On the 4th and 5th of June 2011 the time had finally come: The Lord of the Rings Live concerts were gonna be played in The Netherlands. Starting with Fellowship of the Ring in 2011, The Two Towers in 2012, then The Return of the King in 2013, completing the trilogy. Played at De Doelen in Rotterdam by one of the great orchestras in the world, the Rotterdam Philharmonic, and with the choirs Groot Omroepkoor, Laurens Collegium, Nationaal Kinderkoor and Nationaal Jongenskoor. As all the The Lord of the Rings Live concerts, the orchestra was conducted by the great Ludwig Wicki and the female vocal parts were sung by Kaitlyn Lusk. With both concerts sold out in a couple of months, The Netherlands was ready to experience The Lord of the Rings like never before.

Being a fan of The Lord of the Rings movies and especially the musical scores, I was psyched to hear that the complete trilogy was gonna be played live during the course of 3 years. Bought my ticket the day they became available and then the waiting began. The reviews on this website gave me more and more excitement, I just couldn’t wait for the show. I made a deal with myself that I didn’t want to see any videos of the concert beforehand, I wanted to experience it on my own wit no images of previous shows in my mind.

On Sunday June 5th it was finally time.

Since I’d never been to De Doelen before I didn’t know what to expect from the concert hall, it turned out pretty big and the entourage was beautiful. The moment we walked into the hall, it wasn’t as crowded but within 10 minutes the hall was jam-packed. At 14:00 pm Meastro Wicki walked on stage: it was time to begin.

Right of the bat I was blown away by the sound, and how similar it sounded to the recordings of the films, of the orchestra. Everything was played perfectly, from the powerful Nazgul’s theme to the subtle Arwen’s Prayer. For 3 hours (not counting the intermission) the players kept this powerful delivering of the music and, as mentioned before here, nothing is as powerful as hearing a musical score live. 

The concert ended with a well deserved standing ovation for the players.

All I have left say is that I was completely blown away by the power and quality of the performance of the orchestra, choirs, Ludwig Wicki and Kaitlyn Lusk. For next year they’ve added a third day because of how incredibly it was received. People who attended the concerts already had a chance to buy tickets for next year's The Two Towers and as of June 7th the tickets are available for everyone, and they are going fast! (As it should be.)

Thanks for an incredible show and see you next year!

Daan Smit