Among the still living film composers, it is very clear that Hans Zimmer reigns supreme, perhaps even John Williams and Danny Elfman, who are considered legends in this profession and are still among us. It is true that the younger ones are already in the pantry, and up-and-comers are bidding to irreversibly enter the mainstream, such as Ramin Djawadi, who made his debut with Game of Thrones and Ludwig Göransson, who is skilled in the ranks of Star Wars, but Hans Zimmer is still Hans Zimmer, whose level no one else will come close any time soon.
The recognition of the two-time Oscar, multiple Grammy and Golden Globe award-winning composer has risen to the point that two different concert series are spreading Hans Zimmer’s music around the world. One of these is Hans Zimmer Live and the other is The World of Hans Zimmer. The big difference between the two is that, while the former is rockier and the 67-year-old master also takes part in it personally, while
rather, The World of Hans Zimmer tries to provide those interested with a large-scale film music experience with a large orchestra and the introductions and trivia of the composer on video recordings.
On November 7th, The World of Hans Zimmer arrived at the MVM Dome in Budapest as part of the 2024 European tour, and the interest did not stop, because an almost full house was waiting to immerse itself in the best of the German composer’s long musical career. . It has to be said, the musical inserts were selected effectively, the optimistic, dynamic tunes of The Man of Steel starring Henry Cavill immediately gave the concert a pleasant upbeat atmosphere. In just over three hours, which was only interrupted by a twenty-minute break, the slower, more moving soundtracks and the more adrenaline-rich hits alternated continuously from then on.
Somehow it happened that the more sensitive part of the audience was wiping their teary eyes at one moment due to the music of Pearl Harbor, and then for a few minutes they swayed their heads to the rhythms of the James Bond film No Time to Die or even The Dark Knight Trilogy , and drum your hands. The World of Hans Zimmer brought with it a cavalcade of emotions, well-known theme songs were selected from roughly twenty movies.
In addition to the fact that the music of the now defunct DCEU, such as the already mentioned Man of Steel and Wonder Woman 1984, sounded awfully good with such a big band and the latter, obviously, rock music, they were far from being the highlights of the concert. This title was taken away from them by films such as Gladiator and Between the Stars, the former created an extremely heroic atmosphere in the arena capable of accommodating twenty thousand people, while the bass penetrated the audience’s soul in the latter. Kung Fu Panda, based on oriental melodies, and Sherlock Holmes, entertaining with gypsy music, brought interesting mood changes during the evening, and although the Dune’s insert was also tear-inducingly romantic, the show was still stolen by the prince of Egypt, who is perhaps less loved in this country. I’m writing all this because the audience didn’t get any kind of ovation from the announcement, they barely took photos and videotaped the moments focusing on the fairy tale film, even though we got a brilliant musical cavalcade in these few minutes.
Obviously, there were some songs that didn’t quite hit the mark, The Lion King, even though Circle of Life was also performed, was too chaotic, the band simply fell apart in the middle, and didn’t recover much after that. It hurts my heart that during the encore, one of the biggest bangers, Pirates of the Caribbean, did not reach the expected level, on the contrary, instead of bouncy, exciting and heroic adventure music, it gave the audience of the MVM Dome an energized finale.
The reader may wonder what’s the point of going to a Hans Zimmer concert where Hans Zimmer isn’t there. I was personally attracted to the idea because I much prefer symphonic accompaniment to rock music, and on the other hand, I was curious to see if they could create a Hans Zimmer atmosphere in this way, without the presence of the composer on stage. Yes, the organizers got it right, thanks to the fact that Hans Zimmer checked in on video after almost every song, sometimes with Gal Gadot and Patty Jenkins, sometimes with producer Jerry Bruckheimer, and it also happened that interesting things he said with Guy Ritchie in the songs he composed about soundtracks.
Well, the most cathartic moment of the concert is clearly thanks to Hans Zimmer, when the master played the musical theme of Inception on the huge projector, in perfect sync with the live orchestra on stage, conducted by the all-around great conductor Matt Dunkley.
Even the stone-hearted were moved to tears by this production, I swear it was so effective.
It also didn’t hurt that the concert also visually illustrated the films whose music was played, and although works such as The Dark Knight Trilogy lacked regular visual underpaintings (probably for legal reasons), the blockbuster scenes were extremely effective. . It’s true that the second half of The World of Hans Zimmer also featured overlong, less exciting music, three-quarters of the setlist consisted of plenty of strong and unforgettable songs. Not a bad proportion, I say, and it is no exaggeration to say that, although he was not here in person, Hans Zimmer and a group of real personalities his band impressed the Hungarian audience.
It was an evening you won’t soon forget. It’s no coincidence that you couldn’t hear much disrespect or complaints on the way out, the audience standing up and applauding spoke for themselves as to whether this event was worth the price of the not-so-cheap concert ticket.
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