Omen II

Porn on the Fourth of July

Gidget Goes to Romp

Pilates of the Caribbean

Dead Mingers

Black Fun Day

Wonderful stuff. 😻

I am very optimistic that the situation in the UK will have improved sufficiently by then for the concert to go ahead in July. The vaccination programme in the UK is going very well at the moment and if it continues as it is now, most of the adult population of the country will have been vaccinated by then. Most of my colleagues at work will have been vaccinated by the end of this month, for example. There is also optimism that the Euro 2020 (now 2021) matches will go ahead in June (several group games, both semi-finals and the final are scheduled to take place in London) and this will be a bellwether for other mass attendance events in London. Keep an eye out for the announcement of the 2021 BBC Proms programme - usually in April - which will run from mid-July to mid-September. If that goes ahead, expect this to go ahead too.

I don't know his music well enough to have a strong opinion either way. However, my only live experience of his music - the European premiere of his In the Name of the Earth at the BBC Proms in 2019 - was one of the most amazing concerts I have been to. I do not think that any audio or video recording of it could adequately convey the impact of the live experience. The work featured eight different choirs totalling more than six hundred singers positioned around the hall before eventually all converging on the stage as the work reached its conclusion. The audience was invited to join in the final 'Arctic Ocean' round and it was really fun to be able to be part of such a vast performance (the music was printed in the programme and LSO choral director Simon Halsey took the audience through it about half an hour before the concert started). Here are a couple of photos I took at the end of the concert.

I am a little disappointed that their performance of Tomorrow from The Constant Nymph (performed at the end of the same concert as the clip posted above and sung by American mezzo soprano Kate Lindsey) has not yet made it to YouTube. It was magnificent, my highlight of the Proms season that year. John Wilson is certainly a great interpreter of Korngold's music. I have also seen him conduct the likes of Kings Row with the BBC Symphony Orchestra and even Escape Me Never with the London Philharmonic Orchestra. And before you ask: no, I didn't touch him.

Here is a nice live performance of the overture from the BBC Proms in 2019 by the John Wilson Orchestra.

“It is as it was.” 😃

I have been lucky enough to see lots of film composers without much effort really - a distinct advantage of living in London and being a fan of film music who likes going to concerts (when we were allowed to!). My current list is as follows: Craig Armstrong David Arnold James Bernard Elmer Bernstein Peter Bernstein Ludovic Bource Dirk Brosse John Cameron John Carpenter Stewart Copeland Carl Davis Alexandre Desplat Patrick Doyle Anne Dudley Tan Dun Danny Elfman George Fenton * Anton Garcia Abril Michael Giacchino Philip Glass Nick Glennie-Smith Billy Goldenberg Jerry Goldsmith Harry Gregson-Williams Christopher Gunning Richard Harvey Nigel Hess James Horner * Quincy Jones Trevor Jones Jed Kurzel Michel Legrand Dario Marianelli Joel McNeely Ennio Morricone John Murphy David Newman Thomas Newman James Newton Howard * Michael Nyman John Ottman Carly Paradis Rachel Portman John Powell Andre Previn Steven Price Harry Rabinowitz Max Richter Lalo Schifrin John Scott Howard Shore * Brian Tyler * John Williams Austin Wintory Debbie Wiseman * Gabriel Yared Hans Zimmer The ones with asterisks are the ones I have actually met and had a conversation with. I could probably asterisk Nigel Hess too if "Is anyone sitting there, mate?" while clutching a bowl of soup counts as a conversation. As you can see, I have numbered them and sorted them alphabetically by surname like an absolute streak of piss.

Those who attended the 'not John Williams' LSO concert at the Royal Albert Hall in October 2018 will remember Katy Woolley's flawless performance of the opening horn solo in Jurassic Park. I have also seen her slay the exposed horn part at the beginning of the Love Theme from Superman with the Philharmonia at Watford Colosseum. Completely randomly (and nothing to do with the subject at hand), she was sitting directly in front of me with one of her pals at one of the last concerts I attended before lockdown, when the LSO played Beethoven's Christ on the Mount of Olives under Sir Simon Rattle at the Barbican last February. Principal double bass Dominic Seldis, another Brit in the Royal Concertgebouw, has played on film soundtracks such as The English Patient and Harry Potter, so would have actually worked under the baton of John Williams himself. He is also a regular member of the John Wilson Orchestra so has played tons of film music, including pieces by John Williams (you can glimpse him in a YouTube clip of Harry's Wondrous World from the 2019 Proms, for example).

Ten Little Indians. ?

The John Wilson Orchestra's Hollywood Rhapsody concert from the 2013 BBC Proms season was shown again in full on BBC Four TV yesterday evening. The concert is also available to watch on the BBC iPlayer for the next four weeks or so if you can access it. Hollywood Rhapsody prom I throughly recommend the concert if you like film music from the golden age of Hollywood. Although a few of the selections have made it to YouTube over the years (most famously Scott Bradley's Tom and Jerry), most of the selections have not or were not uploaded in the best quality. Other highlights include a suite from Franz Waxman's A Place in the Sun and David Raksin's Laura. Watch the concert in HD and save it while you can!

I do not remember. Sorry.

I got this book as a present in November and can also thoroughly recommend it. Max Steiner was a fascinating character regardless of whether or not the reader has an interest in film music. Whenever I have attended concerts featuring Golden Age film music, I am always struck by how much I enjoy the Steiner selections, even when pitted against the likes of Korngold, Rozsa, Herrmann and others. His music grabs me from the outset, which probably explains why he was such a great film composer.

Bowman is at it again like a dog with a bone! I picked up the Metro on the way to work this morning and there she is on page 14 with another Sixty Seconds interview, fangirling over OscarTM nominee John T. Williams as is only right and proper. Sixty Seconds with Edith Bowman

Muppets! Something to look forward to at Christmas next year "when all this is over". The Muppet Christmas Carol in concert

Yes, the dialogue and sound effect track was audible during the rehearsal. To get in, I made an educated guess as to what time the orchestra would be rehearsing, booked a cheap tour of the Royal Albert Hall to coincide and got lucky. Simples.

Yes. Williams conducted the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra at Filmharmonic on 30th October 1976, having attended the Royal Albert Hall the previous year to get a few tips when Jerry Goldsmith was one of the conductors. The programme in 1976 included such wonderful selections as The Eiger Sanction, The Poseidon Adventure, Heidi, Cinderella Liberty, Jane Eyre, Earthquake and others. Williams returned to the Royal Albert Hall less than two years later to conduct the London Symphony Orchestra this time in a concert entitled LSO In Space on 16th February 1978, famously sharing conducting duties with C3PO. The concert featured music from Star Wars and "other great space music." His next appearance at the venue was again at Filmharmonic, conducting the National Philharmonic Orchestra on 18th October 1980 as seen in the video to which you linked above. As well as the music seen in the clip, Williams also conducted two elections from The Empire Strikes Back at the same concert - Yoda's Theme and The Imperial March. The most recent appearance (but hopefully not the last...) at the Royal Albert Hall was with the LSO again at Filmharmonic on 16th November 1985. I believe that @Naïve Old Fart was at that one, no doubt having it large.

What a marvellous find! Thank you for posting this, @Steve. I remember reading that FILMHARMONIC NINETEEN EIGHTY was broadcast on TV at the time and wondered if any footage would ever resurface. The concert took place on 18th October 1980 at the Royal Albert Hall in London (which always looks so dark in videos from the 1970s and 1980s!) and I believe that conducting duties were shared between John Williams, John Addison and Geoff Love. The man introducing Williams at the start of the clip is the actor Donald Sinden, a stalwart of British sitcoms back in the day. On a point of order, the orchestra is actually the National Philharmonic Orchestra, not the London Philharmonic Orchestra. It is fascinating to see that relatively recently - we are talking only forty years ago - most orchestras had very few, if any female musicians. Nowadays most of the best orchestras in Britain have at least as many women as men in their ranks. This was the third of four occasions to date on which Williams has conducted his music at the Royal Albert Hall.

It then segues into music from Silverado by Bruce Broughton, which reappears towards the end of the advert.

I get the Headspace app free with work. I can’t say I recognise any of the music but it seems to be specially composed ambient music by Zimmer rather than tracks by other composers. Here is a screenshot.

I met Howard Shore once, nice bloke. I spoke to him briefly about New Zealand. Happy Birthday, BTW.