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Episode IX: Now There Are Nine of Them!

How to Train Your Dragon: Hidden World by John Powell: After a few listens over the weekend this just keeps getting better.

Bitter much? It's just a film score.

Solid concert. After the Liberty Fanfare, Slatkin noted how Williams's distinct style and appeal makes him often programmed alone, something that Slatkin said was rare. The Oboe Concerto was a great highlight. The string section really brought out the striking, yet accessible harmonies. A lot of energy was put into the final movement especially. Definitely a piece that grows in appreciation the more one listens. After an intermission came the film music portion of the concert. The Cowboys Overture started things off. The orchestra gave a rousing rendition of this piece, and the audience was quite receptive. Jaws came next, followed by a new (to my ears) arrangement of The Book Thief. The DSO really brought out the best of the piece, particularly in the strings, but the precise richness of all the orchestrations were evident. Some changes from the OST: Harp and oboe replace piano at the start, though the latter does play the "Books" theme; there is a gorgeous new little passage that transitions into the elegiac section, remarkable harmonically; also, the ending is reworked, getting quite unsettled before a release. Has this version been played before? 1941, Memoirs of a Geisha (very rich indeed), Hedwig's Theme, and the Raiders and Imperial Marches were played next. All very solid, but I have mixed feelings about Slatkin conducting the last piece with a silly plastic lightsaber.

I have yet to see the new film, but one of the most important things about it is certainly this set: (https://brickset.com/sets/70841-1/Benny-s-Space-Squad)

As usual, Boston Pops announced their Spring Pops Season in Group Section. According to this material, there will be 3 John Williams Film Night Tributes Concerts on May 29-May 31 in Boston (Symphony Hall). All three concerts will be conducted by Keith Lockhart. Unfortunately there is no clear info on John’s presence during the concerts, no „special guest„ announcement neither. My assumption is, that JW might not be there after all, but this is just a guess… Source: http://bso.http.internapcdn.net/bso/images/groups/SPOPS19_Brochure_Jan16.pdf JOHN WILLIAMS FILM NIGHT TRIBUTES Keith Lockhart, conductor Wednesday, May 29, 8pm Thursday, May 30, 8pm Friday, May 31, 8pm Experience the awe and excitement of cinema’s greatest music featuring the scores of the world’s most beloved film composer, the Boston Pops’ own John Williams. Led by Keith Lockhart, these magical evenings will also include music from the latest Star Wars film and selections performed live to film excerpts. SPOPS19_Brochure_Jan16.pdf

Indeed, just a bland CGI-fest.

And Lapti Nek.

Banning Back Home, Training Montage and the mariachi song from KOTCS are my favorite JW tracks.

I love Banning Back Home (both versions) even if it does supposedly owe something to Dave Grusin's Mountain Dance (which I have not heard).

Star Wars Episode IX: Owing to the Great Leggy Success of the MCU, We Didn’t Think We Could Kill This Franchise, Which Even George Lucas’s and Jar Jar Couldn’t, But Watch This!

Why doesn't anyone like Banning Back Home?

I didn't mind his score.

The Book Thief suite was premiered at the Oscar concert if memory serves. Stephane Deneve has conducted it a few times before. I believe that DSO Replay doesn't includes full concerts but just some pieces from the concerts. They may actually include all the pieces from the concert but not as a single video (at least it was how it was done early on).

I've been listening to John Adams' Harmonium and Harmonielehre a lot lately, the former in a stunning performance from the 2017 Proms, conducted by Edward Gardner. It's music I liked well enough in college and was curious to see if it still held any allure for me. And it definitely still does. Harmonium in particular is a better work than I remembered, but both works have a strong sense of pacing and arrival. Both pieces have such a strong conceptual structure, and they're often ravishingly beautiful. The setting of "Wild Nights" is just stunning.

It could definitely be one of LLL's two titles. Purely based on the fact that Sony went to the trouble to remaster the film last year in 4K, which means they probably unearthed lots of elements in their archives (like those never-before-seen deleted scenes). The "lost" session tapes (or better master tapes than LLL had in 2012) might have been uncovered in the process. Matessino seems to be on speed-dial with a lot of studio archivists, so hopefully such a discovery would have been relayed his way. Maybe some insiders tipped off the labels about the imminent changes and they immediately set to work on signing contracts. Who knows! All just hypothetical, wishful thinking.

Star Wars: The Last, Last Jedi

I think you are being too harsh on Alan Silvestri’s work for Infinity War. To be fair, he did reprise a few motifs and passages from his score to The Avengers and Captain Smerica: The First Avenger (Tesseract motif, Captain America motif (subtle references, but it is present), and of course The Avengers theme). He also reprises Ludwig Göransson’s Black Panther theme (partially tracked, though). Though, I do agree that there should have been musical motifs associated with all of the characters, not just Thanos. Still, I liked the score and actually thought it blew Silvestri’s score to The Avengers out of the water. That is probably the only thing I don’t like about Marvel Studios: The musical scores lack a sense of musical continuity. Though, recently that has somewhat changed. The scores I enjoyed were Iron Man 2, Thor (mainly the themes), Captain America: The First Avenger, The Avengers, Doctor Stange, Spider-Man: Homecoming, Thor: Ragnarok (mainly the orchestral tracks; the Sakaar material was appropriate, though), Black Panther and Avengers: Infinity War. I liked Ant-Man and Ant-Man and the Wasp. I liked Brian Tyler’s Iron Man theme (it’s catchy). I honestly think Henry Jackman did an abysmal job with Captain America: The Winter Soldier. Half of that score is generic synthesized action rhythm, and he hardly ever referenced Alan Silvestri’s Captain America material, save the opening scene. The only thing that made his score to Captain America: Civil Wat a major improvement over that was that it was mostly orchestral. The only memorable thing I can recall from Brian Tyler and Danny Elfman’s scores to Avengers: Age of Ultron were Danny Elfman’s extended arrangement of Alan Silvestri’s Avengers theme and Brian Tyler’s reprisals of his Iron Man theme. Five memorable tracks from Infinity War: Even for You, Charge, Get That Arm / I Feel You, Porch, Infinity War... You beat me to mentioning that.

Looks like the DSO is going to stream tomorrow's concert for free at https://www.dso.org/live. After a few days, it will appear on their new replay service (requires a min of $50 donation to the DSO). They say they have 3 year streaming rights to the concerts (although it's not specific about the one tomorrow). Program includes the Oboe Concerto (the original recording of which will feature in the new The Magic of John Williams Special coming out on the IndyCast next week), Liberty Fanfare, Pops on the March and selected film music led by Leonard Slatkin. I suspect the Oboe Concerto will be released in the Slatkin/Williams Concerti series. (See my post about the Tuba Concerto.) A John Williams Celebration https://www.dso.org/ShowEventsView.aspx?id=4916&prod=4914 Sun, Feb 10 from 3:00 - 5:00pm EST Artists Leonard Slatkin, conductor Alexander Kinmonth, oboe For five decades, Leonard Slatkin has championed the diverse music of America. This three-week festival begins with a cross-country musical travelogue of sorts from Morton Gould, Joan Tower, Leonard Bernstein, and Virgil Thompson, plus Ferde Grofe’s colorful Grand Canyon Suite, and continues with film and concert music by John Williams. Program JOHN WILLIAMS Liberty Fanfare JOHN WILLIAMS Pops on the March JOHN WILLIAMS Concerto for Oboe JOHN WILLIAMS Selected Film Music

Love that one!

Mariss Jansons holds my favourite Scheherazade recording still. It's on an EMI album along with another Rimsky-Korsakov work, Cappricio espagnol. He's up there with my favourite conductors. And speaking of Slatkin @Bespin, he has some Tchaikovsky recordings that aren't that bad either, good Nutcracker and Swan Lake recordings.

YES!

It is source music. There is a character on screen playing a recorder during the scene.

I don't own a cycle boxset. I do have the CBS Masterworks CD from 1998.

Nothing in Infinity War comes close to this track alone:

Timestamp?

@Jurassic Shark I just listened to Tchaikovsky's violin concertos! And @Demodex, to answer your question I only listen to film scores and classical music.

The Lost World, OST. NOW this score is growing on me.

I like the album version a lot, it's We Don't Wanna Grow Up that's unforgivable on CD.

I love it! People treat Williams like he's their little play thing who must always conform to the same neo-romantic schtick - or else.

Tchaikovsky Symphony no. 4. Second movement is gorgeous.

A meetup would be fun! And you'll like Tanglewood, it's a beautiful place, and holy ground for any JW fan.

I added the first release of 2019 to the list: "Warning Shot improved re-release/Archer premiere release by La-La Land". Hopefully I'll soon be able to add two more releases: The forthcoming Varese batch should include at least one Goldsmith score. I'm hoping for expansions of either Air Force One or U.S.Marshals. An improved re-release of Lionheart or Planet of the Apes would be awesome as well. Last year, Intrada indicated that there would potentially be two Goldsmith releases before their christmas break. Only one of them did happen so far, so the question is, where is the other? It can't be that far off. I can remember a few comments somewhere which implied that a complete score release of Legend is no longer impossible.

Star Wars Episode IX: The Forced Ending

Ragarding Williams: Luckily, except Hook, it's just Stepmom and Seven Years in Tibet that are affected and I'm really not impatiently longing for expansions of these, to be honest. Memoirs of a Geisha and everything that came after that from Sony Music didn't have a chance to get expanded by special labels anyway. At least not in the near future. Regarding Goldsmith: Not one single thing will change, because every score made it through in time, if not years before this even foreshadowed. Regarding Horner: I'm not a fan of James Horner at all and at this moment I'm very happy about it. Lots of scores owned by Sony Music. I feel sorry for you Horner fans. But why should I be whining for a non-existing expansion, when I do not even care for the OST? All in all it's pretty bearable. Just Hook is (or would have been?) a real bummer.

I don't think so.

They’ve never done The Verb Noun! I’m pretty sure this one was rumored for Ep 1 back in the day.

The best Marvel score is Batman Returns.

Thanks for the update. I tried to capture the audio in the stream, and it shut down my machine! So, I was only able to watch a bit, but I too enjoyed the Oboe Concerto a lot. We just covered the original on our new special (shameless plug - http://theindycast.com/the-magic-of-john-williams-41/), and I too am more and more fond of it. Slatkin all but said that this would be released like the other concerti they have done. I hope to watch the full concert when it gets to DSO's Replay page in a few days.

Death in both hands.

This is my first post and hope you like it. Want to do some more score reviewing. Feedback would be nice! Enjoy! Track by Track: Raiders Return To Busy, Busy Berk Starting with drums there is a nice darker motif there. A few second later some heroic and bit mad/comedic action material. Then about 3/4 into the track a lovely recognisable theme pops in but with a lovely new rendition. Great opening track! Dinner Talk / Grimmel's Introduction: A softharded melody opens the cue until the dark motif that opening the first track returns. This time with full orchestra & drums. After that the villain theme kicks in. Not to complicated but menacing, maybe because for most of the cue it is being played softly. Legend Has It / Cliffside Playtime A new theme opens the cue. Beautifully played and orchestrated with strings, woodwinds & soft choir. Listen carefully it comes back. Then the small motif from 'Together We Map The World' returns briefly. At the end of the cue a beautiful romantic but kind of desperate version of the main theme. Toothless: Smitten Mystery and fantasy open the cue with strings and woodwinds. Then a smal motif for a the Light Fury pops in. After this a new love theme pops in with some loud interruptions (see the film to understand) The cue ends with another new theme that is later explored fully in 'Third Date' Worst Pep Talk Ever Classic Powell cue. It starts with some comedic writing until it changes to soft rendition of the villain theme. Night Fury Killer A cue mostly dominated by the villain theme. The strings opening the cue are a bit creepy but give a nice sense of danger. The walking pace of the villain theme throughout the cue is very well done. There are some bells and amazing brass works as well. Overall a big suspense cue. Exodus! The theme from the opening of 'Legend Has It / Cliffside Playtime' returns in all it's glory. A great new theme that weirdly represents instability & stability at the same time. The villain theme & the Light Fury's theme pop up throughout the cue. Third Date: One of the longest cues on the album, but by far one of my favorites. The harps, strings & woodwinds at the beginning make for playful Powell music. Everytime I hear this new theme I instantly start smiling. Later on some bagpipes join in and give for a small shock, but a funny one. 3/4 into the track the theme gets it's best representation with full brass, drums, strings & some bagpipes. At the end a small rendition of the new love theme. Beautiful cue!!! New 'New Tail' The theme from 'Third Date' opens the cue but quickly gets run over by a theme from the first film in all it's glory. Want to now which one. Read the cue title. Furies In Love Furies In Love finally brings the love theme in it's complete form. Like 'Romantic Flight' from the 1st movie or 'Lando's Closet' from Solo the theme is marvelous. The opening is soft but quickly makes way for the entire orchestra to play the theme with some great orchestrations. Halfway through the cue the underscore beat from 'Flying With Mother' returns. It's great & triumphant and fits the scene perfectly! The cue ends on a softer note the same way it began. Killer Dragons Just like 'Night Fury Killer' a more darker cue with a lot of strings & brass. The same walking pass returns and at the end is some new level choral writing coming out of nowhere. Really like this cue! With Love Comes A Great Waterfall The cue opening with 2 existing themes. The first is from 'Losing Mom' from the 2nd movie & the second from 'The Dragon Book' from the 1st movie. Then drums, brass & choir enter for an otherwordly mix sounding like a waterfall. The Hidden World (Feat. Jónsi) The cue opens with Jónsi's voice sounding as some sort of echo. Not long after, a choir and woodwinds take over. A new theme is introduced softly. Strings and some more Jónsi come again and then transfer into a magical theme for The Hidden World. Full on orchestra used at it's best together with the choir make for a cue that is hard not to like. A cue like this, is why I love film music. The cue ends with some brass heavy action material before going to the big action piece.... Armada Battle 'Armada Battle' opens softly with strings before turning into heroic turning into the villain theme. After the villain theme it's a joy to listen to quite a few different themes from the trilogy. Passing through are the hero themes (as I call them) from the 2nd and 3rd movie, parts of 'Battling The Green Death', a full on orchestral version of 'Romantic Flight, parts of 'The Kill Ring' & 'This Is Berk' & what I like to call Valka's heroic theme. The cue ends with the villain theme again. There was a bit of debate about this cue, but I believe it's very cleverly orchestrated and composed. The themes play nicely into eachother and fitst the scenes in the movie very well. Love this cue!!!! As Long As He's Safe Drums & brass open the cue and are taking over by soft choir until 'Test Drive' kicks in!!!!! A softer part of the cue comences with harp, choir, strings & woodwinds. Near the end, the beautiful piano tune from 'Hiccup And Valka Bond' from the 2nd movie returns before going into it's might and glory. Than the drum & string melody from 'With Love Comes A Great Waterfall' ends the cue. Once There Were Dragons The cue starts with beautiful harp & choir taking the upper hand. Strings, drums, brass & bagpipes join in and make it sound like a party. A small piano tune of the main theme comes in and transitions beautifully into 'The Hidden World' theme. Than the moment I had to wipe a tear of my face was when 'Forbidden Friendship' & 'Test Drive' end the cue with a small hint of the 3rd films heroic theme. A beautiful ending to 3 beautiful movies and scores!!! The Hidden World Suite A suite with the themes of the 3rd movie that Powell created specially for concert. For me, it's going to be hard for another score to surpase How To Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World. The score is great, hits every note perfectly and is one of, maybe is, Powell's best scores!!!!!

Looks like some really premium scores like Titanic, The Thin Red Line and Close Encounters came out just in time to avoid this. Not sure about other composers' scores that could be affected. Some Horner stuff maybe? Zorro, Jumanji?

Shit, just saw the updated post from Mike. Shit! Please, please, PLEASE let a Matessino produced expansion of Hook be one of those two titles. I'll be devo if that admirable but heavily flawed first expansion is all we get from that score, simply due to this nonsensical bureaucratic decision. I mean, as if we didn't need any more reasons to hate Sony after they sat on the Star Wars license for two decades and did nothing?

Would it really be interesting for Williams to work painstakingly for 6 months on 3 hours of music not his own? I think I can see that it would not be an alluring proposition for him. I would agree in the long run I would rather have new music from him than him getting tied up in an arrangement job. At this point in his career, you are not going to hire Williams to simply arrange music for you.

Better music.

A copy of the OST for sentimentality sake and the LLL is really all you need of E.T. at this point.

How To Train a Dragon: The Hidden World by John Powell Magnificent score. The new themes are excellent, and the writing mature and really top notch. Very engaging. Definite influences of Vaughn Williams can be heard. I also hear the mark of John Williams in some of the action passages. What is remarkable is that it does not come off as a derivative score at all. Powell has enriched his own style here, taken it to a new level, and I really like where he's at right now. Legend Has It/ Cliffside Playtime and Once There Were Dragons are the standout cues for me.

The Adventures of Tintin and War Horse. 2011 was an excellent year for John Williams fans. Both albums are hugely enjoyable. Karol

I know these multi-instrumentalist covers of video game tracks are a dime a dozen on Youtube, but what I like about this one is the actually accurate approximation of what the synthesized instruments were going for in the original version.