Pirates of the night — Anna Lapwood summons cinematic storm on organ pipes, making Hans Zimmer’s ‘Pirates of the Caribbean’ thunder through Philharmonie in a spellbinding midnight voyage

When Anna Lapwood presses the keys, ordinary notes transform into cannon fire and crashing waves. In a rare snippet from her March 11, 2025 performance at the Philharmonie, Lapwood didn’t just play the Pirates of the Caribbean suite — she made it roar, sending Hans Zimmer’s swashbuckling melodies rushing through the cathedral-like organ with the force of a full pirate armada.

Born to breathe film music into aged pipes, Lapwood has long treated the organ as her cinematic playground, adapting and expanding soundtracks to reveal hidden emotional depths. In interviews, she’s shared how hearing Pirates as a teen sparked a lifelong fascination — and the organ’s ability to channel both the thunder and whimsy of a pirate’s heart, complete with nods to Bach’s Toccata in D minor, gives this piece a hauntingly familiar echo.

This wasn’t just an arrangement; it was a voyage. The bass lines churned like ocean swells, the high registers flickered like moonlight on waves, and each sudden harmonic shift felt like a change of wind in the sails. Every chord seemed to carry salt air.

They didn’t just hear it — they felt it.

In the Philharmonie that night, jaws dropped with the very first rumble of the bass pipes. People in the front rows exchanged quick, disbelieving smiles, the kind you give when you realize you’re witnessing something you’ll talk about for years. By the time the iconic main theme burst through the hall, some audience members were leaning forward in their seats as if the music itself might pull them aboard.

On TikTok, clips of the performance exploded — comments read like love letters: “This is what my childhood dreams sound like”, “The organ was MADE for pirates”, and “Hans Zimmer needs to see this, immediately.” Others confessed they’d never paid attention to the pipe organ before, but Lapwood’s stormy, cinematic sweep had turned them into instant devotees.

The applause in the hall was thunder, but the online reaction was a tidal wave. One Reddit thread titled “She just out-pirated the orchestra” filled with hundreds of gifs, pirate flag emojis, and stories from people who replayed the snippet over and over, chasing that first rush of adrenaline.

For many, it wasn’t just the music — it was the sheer audacity of it. The way Anna Lapwood took an instrument centuries old and turned it into a pirate ship engine, a cannon, and a storyteller all at once. And in that roaring, impossible sound, they found themselves grinning like kids again.