Miguel Andrade

This are the greatest news. Berlin is one of the absolute finest orchestras in the world. Of course Williams would love to return there. Personally, I'm over the moon that he's returning and I have all in motion already to be there.

He wrote a wonderful little solo piece for the Christopher Parkening Prize, "Rounds", premiered by Pablo Villegas. The piece's score was published and Villegas also recorded it.

I finally got around to find the time to check my Evening at Pops video archive, and this arrangement opens the show, even though the first half of it is buried under Sleepers' director Barry Levinson introduction that is followed by a short dialogue between him and Williams right at the Sony Scoring Stage talking about his experience with Adolph Deutsch and spoting Billy Wilder at the scoring sessions. Williams does refer to the tune as "By the sea". Then video cuts to the actual performance and the music takes central stage. The title that shows up reads: By the Beautiful Sea: A Tribute to Billy Wilder, arr. John Williams. The arrangement is mostly in the same vein as Hooray for Hollywood, as pointed before, and another tunes to seem to try to creep in (again in Hooray's fashion) including Jaws on the low woodwinds (again as mentioned earlier). It would be wonderful that in a future survey of Williams work with the Pops, they would record the numerous arrangements he wrote during his tenure. A few of them were recorded for the televised Evening at Pops concerts, but not readily available to everyone to enjoy.

Nope. It should be pointed out that the At the Movies/Music on Vinyl label releases mostly back catalogue stuff from the Sony imense list of past recordings. There isn't, sadly, any direct relation between their releases and any upcoming expansion. This aren't newly mounted remasters or reedits like Mondo's Hook.

@Falstaft Congratulations. Can't wait going through your book. I do know about Chloe Huvet's book, but as my French is really poor (a petty, as I really love the sound of it, both the book and the language), I've passed on it.

Can't recall from where that midi file comes from, but a composer member of the Japanese fan club did expand on this little theme, orchestrating it and making into a full fledged piece. It was performed at a concert the club arranged (can't recall any further details) and it was compared to Summon the Heroes, regarding its final structure and use if instrumentation. As pointed out above, the club seems to have ceased activities. They had a print news bulletin (released on a regular basis) and organised visits to Boston and LA for Williams' anual visits there in the late 90's and early 00's. They had also plans to release albums of his music, much in the same fashion Lukas Kendall did with his FSM label.

The Varese Sarabande one seems to be Stanley and Iris.

Are Mark Records CDs actually pressed or just CD-Rs? Anyone knows? Most of them pop up only as digital downloads.

A new performance by a world class orchestra isn't hardly boring, certainly not for me.

Well, good for you! If wearing turtlenecks most of the year (because I do feel cold most of the time) and having a similar trimmed beard, having had for about a decade the only website in Portuguese dedicated to Williams and at the time, the most complete and well constructed discography on the web, makes me an obsessed fellow, well, that's my problem isn't it? Because, trust me, I can out run Maurizio... Because, believe it or not, my sons are called João (in memory of my late grandfather) and Guilherme (because my ex-wife felt he was her prince and need a prince worthy name) which can translate to John and William. As many friends have pointed out over the past 21 years, that can't be a coincidence... maybe it wasn't at some unconscious level. That does make look like an obsessed guy about an 92 year young composer... maybe it does, and probably I am. And let me tell you, that never affected the remaining and multiple aspects of my daily life. And I'm sure the same applies to Maurizio. If there is some sort of obsession is still as healthy as it could be, not overlapping with any other needed and healthy daily routine (my current job at the school board is probably less healthier than being obsessed about John Williams...) I just really fail why that is such of a big deal to you. You've grown up and don't worship and old man. Great. I don't mind not growing up. Isn't it great we live in a free world when we can make those choices? If you feel that Maurizio's "obsessive" website isn't worth your attention, just move on to what you find is worth instead of complaining about it. That surely will be and healthy decision.

I ordered my set with some other stuff from CD Japan, as they already tax me the vat and things go smother with customs. While I didn't do any comparison with Arksquare, had I bough only the Tokyo Concert SACD+BD set, the total would be around 90 euros, VAT for Portugal included (so, no extra custom charges). As I don't believe Arksquare charges you the VAT, you would have do add the expected tax and other custom charges to the final value you would end up paying for the set.

I'm assuming you're referring to "Last repair shop" award, right? (The video isn't showing for me). Honestly, that kind of praise, someone expressing how one has touched one's life, is the highest kind of prize.

It is as far as I'm concerned. And Angela's Ashes is among my favorite Williams' film scores.

If memory serves, he missed the 2000 ceremony (nominated for Angela's Ashes, lost to Corigliano's masterpiece The Red Violin).

He appears briefly on the Johnny Staccato tv series as the jazz band pianist.

The second movement of Williams' Trumpet Concerto has clearly been influenced by Copland's Quiet City.

https://www.discogs.com/release/29790961-Bernstein-Williams-James-Ehnes-Saint-Louis-Symphony-Orchestra-Stéphane-Denève-Serenade-Violin-Conc This might actual come from a live recording from November 2019, with Williams in attendance. If that's the case, the original concert line up included Barber's Adagio and Saint-Saens' Organ Symphony. Of course, until more info is out, they might have the recorded the concerto during the rehearsals.

Just Down West Street... was premiered by the TMC Orchestra under Stephen Asbury and that performance was available for a short period on the BSO website. That same year, Stephane Deneve conducted the piece, again with the TMC Orchestra, during Tanglewood on Parade. Deneve did conduct it at least once more, in Los Angeles, with an orchestra I can't recall right now (it wasn't the LA Phil). The piece was part of the program of Across the Stars at Tanglewood, but was replaced by Galaxy's Edge. I actually find it rather accessible. Maybe it shares some of the same musical dna of Soundings or For Seiji, but then again, as Herrmann would put it... Well you know his angry reply, don't you 😅

I believe it was.

Wasn't the Duel for cello and violin first performed with Ma and Mutter in Washington, during the 90th anniversary celebration?

That project seems to have come to a halt, as Slatkin is no longer principal conductor of the Detroit Symphony. Of course, he could carry on with it in visits to Detroit or with other orchestras, but there are even a couple of unreleased recordings of the ones he conducted during his tenure there...

From the program notes by John Yeh: When John Williams wrote his only Clarinet Concerto, it was as a gift to my former teacher Michele Zukovsky, long-time Principal Clarinet of the Los Angeles Philharmonic. She premiered it to great acclaim and performed it several times in the 1990s. After Michele retired from the LA Phil in 2015, she presented me with the score and all the performance materials for John's Concerto, which is unpublished, in the hope that one day I would record the work and perform it widely. During the 2020-2021 Covid Pandemic, I had time to deeply study the Concerto and to correspond with John Williams about it. He has given me his blessing to program it.

This new revised version makes the concert slightly longer than the previous known recording. Now, looking forward to have it performed by Yeh and a pro orchestra. By the way, the soloist was one of the members of the quartet that premiered the La Jolla Quartet.

Williams himself adapted and premiered the bass trombone version of the tuba concerto, with Douglas Yeo as soloist.

I wouldn't call any of that writing as experimental. Images, yes, but the Prelude and Fugue or the Sinfonietta are not experimental music.