When you look on YouTube for live performances of film music, there is a reasonable chance you will find music performed by the Danish National Symphony Orchestra (Danish: DR Symfoniorkestret), recorded during one of their concerts in Denmark. I have seen all of their clips, and I have always been amazed by the originality and quality of these performances. One of my film music friends has attended these concerts several times already, and he didn’t have to convince me to join him for their latest concert, Agents Only Live Twice.
With a title like Agents Only Live Twice, we would be hearing a lot of James Bond music, but this concert was about way more than that. Not only would we be listening to some exciting and original film music from other spy movies, but these film music concerts from the DR Symfoniorkestret also aim to be highly entertaining for the audience. This was showcased immediately in the first piece of the program, Not only was it fantastic to hear “A Man, A Plan, A Code, Dubai” from Michael Giacchino live, but also to see the host Caspar Phillipson descending horizontally from the ceiling during this performance, just like Tom Cruise in the first Mission Impossible film. It was not the only piece from the Mission Impossible franchise, because we could also listen to “Red Handed” from the first Mission Impossible film, composed by Danny Elfman.
During the whole evening, the orchestra showed us that it is very capable of performing a wide range of musical pieces from different spy movies. On the program were two amazing suites from John Powell, which I had not heard outside Powell’s concerts before, being “Tango de los Asesinos” from Mr. & Mrs. Smith and “Main Title” from The Bourne Identity. Especially the last one was a joy to listen to, with the percussionists giving it their best to complement the strings and the single bassoon player. The other suites were a mix of familiar and unfamiliar film music, but what they had in common was that I had never heard them live before, with the “Overture” from Red Sparrow as my favourite. James Newton Howard wrote a stunning classical piece for that film, which many people have never experienced, and the orchestra performed it brilliantly. I hope this stunning piece will make it to YouTube, so that more people can become familiar with it..
The concert did live up to its name, as we got treated to many songs from James Bond. We could listen to vocalist Emma Smith perform “Mr. Kiss Kiss Bang Bang” from Thunderball, “For Your Eyes Only,” “You Only Live Twice,” “Licence to Kill” and as the encore “Writing’s On The Wall” from Spectre, which she did splendidly, and she was also wonderfully supported by the orchestra with film music veteran Christian Schumann at the helm. I have heard many James Bond songs at concerts before, and I do not mind them. While they are arguably not film music, they are still essential to the movie, and they have a strong orchestral foundation, which makes them very entertaining to listen to. The orchestra also performed instrumental music from the bond movies as well, including the iconic theme, but also with an excellent suite from No Time To Die as the final piece of the programming, in which, during the “Final Ascent,” Caspar walked onto stage with a weapon in his hand, grabbed a cable, and ascended slowly back into the ceiling of the concert hall.
There are many factors that made this concert magnificent. The orchestra is quite experienced in playing film music, and their performance was one of the best I have heard throughout my career as a film music critic. Also having a host like Caspar Phillipson around to introduce the pieces and provide entertainment to the audience results in a fun evening overall. I even had a smile on my face from time to time when he was on stage, and I do not speak a word of Danish. What impressed me the most that evening was the outstanding and original collection of film music. The James Bond songs are iconic, and many people in the audience should be able to recognize them. Still, many other pieces on the program were ones I had not experienced before, with some of them especially arranged for these Danish concerts.
Hopefully many of the pieces I had heard that night will find their way online, because this orchestra shows how film music concerts can be done, by performing exciting and unique film music, and not distracting the audience with images on a screen. Watching their concerts on the internet is fantastic, but you will be missing out on the excellent acoustics of this hall. There was some amplification for a couple of sections, like the percussion, but most of the music was experienced without any support of technology. When you do not have technological support like that, you can often hear small mistakes in the orchestra or notice balance problems between different sections of the orchestra, but I did not notice any mishappenings in the orchestra’s performance at all, which made my experience in the venue even better.
I had been looking forward to attending one of these Danish concerts for many years, and I am glad I did. I had high expectations, and I was happily surprised that they were all met. Going to Denmark every year would be too much for my budget, but I will be returning to another film music concert by the DR Symfoniorkestret. In the meantime, I can look forward to some stunning new additions to the DR Koncerthuset YouTube channel.
Concert information
Where: DR Koncerthuset in Copenhagen, Denmark
When: August 16, 2025
Orchestra: DR Symfoniorkestret conducted by Christian Schumann
Vocalist: Emma Smith
Host: Caspar Phillipson
Program
- Michael Giacchino, Lalo Schifrin – “A Man, A Plan, A Code, Dubai” from Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol & Schifrin and Variations
- John Barry, Leslie Bricusse – “Mr. Kiss Kiss Bang Bang” from Thunderball
- Danny Elfman – “Main Theme” from Men in Black
- Danny Elfman – “Red Handed” from Mission Impossible
- Bernard Herrmann – “Overture” from North by Northwest
- John Powell – “Tango de los Asesinos” from Mr. & Mrs. Smith
- James Newton Howard – “Overture” from Red Sparrow
- Bill Conti, Mick Leeson – “For Your Eyes Only” from For Your Eyes Only
Intermission
- Monty Norman – Theme from Dr. No
- John Barry, Leslie Bricusse – “You Only Live Twice” from You Only Live Twice
- Alberto Iglesias – “George Smiley” from Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy
- Alexandre Desplat – Orchestral Suite from The Imitation Game
- Miklós Rózsa – Suite from Eye of the Needle
- John Powell – “Main Titles” from The Bourne Identity
- Jeffrey Cohen, Narada Michael Walden & Walter Afanasieff – “Licence to Kill” from Licence to Kill
- Hans Zimmer – Suite from No Time To Die
- Sam Smith, Jimmy Napes – “Writing’s on the Wall” from Spectre (encore)
