In this round of promotion for Star Wars: The Force Awakens, its been revealed that Gustavo Dudamel, music director of the Los Angeles Philharmonic, conducted the famous opening and ending titles to the new installment. The music was composed by none other than John Williams and has been featured in each movie of the series.
The performances were recorded at the Sony scoring stage on Oct. 12 and was a major surprise event. Dudamel was not revealed to be the conductor until the performances so the musicians, Disney's lawyers and others involved in the process were in utter shock.
When Dudamel received the call he was bewildered and recanted:
"I remember thinking, 'He's joking.' John has such a wonderful sense of humor, and I somehow thought that there must be a catch. It turns out there was: I couldn't tell anyone!"
A most astounding surprise, sure, but this isn't the first time Dudamel has been steeped in the music of Star Wars. To wit, the Los Angeles Philharmonic opened its 2014-15 season with Gustavo conducting the music of Mr. Williams.
At first, the academy recognized the performance as a move "too commercial" for the classical community. But, as time proved, the performance created a ripple and soon Simon Rattle and the Berlin Philharmonic and even Andris Nelsons at the Boston Pops started implementing the compositions into their program.
This wouldn't be Mr. Dudamel's first motion picture debut, either; he has a small cameo in the first episode of the second season of Mozart in the Jungle, Amazon's classical com-dram.
Star Wars: The Force Awakens opens in the U.S. on December 18.
Be sure to preview all of the trailers and clips in a bundle below, until then.
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