Above: Kuring-Gai Philharmonic Orchestra take a bow following this concert event. Featured image: the KPO horn section for this concert. Photos: Geoff Sirmai.
A major drawcard of this KPO programme was the subtitle of the event name: ‘Movie & Gaming Music’. This hard working orchestra (offering no less than 6 concerts and 2 free community concert events in 2026) has proved itself in the past to be well suited to conveying the drama and shifting sentiments of movie soundtracks. The chance for us to hear them present music from major video game franchises in combination with movie music was a special one indeed.
Gaming music is a compelling and growing genre, perfect for our time and often the product of enthusiastic gamers turning their intelligence and creativity towards the industry to provide it with exciting, quality soundscapes. The programming of two success stories in this area to complement music intended for the big and smaller screen (TV) was a successful choice, making for an afternoon of vivid and nicely executed gesturing to support characters, narratives, scenarios and mood.
Above: KPO plays the ‘Star Wars Suite’. Photo: Geoff Sirmai.
The orchestra, sporting large brass and percusion sections and swooping, variegated strings were en pointe to deliver the ups and downs, light and very dark shade of film music by John Williams. Gaming music was presented in stunning vistas and vignette from the clever pen of gamer-composers Yuka Kitamura and Jeremy Soule, who wrote themes for the popular games Elden Ring 2022 and The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim respectively.
Paul Terracini’s clear and dynamic conducting harnessed the large forces in these and all soundtracks on the pogramme, ensuring instant impact, as well as great contrast both between and within each work. These compositions for video games demonstrated great talent from the composers, both video game enthusiasts, created intricate and finely sculptured scores, for a function where the precise atmosphere is key for the game’s success. KPO delivered neat and well-coloured tranches de drama and story here, in very attractive soundworlds.
Two popular movie suites with two very familiar and different styles filled the concert’s first half. The recogniseable gems from John Williams in the Star Wars Suite (from the franchise’s first 1977 movie) began the afternoon’s music. The huge walls of sound for ‘Main Title’, ‘The Imperial March’ and ‘Throne Room and End Title’ were rendered with energy and strength. Also welcome in this suite were in softer, more intimate ‘Princess Leia’s Theme’ and ‘Yoda’s Theme’, where blasting textures were relaxed and music outlining more intimate, pondering predicaments and more complex characters was beautifully drawn by the well-balanced orchestra.
Above: Conductor Paul Terracini and members of the KPO. Photo: Geoff Sirmai.
Joe Hisaushi’s inimitable delicacy and warmth were effectively captured during the Spirited Away Suite, another blockbuster movie from Hayao Miyazaki from 2001. KPO tackled the unique soundscapes juxtaposed in this sprawling set, which referenced ten separate musical sections from the anime. There was a nice connectivity to the flow and musical conversation, which did capture the expressive nature of both Hisauishi and Miyaxaki’s unique and popular creative styles in what has been the globally successful animation and musical partnership for. Studio Ghibli.
Music for the small screen did not escape KPO’s examination of functional compostion for the entertainment industry- a documentary which was so well and engagingly narrated and explained by the conductor prior to each work. Turning to the music of Soviet composer Aram Khatchaturian, his ‘Adagio‘ from the ballet Spartacus was heard. The smooth flow and well-voiced textures were pleasing and the piece’s inclusion represented the ballet-music’s love-story’s popularity for inclusion in the television industry, namely ‘The Onedin Line’ from the 1970s.
Prior to hearing the charming suite from Middle Earth and the clear, joyous swathes of the Fellowship of the Ring symphonic suite (arranged by John Whitney in 2001), a very special piece composed for TV was heard. Conductor Paul Terracini’s own composition, Benjamin, heard on the series ‘Hymns of the Forefathers’, for which he also arranged hymn music in orchesral expansion. This excellent composition was a worthy inclusion in the effective atmospheres of this programme. The work’s seamless and clever construction was performed with stunning restraint by the orchestra, and was a stand alone moment of finely wrought meditation within a colourful, popular and memorable concert concept.
Ku-ring-gai Philharmonic Orchestra next perform in a free community concert of music for strings and woodwind: Nothing Is Forever. This takes place at he Turramurra Uniting Church at 2.30pm Sunday 20 September with guest director Madeleine Easton.
