After a couple of months of practising, and two rehearsals with Howard Shore and the full orchestra (one on Tuesday night and one last night), we’re all set for our first performance of the *Lord of the Rings Symphony * tonight in the Opera House. The next few days will be pretty exhausting, with tonight’s performance, another tomorrow night, and then two on Saturday (matinee and evening). All four performances are completely sold out, so at least we’ll be singing to full houses.
I wish I could hear!*
*me in jealous mode
Well, the first performance tonight went very well and the audience loved it. We even managed to get the really difficult entries right. Howard Shore was great.
One down, three to go.
How awesome! I loved the Two Towers soundtrack. Was there a choir?
I was going to ask if there was a choir as well, although Pod’s other line about TTT seemed like a non sequitor, since the only score with a lot of choir in it seemed to be FOTR (i can understand not having it in TTT since the wraiths were not a major player, but to not have it in ROTK is puzzling and a major let down. Or am I mistaken, I don’t have the sdtrack, just my memories from the theatre?)
Well, it was a bit of a nonsequitor, I guess. Mostly I prefer the Two Towers soundrack because it’s much moodier than the other two. The hobbit’s theme is fine, but it gets old quick. 
And “Gollum’s Song” is the best of the three end-titles tracks, for certain.
“The Leave Taking” is on my “Overblown Vocal Numbers” playlist. Also, “Evenstar,” “Forth Eorlingas,” and “Isengard Unleased” featured soloists, but there’s definitely a chorus in the background.
There’s also some big choral stuff thrown in on about half of the remaining tracks (typically toward the end of the track.)
I don’t have the other soundtracks, so I don’t know how prevalent it is in the others.
Yes, there are two choirs - an adult SATB one and a separate children’s choir. I sing first tenor in the adults’ choir. The symphony is in 6 movements, with each of the three separate LOTR films represented by 2 movements.
Last night’s performance (Friday) was even better and we’re really getting into the swing of the piece now. Today will be tiring though, with a matinee at 2.00pm and an evening performance at 8.00pm.