Gabrielle's Theme - LIVE (from 'Airwolf')

Airwolf Extended Themes' Orchestrator & Associate Producer JAN MICHAL SZULEW plays one of the most loved character themes from the 'Airwolf' TV series – composed by Sylvester Levay – on a Grand Piano.

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'Gabrielle's Theme' played live by Jan Michal Szulew, from the music of 'AIRWOLF'

Gabrielle listening to Hawke playing the Cello

"Gabrielle's Theme" is one of Sylvester Levay's much loved character themes from the Airwolf TV series, along with the Eagle's Cello Theme and St John's Theme. Originally composed for the 'PILOT' episode, this emotive theme was played in the show with piano, synth and later during her death scene in Hawke's arms on the sand dune, live orchestra.

Played by actress, Belinda Bauer, the character of Gabrielle becomes Hawke's first real love interest after Archangel leaves her at the cabin for six days to brief him for his secret mission to Libya to recover Airwolf from Dr Moffet.

The theme itself is the backing score of Hawke & Gabrielle's growing trust and love during the show's PILOT episode and how Gabrielle gets behind the sensitive loner's façade, long separated from the emotional world around him, who only let his emotions inform his actions but never to control them. The excuse of getting the eagle to "trust him" is really his way of showing Gabrielle how he feels from his normality of cold, distant, emotional emptiness.

Jan Michal Szulew explains why he decided to play the emotive theme live.

Jan Michal Szulew playing 'Gabrielle's Theme' live

"On 15th May, 2015 I gave a little live performance on a grand piano in quite an unusual setting – the international airport terminal in Sofia, Bulgaria (this is my "second home town" and I travel there a couple of times a year)."

"This was not the first time though as for some reason Sofia likes to give me opportunities to perform in public transport-related places: I actually played the same grand piano in the airport last December plus earlier on another grand piano – conveniently located at one of Sofia subway stations (СУ Св. Климент Охридски - Sofia University Sv. Kliment Ohridski) – during May 2012."

But the music from Airwolf isn't normally what Jan plays during his public performances.

He continued: "While I usually perform the 1st movement of Beethoven's Moonlight Sonata (which is my favourite performance piece) this time I decided to include something that I guess hasn't really been performed much: "Gabrielle's Theme". I wanted to do something from Airwolf and "Gabrielle's Theme" seemed like a perfect candidate to be reinterpreted on a grand piano, being very popular amongst the Airwolf fans plus it has a simple melody."

"Also, this time I managed to secure an audience recording of the performance," he said.

POST PRODUCTION WITH SYNTH

"When I got the recording back to my studio I realised that the grand piano didn't sound that

Gabrielle lost in dreamy, moon-lit thoughts of art and...

good on its own, so I thought it would be cool to back it with synthesizers, recreating that 80s feel from the show itself. As the theme was used a few times on the Airwolf TV series, I had a couple of possible variations to choose from, so I decided to go with the ECHOS FROM THE PAST version (pretty much note-for-note accurate too), which for me personally evokes lots of emotions and memories of the early 90s, when the episode aired in Poland for the very first time."

VIDEO PRODUCTION IN BOTH HD + 4k

Jan's updated audio was them paired with the newly-restored HD footage from the Region B blu-rays to show the evolving love story between Hawke and Gabrielle, without the emotional turmoil of the final scenes on the sand dune dying in Hawke's arms; Sylvester addressed this with the Munich Philharmonic Orchestra on the original 'Airwolf Themes' 2CD from 1999.

It was rendered in both HD and future-proofed for Ultra 4k resolution on YouTube.

We finished the production by keeping with the tone of the PILOT's Closing Theme to play out after the performance.

Plus there's a little upbeat Easter egg at the very end for those that watch the whole way through.