I have attended many film music concerts over the years and am generally of two minds about them. Apart from festival concerts, many of them are not that exciting, especially when it comes to professional orchestras. Their concerts are often a ‘Best of’ concert filled with iconic film music pieces that I have heard many times before, or a concert where the orchestra plays music from a movie as a sort of enhanced movie theater experience. As far as I know, the Spanish FSO is the only orchestra specialized in performing a varied film music program professionally. Luckily there are also some orchestras consisting of good amateur and semi-professional musicians who are very dedicated to film music. In the Netherlands, we have Het Nederlands Filmorkest, and I also knew about an orchestra in the Czech Republic called the Prague Film Orchestra. I attended a PFO concert in 2016 and remember having a great time. I found myself back in Prague for the last weekend of October, which coincided with a concert by the PFO So, I took that opportunity to see how they had been doing over the years.
The concert was held in the Prague Congress Center, which has a massive hall that can host around a thousand people, and, to my surprise, it was as good as full that evening. The concert had a solid start with the “20th Century Fox Fanfare,” which beautifully transitioned into Star Wars, as has happened originally in the film. For the next piece, conductor Jiří Korynta, who is also the founder of the orchestra, put on a long scarf and activated the light on his wand to conduct a John Williams suite that started with Harry Potter. Korynta playing dress up would become a recurring theme during the concert. He entered the stage with Gandalf’s staff for The Lord of the Rings, a hat and pistol for Pirates of the Caribbean and a helmet, sword, and shield for Gladiator. He even dressed up for two encores with three costume pieces from the Avengers superheroes and a giant sword for Warcraft.
Having all these costumes is a fun gimmick and entertaining for the audience, but for me, it is the music that counts, and in that regard the PFO did not disappoint. On the program were a couple of familiar pieces, like Star Wars, Harry Potter and Game of Thrones, but the majority was music I had not heard that often during a concert before or were even completely new to me. Who would have thought I would even hear Ramin Djawadi’s music for Warcraft ever again? I also did not know that you could play the guitar part of The Legend of Zorro on an electric guitar and still make it work. The highlight for me was also a piece I have not heard often before, “The Kiss” from The Last of the Mohicans. For that piece, one of the percussionists came to the front of the stage to have a duet with the concertmaster.
I was quite content when the concert was over. I was pleasantly entertained during the evening, and I heard some fantastic film music. Hopefully the same can be said for the many others in the venue. To see a non-professional orchestra fill such a massive hall with people, but also deliver a great performance was an eye-opener for me. I did not think that an orchestra like the PFO would be able to pull that off. The orchestra’s passion for film music could be felt in the room, and they showed the wide range of what film music has to offer. I hope I will see them again in the future, but I also should also find out if there are more orchestras like them in Europe. I now know three of them: FSO, Het Nederlands Filmorkest and the PFO, but there should be more that share the same passion for film music. I could use more concerts like this one.
Concert information
Where: Prague Congress Center – Prague, Czech Republic
When: October 27, 2024
Orchestra: Prague Film Orchestra conducted by Jiří Korynta
Electric guitar: Bernard Beinhauer
Host: Michaela Štrausová
Program
- Alfred Newman – 20th Century Fox fanfare
- John Williams – “Main Title / Rebel Blockade Runner” from Star Wars: A New Hope
- John Williams – Soundtrack Highlights (Harry Potter – A.I. – Patriot)
- John Williams – Theme from Jurassic Park
- James Horner – “My Family Is My Life” from The Legend of Zorro
- Howard Shore – “The Council of Elrond (Reprise) / The Ring Goes South” from The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring
- Klaus Badelt – Suite from Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl
Intermission
- Hans Zimmer – Suite from Gladiator
- Ramin Djawadi – “Main Theme” from Game of Thrones
- Trevor Jones – “Kiss” from The Last of the Mohicans
- John Williams – “Raiders March” from Indiana Jones: Raiders of the Lost Ark
- Hans Zimmer – “Time” from Inception
- Various composers – Star Trek through the Years
- Alan Silvestri – Theme from Avengers (encore)
- Ramin Djawadi – “Warcraft” from Warcraft (encore)
- John Williams – “Tribute to the Film Composer” (encore)
