Will

This feels like a getting the gang back together vibe 
 
God damn do I hope he scores it!!!

I said to the guy next to me that the original version of this story included a "colonoscopy." But I guess Williams felt that "root canal" would be more polite to mention within the hallowed walls of Carnegie Hall.

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.
 

That's probably my favourite of his! Such a fantastic score (and underrated film).
 
he piano at the end of the cue is beautiful

A piece from one of my favourite (yet underestimated) scores by Desplat  And Happy Holidays!
 
 

"I can't do this."
 
[raw sketch for Schindler's List]
 

Imagine being such a master of your written craft that people thousands of miles away get excited when your notepad runs out...

Mark Graham had to resupply John Williams sketch paper, four days ago...

Mark Graham (@markgrahamcreative) • Instagram-Fotos und -Videos

It's between the War Horse trailer and the Lincoln trailer.  Both were peak "JW score anticipation" events

The thread bump reminded me, I wrote up my recollections of the concert and have been meaning to post them.
 
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I arrived about an hour early, and walked around the first, second, and third floors and looked at all the handwritten music by famous composers, and autographed photos of famous performers. I eventually made my way to my seat, on the fourth floor balcony. I was almost all the way on the far right, close to the stage. People filed into their seats, many arriving last minute. The orchestra members were all warming up, and you could catch occasional strains of Williams tunes.
 
Finally the first chair violin came out, to applause. Then Deneuve. He said something like "Yes... (pause) John Williams is here!" He introduced Just Down West Street and they performed it. He then introduced the cello concerto, with much discussion of Seiji Ozawa (who died recently) and saying that Ozawa encouraged Williams to write the concerto in the first place. He introduced Yo Yo Ma, who took the stage to big applause. I enjoyed hearing a lot of hallmarks of Williams' early-2000s writing in the concerto. At the end, Ma held his bow a long time, holding off the applause, and finally everybody went nuts. Then the stage door opened and I could see Williams standing square in the middle of it! He came out, hugged Yo Yo, waved at everyone, there was big clapping and ovating. He left again, Ma sat back down and did Schindler's.
 
After an intermission, the lights dimmed and it was time for the second half. Williams took the stage, to big applause of course. After every piece he conducted, there was quite a bit of applause, and ovations at least half the time. He moved around slowly, but was otherwise very enthusiastic, in introducing the pieces, waving to the audience, gesturing to orchestra members to stand for applause, and in conducting. He often used gestures to get the feeling he wanted, and to encourage specific sections of the orchestra during key moments.
 
Olympic Fanfare and Theme
> A great opener!
 
Excerpts from The Book Thief
> I like this score and was excited to hear this piece. Nice oboe solo! Williams introduced the piece with a long description of the plot, saying the music they were about to play was mostly for scenes of the children in the story reading books together.
 
Scherzo for Motorcycle and Orchestra
> He introduced this and the two following Indiana Jones pieces all together, saying Harrison Ford was in his 70s, which made him a teenager in Williams' eyes. He joked that the insurance companies were nervous about Ford's stunts. He told his anecdote about the Scherzo, firstly that a scherzo meant a little joke, but that it was challenging to perform. He said it took a brilliant orchestra to record it, but when he saw the final movie, all he could hear was the motorcycles. So now he was going to have his revenge, playing it without the movie. Which is a great thing about this and the other Williams concert I saw at Carnegie Hall previously (with Anne-Sophie Mutter) - no video screen the entire time! He introduced the other two pieces as well, not really explaining Marion's Theme, and calling the Raiders March "the Indiana Jones march", close enough right? He told an anecdote about that one, saying Ford told him he hears the theme everywhere he goes, and he even heard it when he was getting a root canal, and hates the music! Williams got a chuckle out of that. The Scherzo, I've heard live quite a bit in recent years. But it was still cool to hear it again, and it's a very nice showcase for the orchestra.
 
Marion's Theme
> While this piece is lovely, it just kind of drifts by, with the concert arrangement spreading the theme a little thin. And it became redundant with the long excerpt of the theme appearing again in the Raiders March.
 
The Raiders March
> This one somehow never really gets old, even after 1000000 listens. I focused more on the brass this time, and noticed they were really respecting the dynamics of the piece.
 
Princess Leia's Theme
> He introduced this piece with his anecdote I've heard several times, that George Lucas didn't tell him there'd be a second movie, and he figured Luke and Leia would end up living "happily ever after" and had good action scenes and comedy scenes together, so he wrote them a love theme. Then George made more movies and it turned out they were brother and sister, so he had to write a new love theme to correct the situation. He emphasized that he didn't know, so he was innocent! I was excited to hear the piece, which I think is one of his best concert arrangements of a film theme. And HOLY... SHIT did the Philadelphia Orchestra perform the hell out of that piece. This was the biggest highlight of the night for me. A series of absolutely stunning, BEAUTIFUL solos. Williams pointed out the soloists during the applause at the end, though I think only the flute player stood up.
 
Adventures on Earth
> Beautiful of course. I may have heard this one a couple too many times in concert, but there were still many excellent moments that I enjoyed... both the obvious "hooks" and some of the more meandering parts that I don't have memorized.
 
Helena's Theme
> The first encore. Big introduction about Helena, Phoebe, Lauren Bacall, and the idea that it was a femme fatale theme, although I kind of question that. But it was nice to hear, especially after getting more familiar with the Dial of Destiny soundtrack.
 
Star Wars (main title/end credits combo)
> This one was more welcome than usual, since I've been having a moment with the Star Wars 1977 score lately. Hearing this piece performed live, you would really never know he edited together the main title/Imperial Attack stuff right into the end credits... it flowed perfectly in this performance. Great to hear the material feeling fresh after my revisiting of the score.
 
The Imperial March
> Got the biggest cheer of the night at the start when people recognized it. As usual when hearing this in concert, I got the biggest kick out of the flute solo. Who knew flutes could convey pure evil.
 
After each encore, he walked to the stage door and a guy gave him a sip of bottled water, then he came back out for the next piece. But after Imperial March he did his usual sleepytime gesture, to the usual laughter, and walked off for good. Really a nice, enthusiastic, and highly professional performance from himself, the orchestra, and the soloists. A well-behaved and appreciative audience too. I'd say there's something special about the atmosphere of a Williams concert at Carnegie Hall compared to some other places. I daresay New York City and Carnegie Hall foster a climate of appreciation for the arts that leaves no need for gimmicks and keeps the focus simply on quality programming and refined musicianship. Serious Williams fans, see him at Carnegie if you can!

It's probably my favourite Dvorak work and favourite cello concerto.

Yes, along with Elgar's Cello Concerto one of the best of the genre.  Also very satisfying to perform.  I played in the orchestra on this piece in a concert and was struck how well it feels and how exciting the ending bars were.  I've noticed that with all Dvorak I've performed, it's very well executed even if you don't play much, each note has purpose.  In contrast, Robert Schumann, I played throughout it but felt much of that served no purpose and wasn't exactly clear what I was needed for.  

Jaw-droppingly good:
 
 
I think this might overtake the New World symphony as my favorite Dvorak composition!

Jaw-droppingly good:
 
 
I think this might overtake the New World symphony as my favorite Dvorak composition!

Jaw-droppingly good:
 
 
I think this might overtake the New World symphony as my favorite Dvorak composition!

I think it's very interesting that he has books on Prokofiev, Stravinsky, Brahms (multiple books), two copies of Britten's War Requiem, multiple books about Cole Porter, even Stockhausen, a looming head of Copland, etc.  This really does reflect on his sound world, but I don't see Vaughan Williams.

7M[something] Part 1: This is a variation of Helena's Theme with a distinctive rhythm in the accompaniment. I'll have to see if I can locate it.
 
 
End Credits Part III: This is indeed the Nazi chorale which opens the 3rd part of the end credits (marked 'Solemn'), after the Raiders March and Helena's Theme. Note that if you look carefully, you can see where it was cut and paste, presumably from the concert arrangement JW wrote before agreeing to take on the entire score.

Here's some screencaps
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Mark Graham briefly showed off some sketches during an Instagram live! (Right near the end at 46:26)
 
https://www.instagram.com/reel/C4tHYdwvAhR/
 
5m3 Water Ballet
[6?]m1 To [Illegible]
6m3 Centipedes
7m[10?] Part 1
9m[?] Part 1
Helena's Theme [Illegible] (Rev?)
Helena in Action
End Credit Part III
 
Sadly, it's all mostly out of focus.

Can really hear some influence on JW's writing!

Can really hear some influence on JW's writing!

Yeah, this is indisputable. And well-justified too, given the strong linkage of the Barber adagio with Kennedy -- both as a piece he personally admired and one that was indelibly linked with his memorialization following his death. It's also a piece Stone had already mined in Platoon, directly as well as the the original Delerue score that at times is undisguised Barber pastiche. And of course Williams had already channeled another Barber work, the Violin Concerto, if anything more pervasively in Born on the Fourth of July.
 
Sources: Larson, The Saddest Music Ever Written; Howard, "The Popular Reception of Samuel Barber's 'Adagio for Strings'", Audissino, John Williams's Film Music, this earlier thread: 
 
 
 
I've also always been struck by the affinity between this cue from Jaws and the mysterious coda at the end of Vaughan Williams's Second Symphony. It's not the only place in the Jaws score that seems to draw from that coda (the end of "Preparing the Cage" too). And Goldsmith also drew a lot from this piece, and RVW more generally, esp. in Alien. 
 
 

I quite liked this post from a Reddit thread on the video:
 

I think he is asked so much that large stretches without anything rarely come up.  He talks about the tuba and viola concerto being somewhat spontaneous.  Heartwood probably the same.  I wonder how much the piano concerto is him and how much Ax asking.  
 
I do think that he loves the popular vein of composing more than he realizes or at least sometimes lets on.  Jumping at the ESPN thing the way he did and the comments in this interview point to him wanting more than just concert-hall composing.  
 
50 years from now, musicologists are going to be dumbfounded that he pulled off a lifetime worth of work for the concert hall and a lifetime worth of work for movies (and a hell of a lot of occasion pieces to boot).   
 
He seems so balanced.  His comments on Goldsmith and others being unhappy due to their career frustrations is so perceptive.  He found the recipe for a lifetime of happiness as a composer--something that very, very few composers (from Mozart to Beethoven to Goldsmith) have pulled off.