Narrator: Welcome to the Owensboro Symphony's Night at the Oscars.
A celebration of iconic and beloved songs from Oscar-nominated films.
Get ready to be swept away by the beauty and power of orchestral music, and pay tribute to the films that have captured our hearts and imaginations.
Let's begin the journey now.
[applause] [Casablanca main theme plays] [Citizen Kane main theme plays] [20th Century Fox main theme plays] [Star Wars main theme plays] [The Sea Hawk main theme plays] [Spellbound main theme plays] [Titanic main theme plays] [Psycho main theme plays] [Jaws main theme plays] [The Pink Panther main theme plays] [Exodus main theme plays] [Out of Africa main theme plays] [Doctor Zhivago main theme plays] [The Bridge on the River Kwai main theme plays] [Patton main theme plays] [Rocky main theme plays] [The Magnificent Seven main theme plays] [The Natural main theme plays] [Cinema Paradiso main theme plays] [The Godfather main theme plays] [E.T.
the Extra-Terrestrial main theme plays] [Gone with the Wind main theme plays] [applause] Hello, Owensboro.
It's so great to be back with you, and welcome to 'A Night at the Oscars.'
[applause] How about your Owensboro Symphony, ladies and gentlemen, aren't they fantastic?
[applause] We're so thrilled to be with you tonight.
You just heard the 2002 medley by John Williams at the Academy Awards.
30+ medleys that were either nominated or won an Academy Award, except for two, and I'm not talking about the fanfares you heard in there.
Psycho, not nominated nor won for Best Score nor Cinema Paradiso on a technicality, because it came out and won as Best Foreign Film at the 1989 Oscars, but it wasn't eligible to play in the United States till 1990, so now you know.
Everything you're going to hear tonight though was either nominated for an Academy Award or won one.
So you're in for a real treat.
We're continuing with the movie magic with the 1994 soundtrack.
This is the Feather Theme from Forrest Gump.
[Suite from Forrest Gump plays] [applause] Beautiful theme by a wonderful composer.
You know Silvestri is actually a guitar player even though he's a film composer, and I had the chance to work with him many years ago at the Hollywood Bowl and I came up to him and said how much his score meant to me as a young kid.
I think, I was 10 or 11 and I'm old enough to remember what a cassette tape is.
So, when I was that age, I recorded that on television, you know, the movie trailer when it was coming out and I was so enamored with that music.
I recorded it on my cassette tape, went to my room, and used to fall asleep to that kind of air-conducting every night.
So, that was the beginning of, I think my conducting career as it were.
But Silvestri said something amazing, he said the real genius of that score was Bill Ross, and Bill Ross was the orchestrator.
So, orchestrators don't get a lot of credit because the composer may compose the melody or play it on piano, but the orchestrators got to actually put it into context for the orchestra.
So, I thought that was telling, not only are the composers, you know, geniuses in their own right, the unsung hero sometimes are the orchestrators.
So that's Bill Ross' composition by Alan Silvestri.
We turn next to Star Trek: The Motion Picture.
Any Star Trek fans here?
[applause] I see a couple of Trekkies here.
Okay, in the front row.
Very good.
Well, this is from the 1979 motion picture.
This is Jerry Goldsmith's great score.
Now, Jerry won only one Oscar actually for The Omen, but he wrote many, many films that were nominated for an Academy Award, Patton, Chinatown.
Star Trek was also one of them in 1979.
This is the Main Title.
[Star Trek: The Motion Picture, 1979 main theme plays] [applause] Short, but sweet.
[laughs] A great, great piece.
We move to the 1997 film, Titanic.
-[audience cheering] -Oh!
Okay.
Now, that's the spirit.
Excellent.
Well, you'll know that James Horner wrote this for director James Cameron, and he had a hard time convincing Cameron to actually put lyrics to some of his score, and of course, as you know, My Heart Will Go On sung by Celine Dion, won the Academy Award for Best Song.
James Horner also won the Academy Award for Best Score.
Tonight, is a real treat, ladies and gentlemen, as we have the original piper and whistle player here.
Please welcome, world class piper, Eric Rigler.
[applause] [My Heart Will Go On from Titanic plays] [applause] Now, Howard Shore actually wrote 13-plus hours of music for The Lord of the Rings trilogy and he won an Academy Award for Best Score in 2000 for this score to The Fellowship of the Ring.
This is a very, very fun piece called Concerning Hobbits featuring Mr. Rigler on whistle as well as some folk instruments, hammered dulcimer, guitars and celesta.
This is Concerning Hobbits.
[Concerning Hobbits plays from The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring] [applause] Next, we move to the 1972 classic, the Love Theme from The Godfather -and... -[applause] Yes.
This is a somewhat controversial score actually.
Nino Rota who wrote the score to the film was nominated by the Academy in 1972, but at the last minute he was actually disqualified because the Academy discovered that he had used some of his material previously in an Italian film earlier than 1972.
So, he was actually eliminated, but he got his revenge in 1974 at the Academy Awards when he won anyway for The Godfather II.
[distant laughs] And so, at any rate, this is the hauntingly beautiful Love Theme from The Godfather.
[Love Theme from The Godfather plays] [applause] The hits continue with the 1976 Best -- Oscar-nominated, but not winning -- Song, Gonna Fly Now from Rocky.
[applause] This is a great hit by Bill Conti.
Bill Conti wrote many, many hits, The Right Stuff, Rookie of the Year, and he was nominated for Academy Award for this score.
He unfortunately lost.
The song lost to Barbra Streisand and Evergreen at the 1977 Academy Awards.
Nonetheless, here is the Owensboro Symphony's version of the hit, Gonna Fly Now.
[Gonna Fly Now plays from Rocky] [applause] [applause] [Concert Suite from La La Land plays] [applause] [Concert Suite from La La Land continues] [applause] Wasn't that fun?
From the 2016 film, La La Land.
Now, controversially, you know that at the 2017 Academy Awards, it was mistakenly announced by Warren Beatty as the Best Picture winner.
Do you remember that?
But it was actually Moonlight.
But less controversial was the fact that Justin Hurwitz who wrote that score won the Academy Award for not only Best Score, but Best Song too.
So, he took home two golden trophies.
We move next now to the 1985 main title from Out of Africa by John Barry; a gorgeous piece.
John Barry is actually a five-time Academy Award winner along with John Williams, tied for third all-time on The Great list.
This is the beautiful and haunting main title from Out of Africa.
[Out of Africa main theme plays] [applause] Such a hauntingly beautiful melody, isn't it?
I'll have that in my head all night.
We're now moving to the original The Magnificent Seven.
Bernstein wrote over 150 film scores, many, many of them though he only won one Academy Award for Thoroughly Modern Millie.
This was nominated though for Best Score to a Motion Picture in 1960.
This is the very energetic, The Magnificent Seven.
[applause] [The Magnificent Seven, 1960 main theme plays] [applause] Are you enjoying yourselves tonight, ladies and gentlemen?
[audience cheering] Thank you so much for sharing your evening with us in the Owensboro Symphony.
It's such a joy and pleasure to play for you again, live in person safely.
So, thank you for that.
We're moving now to a Disney film, a classic from 1992, Aladdin.
[applause] This is a great little tune.
It's short, only about two minutes, but of course composed by Alan Menken.
He picked up two Oscars that year one for this song, Best Song, Original Song, and one for Best Score.
Alan Menken actually is the composer with the second-most Academy Awards at eight.
Number one, the great Alfred Newman.
Now, we play for you, A Whole New World.
[A Whole New World plays from Aladdin, 1992] [applause] Oh, I'd love to play that again for selfish reasons, but we're not going to though.
So, beautiful!
The great Alan Menken.
We move now to a film many of you probably have not heard of.
This is from 1991, The Prince of Tides.
Oh, you have, wow!
[audience cheering] Such a cultured audience we have here in Owensboro.
Well, this was a film that was nominated for seven Academy Awards directed by Barbara Streisand, and James Newton Howard wrote the score.
Although it didn't win, it is an absolute gem.
This is the beautiful and haunting, The Prince of Tides.
[The Prince of Tides main theme plays] [applause] Isn't that a beautiful piece of music?
It is indeed.
Next, we move to the 1995 hit, Braveheart.
- [audience cheering] - Wow!
James Horner wrote the score for this, of course, starring Mel Gibson and it garnered an Academy Award nomination for Best Score.
To play it tonight, the End Credits, which are about 6 to 7 minutes on the wonderful uilleann pipes, we are bringing back world famous piper, Eric Rigler.
[applause] [End Credits theme plays from Braveheart] [applause] Next, we move to a Star Wars piece, Yoda's Theme from The Empire Strikes Back.
[audience cheering] And it goes without saying, of course, the maestro John Williams is probably our most famous living composer and our most famous film composer.
With 52 Academy Award nominations, he's the most nominated person of all time, second to only Walt Disney.
He has garnered five Academy Awards, numerous Grammys and BAFTAs for his writing.
He was coming fresh off a 1977 win for Best Score for Star Wars.
The Empire Strikes Back's score did not win the Academy Award, though it was nominated, and it is written about a diminutive, little creature that's over 900 years old called the Jedi Master, Yoda.
Here is Yoda's Theme.
[Yoda's Theme plays from Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back] [applause] A small creature, but a mighty theme; beautiful.
We now turn to the 1961 classic, Breakfast at Tiffany's starring Audrey Hepburn, - And we are going to -- Yes.
- [applause] We are going to be playing the end title for you.
This is Moon River.
[Moon River, End Title plays from Breakfast at Tiffany's] [applause] Let me just thank everybody formally for being here tonight.
I know it was a different concert experience.
We are so grateful for your support and patronage, and I am just mesmerized by my colleagues here at the Owensboro Symphony.
They're just incredible.
So, thank you.
[cheers and applause] And I am a fortunate guy to stand up here and conduct your wonderful symphony orchestra.
[applause] And now, the Main Title from Star Wars.
[applause] [Main Title from Star Wars plays] [applause] [End credits roll]
