Original subtitles

Thank you very much!

Thank you very much, ladies and gentlemen, for being with us tonight

here in this magnificent hall, which is like a house of magic.

And I want to tell you

what a privilege it is for me to be here with you in this hall,

standing in front of perhaps the world's greatest orchestra:

the Berlin Philharmonic.

To be standing in front of this orchestra

for any musician, however humble or great,

to be here with you for these few moments is truly a great honour and a privilege.

And I'm so grateful for this invitation to be with you.

I have never been to Berlin before.

I've always wanted to visit the City.

It is incredibly beautiful.

I'll just give you a couple of impressions.

The weather has been gorgeous these early autumn days, we've had sun.

And driving around the City, we see people on bicycles and actually walking.

In Los Angeles you don't walk.

There are freeways and cars, that's all we have.

The city is so alive in its present.

And you have the great history of the area

in these magnificent buildings and monuments.

I walk in the Tiergarten, and I see all the little children with gorgeous faces.

And I think, well, the future of this place is going to be fantastic and bright

if we all do our jobs very well. It's a fantastic place.

And I'm very happy and also honoured just to be here in your midst.

To the music: here's a little suite from Far and Away,

which is a film some years ago with Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman.

So you'll hear in this little suite an atmospheric theme

that describes the County Galway in the time of 1892, when the film was staged.

And then there's some action music which begins as a kind of a dance

which the village fiddler will lead us.

And the orchestra will join in, all of us, a little bit later.

Then, of course, a love theme for the two young people played by Torn and Nicole.

And then finally the donnybrook, and the donnybrook is the comedy fight.

And when you hear the cellos and basses rumble over here

with all their notes and strength, that's the beginning of the donnybrook.

Here is Far and Away.

Thank you so much.

Here are three pieces from Harry Potter.

I'm happy to find that it was as popular in Germany as elsewhere.

These amazing books and movies have been said

to have been the greatest British export since the Beatles,

which could be true. Here are three little pieces.

The first one is Hedwig's music.

Hedwig was the lovely white bird

that delivered the mail to the Muggles, you may remember that.

And the second little movement is “Nimbus 2000”.

Nimbus 2000 was the... I don't quite know how to describe it,

the stick or the pole that Harry rode on very quickly

so he could play quidditch all over the field. That is the Nimbus 2000.

And that piece of music is only for woodwinds.

So you will hear all manner of flutes and oboes and clarinets here

in the orchestra playing brilliantly the Nimbus music.

And finally “Harry's Wondrous World”, which is a sonorous theme

that was used to depict Harry's friendship with his little friends, and so on.

So you have “Hedwig's Theme”, “Nimbus 2000” and “Harry's Wondrous World”.

Thank you so very much.

Here are three pieces from Indiana Jones.

We have already made four Indiana Jones films.

And, as we speak, in London Harrison Ford is now shooting the fifth one.

I think that's good news.

Because when I leave Berlin, I will go back to Los Angeles in a few days

and begin to write the score for the fifth Indiana Jones.

So we have no resting.

The first of the three pieces is “Scherzo for Motorcycle and Orchestra”.

But you will not see a motorcycle on the stage.

But the title is the poor composer's feeling... I'll explain to you...

This is a scene in the movie with Sean Connery and Harrison Ford.

They're on a motorcycle and they're being chased by the bad guys.

The piece you're about to hear is the piece I wrote for the choreography of that chase.

And then, a few months later, I went to the movie theatre to watch the film.

The motorcycle chase came along and all I heard were motorcycles.

I didn't hear the orchestra at all.

You can imagine the composer's bruised vanity.

So it's a treat for me to play it for you with this orchestra

without the distraction of the film and the noise of the motorcycle.

And that's followed by “Marion's Theme”: Karen Allen in the first film,

who was so great in the action sequences as well as comedy.

And then finally “Raiders March”.

Thank you, ladies and gentlemen. Next is a piece called Elegy.

And it will feature our cellist, or your cellist, Bruno Delepelaire.

I am delighted to have him do this piece for me.

I wrote it a number of years ago for two lost children.

An elegy, as you know, can be a wish or a prayer

for condolences and the like

to assuage the grief of people who have lost.

But it can be other things.

It can be a wish and a prayer for wholeness and forgiveness.

These emotions... of all the instruments we have

are often best expressed by the cello. I love the instrument,

and I've written for it every time I have had an opportunity to do it

because I love the instrument so very much.

I hope you will enjoy it. Elegy.

Here are three pieces from the Star Wars collection.

The first one is “Adventures of Han”. A very active piece for the orchestra.

Second piece is “Yoda's Theme”, which goes way back.

And thirdly the processional and finale of the first film.

We have the processional in the throne room, which you may remember,

and then the end credits of Star Wars.

So here's “Adventures of Han”, “Yoda's Theme”

and the finale to the first Star Wars film.

Thank you so much.

Here is “Princess Leia's Theme”.

And this is the issue:

George Lucas, who many of you remember or know,

was the author of Star Wars and the creator of all of this.

And he's the kind of a man that never spoke very much.

So, when we did the first film, none of us working on the film were told

that there would be a second film or a third film.

So I looked at the film and I looked at Luke and Leia,

Mark Hamill and Carrie Fisher.

They played their comedy scenes and action scenes together very well.

I didn't expect another movie to come along.

So I imagined that in later life they might be lovers,

maybe create a family, who knows?

So I wrote a love theme, which I played for them, and it was in the film.

And George said nothing.

And two years later, I discovered that they were brother and sister,

and the real love theme belonged to Han Solo and the princess.

So that next film had yet another theme.

This is the first one when I had no idea that they were siblings

and expected them to grow into a kind of love affair.

Here is the original piece.