Gurkensalat

Yes, Blu-ray pure audio format. Unfortunately the intention behind this format (listening without monitor like a CD) is hampered here, because it is found on the menu below the Concert (the first, highlighted option). So if you want to listen to the Blu-ray audio tracks, you have to remember to wait until the menu is loaded, click then on „down“ on the remote, and the enter. If all goes well, you are listening to high resolution 2.0 stereo tracks of the CD program. If you want it in 5.1, you have to change it with the color buttons on the remote. Not the best user experience, but at least it is there on the disc.

Also the speech before Tintin with Mutter where she demonstrates the sword movements on the violin. It was missing on Sunday.

After having finally watched the Blu-ray and listened to parts of the CD, I have some observations concerning the ongoing debate. - I attended the Sunday concert and it was one of the most intense and satisfying musical experiences of my life, including attending to hundreds of live concerts over more than 40 years. The sound produced by those musicians with their excellent, often exceptional instruments in this hall with its enveloping and still transparent acoustics was a marvel. I heard many details in the dense orchestration I have never noticed before on other recordings. - The Blu-ray captures this experience very well, especially the sound in the multichannel track which comes extremely close to the soundscape I have in memory from January. The strong reverb explains also partially the sometimes rather slow tempi. Play to fast in this hall with such a large orchestra, and you get a muddy sound. - The CD tries to capture that as well but fails. The mixing down to 2 channel is detrimental to the experience in this case, resulting in a muddy, but flat soundscape. There is a dramatic difference between the flawed stereo CD and the excellent 5.1 MC recording. - Listening to the CD I can understand some of the criticism here. Somehow the imprecisions seem to be more glaring here while been a bit "swept under the rug" in the MC mix, where you just go with the overwhelming sound of this orchestra and the concert hall, and don't care about some timing issues. - Additionally the imprecisions seem more obvious or annoying without the corresponding picture. Take the flutist in Jaws which is fighting valiantly to keep pace. With picture you live and suffer with him and are happy at the end that he managed to come through; without picture you just think he could have rehearsed a bit more - While the Vienna Philharmonic is undoubtedly one of the best orchestras in the world, they seem to have needed generally more rehearsal time for this. Even at the 2nd, the Sunday concert, many musicians rehearsed some difficult passages before the concert and in the break, obviously feeling a need to further improve. - About the imprecisions: One has to consider that tradition of the Vienna Philharmonic coming from the romantic German-Austrian repertoire and the long tradition of interpretations. One cornerstone is flexible tempos (Rubato), indicated by the conductor, to transport an emotional message. Part of this is the style of conducting which uses a downbeat a split second BEFORE the orchestra plays that beat. This is strange to many American composers and conductors (same happened to John Adams as composer in residence of the Berlin Philharmonic). The result of this tradition is a more organic and flowing, but less precise interpretation, a bit like an impressionist painting. I guess that Williams had to fight a bit against this habit, or so it seems looking at his face expression during parts of the concert. So it is not surprising that there are tempo fluctuations, some of which may be intended by Williams to honor the Vienna tradition, some perhaps not intended but resulting from this tradition. In the end I got the impression that Williams AND the orchestra tried to play this music like the Vienna would play Brahms or Tchaikovsky symphonies, but perhaps one or two more rehearsals would have been necessary to perfect this. - In the end this is a documentary of an exceptional (but not perfect) concert and a cherished souvenir for those who were able to attend it. - Footnote: The blu-ray defaults to the 2.0 stereo mix, one has to change the track to MC in the menu or with the colors on the remote.

i saw only the orchestra, not ASM

Yes, after the Sunday concert there were some patch up recordings that we could witness over a small monitor at the cloakroom.

Just found this looking for mentions of Schwarzer in this forum. I discovered Europa-Park a few years ago and have now also collected some of the music composed for the park by Hendrik Schwarzer, a young German composer from the Black Forest, obviously a big John Williams fan as one can hear in his music. I bought this album (https://shop.europapark.de/en/Europa-Park+Classic+2016+-+Download.htm) and like the music quite a bit since it reminds me of a lot of JW from Star Wars til Jurassic Park. Here is a nice suite somebody put together out of bits and pieces from this album, also showing off the fantastic theme park it was written for, as a short introduction to Hendrik Schwarzer (he also composed 2 short musicals for the park and soundtracks for animated movies the park produced):

I just bought the blu-ray at jpc.de, it is readily available.

Jaws and Star Wars belong in this list

I must say I prefer the cuts at the beginning and the end, since the longer version draws both out a bit much. But the cut in the middle is a bit jarring.

I disagree, the audio was excellent and conveyed a realistic aural picture of the event. The sound was smooth, warm and full, like it was in the room. But one has to turn up the volume to get the effect. In fact I was worried that Deutsche Grammophone would produce a thin, lifeless sound like on the Dudamel CD, but fortunately they got it right. I am very much looking forward to the BLu-ray with probably even better sound in uncompressed high resolution multichannel.

I Love the alternate main title, a very modernist, atonal piece similar to something in images or close encounters. But it does not fit the pictures. JW might have wanted to create an atmosphere of imminent doom, but I think the new title fits better.

Phantom Menace is the best of the 6, but I prefer the sequel score to Ep 2 and 3. So Sequels win for me.

That makes sense since all those Mutter tracks are available on the other album from last year, although different performances.

No, but I already have it. :-)

I am especially happy that this also offers a multichannel audio only version on Blu-ray! August is still a long time away... About the 6 additional tracks: Probably they crammed on one CD the main portion of the concert minus one (about 85 min or what the max capacity is today). And the Blu-ray offers the full concert with all encores. It is a pity, they could have done a 2CD set which is not much more expensive to produce. Perhaps with a later, super duper deluxe edition?

It has some nice parts, but I remember clearly my disappointment when I listened to it the first time in 1984. I had just discovered JW with Star Wars, Empire, ET and Indiana Jones and was fully expecting something in a similar vein. I was shocked to hear muzak-like guitar and drum kit noodling; first I thought, no this can't be right, probably it is from this other guitarist John Willams. MY John Williams would never produce such pop music! (I come from a background of classical music). Meanwhile I can appreciate his very different styles, but still I probably will not buy this, except they unearthed some really brilliant never heard compositions. Otherwise 38 minutes is more than enough for me, while waiting patiently for the complete expansions of Star Wars and Indiana Jones.

I do like it, reminds me of Fantasia

The problem is, that it sounds electronic and cheap, but might still be a real instruments recorded with a lot of processing like artificial reverb that makes it difficult to determine. You know the kind of background music they play in wellness/spa places? I am very reminded of that here. The worst example of this butchering of music of course is that horrible Enya thing at the end (I know, not by JW), where I assume that there might be a human voice somewhere buried, but it is not recognizable any more.

Regarding the topic of this thread, I never quite warmed to this score and have not listend to it a long time, except the Mutter piece. So I just finished listening to the excellent Podcast „The Baton“ episode on Far an Away to see if I see it now differently. The problem for me is as in many of WIlliams scores of those years an excessive unnecessary use of electronics which for me cheapen the experience. I mean it is good to experient with electronics, and sometimes the result are great, as in the Witches of eastwick, but in Far and Away i find them simply wrong. Moreso, they could have very simply be replaced by real instrument, they do not add anything that could not have been achieved by the orchestra. Sometime I am even not sure if I am hearing a pan flute or an electronic imitation of it. Unfortunately this spoils a good part of the score for me. A pity since there are some really great tracks in it like blowing of steam, or the Land race. Ah yes, and the dear Chieftains... How should I put it politely. They surely add some flavor to the music, but I find their crude intonation so jarring that my ears start hurting after some time. So this is another detriment to this score. Regarding this I have a honest question to all those that could already listen to the score: Does the expanded version offer substantial additional tracks in the „classic John Willams, not-electronic and not-Chieftainy“ vain? Than I might be tempted to buy it. Thanks for all input!

Just finished with Far and Away, excellent as usual. Little sidemark in the context of the remark on Tom Cruise not dying in his movies:

Saw yesterday the First episode and liked it. Kind of oldfashioned, when not everything had to be drab and dark and depressive. As i understand it, the child is NOT the travelers, but she named it after him, remembering. The scene in 2034 shows, that she started a successful life in the present time, with a career as a singer, and a family (I suppose, a father is somewhere, just not in the scene). I was reminded of the science fiction novel „Time and again“ by Jack Finney, which I like very much

During the Star Wars Main Title, I saw me and my wife in the audience, so this is from Sunday.

Nixon is the only one of this list I do not absolutely need to have in complete form.

Of course, and I discover always new nuances and details. I love this score!

i am a bit excited, because I hope that the movie will learn from the mistakes of the last one, and will be a more satisfying conclusion to the Indy saga. And one more Indy score by Williams, of course!! I am still waiting for the Raiders march theme transformed to a Vienna waltz!