Lost Disney Sequence Shown at Hollywood Bowl 'Fantasia' Concert

Walt Disney

From the better late than never department:

Coincidentally running at the same time as this past weekend’s D23 Expo, the Hollywood Bowl Orchestra performed music from Disney’s Fantasia, with popular former Bowl Orchestra conductor John Mauceri returning to lead the musicians who played to clips from the classic film.

The evening saw music and clips that didn’t make it into the 1940 version or Fantasia 2000 performed as well, such as Destino, the fabled collaboration between Disney and Salvador Dali, and The Swan of Tuonela.

But perhaps one of the highlights was Clair de Lune, a piece by Claude Debussy that was completely finished but taken out of the original movie so as not to pad the already long running time. It was lost to time and not re-discovered until 1992. It was included in a DVD version of Fantasia but Mauceri said this weekend’s performance was only the second time the sequence has been shown publicly.

The piece was transportive and revelatory.

After the show, many Bowl-goers, at least the adults, tallied their favorite pieces, with Clair de Lune invariably coming out on top the majority of the time. Others simply chattered how they had never before seen this piece and what a gem it is.

Heat Vision found the piece on good ol’ You Tube. The sound quality may not be the same as seeing it with a live orchestra, it’s still pretty magical.

By the way, this weekend the movie theme at the Hollywood Bowl continues with the annual two-day John Williams concert. Expect a lot of lightsabers in the crowd during the Star Wars parts.