Smashbomb

On Saturday evening I went to see Symphonic Fantasy at the Manchester Bridgewater Hall. This featured songs from a number of films and tv shows, performed by the Manchester Concert Orchestra and the Canzonetta choir, led by conductor Toby Purser.

Whilst the thought of going to see a standard orchestra doesn’t particularly appeal, getting to see an orchestra performing film scores was very enticing and I have to admit, I was not disappointed - I loved it. Some of the scores were a little more obscure or less well known (like Hook, Chronicles of Narnia and Dragonheart), but there were some fantastic choices in here from Harry Potter, Game of Thrones (the Rains of Castamere & the title score the main draws) The Hobbit and Lord of the Rings. My favourite by far though was the Jurassic Park theme, it’s one of my all time favourites so seeing this performed live by an orchestra was truly brilliant.

The Bridgewater Hall itself is a great venue for such a show and admittedly we had brilliant seats - close enough without being too close to not be able to see the entire orchestra. I also liked that they didn’t bother with any flashy extras like video screens or special effects, it was purely about the music and without any other distractions, it really let you appreciate the music itself.

My only criticism is around a small number of the music choices, and that they could’ve chosen some better more well known scores. There’s lots out there to choose from! That said, it was still a fantastic civilised night out and definitely something worth considering if you like film scores. 9/10