For Hans Zimmer, music is a powerful vessel for unity and togetherness

A titan of the film score, his knack for penning both incredibly catchy but also unique and memorable tunes has led him through a career spanning three decades. In June Zimmer brought his live show back to London, with two dates at Wembley’s SSE Arena – no mean feat for a soiree of film music.

People waded into the hall to find their seats as low, ominous growls from the speaker stacks signalled the imminent start of the show. The crowd suddenly jumped to life as Zimmer waltzed onto the stage, alone at the piano. Little by little the ensemble expanded as his fellow musicians came to join him. As the opening moments of ‘Driving Miss Daisy’ built up, the stage curtain lifted to reveal small choir and orchestra behind him, alongside a full band, a beefed out percussion section (three different drummers, no less), and a small and intriguing modular synth set-up on stage-left.

Following the opening medley – which also included the theme from Sherlock Holmes and Madagascar – Zimmer spoke to the audience with a sombre address of the recent Grenfell tragedy, pledging the proceedings from the concert to support the victims of the fire.

Memorable moments from the first half included a chilling rendition of ‘Gladiator’ as well as a show-stopping performance of ‘The Lion King’, which featured stunning vocal performances from Lebo M and Refilwe Morake (the first of whom sang on the original recording). Rounding things off before the interval was the impressive Tina Guo who lead a dramatic charge through ‘Pirates of the Carribean’ with her virtuosic cello playing.

In between songs Zimmer would often roll out candid stories of how he met the musicians on-stage with him, periodically introducing them to the audience throughout the evening – what was immediately clear was the comradery between the band and a strong sense of family.

What Zimmer offers is an interesting proposition – where traditional orchestras and concert-going has been struggling, he’s found a compelling middle-ground that engages a relatively diverse audience, bringing rich orchestral music to life and making it more accessible for the general public. A comparison needs to be drawn here between what you might typically find at Southbank’s Royal Festival Hall or even the Barbican and what is essentially an arena gig in this instance. One of the biggest things about this is the fact that you can now actually see your favourite original movie soundtracks performed live with a big lighting rig and sound-system – they even have people wandering the aisles selling bags of popcorn and hotdogs.

The scale and spectacle of Hans Zimmer live is something that classical music has always somehow struggled with – and while you could never realistically compare Mahler’s 8th Symphony to an orchestral cum heavy-metal rework of Superman ‘Man of Steel’, it’s definitely a worthwhile observation. You won’t find many composers jumping around playing the electric guitar and rapping in a very tongue and cheek performance of ‘Video Killed The Radio Star’ – a hilarious throw-back that featured Zimmer teaming up with old-time friend Trevor Horn from the Buggles – (for those who may or may not remember, Zimmer made an appearance in the original music video).

The last half hour was most enjoyable for me, with a suitably epic performance of ‘Interstellar’, followed by an encore of ‘Inception’ – two of Zimmer’s best works.

For entertainment value the gig scores highly. But for anything a bit more nuanced you may have to seek elsewhere – and I guess this is the main difference between loud arena show and stuffy concert-hall with too-long-to-bother-reading programme notes. The evening lacked subtlety and contour, which all good soundtracks must possess – but when slotting a list of ‘big hits’ together, this becomes a conscious and necessary compromise.

All in all, the novelty for one night wasn’t lost on me, and if anything really proved that interestingly shaped wooden objects (violins) and shiny tubes of metal (trumpets) and their counterparts all have their place on the contemporary stage, just as much as a synth or drum-kit or electric guitar.

Dovetailing the concert, Zimmer’s final spiel reinforced the idea that music is a powerful vessel for unity and togetherness, just as it is there for pure and simple enjoyment. Just like the Hollywood blockbusters that these films were scored for, the show was a hard-hitting, high-octane, spectacle. An evening of shameless, at times indulgent, showmanship – but all the better for it.