Asbury Park Press previews Raiders of the Lost Ark

This weekend, the NJSO presents Raiders of the Lost Ark with live orchestral accompaniment, performing John Williams’ epic score as the film Roger Ebert called “a movie of glorious imagination and breakneck speed” screens above the stage.

The Asbury Park Press previews the performances, which take place January 6–8 in Red Bank, Newark and New Brunswick, with NJSO President & CEO Gabriel van Aalst:

Starring Harrison Ford as the globe-trotting archaeologist, college professor and adventurer Indiana Jones, “Raiders of the Lost Ark” finds Spielberg and Williams in top form.

All these years later, it’s clear the pair was having plenty of fun working in old school adventure saga mode, crafting a story that both abounds with the joy of movie-making and is supported by serious craftsmanship ...

[Williams said in a statement:] “I hope that this weekend’s audiences will experience some measure of the joy and fun we did when making the film 35 years ago.”

“The music is almost a character itself in the plot of Indiana Jones, and it’s really so iconic and it’s been ingrained into the pop culture zeitgeist since it came out,” said van Aalst. “The thing that I think is special about it is that it captures that pop, pulp fiction sensibility that Indiana Jones does so well.

“(There’s) lots of serialized, swashbuckling action, and the score really encapsulates that in a really exciting way. I personally can’t imagine it with any other score. It just adds so much to the film.”

The New Jersey Symphony Orchestra will continue to salute Williams throughout 2017, with performances of “Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone” scheduled for Saturday, March 11, at the New Jersey Performing Arts Center in Newark, followed by engagements Friday, March 31, and Saturday, April 1, at Radio City Music Hall in New York City.

Featuring Williams’ universally recognizable scores, van Aalst said, can serve as ... “a way for people who aren’t as familiar with classical music … to really have that live music experience that we all love so much and really understanding that a symphony can be meaningful and important to all of the community, not just the people who love classical music,” said van Aalst.

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