Royal Albert Hall Film Music Gala

The team at Famous Movie Posters were lucky enough this weekend to visit the Royal Albert Hall for one of their annual film music galas. The music gala we attended was performed on the 15th March 2025 and we wanted to share our experience of attending a truly stunning performance by the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Stephen Bell. The theme of this years gala was 'And the winner is...' which was designed to be a showcase of the best Oscar winning scores from the last 50 years.

Of course, one name will always spring to mind when we think of Oscar winning scores which is of course John Williams. John Williams dominated the nights entertainment with at least four pieces being played from his impressive back catalogue of movie scores. At the age of 93, he has been nominated a total of 53 times (second only to Walt Disney himself) and won a total of five times. He is also the only person who has been nominated for seven consecutive decades. The music gala opened with one of his pieces, a rendition of E.T. and it was instantly noticed how captivated the audience were, realising they are listening to one of the greatest film music composers of all time. 

The Royal Albert Hall was opened in 1871 and since then has hosted 10s thousands of concerts over the last 150 years. It was therefore great to see such a world class orchestra in a phenomenal venue playing some of the best music that movies have to offer. The full order of service was as follows:

Film Gala Full Running Order

E.T - John Williams 
Dances with Wolves - John Barry
Emma - Rachel Portman 
Titanic - James Horner 
Jaws - John Williams 
Schindler's List - John Williams 
Aladdin - Alan Menken
La La Land - Justin Hurwitz 
The Lord of the Rings - Howard Shore 

Interval 

West Side Story - Leonard Bernstein 
The Sound of Music - Richard Rodgers 
Things To Come - Arthur Bliss 
Breakfast at Tiffany's - Henry Mancini 
Beauty and the Beast - Alan Menken 
Out of Africa - John Barry 
Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon - Tan Dun 
Chariots of Fire - Vangelis 
The Lion King - Elton John 
Star Wars - John Williams 

The choice and range of music was fantastic and even unfamiliar pieces sounded great in such a venue. The choice to only perform Oscar winners may appear initially to be slightly limiting as some of the most famous music in the last few decades were not eligible to be played. Scores such as Gladiator, Harry Potter, Interstellar, The Good, the Bad and the Ugly, Saving Private Ryan and Jurassic Park to name just a few are all incredibly famous pieces of music which I'm sure would have been appreciated by the audience if not limited by their titular theme. 

That said, it was wonderful to experience such great scores from composers who might not be quite as well known to the average movie goer and the range on display was highly impressive. For several pieces of music such as Titanic and The Sound of Music, the orchestra was joined by the singer Louise Dearman who is well known throughout the West End for roles such as Adelaide in Guys and Dolls, Jan in Grease and both Elphaba and Glinda in Wicked. She complemented the music from the orchestra extremely well and more than did justice to musicians such as Celine Dion and Elton John. 

Where is Hans Zimmer?

Perhaps one notable absence felt by the audience was the omission of any music from Hans Zimmer. Part of this is of course only actually achieving two Oscar Wins (a travesty in our book!) for The Lion King and Dune but it did appear odd that he was not mentioned once by the conductor or presenter. The official program did not even credit him for 'The Lion King' which was instead credited to Elton John, Tim Rice and Nick Davies. I personally do not think any modern day film music concert is complete with at least once piece from Hans Zimmer and many refer to him as one of the modern day great music composers. He has arguably changed film music dramatically and influenced many other composters in the last 25 years so not seeing any music from him was perhaps a little disappointing.

Overall Verdict

One other note to mention was the night also included a presenter (Petroc Trelawny) who gave great gusto in announcing what was up and coming as well as many facts about the pieces which had been played. He gave great energy to the evening and was clearly appreciated by all of the audience. 

As the night drew to a close, a sold out Albert Hall gave a standing ovation to all involved which clearly showed the level of performance that had just been witnessed. It was a memorable evening and enjoyed by us here at Famous Movie Posters and look forward to doing something similar in the not too distant future!