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Star Wars Film Concert Series (Released)

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Experience these films as never before at the world’s first-ever live performance of Star Wars – Film Concert Series! Don’t miss your chance to see these epic films on screen with the unparalleled New York Philharmonic performing the iconic music of John Williams. Tickets are available only via presale to New York Philharmonic 2017–18 subscribers and current members at the Patron level and above; any remaining tickets will go on sale to the general public on May 4.

https://nyphil.org/concerts-tickets/explore/1718/star-wars

15 SEPTEMBER, 2017 FRIDAY 8:00 PM - Star Wars: A New Hope – In Concert
16 SEPTEMBER, 2017 SATURDAY 8:00 PM - Star Wars: A New Hope – In Concert

26 SEPTEMBER, 2017 TUESDAY 7:30 PM - Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back – In Concert
27 SEPTEMBER, 2017 WEDNESDAY 7:30 PM - Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back – In Concert
28 SEPTEMBER, 2017 THURSDAY 7:30 PM - Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back – In Concert

4 OCTOBER, 2017 WEDNESDAY 7:30 PM - Star Wars: Return of the Jedi – In Concert
5 OCTOBER, 2017 THURSDAY 7:30 PM - Star Wars: Return of the Jedi – In Concert
6 OCTOBER, 2017 FRIDAY 8:00 PM - Star Wars: The Force Awakens – In Concert
7 OCTOBER, 2017 SATURDAY 8:00 PM - Star Wars: The Force Awakens – In Concert

Venue: David Geffen Hall (formerly known as: Avery Fisher Hall), New York City, NY

Anyone considering attending the event and doing an audio capture of this performance, so that it can be sync’d to the commercial Blu Ray?

As for listening to this audio with the GOUT: I suppose someone with exceptional audio-editing skills can make this happened, also. Even if sound-effects from the 2004 edition would appear out-of-place in the GOUT cut, it’s all about the performance of the music and sounds of the crowd.

EDIT 12/04/2017:
One of our members, bilditup1, made a capture of the ANH and ESB performances. Here are his notes from this thread.

bilditup1 said:

Hey all,

As you guys probably know, this past month, Star Wars, ESB, ROTJ, and TFA were screened with a live performance of John Williams’ scores by the New York Philharmonic at David Geffen Hall, under composer/conductor David Newman. I was fortunate enough to attend Star Wars and ESB and make crude recordings of both with RecForge II on my phone. Unfortunately I didn’t plan any of this out, or I would have tried to smuggle in at least my Tascam recorder, or at least have the presence of mind to change my usual recording settings either time (so we’re limited to a mono, 16-bit/44.1kHz PCM recording, which for Star Wars especially is pretty hot since I forgot to take levels). I was also sitting all the way in the back (last row of Third Tier) for Star Wars, and almost all the way (middle of Second Tier) for Empire, so it probably isn’t ideal acoustically. Still, IMHO, they are very listenable as is, warts and all.

Some thoughts:
Newman was obviously limited by the fact that he had to keep the score in sync to the films but did nonetheless get to play with tempo, dynamics, and instrumentation a bit. When the score as heard in the film differed from that on the released OSTs, he always chose the film version of the orchestration (though that probably also differs a bit from the final film cut). The roughness of ESB overall is a testament to how much that film must have changed after having been scored, and the utter freaking jarring obnoxiousness of the 2011 additions (particularly in ESB) were only accentuated by the orchestra’s presence. Star Wars sounded a lot more complete and coherent, even with the digressions introduced around Mos Eisley. (Speaking of - Fiery Figrin Da’an and his Modal Nodes were not represented by the NYPhil, in case anyone was ondering.)
Nonetheless it was a pretty wild experience both times (esp ESB, which was on my birthday) and I wish I could have attended ROTJ and TFA as well. One thing I didn’t anticipate - probably because this was the first time I’ve seen either Star Wars or ESB in theaters - for example, was that er, this is a screening of Star Wars in a very large public space in a very large city, so most of the attendees, while obviously John Williams fans, were uh also very much Star Wars fans first - the 501st were out in force, there were a few cosplayers in the crowd, etc. Thus this wasn’t exactly a stuffy performance where you’d be liable to get shushed - which while better from a perspective of getting a definitive recording of Newman’s version, or ya know, for just hearing everything, also makes for a pretty engaging experience of its own. So while I was pretty annoyed at first, especially at some of the kids (they were eventually brought in line, lolz), eventually I embraced it (though I generally did not react with them, and good for that eh): jokes that I thought were banal or dumb or gah-it-was-cool-a-thousand-watches-ago-but-definitely-not-anymore came right back to life. Sometimes the cheers were for the characters, sometimes for the music, and sometimes both. All in all, pretty amazing.

Anyway, I don’t really have audio editing chops beyond doing simple cuts and amplifies in Audacity. No Izotope, Audition, etc. So initially I was just going to try to cut these up into something approximating e.g. ABC’s IAE V2 (organized by cue) and see what I can do with this crude thing, make it a learning experience etc. But I was hunting through the spleen recently and it looks like someone, after all these years, finally took the time to sync Scofield (hurray!) as well a hitherto unknown recording of ESB on opening night, so I thought there might be some interest in trying to sync this, warts and all, even just to the 2011 BDs. I’d love to say that I’d make the time to do that myself but any kind of sync nonsense drives me insane/strikes ph34r into my heart. Plus, there were intermissions both time, with some repetition of the last cue before intermission at the start of the second half of Star Wars, and a cut-down concert-suite rendition of the Imperial March at the start of the second half of Empire &c. So, as a practical matter, unless some of the older hands here talk me into it, I’m probably not going to take the time to attempt this. But I bet one of you fine people would like to, or at least have advice. Please chime in below! Let’s make this happen!

Upd01
So natch I didn’t search the forums first or I would have found that indeed there was already a thread on this and that DFNYC attended all four screenings and made a presumably much much recording. It looks like we definitely attended different screenings for Star Wars, may have attended different screenings for ESB.
In any case, alexp120 and I are officially in business. Watch this space…

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Kind of like taking a picture of fireworks, no? For me, the live experience IS the reason for the event. Anything else would pale in comparison…but THANK YOU for pointing out that this event exists:)

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If the release of the complete Jurassic Park soundtracks shortly after the Live to Projection Concerts is any indication, I hope we will finally hear about complete releases of all the SW soundtracks.

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wwdarth said:

Kind of like taking a picture of fireworks, no? For me, the live experience IS the reason for the event. Anything else would pale in comparison…but THANK YOU for pointing out that this event exists:)

Still, it’s important to be able to have a home copy for preservation purposes. (And, BTW, I have a video I took of firework on my computer. 😛)

Could be wrong, but didn’t they do this in the UK already?

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I’m bumping this just to let you all know that this event is about a month and a half away.

Anyone want to take-one for the team and make an audio capture of the performance from, at least, any one of these concerts?

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Wow! This would be the event of a lifetime.

– Bill

Never tell me the odds.

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alexp120 said:

I’m bumping this just to let you all know that this event is about a month and a half away.

Anyone want to take-one for the team and make an audio capture of the performance from, at least, any one of these concerts?

I’m planning on it. Going to all 4. I’m trying to figure out which mic to get.

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Anyone here got stories to tell about these? SW (ANH…) is coming to my contry this year and I just bought VIP tickets for it. Probably a once in a lifetime experience. And I’m not just talking about seeing the BD version. 😛

And in the time of greatest despair, there shall come a savior, and he shall be known as the Son of the Suns.

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Possessed said:

LexX said:

contry

Well that definitely could have went a lot worse.

Not really.

I googled this thread so didn’t notice it was in the preservation forum, maybe the general forum would be a better fit? Or at least that was the place I thought I was asking for comments. 😃

And in the time of greatest despair, there shall come a savior, and he shall be known as the Son of the Suns.

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I was commenting on your typo and how much worse it would have been if… Nah nevermind

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Possessed said:

I was commenting on your typo and how much worse it would have been if… Nah nevermind

i laughed. didn’t you see my dot?

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 (Edited)

How would you like a big-screen, marathon viewing of ANH, ESB, and ROTJ at a concert hall, where the entire music scores for each film is performed live, on stage, by a symphony orchestra…

…and all in one day?

Well, on July 29, some lucky folks in Tokyo, Japan can have that.

http://www.promax.co.jp/info/2018/080401/

EDIT: For posterity, here is that ad

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The week of August 9th the unaltered cut of ESB is going to be shown at the Hollywood bowl with a full orchestra. I’m not there but I wonder if any of our “agents” on this site can manage to snag it.

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LordZerome1080 said:

The week of August 9th the unaltered cut of ESB is going to be shown at the Hollywood bowl with a full orchestra. I’m not there but I wonder if any of our “agents” on this site can manage to snag it.

@LordZerome1080, I appreciate your post and the news.

However, I am very skeptical about the “unaltered cut” part.

All the ESB:Live-to-Projection concerts from around the world have screened the version that was used in the Blu Ray with those extraneous extra footage…

  • Vader and entourage entering shuttle at Bepsin
  • Outtake footage from ROTJ

I am sure that there are some fans, out there, that would love to not only hear this entire score live performed by a symphony orchestra, but also hear it accompanied by the GOUT-ESB.

May I ask you to show us a link where this concert will screen the ‘unaltered’ version, please?

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I can’t find anything confirming or denying it. The only way to find out would be for an expert to rip the audio and visual or something.

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I saw ANH in my country a few weeks ago, and it was the bluray version with the Fox intro. The orchestra was awesome though, and despite it being the bluray it was an amazing experience. I’ve already booked tickets for TESB, which will be shown next summer.

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LordZerome1080 said:

I can’t find anything confirming or denying it. The only way to find out would be for an expert to rip the audio and visual or something.

There is no way in Hell it will be the original version. Anyone who says otherwise is starting ridiculous rumors.

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digitalfreaknyc said:

LordZerome1080 said:

I can’t find anything confirming or denying it. The only way to find out would be for an expert to rip the audio and visual or something.

There is no way in Hell it will be the original version. Anyone who says otherwise is starting ridiculous rumors.

My friend has it on goodish authority that this is the unaltered version.

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LordZerome1080 said:

digitalfreaknyc said:

LordZerome1080 said:

I can’t find anything confirming or denying it. The only way to find out would be for an expert to rip the audio and visual or something.

There is no way in Hell it will be the original version. Anyone who says otherwise is starting ridiculous rumors.

My friend has it on goodish authority that this is the unaltered version.

Your friend is 100% wrong.