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I like Man in the High Castle. It is cover of edelweiss, but it is a perfectly unsettling way to start the show.

Obligatory the Game of Thrones theme is just a part of the AOTC ending over and over again post.

Well… I don’t really know how best to review this entire concert, so I’ll just start with an introduction and see where things go from there. The last few days have been rather exhausting. It looks like I’ll finally get a job after an entire year and I’ve been doing sample translations for the first time in twelve months this week, so I was a bit too tired to enjoy this evening profoundly. Most of the pieces didn’t blow me away, but that might also be because I’ve become a spoiled little brat when it comes to film music: things I loved three years ago are sort of all right now. Also, I am mostly completely unfamiliar with Howard’s career and recently discovered that I need to know the story of a film to really appreciate its music, but decided that it would be sensible to go anyway as the man might never ever return to my city and I am already angry with myself for not going to Danny Elfman after realising they might just have played Alice’s theme with our very fine Fine Fleur Choir. The bus ride was mostly uneventful, except for some people complaining that all these concerts (minus ET) are happening in Antwerp (knock on wood). One of these people was a woman who then lamented the fact that our city was way too multicultural. Nobody was bothering anyone at first, of course, but, you know, if the migrants keep to themselves, they don’t integrate and if they mix with the locals and behave, they’re a burden to society. So proud to be Belgian… This concert took place at the Queen Elisabeth Hall again, so the sound was largely perfect, although the balance could have been somewhat better (most of the sound came from the right) and only bass clarinets and low strings stood out. The college students in charge still didn’t know anything about the seating arrangements, so we first spent 15 minutes listening to “Is this seat 36?”, but at least there was some nice piano music going on in the background. The concert was also not sold out. There were an awful lot of empty seats (at least 70, I was told) and that kind of made me feel sorry for James Newton Howard. Zimmer receives a lot of undeserved attention while this infinitely superior composer, attracts not even half of such crowds. There was also merchandising including JNH T-shirts. I would only consider such purchases if it was John Williams. Then, we got a little clip in which a British person welcomed us to the concert (why not JNH in person, a Belgian or an American?) and he also asked us to turn off our phones before stating that recording was prohibited – does this mean a commercial release is in the pipeline…? The clarinet players had a lot of fun during the tuning and somehow played the first notes of Happy Birthday at the end. We first got an extended Fantastic Beasts Main Title: the beginning was fleshed out and the cheerful ending cut, and of course no Hedwig’s Theme. I’m not entirely sure how I feel about that decision, but I suppose it’s understandable for a JNH concert. Somewhere in this piece, JNH entered and the people who had turned up gave him a warm applause. Well, correction: it was rather lukewarm at first, but as the concert unfolded, people got more and more into it and at the end of the evening, you wouldn’t even have noticed that so many seats were unoccupied, but more about the audience later. Fantastic Beasts segued into Snow White and the Seven Huntsman, a really impressive piece. This was the first of many instances where it struck me how smoothly JNH managed to go from one film score to another, completely unrelated to the first one. He was recently interviewed on a Belgian TV show and whatever he told Van Gils & Gasten (Van Gils & Guests), he clearly knows an awful lot about his body of work and, what’s more, he’s incredibly good at presenting it in concert. The next piece illustrated that fact even more. I’ve always found the Hunger Games rather boring scores with a few outstanding highlights, but this suite worked so well: Katniss’ theme, some frantic action music from Mockingjay 1 and then an extended ‘ode’ to the Capitol that ended with Snow saying, “Happy Hunger Games, everyone, and may the odds be ever in your favour”. BUT: the solo soprano was just bad. This is a good moment to highlight one of the very few things I disliked about this concert. Around 50% of the music was accompanied by fragments (sometimes just credits) of the films (do I detect licensing rubbish complicating matters?). Now, that’s fine: I’m willing to accept the fact that the masses can’t listen to interesting music without images while being perfectly able to tolerate 30 minutes of someone’s 36th piano concerto that repeats itself more than it does interesting things. I guess they’ll only appreciate scores in 50 years. But why did they include little excerpts of random dialogue as well? JNH’s music is perfectly capable of standing on its own. It was downright obnoxious in the lovely Peter Pan suite and in the Sixth Sense, we were suddenly told that “No, dinner is not ready!” I don’t care, I’ve just had mine. I only want dialogue when the music in question is too boring to be remotely entertaining (Man of Steel, The Joker). But I digress. Peter Pan could have used a tiny little more energy, but the segue from Signs into the Sixth Sense was, again, perfect and the Last Airbender suite was as pleasant as everything else so far, though it didn’t contain my favourite Earthbenders moment. The first half ended with Wyatt Earp (gorgeous) and seamlessly dissolved into the Hanging Tree. But then, things went wrong. For some reason, they had asked people on social media in every city around the world to enter a competition and submit videos of themselves singing that song. I just hate such things. The winner would be allowed to perform it live in concert. When JNH was on Van Gils & Gasten, the singer was Blanche, some French-speaking person who was reportedly successful in Eurovision. In other words: she sang a song for Belgium there, which now makes her our national saviour regardless of its quality. This time… it was Blanche too. So, in my opinion, there are only two possibilities: no women had submitted any videos, or the submitted material was ghastly. Can someone please tell me why it is so difficult for a French-speaking person to teach themselves how to pronounce ‘strange things did happen’ when they’ve got loads of time to practice? JNH was very polite to her, of course, and said it was obvious she had stood out from all the other entries, but I’m just not buying it. Then came the break. Nothing spectacular happened there, so this might be an appropriate moment to talk a bit about JNH himself. Throughout the concert, he told us many stories about himself, his children and about the pieces they were about to play. This happened in Signs, King Kong, the romantic comedy suite, Snow Falling on Cedars, The Village and The Dark Knight. I’ve only heard a few composers live so far. Alan Silvestri always sounds nervous, I have yet to find a live Patrick Doyle appearance in which he doesn’t tell the ‘He’s got plans for this song’ story and Hans Zimmer is too fond of Hans Zimmer. Other than that, Alexandre Desplat doesn’t sound too interesting either while John Williams is the personification of modesty. Danny Elfman just sounds weird and Howard Shore might have written three masterpieces, but bores me to death in two seconds. JNH is so different. He might not be the best speaker in the world, but his voice is quite enjoyable and he told us one interesting anecdote after the other. I even found myself looking forward to his next little speech. Not only did they provide a perfect balance between music and talking, they were also instructive: he discussed topics such as re-writing music, what music can do to a finished scene, his friendship with Hans Zimmer (including a decent impression of a German accent and Zimmer’s name only got mild applause)… I don’t want to write any more here, but if anyone is having doubts about going, I can safely say that you should go for his stories alone. This is a man who takes his job very seriously (which, he says, Zimmer disapproves of), is passionate about the art he creates, who has clearly had lots of interesting experiences and who, above all, does not take things for granted. I even daresay he was taken aback by the storm of applause he got before the encores. In his masterclass, Zimmer said he’s not a composer, but a performer. Howard is the performer. The flow of this entire concert was simply perfect. He knows what works and what doesn’t, he understands you can’t play Rue’s Farewell in concert (as beautiful as the ending might be), he shares intimate and entertaining thoughts and even went the extra mile and said, ‘Good evening, ladies and gentleman’ and ‘thank you’ in Dutch a few times. Unlike Zimmer, this last bit didn’t feel like an obligatory gimmick to please the populace, it was a personal token of appreciation. He isn’t doing this for financial gain, he’s doing it because he’s proud of his achievements and eager to share it with the few cultured people who are prepared to listen. We even clapped after five of his six stories because it just felt like the natural thing to do. And to top it all off, he kept things extremely varied. I’ll never say that I liked all of the music I heard tonight and the first half might have contained a tiny little bit too much choral music, but even the things I didn’t really appreciate were worth listening to simply because they always provided a breath of fresh air. Not a single note in this concert was a waste of time. The second half opened with Dinosaur (quite impressive) and King Kong (not really my cup of tea). Then, we got a suite from Dave (JNH is a very decent piano player), Pretty Woman and My Best Friend’s Wedding. It ended with a flighty little thing that should have lasted longer and I can’t remember which of these three movies it came from, only that Julia Roberts (I think) shouted, “You’re never careful!” Snow Falling on Cedars was one of the pieces that actually deeply moved me, though the ending was a bit awkward. But they had yet to play the Village. Oh, my goodness. The violin solo was played by the concert master of the Czech National Symphony Orchestra and, to quote JNH, it was a truly stunning performance. It was even the violinist’s birthday today, which earned her an extra round of clapping afterwards. JNH had some difficulty pronouncing her last name, for which he apologised and got more applause. I’m only wondering how he ended up with a Czech Orchestra (not a negative remark, they were great). Speaking of the performers, the Cinematic Art Choir was good as well, but to JNH’s apparent displeasure, they wouldn’t be joining him for the tour from this concert on because they had ‘other fish to fry’ -- James even taught me some English too. For Blood Diamond, he had brought a black woman with a rather amazing voice and at the end, she gave the phrase ‘to leave with a bang’ new meaning. Quite amusing. The second half also had a bit of an ‘interlude’ in which JNH talked about how he had once met Elton John and which was accompanied by funny drawings. JNH then played a solo piece of his solo album, which, again, is music I’ll never turn on myself, but the sheer difference between that piece and the score material made it interesting already. What mostly amazed me about the Harvey Dent suite was that, first of all, it didn’t contain the dramatic ‘father to the rescue’ ending, but the Batman theme references actually worked. This music, flawed as it is, does sound nice if you play it with an actual orchestra instead of sampled horns and 1000000 guitars. Finally, we got a fantastic Fantastic Beasts suite (sorry, couldn’t resist using that pun). The ‘Inside the Suitcase’ intro sounded glorious, the heroic trial music was especially magical and, well, Newt Releases the Thunderbird needs no further adjectives. I’m only a bit disappointed that that playful magic theme wasn’t performed. As an encore, they played a Maleficent suite (rather slow beginning, but an amazing middle and ending) and the Prince of Tides, which I sadly missed because we would apparently miss our bus if we stayed any longer. It only left after 10 minutes, but not before the obligatory elderly ‘We’re on the bus now!’ lady had entered. I’m very happy that I went to this concert, even though I didn’t know half of the music that was performed. Apart from the dialogue issue, this was a truly proper film concert. No crowd-pleasing (I daresay he was more pleased with us), no spectacle, no lame jokes, just the result of 30 years of diligent work by a talented composer who doesn’t feel the need to maim his own music to please louts who want everything loud and electronic. May the odds be ever in his favour.

Bye. Hahaha he's so precious! Quintus - had no idea user gkgyver was a conjoined twin.

From the comments section:

Since The Force Awakens came out, I've become more and more convinced that score fans are terrible at knowing what to expect from their own genre. I find nothing surprising about this score or its quality. I do however find it especially funny that many people seem to wish this score were as good Spider-Man 1 & 2. When those films came out nobody would shut up about how much better his Batman scores had been back in the day. All of this has happened before and all of this will happen again. Edit to add: I've only heard about 10 tracks from this new album. It's alright. About on par with Ultron Elfman for the incidental stuff. Haven't lived with it for long enough to know yet, but I doubt the themes will really stick with me in long term. Ah well, it gives me something else to play while waiting for TLJ.

The only truly good superhero score I've heard in the last few years was X-Men Apocalypse, and I'm not even really an Ottman fan.

This. And this.

This, hands down. But I also don't watch a lot of TV. It's a shame this doesn't cover the 2000s, because I would have much more to say. Fringe, for instance. A great theme tune and graphics that fit the show perfectly.

Music from Space Camp The Never-Feast/Cornucopia (film version) Short Round's Theme The Catamaran Race Main Title (The Towering Inferno) Those are just off the top of my head.

Titles in GREEN are released (or announced to be released). Titles in RED are unreleased, and no announcement has been made. Some may not be US releases, but European ones. The release country of films with no US release, is mentioned in parentheses. * theatrical cut unreleased 2022 - The Fabelmans 2019 - Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker 2017 - The Post 2017 - Star Wars: The Last Jedi 2016 - The BFG 2015 - Star Wars: The Force Awakens 2013 - The Book Thief 2012 - Lincoln 2011 - War Horse 2011 - The Adventures of Tintin 2008 - Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull 2005 - Munich 2005 - Memoirs of a Geisha 2005 - War of the Worlds 2005 - Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith 2004 - The Terminal 2004 - Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban 2002 - Catch Me If You Can 2002 - Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets 2002 - Minority Report 2002 - Star Wars: Episode II - Attack of the Clones 2001 - Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone 2001 - A.I. Artificial Intelligence 2000 - The Patriot (theatrical cut on UHD only! The regular bluray has the extended cut) 1999 - Angela's Ashes (BD-R, NOT pressed disc, beware) 1999 - Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace 1998 - Stepmom (BD-R, NOT pressed disc, beware) 1998 - Saving Private Ryan 1997 - Amistad 1997 - Seven Years in Tibet 1997 - The Lost World: Jurassic Park 1997 - Rosewood (there is an HD digital version of it) 1996 - Sleepers 1995 - Nixon 1995 - Sabrina 1993 - Schindler's List 1993 - Jurassic Park 1992 - Home Alone 2: Lost in New York 1992 - Far and Away 1991 - JFK* 1991 - Hook 1990 - Home Alone 1990 - Presumed Innocent 1990 - Stanley & Iris (with isolated score) 1989 - Always 1989 - Born on the Fourth of July (German bluray includes music & effects track) 1989 - Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade 1988 - The Accidental Tourist 1987 - Superman IV - The Quest for Peace (Three themes) 1987 - Empire of the Sun 1987 - The Witches of Eastwick 1986 - Spacecamp 1984 - The River 1984 - Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom 1983 - Return of the Jedi* 1982 - Monsignor 1982 - E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial 1982 - Yes, Giorgio (Theme) 1981 - Heartbeeps 1981 - Raiders of the Lost Ark 1980 - The Empire Strikes Back* 1979 - 1941 1979 - Dracula 1978 - Superman - The Movie (with isolated score in the expanded version) 1978 - Jaws 2 1978 - The Fury (2 releases with isolated score) 1977 - Close Encounters of the Third Kind 1977 - Star Wars* 1977 - Black Sunday 1976 - Midway 1976 - The Missouri Breaks 1976 - Family Plot 1975 - The Eiger Sanction 1975 - Jaws 1974 - The Towering Inferno 1974 - Earthquake 1974 - The Sugarland Express 1974 - Conrack (includes music & effects track) 1973 - Cinderella Liberty (TT release with isolated score) 1973 - The Long Goodbye (2 releases: UK one includes music & effects track) 1973 - The Paper Chase 1973 - The Man Who Loved Cat Dancing 1973 - Tom Sawyer (Score Adaptation) (with isolated score) 1973 - Pete 'N' Tillie (there is an HD digital version of it) 1972 - Images 1972 - The Poseidon Adventure 1972 - The Cowboys 1971 - Fiddler on the Roof (Score Adaptation) 1971 - Story of a Woman 1969 - The Reivers 1969 - Goodbye, Mr. Chips (Score Adaptation) 1969 - Daddy's Gone A-Hunting 1967 - Valley of the Dolls (Score Adaptation) (Criterion) 1967 - Fitzwilly 1967 - A Guide for the Married Man 1966 - The Plainsman 1966 - Penelope 1966 - Not With My Wife, You Don't! 1966 - How to Steal a Million (TT release with isolated score) 1966 - The Rare Breed (German bluray includes music & effects track) 1965 - John Goldfarb, Please Come Home 1965 - None But the Brave 1964 - The Killers 1963 - Gidget Goes to Rome 1963 - Diamond Head (there is an HD digital version of it) 1962 - Bachelor Flat 1962 - Stark Fear (party music) 1961 - The Secret Ways 1960 - Because They're Young 1960 - I Passed for White 1959 - Daddy-O

Seeing as there has not been an official thread created for this film yet, I thought I'd be the one to do the honors. "The Incredibles 2 Teaser Trailer to Premiere With Coco"

The Flight (Catch Me If You Can) Harry's Wondrous World (The Philosopher's Stone) The Banquet (Hook) Snowy's Theme (Secret of the Unicorn) The Dinner Scene (The Terminal)

I heard that there was a on-set picture out there of Whittaker in the 12th Doctor costume (obviously while filming episode 1 of the next season). The BBC has apparently had them taken down every where I'd normally look. Anybody have a copy? Wanna post? Please?

Who is 'we'?

Catamaran Race - Jaws 2. Viktor Navorski - Terminal. Main Theme - Catch Me If You Can. Tie Fighter Attack - Star Wars.

Well you summed up everything, therefore I won't make a review of the paris concert. I pretty much agree with everything you said !

I love the side look of LLL CDs in the shelf. Now there is a moon (E.T.) and a sun (Empire of the Sun). I mean, look at those shitty brown Varese CDs!

Spielberg's sense of humanistic and subjective depictions is by no means propaganda to any degree.

No. His heart just wasn't in it.

The McCrearys.

Because there's no Post discussion on Sundays? Wait...

Fine day, Sunday. In my opinion, best day of the week. Why is that, JWFan?

Listened to it this morning. It's a great score really ! Even though, I'm not a fan of this kind of music, I think it's remarkable.

Yeah, I was sure when they spent $4 billion on it they’d just make the three and leave it at that. When they said they planned on making a Star Wars film every year I didn’t think that would actually mean we’d get a new Star Wars film every year!!

Gerald's Game. For 90% good but unfortunately it becomes something entirely different (not in a good sense) in the last 10 minutes. However, it was nice to see a real horror movie for a change and not one of those teenage flicks that are only about making the viewer jump with sudden loud sound FXs. Thank you, Stephen King. 6,5/10 Alex

Born on the Fourth of July has always been a top ten JW score for me, maybe even top five.

I wouldn't be surprised if Williams started writing for Episode IX this time next year or early 2019. Granted, principle photography is set to begin in June 2018 but I think there would be enough for him to at least start writing. If I recall correctly, he started work on TFA fairly early (late 2014 perhaps?) even though the score sessions began in summer 2015. In any case, I'm guessing Williams is committed to finishing the trilogy regardless of who directs. I hope we'll get a surprise score from him next year, but not likely if Spielberg doesn't plan on doing anything besides RPO. He's probably saving all of his projects for 2019 to screw up Williams' Star Wars schedule.

Too busy self harming to Desolation of Smaug ad infinitum, right?

The series itself is dumb as shit but the openings are awesome (I particularly adore the second one)

I wouldn't call it a great score, but I thought Ant-Man was really fun with a really good and catchy theme

It's a bit like Schindler's List. Well-composed and respectable music? Probably. Interesting to me in the slightest? Nope.

You're telling me! What the hell was going through Williams' head when he wrote this garbage? ESB is worse than everything!

I think that Elfman has an enviable career. His 1988-1995 efforts are brilliant. The man soon achieved a original sound identity for himself. He was even able to bring memorable works in the 2000s. A substitution score like Justice League can not reduce appreciation for a composer.

Compared to this, the Spider-Man scores are on the level of Superman: The Movie.

Stranger Things, hands down. Neat, catchy theme, plus a cool visual intro of the main titles. A very otherworldly feel to it all, which fits the overall tone of the series like a glove.

Walking Dead's is great. Here are a few others off the top of my head:

Really? Which part? Wait I think I know...the part right before the Imperial March?

Sadly there is Meryl involved. I have to skip this film, horrible overactor. Well not interested the fake glasses of tupees either, looks so bad. Give me the score, its still Mr Williams' strongest decade going on.

Ive seen it, it's awful. Really awful American rubbish. The music is good though.

Get a competent composer, immediately.

Utterly beguiling (new) Johnny Greenwood piece for small-ish chamber ensemble.

Solo being a dud of a character in ROTJ had nothing to do with him being emasculated, which he wasn't.

Here it is.

It is financially logical for them, of course... I get why THEY are doing it. But why are WE defending their business models? It's a bit of a pointless thing to do on our end, wouldn't you agree? It doesn't change the fact the people, no matter how knowledgeable they might be, are buying same things all over again. And that's not ok. Karol