Aliens liveRoyal Philharmonic Concert Orchestra, conducted by Ludwig Wicki

Royal Albert Hall, November 6, 2016

Time for war against the Xenomorphs…

Thirty years ago, one of my favourite SF movies was released – the sequel to Ridley Scott’s classic from seven years earlier. Sigourney Weaver was back as Ellen Ripley, but whereas in the original one Alien destroyed the crew of the Nostromo, here there’s a whole host of the Xenomorphs taking apart a bunch of Colonial Marines – before Ripley tells the Alien Queen to “get away from her, you bitch” when it threatens the young orphaned girl Ripley has adopted. It’s nearly an hour before the xenomorphs make an appearance but writer/director James Cameron doesn’t waste a moment of it, ratcheting up the tension…

One of the great ingredients to the film’s success was the music by James Horner, although the story of its composition and inclusion in the movie is a great tale in its own right (one Michael Beek tells in the souvenir programme ). Suffice it to say that what we hear in the Theatrical Version isn’t what Horner intended – and even if its debt to some of his earlier work, notably Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan is very clear, it’s still a terrific piece of scoring.

That became obvious during the Aliens Live performance at the Royal Albert Hall, with the RPCO fielding large numbers of brass and percussion to bring Horner’s score to life. Ludwig Wicki, as ever, was totally in control of events, bringing out a really powerful rendition from the players (the two big rescue sequences in particular reverberated around the Hall). Some of the intricacies of the scoring – particularly the woodwind in some of the climactic portions – were clearer now than they are in the movie mix, while the bass registers of most instruments were plundered to good effect.

The first time I saw this movie, in 1986, was at an open air screening in Canada; this viewing I’m sure will stick in my memory as long.

Verdict: A terrific performance of a very memorable score accompanying a great movie. 10/10

Paul Simpson