{Ad-Press Tickets} Hollywood Heroes, Sage Gateshead - Review

I've been a long time fangirl of the Royal Northern Symphonia having been to just about every one of their "Nights Out" concerts for the last four or five years as well as enjoying some of their classical concerts too.

I'll be honest, they could play a scale in a bin bag and they'd still sound amazing so, with much anticipation, my friend Ron and I were looking forward to Hollywood Heroes, a tribute to those who rescue others, those who's strength and compassion save the day every single time, the heroes and heroines of Hollywood movies.

Of course, it's also testament to the work of composers like John Williams and Hans Zimmer, many years ago before I knew that John Williams had composed both the music to Star Wars, A New Hope and Superman, I did always think that they sounded strangely similar, both pieces were played on Saturday night and you can certainly tell that he composed them at around the same time with Star Wars being released just a year before Superman, they remain two of my favourite pieces of movie music to this day.

I also had noted just how much I loved hearing Alan Silvestri's "The Avengers" piece,  what I think this particular concert did for me was to put the orchestra that I love, playing the music of the movies that I love, we all know, I love a good sci-fi blockbuster or the latest Marvel movie, I'm a huge fan of superheroes.

Of the many other pieces played during the (approximately) 90-minute concert, we enjoyed excerpts from Robin Hood, Batman, Gladiator and also the haunting Williams piece from Schindlers List with the solo being played by the head of the orchestra Kyra Humphreys.  The only piece I'd not heard from the evening of music was the theme to The Incredibles composed by Michael Giacchino and arranged by Mcewan, it's a noisy piece of music which has the whole of the orchestra playing uptempo beats with even the bongos making their appearance, you can't feel sad when you listen to music containing the bongos.

I've seen Stephen Bell conduct the orchestra on several occasions and I love his style, it's passionate and contains much movement, something you don't see with all conductors, I did say I'm a long time music fan as well as being a failed musician who can read music but only play a lot of instruments badly!

A highlight of the evening for me was during the interval when I got to chat to violinist Alanna Tonetti-Tieppo,  believe me when I say that I fangirled all over her, I'm sure meeting a pop star would not have the same effect.  I'm also sure that everyone knows now that if I could play any instrument I want right now, I would love to play the Timpani, I absolutely love the Timpani but it's not really something you can learn at home, unless you have a castle with a wing built especially to hold the huge set of Timpani drums.

Next up for the RNS Nights Out series is an evening of the music of Elton John and you can bet I will be there, quite simply, I'd listen to anything played by our wonderful northeast Orchestra, they are to be cherished and never let go of!