Live Review: Hans Zimmer

Busily matching sound to vision, soundtrack composers all too often tend to lurk behind the scenes, maintaining a certain anonymity as they are shielded from direct public gaze by glamorous movie stars and precocious auteurs. After scoring some of the biggest Hollywood blockbusters over the past few decades, Hans Zimmer steps out in style with the themes and melodies that have added significant impact to the movies on which he has collaborated.

He has been touring the world and it is giving Zimmer the opportunity to reach out to his audience - all of whom clearly have a few OSTs in their album collections - and, finally, have a rock star moment in his career. Zimmer's ensemble features almost 20 players, each of them coolly confident and completely in control of how they handle their instruments. It's a wild assortment of a rock band with electric strings, funky percussion and lots of synths and effects.

They start with the fairly innocuous themes from Driving Miss Daisy that evolve into more energetic sounds from Sherlock Holmes, which surprisingly sees Zimmer rocking a banjo. As the music morphs into tunes from Madagascar 2, the curtain goes up on an orchestra and choir that provide Zimmer with additional reinforcement to the mesmerising wall of sound that he is building. The huge stage at Rod Laver never looked so cramped as it does tonight.

Crimson Tide starts slowly, eventually blurring into themes from Angels & Demons. Zimmer creates a rollercoaster of a ride on massively dramatic crescendos that have us holding onto our seats for dear life. It's loud and (as would be expected) packs plenty of dramatic punch. Looking absolutely luminous in a yellow evening gown and cape covered in sparkling diamonds, Melbourne's Lisa Gerrard effortlessly deals Now We Are Free from the Gladiator soundtrack. The influences of world music continue to resonate as Lebo M and his daughter Refi Sing are on hand for selections from The Lion King. Themes from Pirates Of The Caribbean are woven into an explosive concerto that has the crowd gasping - thankfully there's an interval so the audience can catch their breath.

Zimmer resumes with the wistful guitar slides from the Thelma & Louise theme. It's from here that Zimmer departs into crime-fighting fantasy that has the Man of Steel, the Caped Crusader and good old Spidey overcoming darkness and allowing good to triumph. It's here that Zimmer becomes compellingly urgent, his guitarists effortlessly shredding out manic metallic vibes that feel oppressive. At some point during The Electro Suite, a massively deep bass literally sets the arena into vibration. It feels like we are swimming through these soundwaves while wondering if we have gone temporarily deaf.

The glimmering themes of Interstellar, dominated by those massive cavernous organ sounds, evoke a quietly meditative mood. The dream crashes as Zimmer leaves Inception for the encore. Arguably his best work, it is the tender elements of Time that bring the night down on a wistfully dreamy note. Tonight Zimmer scores and it is unforgettable.