Was that a baton that conductor Philip Mann was wielding on the podium, or a wand?
Either way, he and the Arkansas Symphony Orchestra made magic Saturday night at Little Rock's Robinson Center Performance Hall, playing "The Magical Music of Harry Potter."
Consisting of bits and pieces of music from all eight Harry Potter films by four composers -- the inimitable John Williams and successors Patrick Doyle, Nicholas Hooper and Alexandre Desplat -- the program featured themes you'll remember and tunes you might not. (Thus is the fate of underscoring and background music, alas.)
The first half started with the lengthy pan-picture Harry Potter Symphonic Suite and thereafter focused on Williams' music from the first two films -- two excerpts apiece from Williams' suites from Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone and Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets.
The second half featured Williams' music from Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban -- "Knight Bus" gave the percussionists a real workout -- and Doyle's Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire Concert Suite. There were some lively bits by Hooper -- "Fireworks" from Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix and the "Wizard Wheezes" from Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, which principal clarinetist Kelly Johnson helped swing.
No actual film footage appeared on the large screen at the back of the amber-glowing stage -- more's the pity -- but a series of still shots helped the audience follow along in their programs. (Pre-show, it flashed Potter movie and book trivia.) Canned voice-over narration in a proper British accent provided context for each segment.
Much of the audience showed up in costume -- Hogwarts robes, house scarves, witches' hats, quidditch uniforms. Some went all-out, sporting wands and Dumbledore beards. A costume parade led off the second half. (My vote, if anybody cares, goes to the creative young woman who turned herself into a stylized three-headed dog.)
Mann took the podium in a modified Hogwarts house jacket and scarf; many of the players were in various degrees garbed as Hogwarts students, faculty and auxiliary characters. (Was that Sirius Black, in striped Azkaban prison uniform, back there in the battery?)
Hogwarts props (Sorting Hat, broomstick, owl in cage, school trunks, etc.) and house banners appeared on both sides of the stage; facsimile Daily Prophet pages and "Undesirable No. 1" wanted posters were plastered on doorways to the building and the hall. Snape and Mann cutouts flanked a photo area in the lower lobby.
Mann, the orchestra and the denizens of the wizarding world will do it again at 3 p.m. today at Robinson Center, 426 W. Markham St. at Broadway, Little Rock. Come in costume if you're feeling magical. Ticket information is available by calling (501) 666-1761 or online at ArkansasSymphony.org/magic.
Metro on 10/08/2017