The Masterpiece: Film Soundtracks and More Epic Music in the Concert Hall

My favorite surprise was the presence of composer Gerard Marino, who came onstage to conduct music from God of War, which I learn is a video game, rather than a film. The music was an amazingly nuanced journey that culminated as full-blown rock. Everyone was cheering at the end. It was such an inspired piece of contemporary music, I’ll always treasure it – it’s firmly lodged in my memory. Gerard Marino was a-ma-zing, despite two very funny false starts!

Extraordinary, too, was the presence of Uyanga Boldbaatar, who I see studied at Berklee, like Ciprian Costin. She was born in Moscow, lived in Switzerland, but is of Mongolian ethnicity. This is important, because it informs her music. Her melismatic pitch transitions, her modulated screams were truly enchanting. Marvelous, too, was cellist Tina Guo, who played acoustic and electric cello. Tina Guo has performed as a soloist for various film and video game soundtracks, plays with the band Off the Deep End, and is touring with Cirque du Soleil's production Michael Jackson: The Immortal World Tour until 2014. They were joined by soprano Irina Baiant, who was also a powerful presence, and Calin Grigoriu on electric guitar. Robert Enache and Marina Minoiu graced us with a few moments of ballet.

From what I read in PR materials on various Web sites, the concert premiered live many of the works presented. A hundred and forty professionals, as well as Lufthansa, a few other large sponsors, and a good number of media partners contributed to the success of the night.

Throughout the 140 minutes of the concert were presented pieces from the following movie soundtracks:

The Tree of Life – Piece by Zbigniew Preisner

Out of Africa – Music by John Barry

The Gladiator – Music by Hans Zimmer

Modigliani – Music by Guy Farley

Memoirs of a Geisha – John Williams

Dracula – Wojciech Kilar

The Da Vinci Code – Hans Zimmer

Inception – Hanz Zimmer

Sherlock Holmes – Hans Zimmer

God of War (video game) – Gerard Marino

Illusions (standalone album) – Thomas Bergersen

Human Legacy (standalone piece, I think) – Ivan Torrent

The Dark Knight Trilogy – Music by Hans Zimmer and James Newton Howard

I could not always tell which was what.