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SteveMc

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Everything posted by SteveMc

  1. You know what's funny? I don't associate a lot of "space music" with Space. Like Star Wars I associate with heroism, CE3K with myth and human triumph, Star Trek with exploration and human progress, Moonraker with what Bespin said. But The Planets, which is not really about space at all, I do associate with space!
  2. I saw the movie a few years back. Very broad and romantic, eclectic. Maybe a bit stiff. Score is by far the best part. The leads are super easy on the eyes, though.
  3. Colwyn and Lyssa is plenty emotional as it is, and all the better for not being as obvious about it as some of his later material in the vein.
  4. Winter Games Fanfare (1989) Rather obscure short occasional overture composed not for the Olympics, but for the 1989 Alpine Ski Championships in Vail, Colorado. Has a pretty memorable theme, very JW structure and direction. The Denver Brass gives it a go here in what appears to be the original arrangement.
  5. Will livestream tickets be limited? Seems I need to purchase a week long package (or free trial subscription) to be able to watch cheaply.
  6. He began the concerto, or at least Barbara urged him to write it, before she died in 1974, but he finished it in 1976. So, probably the lion's share of it was written after her death and deals with his feelings of that time. The second movement is specifically dedicated to her memory.
  7. Presumed Innocent Nice mystery where Ford continues to transition from 80s action hero to 90s everyman. A lot is made of how Ford's character is an effective passive protagonist, but this works since the central action of the character is his choice to have an affair. The rest is a morality play. We now want to see how he will get his comeuppance for that and for the murder he just may have committed. When it seems he will get away with it all, the level of suspense jumps through the roof. Something must be coming, because that is how morality plays work. And this one's ending does not disappoint. Stylistically, the movie has that warm late 80s/early 90s feeling, which I normally love, but here it feels just a bit conventional for the proceedings. Oh, and there is a John Williams score, mostly a theme and variations sort of thing. Works well. 3.5/4
  8. To Lenny! To Lenny! (1988) or For New York (Variations on Themes By Leonard Bernstein) Short piece written to celebrate the great Leonard Bernstein's 70th birthday and premiered by Williams and the Boston Symphony at Tanglewood, this composition, which goes by two names, is a brief exploration of some Bernstein tunes in a very John Williams way regarding direction and orchestration. It is an enjoyable little musical aperitif. Here it is recorded by Williams himself.
  9. Darkest Hour (2017) This is not the somber, reverent historical drama that the title and the subject would lead you to expect. Indeed, historical liberties are in abundance. What this movie is instead is a dramatic presentation built around a historical event and larger than life national figure. All this becomes extremely clear when Churchill descends into the Tube, for a Henry V style scouting of the opinion and feelings of those doing the fighting. Here, Churchill, in his embodiment of Britain, seeks guidance from how the common folk feel about the present European menace. Do they want to follow the elite and make peace with it all, or do they want to embrace a defiant civic nationalism, and along with that bastion of tradition the monarchy, and with the nations of the colonial legacy, hold on and hold out to remain a truly free England. They choose the latter, and the movie seems to say this message should be heeded now too. Oldman's performance is, of course, great. Lily James is a breath of fresh air as well. Everything moves with purpose and engagement in Wright's direction. Only the lighting is a bit off, but maybe it just reinforces how the whole proceedings are pretty much a cinematic play. Solid all around. 3.5/4
  10. Maybe he did, but it was Bespin who I remember fell head over heels for the score.
  11. SteveMc

    .

    Zimmer has his very solid moments, but he is essentially a pop film composer and this colors his sensibilities in composition and production in a way that rubs wrong with my sensibilities. Horner was a postmodernist classical composer who rebelled against the establishment by embracing the form of pop film composing. Stuff like Krull, The Land Before Time, Braveheart, and The Spitfire Grill are works of artistic vision and integrity at a level that Zimmer will probably never match. Honestly, Zimmer is probably a more effective film scorer than Horner was, but Horner was the better composer.
  12. The third movement in the 2016 revision is wildly different in particular. I think I like it a good deal. But I agree the original version is the one that should probably be "canon." No other version comes close to me in the power of the first movement and the aching beauty of the second.
  13. I think the Violin Concerto No. 2 might just become a premier piece for top level violinists and orchestras to show their chops in recordings. The first concerto I feel has a better chance at entering the repertoire, though, with its more standard structure and thematic drive, the Adagio especially exemplifying all that. Still, that has not happened yet. But I've got to maintain that it is right up there with the Berg as one of the great violin concertos of the 20th century.
  14. That would make much, much more sense. Every listing of JW concert works I've come across online, including Wikipedia, has it as Fanfare For Ten Year Olds, but the details in @Thors thread above would seem to support the anniversary intention.
  15. Fanfare for Michael Dukakis (1988) Today, two John Williams fanfare/occasional pieces, both relatively obscure and minor works in his concert oeuvre. First, the Fanfare for Michael Dukakis, written it appears in a span of three weeks for the 1988 Democratic National Convention, with Williams being connected to Presidential hopeful Dukakis through the candidate's father-in-law Harry Ellis Dickson, a Boston Pops associate conductor. It seems the live premiere is the only recording we have of the piece. Fanfare For Ten Year Olds(1988) Very obscure piece this. Pretty much all the available information is in this thread: A recording exists, but has not surfaced to YT. Some details in the above thread. Here is a performance video of the work in piano reduction form.
  16. Yeah, it is pretty common in animation to have the music recorded early in the process.
  17. We are about one month out from the concert series now. Things are looking a little more uncertain now virus wise, but perhaps we could still make some tentative plans for a West Coast JWFan meetup? @Trumpeteer @Brando
  18. Joker (2019) We live in a society. Fortunately, it is not quite as bleak as the society in this movie, no matter how relevant and important the movie seems to think it is. Todd Phillips is to be commended, though, for making a movie that is not afraid to stand out a little, do its own thing, even if that thing feels very obviously indebted to the likes of Scorsese and Nolan, if more humorous. Thematically, the movie is a little confused, however. It wants to be about too much, from mental illness, to Wall Street, to current politics, and ends up not speaking to anything particularly well. Phoenix's over the top Oscar winning performance is part Travis Bickle, part demented Kaufman, and all Joaquin Phoenix. He never loses himself in the Fleck/Joker character, the audience is always aware of the him and all the mannerisms and shirtless gallivanting come off as self-indulgent somehow. Guðnadóttir's score is surprisingly frank about its role in the movie, upfront without much apology, and I appreciated that even if its style is not my cup of tea, really. 3/4
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