Over his five-decade career in Hollywood, Jerry Goldsmith composed scores for films such as Planet of the Apes and Chinatown as well as television shows including The Man from U.N.C.L.E. and The Waltons. Nominated for 18 Academy Awards, he won his sole Oscar for 1976’s The Omen. In 1999, he made his Los Angeles Philharmonic conducting debut at the Hollywood Bowl in a program devoted to his music.

For the concert finale, the LA Phil commissioned a new work from Goldsmith, and he rose to the occasion with Fireworks: A Celebration of Los Angeles. Reporting for Variety, Jon Burlingame wrote that the piece “was designed to portray, in the composer’s words, ‘the energy, the fun, the casualness’ of L.A. His nine-minute ode to the city was alternately lighthearted and dramatic, dignified and exciting.”

—Amanda Angel