RSNO Top Gun Maverick In Concert Usher Hall Edinburgh 28th February 2025 Review
RSNO Top Gun Maverick in concert at the Usher Hall Edinburgh tonight was another sell out performance in this now hugely popular film/live soundtrack event.
Music has been with films pretty much since they started to flicker on a silver screen. From humble beginnings of a basic cinema pianist to the specialist art of the film soundtrack composer the two are almost inseparable from one another, co-existing and adding much to what the other offers. For many of us now, music and cinematic visuals are as much a part of any film as who is starring in it.
I have to admit that these “RSNO at the Movies” performances have become some of my favourites from the RSNO during their season and there are many reasons for this. Like tonight, there is no musical substitute for hearing a cinematic score performed by a large orchestra like the RSNO. Not only do you get to experience the music in all of its power and subtlety, but watching and listening to a live orchestra perform you also get a better understanding of just how close to each other cinema scores and classical music really are. The fact that so many works of classical composers have been used in soundtracks to so many films over the years has also introduced so many new listeners to classical music, even if they did not realise that at the time.
Conducting the music to Top Gun Maverick, which includes work from Lorne Balfe, Harold Faltermeyer, Lady Gaga, and Hans Zimmer, was conductor Ben Palmer. As well as some impressive classical music credentials, Ben Palmer is also a specialist in conducting film scores and is personally authorised by John Williams to conduct his work. With these skills at his disposal, Ben Palmer brought out every detail of this music with great attention to even the smallest of details. It is a tribute too to the individual and collective musicians of the RSNO that they delivered musically exactly what Ben Palmer and this audience were expecting to hear tonight. There were times tonight when, if you were focused on the film, the timing between this and the RSNO were so precise that it was easy to forget for a moment or two that this was also a live music event and not the actual pre-recorded soundtrack that was being listened to.
This series of concerts is, to me, important because it brings into the performance space people who might not otherwise have considered going to hear a live orchestra perform. Also, these films in concert make it clear to people that an orchestra like the RSNO performs not just classical music, but a wide diversity of music throughout any season, and removing any perceived barriers to simply enjoying music will always get my vote.
Review by Tom King © 2025
www.artsreviewsedinburgh.com
Music has been with films pretty much since they started to flicker on a silver screen. From humble beginnings of a basic cinema pianist to the specialist art of the film soundtrack composer the two are almost inseparable from one another, co-existing and adding much to what the other offers. For many of us now, music and cinematic visuals are as much a part of any film as who is starring in it.
I have to admit that these “RSNO at the Movies” performances have become some of my favourites from the RSNO during their season and there are many reasons for this. Like tonight, there is no musical substitute for hearing a cinematic score performed by a large orchestra like the RSNO. Not only do you get to experience the music in all of its power and subtlety, but watching and listening to a live orchestra perform you also get a better understanding of just how close to each other cinema scores and classical music really are. The fact that so many works of classical composers have been used in soundtracks to so many films over the years has also introduced so many new listeners to classical music, even if they did not realise that at the time.
Conducting the music to Top Gun Maverick, which includes work from Lorne Balfe, Harold Faltermeyer, Lady Gaga, and Hans Zimmer, was conductor Ben Palmer. As well as some impressive classical music credentials, Ben Palmer is also a specialist in conducting film scores and is personally authorised by John Williams to conduct his work. With these skills at his disposal, Ben Palmer brought out every detail of this music with great attention to even the smallest of details. It is a tribute too to the individual and collective musicians of the RSNO that they delivered musically exactly what Ben Palmer and this audience were expecting to hear tonight. There were times tonight when, if you were focused on the film, the timing between this and the RSNO were so precise that it was easy to forget for a moment or two that this was also a live music event and not the actual pre-recorded soundtrack that was being listened to.
This series of concerts is, to me, important because it brings into the performance space people who might not otherwise have considered going to hear a live orchestra perform. Also, these films in concert make it clear to people that an orchestra like the RSNO performs not just classical music, but a wide diversity of music throughout any season, and removing any perceived barriers to simply enjoying music will always get my vote.
Review by Tom King © 2025
www.artsreviewsedinburgh.com
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