And then James Horner came to my hometown of Ghent, Belgium.
The Maestro left us in 2015, but nine years later, his legacy lives on tirelessly. Celebrating its 51st edition this year, Film Fest Ghent has always had a passion for film music and honors a film composer each year. This time around, all the spotlights were on James Horner, and as always, Dirk Brossé and the Brussels Philharmonic were present for a spirited concert at the Muziekcentrum De Bijloke. The oldest parts of the medieval Bijloke hospital were restored in 2007 and transformed into a modern music center. Fortunately, the beautiful 13th-century wooden roof structure of the former infirmary has remained completely intact, and the hall was filled to capacity on October 17, 2024.
Among the many distinguished guests were Sara and Emily Horner, the composer’s widow and daughter, as well as long-time Horner collaborator Simon Franglen. Franglen has become a full-fledged composer in his own right, especially now that he has taken over the torch from Horner scoring all the sequels of the Avatar franchise.
The concert started with the End Title from The Rocketeer, a Horner favorite thanks to its sumptuous theme and lively orchestrations. Brossé ended the piece with a ritardando just before the transition to the love theme, which unfortunately deprived us not only of that theme but also the thunderous finale of the iconic cue. However, the performance was flawless, and as an opener, the piece definitely set the tone.
The three scores Horner wrote for James Cameron were extensively featured. The first was Aliens, a breathtaking action score troubled by a very difficult genesis. The suite we heard tonight began and ended with the ethereal strings of the Main Title, with an arranged version of Ripley’s Rescue sandwiched in between. The Brussels Philharmonic brought the action to life with energy and relish.
During the lively rendition of the Main Title from Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, Horner’s breakthrough score, the audience got a glimpse into the often unorthodox, even humorous, world of film music. For the whooshing sound effect in the introduction, two orchestra members took out long whirligigs and enthusiastically swung them around at the back of the stage. It was an unusual sight, to say the least, and it was met with bemused surprise.
Next, Simon Franglen appeared on stage to loud applause. In a brief interview, he talked about his collaboration with the Maestro, sharing hilarious stories about the shoestring budget Horner had to work with for Titanic. Franglen reminded the audience that a famous cue like Take Her To Sea, Mr. Murdoch is almost entirely electronic, with the orchestra only coming in during the last forty seconds. Even the electronic choir, it turns out, was a matter of budget.
On Avatar, budgetary concerns were very probably less of an issue, but even then, Horner resorted to electronic embellishments to capture the alien world of Pandora. The nicely representative suite included cues from the adventurous second act and the long action finale, though here, the absence of a choir was sorely felt.
A Beautiful Mind was represented by the poignant All Love Can Be. On this occasion, the orchestra was accompanied by soprano Charlotte Campion. Her soulful voice provided an emotional highlight of the evening.
Even though Horner missed out on the Oscar in 1996, his score for Braveheart has become a classic and a popular favorite. For the Love of the Princess is Horner’s concert arrangement of the rapturous love theme. The orchestra performed the piece with exquisite romantic sensibility.
Legends of the Fall is one of the composer’s best-known and most beloved scores. Interestingly, the suite began with Samuel’s Death, a furious action piece that gave the orchestra the chance to really flex their muscles. What a beautiful contrast to The Ludlows, perhaps the most famous and heart-melting piece from the album.
Although the well-known popular highlights of Horner’s career were more than adequately covered, there was also room for a selection of scores less familiar to the general public. A good example is Krull, a somewhat forgotten fantasy film released in the early 1980s, during the renaissance of science fiction and fantasy in the wake of Star Wars. In Ride of the Firemares, while the heroes ride fiery horses into the sky, Horner’s music is everything the scene could ever wish for and frankly, quite a lot more. There were a few small performance errors in the brass section, but otherwise, the orchestra played with admirable gusto.
Bringing Brandon Marsalis to Ghent for just one track from Sneakers would have been a very tall order indeed, but fortunately, Hendrik Pellens was up to the task. We were treated to And The Blind Shall See, the score’s end title suite, and that meant we got the lyrical theme from Whistler’s Rescue thrown in for free.
The climax of the evening came with a suite from Titanic. After spirited takes on Distant Memories and Take Her To Sea, Mr. Murdoch, the conductor brought back Charlotte Campion, who delivered a version of My Heart Will Go On that was restrained and controlled at first, but emotionally unbridled as the piece progressed. The famous Lied was the emotional pinnacle of the concert, and it got the audience on their feet. There was still room for a humorous encore: The Dance of Passion from The Mask of Zorro, with rhythmic Spanish handclaps in which the conductor, the string players, and eventually the audience enthusiastically participated.
Beautiful music, beautifully performed in a beautiful medieval hall—this doesn’t happen every day. As a proud Ghentenaar, I will cherish the memories of this concert for a very long time indeed.
The Real Person!
The Real Person!
Thanks, Kjell, for the informative report on the James Horner tribute concert in Ghent. It was clearly a great occasion, all the more so as it was part of this year’s World Soundtrack Awards festival and due to the presence of Sara and Emily Horner.
In general, concert tributes to Horner draw more heavily on the earlier part of his career (the eighties and nineties), with less emphasis on his later years. This of course is in line with audience expectations, as music that can be considered to comprise Horner’s ‘greatest hits’ must form the core of any programme showcasing his work, and this event was no exception: Aliens, Legends of the Fall, Braveheart and Titanic are among the films featured, which is as it should be. It is good though to see that other audience favourites, such as Cocoon and Apollo 13 were set aside in the interests of a more varied selection by including music from Krull and Sneakers. However, these two films also belong to the first half of Horner’s career.
The focus on the earlier scores is of course not entirely unexpected. Horner’s story is noteworthy for the astonishingly prolific output of his younger years. Essentially, he had already produced a lifetime’s worth of music in just two decades. There is simply an abundance of great music of that period to choose from. The composer’s reduced productiveness after 2000 makes it more difficult for music from his later life to compete with the copious and much-loved titles that came earlier, with the exception of the epic score for Avatar. The dominance of the top-heavy earlier part of Horner’s catalogue leaves his later works open to the risk of being under-appreciated and underrated.
I would like to see the programme for a tribute concert such as this bookended by music from Wolf Totem and The 33, two of the last projects of his lifetime, for the purpose of showing that Horner was as active and as productive as ever at the time of his death–he did not retire after Avatar. The cues “Returning to the Wild” and “Celebrations” are the finest from the final phase of his career. Once such a framework is created, acknowledging that this was a man who made music for his entire life, then by all means make it a night to enjoy a generous selection of classics from his prodigious musical legacy.
By 2000, James Horner, while not one to rest on his laurels, had time to reflect on all the younger version of himself had accomplished over the past twenty years. On the one hand he knew much had already been achieved, but on the other he believed he had to develop his music and move forward with it. This quest for musical development culminated in the triumph of Avatar at the end of the decade. Horner’s desire to expand the boundaries of his music still further, to push ahead with musical exploration, carried on after Avatar. We do not know where the journey was leading, although it was sure to take him somewhere exciting and memorable, as his mission was tragically ended in 2015.
In paying tribute to James Horner, we must salute not only the prolific young man who made such an indelible impact in the world of film music in the late twentieth century, but also the mature composer who succeeded him, the Horner whose personal and musical odyssey was continued, but not completed.