Omen II

I would like to wish John Williams many happy returns on the occasion of his ninetieth birthday. I like his music and he is a nice man.

English composer Roy Budd wrote a wonderful score for Flight of the Doves in the early 1970s. The film was shot in Ireland and the music is just lovely. 6:18 onwards in this suite is 😍.

Also @Jay, would the shorter version of Hymn to the Fallen from Saving Private Ryan count, or is that considered just an edited down version of the original?

Am I imagining it, or was there a slightly revised The Face of Pan from Hook a few years ago? Also, when did our Johnny tinker with the Scherzo for Motorcycle and Orchestra? I think we should be told.

Interesting! Another good example of two countries separated by a common language. Denham is quite a well-to-do area and I reckon most residents there would be appalled to see it described as a suburb of London (for the record, I do not live in Denham ). It used to be a place where lots of actors (e.g. John Mills) and TV stars (e.g. Cilla Black) lived - close enough to London to commute easily but far away enough to feel like they were in the countryside and had some privacy.

While I was familiar with many of the most famous songs from this musical, I had never owned any version of this score prior to this fine release. It is fun to hear so many Williamsisms in the scoring as well as possible influences on John Williams's own musical Thomas and the King, written a few short years after this film. There is a lot in To Life from FOTR that puts me in mind of We Shall Do It! from TATK, stylistically at least. One factual error in the booklet that I cannot help myself being pedantic about is the description of Anvil Studios as being in the "western London suburb of Denham". Denham is very close to London but is just across the county border in Buckinghamshire. If Boss Hogg were pursuing the Dukes of Hazzard west along the A40, he would have to have let Thames Valley Police take over by the time the General Lee sped past Anvil Studios on the A412.

Reissue of Home Alone 100% confirmed!

I think I would happily shell out for a box set of just the complete John Williams music from Lost In Space, The Time Tunnel and Land of the Giants. While I have enjoyed watching repeats of all three shows on TV over the years, they were all before my time and I passed on the various more recent expansions / box sets issued by La-La Land, all of which contained much music by other composers which I would not have listened to often enough to justify the expenditure. I know I asked the question earlier in the thread and the suggestion was politely poo-pooed at the time, but is there any possibility that the label might consider amalgamating the Williams selections into one release? Or would that be throwing good money after bad?

I finally had the chance to watch this discussion today and the two hours flew by. It was really great! It was nice to hear Louise's comment towards the end about how so many musicians are inspired by their fathers. My Dad was never a professional musician but there was always music in the house. I credit to my parents a large part of my own love of music.

I went to see The Muppet Christmas Carol live in concert yesterday. Loved it! The Royal Philharmonic Concert Orchestra played the score by Miles Goodman and the Paul Williams songs. Although the conductor was not listed, I am pretty sure it was Jessica Cottis. The song When Love Is Gone was indeed restored to the film, which actually got a round of applause from the audience when it started.

This from West Side Story is a perfect illustration of Sondheim’s lyrical genius.

I am just going outside* and may be some time**. Scott of the Antarctic live in concert with the BBC Symphony Orchestra and Chorus (*) to the Barbican Centre, Silk Street, London, EC2Y 8DS (**) a couple of hours plus travel time from work to the venue, thence from the venue to my place of residence

On a point of order, Arsenal had to win by two clear goals. Had the match ended in a draw or Alan Smith's goal been the only one of the game, Liverpool would have won the title. Nice to see Brian Moore's legendary commentary referenced in Turnage's title, by the way. "Arsenal come streaming forward now, in what surely will be their last attack..."

The Philharmonia will perform the score for E.T. live to picture at the Royal Festival Hall in London next March. E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial

Edward Elgar's The Music Makers quotes La Marseillaise (drowned out by Rule, Britannia!). Further east, our friends from Bucharest and Burnt Oak might recognise the old Romanian national anthem in George Enescu's Poème Roumain. Vitezslav Novak quotes the Czech national anthem in the last movement of his South Bohemian Suite while Antonin Dvorak also quotes it in his My Home overture. Czech them both out! In the same neck of the woods, Lazslo Lajtha alludes to his country's national anthem in his seventh symphony, leaving the listener Hungary for more. The Venezuelan composer Evencio Castellanos cites his country's national anthem in El Rio de las Siete Estrellas. He must have been Caracas! Sir Arthur Sullivan includes God Save the Queen in his ballet Victoria and Merrie England, long before The Sex Pistols referenced our national ditty.

Yes, indeed the last concert I attended on the day before lockdown in March 2020 was a recreation of that concert by the Philharmonia Orchestra at the Royal Festival Hall. There were two intervals and Stephen Fry presented. At the end he very poignantly wished everyone well as we would awake to a “very different world” the following day.

Williams should totally have done this. It would’ve taught the fellow a lesson while also giving a nod to one of the pieces in the programme.

I watched a lot of the George Formby and Will Hay films with my Dad when I was little, so I have an affection for many of the Ealing films. They are quintessentially British and a reminder of a bygone age. Many of the best scores from the Ealing films are actually quite well represented in rerecordings, especially in the Chandos Movies series. Their discs of Georges Auric and Alan Rawsthorne are two of my favourites and feature a healthy selection of scores from Ealing Studios films. The Georges Auric CD includes such classics as Dead of Night, Hue and Cry, The Titfield Thunderbolt, The Lavender Hill Mob and others, while the Rawsthorne CD includes The Captive Heart, The Cruel Sea, Saraband for Dead Lovers and more. For me, this is the best way to hear this music without the constraints of 1930s-1950s monaural recording technology. There are also complete recordings of Ralph Vaughan Williams's Scott of the Antarctic and John Ireland's The Overlanders available on the Dutton Vocalion label, both of which I highly recommend. Incidentally, I was lucky enough to hear The Cruel Sea performed at one of the BBC Proms concerts at the Royal Albert Hall just last month.

I imagine that conducting the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra at The Anvil must be very close to the top of John Williams's bucket list. It was probably a coin toss between that and Berlin. The place would be rocking, or two thirds full at least.

I gave this one a swerve, actually (and I live in the basement - do keep up). I've always been a little bit wary of the Raymond Gubbay presents... concerts, but that could be snobbery on my part. I would be interested to hear from @Amvanquish what he made of the London Concert Orchestra and how they fared with John Williams's music. I know that the lovely Esther Abrami was going to be playing the solo in Schindler's List. How was her performance? And did she have any rescue cats about her person, as far as you could see?

“Limpy’s got cancer, Limpy’s got cancer…”

Did anyone else attend the BBC Prom concert of British film music on Thursday? It was wonderful. Here is the programme: For The Belles of St. Trinian’s, the seven percussionists (all men) donned St. Trinian’s boaters, badges and pigtails. The encore was another Malcolm Arnold classic, The Bridge on the River Kwai, in which the audience joined in whistling the Colonel Bogey March.

The Royal Philharmonic Concert Orchestra conducted by Stephen Bell will present a concert of the best of John Williams's music in Crystal Palace Park, south London on Wednesday 8th September 2021 at 6 p.m. https://www.rpo.co.uk/whats-on/eventdetail/1622/121/rpco-the-best-of-john-williams Crystal Palace Park is famous for its grade 1 listed Victorian sculptures of dinosaurs, many of them in zoologically improbable poses due to the limited knowledge of the subject at the time. This concert should be fun, although a little annoying that it starts as early as 6 p.m. which means it is pushing it to get there in time after work unless you live or work fairly locally.

A terrifying skellington.