Date: May 4, 2024
Venue: Symphony Hall, Birmingham, UK
Conductor: Stephen Bell
Performers: CBSO (City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra)
Presenter: Marc Silk
Set list;
20th Century Fox Fanfare
Star Wars Main Title
The Flag Parade
Anakin’s Theme
Duel of the Fates
Across the Stars
Battle of the Heroes
Here they Come
Princess Leia’s ThemeINTERVAL
The Asteroid Field
Yoda’s Theme
Parade of the Ewoks
Luke and Leia
The Forest Battle
March of the Resistance
Rey’s Theme
The Jedi Steps
The Rebellion is Reborn
Rise of Skywalker ThemeENOCORE
Cantina Band
Imperial March
The review;
It is not the first time the CBSO has performed music from Star Wars. In fact, it is becoming a regular occurrence in recent years. Back in 2022 I was lucky enough to attend their Happy Birthday John Williams concert to celebrate the great maestro’s 90th birthday. This time it was a concert to celebrate all 9 Skywalker Saga movies and this was all happening very fittingly on May the Fourth: A Star Wars Celebration!
Once again, I was treated to an interview with Stephen Bell, the conductor prior to the concert in his dressing room. The interview is due to air on a future episode of our RADIO 1138 podcast, but I will give you an idea of Stephen’s connection with Star Wars and more importantly John Williams. Stephen was in the orchestra that played on the soundtracks of Attack of the Clones and Revenge of the Sith. With this pedigree, there is no one better suited to conduct the CBSO on such an evening.
Presenter for the evening should have been Anthony Daniels, but sadly he was unable to attend. So, upstep Birmingham born, Marc Silk. Marc also has a huge connection with Star Wars. Marc had voiced the Gran Senator from Malastare, Aks Moe in The Phantom Menace and is well known for many other voice roles. He even delivered Aks Moe’s lines perfectly to the audience during the performance and gave little anecdotes of working George Lucas.
But, there were some very important guests for the evening. The CBSO had kindly given Jedi News a pair of tickets to give away in a competition. Now, sadly the original winner Christine Britten was unable to make the event due to a change in her plans for that weekend. So, the redraw saw Richard Funnell picked as the winner. Richard brought along his wife Louise with him and they were treated to the best seats in the house and a program for the concert.
As the performers started to enter the stage to warm up, you could see that it was going to be a fun evening. When there is a Rebel Pilot playing a violin, and another violinist sporting her hair in a Princess Leia bun style, we knew we were in good company. Then enter the conductor, Stephen Bell. Stephen had donned, his now trademark Darth Vader helmet and was holding aloft, not just his baton, but a glowing lightsaber on the podium.
The show started with the 20th Century Fox fanfare, rolling into main title music and opening scene music from A New Hope. But from then it was back to the beginning with music from The Phantom Menace. It was the first time that the music had performed in episodic order by the CBSO and it was something that worked really well.
The interval came around all too quickly. But, after the interval the orchestra decided to have a bit more fun. The Rebel Pilot was joined on stage by a Jawa playing piano, Rey playing a violin, Wookiee Jedi playing a viola and Jabba the Hutt… yes, you read correctly… Jabba the Hutt playing clarinet!
As the second part of the concert started to conclude, Marc Silk announced he had received a special message for all those present at Symphony Hall. He the proceeded to read out a personal message from the maestro himself, John Williams. If the night wasn’t already special, that was the icing on the cake for me!
And an evening like this isn’t quite complete without members from UK Garrison joining in the fun on stage. A dancing Jawa was joined by 2 Stormtroopers and Kylo Ren for the finale.
After an encore of the Cantina Band and Imperial March, the whole auditorium gave a standing ovation for what was a simply amazing evening. Mark Alders summed up the evening quite succinctly, describing it as “… a world class orchestra, giving a world class performance, in a world class venue”. I could do nothing but agree with that sentiment.
On behalf of the team at Jedi News, I would also like to extend our thanks to Stephen Bell, Maddie Castell of RDMR, and everyone involved with the CBSO and Symphony Hall for their assistance.
