live orchestra have been getting more popular in the last couple of years. The Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra has been doing these type of concerts for quite some time and in the past years they have provided the music for screenings of The Lord of the Rings trilogy and Gladiator. After those movies, the orchestra moved on to start with all the Harry Potter movies. For each movie, multiple concerts in a timespan of a couple of days were announced, and almost all of them sold out. I was able to attend Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone and Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, which were both amazing experiences.
For the movie Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire things were going to change. Firstly, from now on the movies become darker, and secondly, it is the first Harry Potter movie that is not scored by John Williams but by Patrick Doyle. This clearly did not stop the audience from attending, since the concerts for the fourth Harry Potter movie were all sold out. I also always love how the venue puts effort into making the Harry Potter fans feel welcome. Large banners of the four houses were hanging from the ceiling in the lounge and there was a big Harry Potter display panel, where people while wearing all kinds of Harry Potter clothes, like scarfs, t-shirts and vests, were waiting to have their picture taken.
There is not much to say about the concert itself: It consisted of the movie being displayed on a big screen with Dutch subtitles and the Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by Justin Freer, performing the music. It was quite a pleasant experience to hear the music from Patrick Doyle. For the soundtrack there was no need for a choir, except for the theme for the Bulgarian Quidditch team, for which the orchestra members themselves were doing the shouts and grunts, or at least that was what it looked like from my seat but it could have been an audio track. Other highlights for me were “Neville’s Waltz,” “Harry in Winter,” “Potter Waltz,” “Hogwarts’ Hymn” and “Hogwarts’ March.” The last one especially was amazing with only the brass players playing this piece.
One unusual thing that I had never experienced before was that the concert was over before the movie ended. We were applauding the amazing music while the end credits were still rolling. The movie has a couple of rock songs specially written for it, which were probably playing during the original end credits, but it was still a weird feeling to leave the venue, while the screen still had not faded to black.
Overall, it was another great Harry Potter concert. I still feel a bit sad about not having been able to attend the concert of the second Harry Potter movie in the past. These concerts are an amazing way to introduce a wider audience to film music, and I am quite happy that a lot of people attend them. The next one will be Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, which I am anxious to watch, and I hope to see you there as well.
Concert information
Where: De Doelen – Rotterdam, The Netherlands
When: May 11, 2019
Orchestra: The Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Justin Freer
