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From the print edition of the 2024/2025 Berlin Philharmoniker season book Found on: https://www.facebook.com/groups/904229429654872/posts/7527258017351947/ I'll add links to the official website here when it gets added there.

Its all fun and games now, but remember your enthusiasm for this when you read the following blurb next year. "Due to overseas conducting commitments, Williams had to pass on scoring Spielberg's highly anticipated new UFO movie. Spielberg admitted that he was disappointed but looks forward to working with Zimmer for the first time."

The film and score are so masterful and deeply moving, this sequence always brings me to tears. This film exemplifies two masters of their medium at the pinnacle of their craft. Sublime, mature, rich, complex, efficient, and ultimately deeply moving. This is from a moment in the film where so much is happening subtextually. A masterpiece of film making, scoring, and storytelling. The film never scores the action, only the subtext or inner thoughts of the characters. Something Spielberg and Williams hinted at in all their prior collaborations but here it is in full display. A few reasons why this film hits me so hard - I think it was 2014, I was flying back from Baltimore, Maryland, after performing there. That was after a wonderful experience performing with Marin Alsop and the amazing musicians and friends in the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra. Since I had to fly with my trombone in a seat without it blocking any passengers in case there was an evacuation, I was boarded first and in the front row. Next were a group of 20 senior citizens that were all part of the Honor Flight Network (a non-profit organization whose mission is to transport Veterans to Washington DC to visit memorials dedicated to their service and sacrifice). This was one of the most enjoyable flights I had ever taken making the five-hour flight feel like only 30 minutes it was over so quick. The man sitting next to me was known as the “kid” because he was the youngest one at 87. He was a rear gunner on a B-17 bomber. I told him I was a pilot which excited him as we began talking about what he saw and experienced flying dozens of dangerous missions, the fright of the Luftwaffe, friends he lost, and the incredible randomness of great tragedies. He almost started tearing up recalling a routine mission with several of his friends where all on board died because the plane simply flew into a mountain. I could feel the cold, noise, smell, fear, cramping, claustrophobia inside the rear and belly turret of these long missions over enemy terrain. He said the introduction of the P-51 Mustang was a game changer because they would now have armed escorts on their dangerous missions who were as agile (probably more so) as the Luftwaffe. They frequently didn't even know what happened to their friends. After difficult missions, they simply returned and noticed airplanes missing or bunks unoccupied. No word of what happened to their friends...are they now POW? Did the plane ditch in the sea? Were there any survivors? They had no easy answers. How terrifying it must have been to fly these missions before the P-51 where it must have felt like they were a large sitting duck! Now at least, they had a chance. Halfway through the flight, many of these men had to go the bathroom so my front row chair became a rotating door of great stories from these incredible veterans. One consistent story I heard was how much they all revered one of the passengers on the flight above all else. Finally, he made his way to the front row seat awaiting the bathroom. When he sat next to me, we started talking and I saw his cap "101st Airborne Screaming Eagles" Infantry division. My jaw dropped. He was a paratrooper on D-Day who jumped from a glider behind enemy lines in the middle of the night during the Invasion of D-Day. Against incredibly bad odds, he survived the battle telling me that night, he lost half his company. Just imagine, in a 24-hour period losing one out of two people you trained and bonded with. These guys were around 17 to 22 years old at that time and I couldn't believe I was looking them directly in their eyes hearing them recount these horrific experiences firsthand. This scene from Saving Private Ryan, the 101st is crossing paths with Captain Miller's (Tom Hanks) character as they look through the dog tags of paratroopers killed. I met those men. It was incredibly humbling to meet these true heroes and I was reminded of them each time I see this film. I will never forget meeting them and hearing their stories firsthand.

I mean shit. One of the best cues in KOTCS is the departure. JW writes UFO themes for breakfast.

Another beloved 80s blockbuster with a classic John Williams score is celebrating 4 decades of existence this year: Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, which was released in the US on May 23, 1984. If adventure has a name, it must be Indiana Jones I love the classic Indy movies! How will you celebrate ToD's 40th birthday? Re-watching it? Listening to the epic John Williams score? Doing all of those things?

Indeed. I know certainly there are Indians who may not have appreciated the portrayal (notably the Indian government at the time), and, well, fair enough. But frankly, most of the people I've seen take great offence at this film haven't been Indians, but rather the usual sort who are eager to take offence on behalf of someone else. I think it's just as silly to expect that Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom be a complete, and accurate portrayal of Indians as it is to expect The Godfather to be a complete and accurate portrayal of Italians. I grew up watching wuxia films but I never thought every Chinese person was a martial arts expert who spent their days fighting. The great Amrish Puri (Mola Ram), put it best... "It's based on an ancient cult that existed in India and was recreated like a fantasy. If you recall those imaginary places like Pankot Palace, starting with Shanghai, where the plane breaks down and the passengers use a raft to jump over it, slide down a hill and reach India, can this ever happen? But fantasies are fantasies, like our Panchatantra and folklore. I know we are sensitive about our cultural identity, but we do this to ourselves in our own films. It's only when some foreign directors do it that we start cribbing."

1M4

My favorite Indiana Jones movie. I had the foldout poster magazine, I had the Marvel adaptation, and I got the collectors edition movie program when I saw it opening day. Here are the original newspaper clippings I've saved from over the years (there's some Raiders in there too) I remember my sister had a job at the local (brand new) multiplex theater, so she saw everything back then. She hated the stuff I was into, mostly Spielberg and Lucas stuff. I remember opening up the poster mag to the gatefold image of Indy on the rope bridge surrounded on both sides, and even my sister admitted "Yeah, I gotta admit that was pretty cool". High praise from her back then. I wear a fedora daily. It is based on Temple of Doom style, and has an image of the 3 Sankara stones inside the sweatband, with the inscription "Fortune and Glory" I'll watch it again.

John Williams will be in the city I live in ON MY BIRTHDAY. WHAT COULD I WANT MORE

OMG! A video of Seth directly confirming that more Orville is coming! (start at 17:26, the play button should bring you right there) Hopefully it's a season 4, and not a followup movie, but I'll take either!

Don't know if this should go here or in a score thread in the John Williams section proper. But I put on the complete(ish) Return of the Jedi today. (Some sort of mish-mash of sources. I think it's probably one of the ABC editions.) I don't know that there is another score, not even a Star Wars score, that takes me to THE first time that I saw a film the way Jedi does. I hear that intro of the Star Destroyer and Vader's approach as JW teases the Imperial March through the first minutes and I can feel the air conditioning and I can smell the popcorn. I can feel the summer heat when the doors open at the end. I can remember the cheers at the Fox and Lucasfilm logos, the hush during "A long time ago" and the cheers again at Star Wars. The Jabba music in particular can make me "hear" the ambiance of a cinema. We're film music nerds, and for many of us part of the appeal is re-experiencing a beloved film. But this isn't just the film, this is that exact DAY. I wonder why this one?

And here I was hoping they'd be incompetent enough to dump the complete recording sessions on CD by mistake.

QUARTET RECORDS ANNOUNCES UNCOMMON VALOR-EXPANDED Music Composed and Conducted by JAMES HORNER Quartet Records, in collaboration with Paramount Pictures, presents a remastered, slightly expanded reissue of James Horner’s classic war score for UNCOMMON VALOR (1983), directed by Ted Kotcheff and starring Gene Hackman, Robert Stack and young up-and-comers Patrick Swayze and Fred Ward. The film is a dramatic action picture centered on retired U.S. Marine Colonel Jason Rhodes, who recruits a motley crew of soldiers and leads them on a clandestine operation in Laos. Their mission is the rescue of unacknowledged U.S. prisoners of war (POWs) left behind after the withdrawal from Vietnam, including Rhodes’ son, officially declared missing in action (MIA). The possible existence of such POWs was a topic of considerable interest during the late 1970s and early 1980s. The messy conclusion of the Vietnam War, coupled with the scandals of the Nixon era, had left many Americans alienated from their government and deeply skeptical of official claims that there was no evidence of living POWs in the former war zone. James Horner was only 30 years old when he was hired to compose UNCOMMON VALOR, but he was already a seasoned composer with such successful films in his career as STAR TREK II, KRULL, BRAINSTORM and SOMETHING WICKED THIS WAY COMES, and he was about to enter the A-list of composers in Hollywood with his upcoming hit scores for ALIENS, AN AMERICAN TAIL and COCOON. Horner provides an inventive and effective score, robustly orchestral while endowed with exciting electronic rhythms and Vietnamese textures. Intrada Records issued the premiere release of UNCOMMON VALOR in 2014 and it quickly sold out. This new, remastered edition adds about 10 minutes of alternate takes. Produced by Dan Goldwasser and mastered by Chris Malone, it features in-depth liner notes by film music writer John Takis. Tracklist: 1. Vietnamese Solo / Main Title (7:31) 2. Airport (2:21) 3. Tag (2:49) 4. A Lot of us Have Been Killed (1:26) 5. Steal the Sucker (1:44) 6. First trek / Yellow Rain (2:45) 7. Pan Over Hill / Wilkes in Tunnel (7:35) 8. Attack Airbase (3:14) 9. Escape Airbase (3:22) 10. Copters Over Hill (2:51) 11. Final Escape (2:21) 12. End Credits (3:42) 13. Brothers in the Night* (4:48) Bonus Tracks 14. Main Title (Alternate Mix) (7:15) 15. Main Title Extension (Expanded) (3:08) 16. Parade Ground (3:58) 17. Main Title Extension Vietnamese Overlay (Alternate) (3:15) Total Disc Time: 64:14 *Performed by Ray Kennedy • Written by Ray Kennedy, Kevin Dukes and David Ritz https://quartetrecords.com/product/uncommon-valor/

There are a lot of terrible Bond movies that have fewer redeeming features than No Time to Die… and I’m quite confident I’d prefer to rewatch any of them before watching this AI trash. Yavar

At this point, I think the best option for us the fans is not to wait the idiots at Disney to do a proper Indy and Star Wars release. They won't, and if it's up to them they most likely will keep insisting in re-releasing older programs. The best strategy is to convince Matessino himself to pitch a new release for the higher ups at Disney Records, Lucasfilm, etc. He would bring his credentials ("I've been working with John Williams to create the best presentation possible for his music over the last 3 decades, etc"), his connections with JW and convince them that such project would be financially interesting for The Walt Disney Co. If he's able to bring a message from John Williams himself ("I've known Mike for the last 2/3 decades and he's the right man to produce the definitive presentation of my beloved Indy and Star Wars scores...") then his pitch would be even more significant. Also, it's not like he's a completely unknown at Lucasfilm. Didn't he work on the SEs from 97 and the recent James Horner Willow expansion? In other words: we can't keep waiting for Disney to do what's right, because they won't. One of "our team" should take the initiative and keep knocking at their door until they say yes.

There's a difference between being sensitive and over-sensitive. It's a wonderful film.

The Sound Of Vinyl lists the 2xLP release, and it doesn't seem to be a Japan Import: https://thesoundofvinyl.com/products/john-williams-in-tokyo-vinyl-lp Amazon.fr also lists 4 releases coming on July 12: CD release: https://www.amazon.fr/dp/B0D1LQXX36 2xCD+Blu-Ray release: https://www.amazon.fr/dp/B0D1LMHGTY 2xLP release: https://www.amazon.fr/dp/B0D1L856PL Bluray: https://www.amazon.fr/dp/B0D1YQL2KD

Scherzo for Abduction and Rectal Probe

That’s Sigourney Weaver

QUARTET RECORDS Announces HOLST: THE PLANETS Conducted by Bernard Herrmann Music Performed by London Philharmonic Orchestra First-ever solo CD edition of the unique, fascinating and controversial Bernard Herrmann recording of Gustav Holst’s THE PLANETS! Quartet Records, in collaboration with Decca Classics and Universal Music Enterprises, presents a remastered CD edition of the unique, fascinating and controversial Bernard Herrmann recording of Gustav Holst’s THE PLANETS. Recorded during his post-Hollywood period when he was based in London, it was one of several albums he conducted for Decca Records’ Phase Four series, featuring both his own music and that of other composers. THE PLANETS has always been considered something of a cursed album, yet it is loved by his fans for an interpretation that is more Herrmann than Holst. The recording was not universally acclaimed when it was released. This was in part because several recordings of the work already on the market were considered classics, thus setting a very high bar for new entries. Some listeners, however, found the heavy tread of Herrmann’s “Mars” an actual plus, its mechanistic bombast far more threatening and imposing than the composer’s own recorded performance. Herrmann’s slow trek through the “big tune” in “Jupiter” was more widely criticized, but Herrmann was far from the only conductor who favored slower tempi in the later stages of their career—including in some of the Phase Four recordings of his own music. Nevertheless, Herrmann’s THE PLANETS sold well. Although reissued several times on LP in the 1970s, Herrmann’s recording of THE PLANETS was only released on CD in Australia in 2011 as part of a Holst compilation on Decca Eloquence. This new, first-ever solo CD edition has been restored and mastered by Chris Malone from the original master tapes transferred by UME in the UK, and features brilliant, extensive liner notes by classical and film music writer Frank K. DeWald alongside the original LP liner notes by renowned musicologist Harry Halbreich. Tracklist: 1. Mars, The Bringer of War (8:43) 2.Venus, The Bringer of Peace (10:04) 3. Mercury, The Winged Messenger (4:34) 4. Jupiter, The Bringer of Jollity (9:06) 5.Saturn, The Bringer of Old Age (9:31) 6. Uranus, The Magician (6:54) 7. Neptune, The Mystic (8:11) Total Disc Time: 57:06 https://quartetrecords.com/product/the-planets/

I don't want to launch pre-orders if the book isn't 100% finished, to avoid a long wait between the end of pre-orders and the shipping. The book is 99.9% finished. As I explained a few weeks ago on FSM, I'm waiting for authorization to publish images of recording sessions. I need the studio's permission. They've asked me to send them the chapter. I did so in September. Last week I received my chapter with the requested changes. So things are moving ahead! I hope to launch pre-orders in May.

In my Bond rewatches, when I got to Octopussy, I definitely thought "Seriously, people say Temple of Doom is racist?"

Agreed. But some seem to bristle at any depiction of a culture that doesn't present it 100% accurately or in the best possible light. And poking any fun at them is, certainly, a big no-no today. Personally, I don't look to movies for an accurate depiction of anything—or to teach me about anything. License is taken all the time to augment their effect—be it dramatic, comedic, or whatever. For the record, as a kid I didn't come away from TOD thinking that Indians ate "eyeball soup," "Snake Surprise," or "chilled monkey brains" as part of their diet... It was an obviously broad attempt at humour. But whether or not you find it "funny" is of course a matter of personal opinion.

This movie was awesome. That is all.

In the top 5 most boring Williams scores

Me, singing along to Parade of the Slave Children:

Watched this (for the second time) in the cinema last month. And gotta tell ya that's the best way to see it. It's interesting to hear that the reviews where positive, I've always heard it was poorly received or at least that was the impression I got. A general sentiment is Willie's really annoying, which I agreed with, but after watching with an cinema audience and everyone laughing at just how over the top she is it clicked into place that that's the point of her. The juxtaposition between not only her and Indy but Marion as well makes her more memorable, that she's not just a copy of Marion and a completely different character who arguably has something of an arc in this film. Then there's of course Short Round, the chemistry between Ke Huy Quan and Harrison Ford comes through their performances so naturally. That you really feel that Indy cares for this little pickpocket. Also like the film the score was something that I only really appreciated after the various leaks had been combined and @rubisetcie put out their version and it was in this most complete form that I have been able to really enjoy it. As for what I'll do, well an Indy marathon (of just the first 3) and probably a revisit of the scores as well.

One thing for sure is that the Imperial March will be the last encore

The initial shot of the Tydirium flying over the camera is underscored brilliantly. The whole sequence is fantastic.

Wow. Is this great or what? Young is blasting out career-best work left and right. Movement 1 is brilliant, truly capturing Young's melodic skills and detail in orchestration and, especially, his ability to play with horror tropes - but then the last 4 minutes from 8:00 are a brilliantly dark fable with children's choir and all the best Young orchestral tropes at full display. I love the fact that he ends the movements with that crazy blast of mayhem! Movement 2 is another encapsulation of a magnificent career that keeps escalating into stratospheres - the detour at 4:10 is touching and epic. Makes me wonder what Young would have done with The Lord of the Rings. Movement 3 is very impressive, very much Young exploring horror tropes and going very Goldenthal at times. It is now wonder he has had such a fan resurgence recently. We all know what he does so well. It is fantastic to see producers funding him to do this. I mean, The Empty Man is a great film but it was a massive flop. The Young score, again, is fantastic. So happy I supported the Nosferatu incentive!

Steven Spielberg will be making a UFO movie based on an original idea with a David Koepp script. (Variety) Will this bring Johnny back to the scoring stage?

Musically right?

Locking in on these shit programs on the stupid antiquated format too, lovely

Frieren's complete score is out! 2 and a half hours of awesome music. It's so great to hear many of the great tracks I've grown to love while watching the show. On a first listen I really enjoyed new tracks like Frieren the Slayer, Beyond the Journey's End, Great Mage Flamme and The Magic Within!

Worst idea ever to make a musical about a soundtrack specialty label.

Temple of Doom has really grown on me. I've come to appreciate it more over the years, and judge it on its own terms rather than as a sequel to Raiders. The opening musical number, and the entire opening scene in fact leading up to the plane escape in particular, is fantastic. It's certainly not in the same league as Raiders, and while I personally prefer Crusade, I'll give TOD points for originality and taking a risk. It's also one of those instances where a reappraisal makes the film look better in comparison to more recent entries in the series. I've also come to like Willie Scott more, and now actually find her less annoying than Marion. As to whatever sensitivities people may have developed regarding this fun flick over the years, to paraphrase the brilliant Stephen Fry, "You're offended? Well so f*cking what"?

Cool, they're remembering that they have to sell their product somehow!

I guess they did...

Hi, I'm Curly, and I only surround myself with people who have less hair than me.

Some stuff from last week...

Yes, there are composers, that I like primarily for their great themes, like Elmer Bernstein, John Powell or Joe Hisaishi. And there are others, that I like for their way of musical textures, motivic development, variety, poliphony, counterpointing, harmonization, rhythm etc. like Danny Elfman, Don Davis, Dario Marianelli, Franz Waxman. There are few, who seem to have it all. John Williams is for me one of them. Hans Zimmer wins for me on none of these fields. But as I said, that's just me. But the Lone Ranger theme in that video is really nice. Thank you for the hint.