Film music composer Hans Zimmer gave fans of his movie scores a rare glimpse of himself at work on Monday when he took the stage to lead an orchestra in a live performance of his score for epic space adventure Interstellar.
Standing on the stage of London’s Royal Albert Hall, the German composer played a keyboard alongside a 60-piece orchestra and the hall’s grand organ as the film played out on a large screen behind them.
Zimmer has won Oscar, Grammy and Golden Globe awards, and has written scores for more than 100 films including Gladiator, Rain Man and the Pirates of the Caribbean blockbusters. He spoke of his excitement of writing for and performing with live musicians.
“We have this honour to write music for these orchestras, and keep these orchestras going, and I think this is really important. We take that very seriously,” he said.
“I was a session player here in London before I became a composer in Hollywood and I think the greatest compliment I keep getting from the musicians here is that I am a part of them.”
The 2014 film, which stars Matthew McConaughey, Anne Hathaway, Jessica Chastain and Michael Caine, tells the story of a group of astronauts who travel in search of a new home for mankind.
Monday’s gala screening saw cosmologist Stephen Hawking introduce Zimmer, director Christopher Nolan, executive producer and theoretical physicist Kip Thorne and physicist Brian Cox for a Q&A session about the film before the performance.
Speaking on the red carpet, Nolan said that the score’s original performers would be the ones performing live.
“They’re getting to have a relationship live with the audience and I think that’s going to be very exciting,” he said.
Having largely been snubbed at a series of awards earlier this year, Interstellar triumphed at the Empire Awards in London on Sunday, scooping Best Film and Best Director for Nolan.
