The magical world of Harry Potter

The concert concludes with the adventures of England’s most famous schoolboy, Harry Potter, who learns the basics of magic while thwarting Voldemort’s schemes in a school whose corridors seem each year a little less conducive to learning. John Williams composed the music for the first three films of the saga (2001–04), creating a rich palette of themes associated with characters or specific emotions. It is with a waltz, played on the celesta, that Williams draws us from the very beginning of the saga into a magical and enchanting universe (“Hedwig’s Theme”). The resplendent red phoenix Fawkes is carried by another shimmering waltz that underscores the majestic flight of this immortal bird. “A Bridge to the Past” is yet another waltz, but of a completely different character, accompanying the hero’s melancholy thoughts of his lost parents—a piece that would fit perfectly in the world of Jane Eyre, as it reflects (30 years later!) the same Anglophile tendency in Williams’s writing. Finally, “Harry’s Wondrous World” unfolds all the nobility and pride—properly English—of Hogwarts School.