‘Lord of the Rings’ Trilogy to be Screened at Lincoln Center with Live Orchestra
Screenings of the Lord of the Rings trilogy accompanied by live performances of the films’ scores will take place at New York’s famed Lincoln Center in April 2015, The New York Times reports.
The 21st Century Symphony Orchestra and Chorus of Lucerne, Switzerland, conducted by Ludwig Wicki, will perform the trilogy twice, in order, between April 8th and 12th in the David H. Koch theater. One cycle will run over the course of three straight nights, while the other will take place over a weekend with performances in the afternoon and evening.
Boasting 250 players and singers, the 21st Century Symphony Orchestra and Chorus is known for their work with live films, having also played alongside West Side Story, select Pirates of the Caribbean movies, Fantasia and selected scenes from various James Bond and Star Trek films. They first accompanied the full Lord of the Rings trilogy in Lucerne in 2011.
This will be the first time all three Lord of the Rings movies will be screened with a live orchestra, though in 2009 and 2010, The Fellowship of the Ring and The Two Towers were presented in the concert format at Radio City Music Hall. All three scores were originally composed by Howard Shore, who picked up Oscars for his work on The Fellowship of the Ring and The Return of the King.
Unsurprisingly, the trilogy’s director Peter Jackson also tapped Shore to helm the music for his Hobbit saga, which is set to wrap up with the December 17th release of The Battle of Five Armies. Jackson and the film’s cast recently gathered at Comic-Con in San Diego to discuss the film with moderator Stephen Colbert, who introduced the panel with an impassioned, adorable speech about his relationship with J.R.R. Tolkien’s original books and the film adaptations.