Hans Zimmer brings his cinematic magic to the Wembley Arena

Film music gets a bit of an unfair wrap – sure, everybody knows a few iconic pieces, but its job on the whole is to be unnoticed – to underscore a film without drawing attention to itself. This, I believe, is a shame, as film scores can be as meticulously crafted and emotionally evocative as the best films. I talk about this as recently I went to a concert the likes of which I’ve never seen – a film composer, playing his music in all its glory. It helps, of course, that it was the German composer Hans Zimmer, one of the most renowned in his field and someone who has scored some of the biggest films of all time.

“…film scores can be as meticulously crafted and emotionally evocative as the best films”

Zimmer’s selections (which must have been a hard enough job in itself) highlighted an incredible range of genre and style, and made for a wonderfully diverse night of music. That one mind could have come up with the choral theme to Crimson Tide, the lilting calypso rhythm of True Romance (Youtube it- you’ll recognise the music), or the pounding score to The Dark Knight is simply incredible, and the evening really served to showcase that talent. Zimmer himself is much more than just a composer – playing the piano and guitar, and backed by a brilliant group of musicians; his own band, a choir of about twenty-five and more. The technical brilliance of the ensemble was beyond a shadow of a doubt, and Zimmer took time to focus on each of them individually – giving the sense that these people are his friends as much as they are his band.

“…That one mind could have come up with the choral theme to Crimson Tide, the lilting calypso rhythm of True Romance or the pounding score to The Dark Knight is simply incredible…”

Zimmer’s set is of course punctuated with the ubiquitous music he’s written for some of Hollywood’s biggest blockbusters, and which the audience eagerly awaits. A suite bubbles away, growing until it becomes the instantly recognisable pulse of the Pirates of the Caribbean theme – much to the crowd’s delight. The mere mention of Ridley Scott ringing Zimmer and asking him to score ‘a gladiator movie’ had the whole arena cheering. But perhaps the music that most unifies the arena with tangible electricity is the moment Lebo M steps on stage to begin his iconic, howling opening to The Lion King, breathing new life into the venue.

A common criticism levelled at Zimmer’s music is that it is excessively loud and bassy, and if I’m honest, is a fair judgement of a few of the pieces – although perhaps to be expected. There were two issues to my mind: the huge array of pieces and styles logically mean the probability of liking them all (there were 16 film scores represented) was very slim. He chose an electric guitar piece as his selection from The Amazing Spider-Man 2 (‘Electro’s Theme’) which I didn’t think quite worked.

“…A suite bubbles away, growing until it becomes the instantly recognisable pulse of the Pirates of the Caribbean theme”

However the main fault of the show was the choice of lighting effects. These tended to focus on whichever instrument was playing at the time, casting the rest of the stage into darkness. While working well occasionally, busier pieces meant the lights were going on and off at a silly rate, to the extent that I had to close my eyes in order to enjoy the music. It was a shame, really, that the staging of the event was so contrived that it started to detract from the sound – wasn’t the whole point of this concert to prioritise the music over the visuals for once?

This is the first show I’ve ever seen that centred totally on film music, and it truly was a treat. Zimmer is such a prolific composer and this show was a fantastic example of the power of film music – you’re unlikely to see a show with this level of craftsmanship and which speaks to as many people in a long time. Written in the programme is Zimmer’s statement that music allows us to be “people united in common enjoyment and pleasure for a few precious hours” and as the ecstatic crowd left, this show couldn’t have been a better example of that.