United Kingdom Spielberg at 80: A Night of Cinematic Scores: Tim Burden (presenter), Ulster Orchestra / George Morton (conductor). Waterfront Hall, Belfast, 7.11.2026. (RB)
George Morton (conductor) Ulster Orchestra © Lu Vella
This concert provided an opportunity to celebrate many of the cinematic scores which have featured in Steven Spielberg movies. All the works on the programme complemented and enhanced the movies in which they appeared by generating feelings of tension or dread or by providing an adrenaline rush or a sense of wonder. It was interesting to listen to the pieces without the film in the background and to assess their value as absolute music.
Tim Burden presented the pieces from the stage and provided interesting anecdotes and background information. The Ulster Orchestra’s audio-visual team provided an impressive lightshow to accompany the pieces. Given this concert was to celebrate Spielberg’s 80th birthday there was also a recorded message from the great man, greeting the audience in Belfast’s Waterfront Hall. It was a shame the organisers did not provide a programme for this concert; it would have been useful to have more detailed background information on the featured works.
The concert opened with John Williams’s theme music from Jaws. Williams’s use of the bass instruments of the orchestra at the start of the piece brilliantly conveyed the darkness of the ocean depths and the dangers that might lurk there. When the famous two-note motif was played I was struck by the rhythmic insistence of the music and the increase in tension and sense of danger as it started to accelerate. Williams’s Suite from Close Encounters of the Third Kind provided an immediate and striking contrast and showed the immense versatility of this composer. I was struck by the very modernist and almost avant garde nature of the writing in the first section of the piece; this music could have been written by Ligeti or Penderecki. The music then shifted into the warm, rich Romantic sonorities which are more characteristic of Williams and culminated in the famous five-note motif. George Morton did an excellent job integrating the contrasting and highly distinctive elements of the piece.
Two works by the late, great Jerry Goldsmith also featured in the first half of the concert. In ‘Carol Anne’s Theme’ from Poltergeist the Ulster Orchestra conjured a gentle melancholy lullaby tinged with dark undercurrents. The Suite from Gremlins was an extraordinary amalgam of different styles and techniques and featured a rag-time theme, Gizmo’s gentle whistling melody and a dark comedic waltz. Morton and the Ulster Orchestra navigated their way seamlessly through the various stylistic changes and shifts in tempo. Alan Silvestri’s theme for Ready Player One featured heroic fanfares played by the brass and expressive lyrical themes from the woodwind and brass. The first half ended on a high note with John Williams’s ‘Adventures on Earth’ from ET. Morton and the Ulster Orchestra succeeded in transforming this work into a multi-faceted and richly coloured tone poem featuring driving rhythmic motifs on the strings and woodwind, tenderness and warmth in the strings and culminating in a in a powerful unison statement in the horns.
The second half opened with Michael Kamen’s ‘The Mission Begins’ from Band of Brothers. The lower strings captured the dark, elegiac quality of the opening section before the brass played the solemn hymnlike theme. John Williams evoked the music of Aaron Copland next in ‘Getting out the Vote’ from Lincoln. Morton and the Ulster Orchestra struck up a jaunty southern hoe-down complete with rustic fiddle playing. John Williams’s theme from Schindler’s List was originally written for Itzhak Perlman and the latter’s extraordinary performance set the bar at a stratospherically high level for subsequent performers. The Ulster Orchestra’s leader, Samuel Staples, played beautifully although I would have liked him to project the tone more and to have used more expressive rubato.
John Williams’s Scherzo for Motorcycle and Orchestra from Indiana Jones is one of the composer’s most celebrated action set-pieces. The Ulster Orchestra’s strings and woodwind dispatched the rapid ostinato figures with virtuoso aplomb while Morton ensured the entries were tightly coordinated. The theme from Jurassic Park followed with the horns coming to the fore and the orchestra coming together to produce rich, awe-inspiring sonorities. The concert ended on a triumphant note with the Raiders March from Indiana Jones. Trumpet fanfares led the charge as Morton and the Ulster Orchestra ushered in a new golden age of adventurous optimism and heroism.
This was a joyous celebration of the music which has graced our cinema screens over the last 50 years, thrillingly played by Morton and the Ulster Orchestra.
Robert Beattie
John Williams – Theme from Jaws: Suite; Close Encounters of the Third Kind; ‘Getting out the Vote’ from Lincoln ‘Adventures on Earth’ from E.T.; ‘Getting out the Vote’ from Lincoln; Theme from Schindler’s List; Theme from Schindler’s List; Theme from Schindler’s List; Theme from Jurassic Park; Raiders March from Indiana Jones
Alan Silvestri – Theme from Ready Player One
Jerry Goldsmith – ‘Carol Anne’s Theme’ from Poltergeist; Suite from Gremlins
Dave Grusin – ‘Plumbing’ from The Goonies
Michael Giacchino – Suite from Super 8
Michael Kamen – ‘The Mission Begins’ from Band of Brothers
Thomas Newman – ‘Sunlit Silence’ & ‘Homecoming’ from Bridge of Spies
Michael Giacchino – Main Title from Medal of Honor
Bruce Broughton – Main Title from Young Sherlock Holmes
Justin Hurwitz – Theme from The First Man
James Horner – End Credits from The Land Before Time