John Williams conducting the Eugene Symphony Sept. 22

[chinaismine 64]

Orchestra books a star

Eugene Symphony’s 2012-13 season will include a visit from “Star Wars” composer John Williams

Celebrity Hollywood film composer John Williams will come to Eugene in September to conduct the Eugene Symphony in a performance of music from his scores to such blockbuster films as “Star Wars,” “Schindler’s List” and the “Harry Potter” series, the symphony announced Thursday.

The Sept. 22 concert with the 80-year-old Williams will be among the highlights of the 2012-13 symphony season and will include a performance by violin soloist Bing Wing. The upcoming season was detailed by music director Danail Rachev to symphony supporters at a private Hult Center reception before Thursday evening’s regular concert.

http://www.registerg...lliams.html.csp

[TJH132 48]

I got my tickets! I'm taking my nieces -- perhaps a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for them.

TJH

[Jay 37,290]

Terrific!

[p0llux 392]

yep i got my tickets for this one, he doesn't come to the northwest that often, much less Oregon. Furthermore, why Eugene and not Portland? What kind of connections does he have there?

[p0llux 392]

They're making this drink at the concert tonight. Maybe I'll get it.

[JamieC 13]

Hi gang

Have any of you read this little piece that promoted yesterday's concert ?

http://www.eugeneweekly.com/article/lifetime-john-williams

Thanks

JC

[TJH132 48]

Who uses the standard camera app on a smartphone, anyway? With third party developers offering more creative, responsive and higher quality camera apps for iPhone and Android, there's no reason to stick with stock. So it was with a small piece of advice to my wife that I handed her my phone to take a picture of me and my niece with Darth Vader and the gang from the Cloud City Garrison about an hour before John Williams took the stage at the Hult Center in Eugene, Oregon, last night.

"Hold it with both hands and press the volume key to focus. Let go to take the picture."

My eleven year old niece, attending her first symphony concert, stood next to me and in front of a rather imposing Dark Lord, smiling as dozens of onlookers waited for my wife to finish the job. I got the geeky idea of pulling my hand into my sleeve. Big grin. Check. Picture taken? My wife nods approvingly. We step away and my wife has that "oops" look on her face. The picture is blurry. She mistakenly tapped the screen to focus and moved the phone in the process. So much for my advice.

Right on cue, John Williams bounded on stage looking ageless in his trim black suit and white hair and beard. Roars from the crowd and a quick standing ovation preceded the downbeat for the concert opener, "The Cowboys" Overture. The orchestra performed admirably throughout the piece, and the evening generally. The horns hit a couple clunkers at different points, but nothing to spoil the fun. Kudos especially for the principle flutist who really seemed to have a read on Williams' work. Her playing was top-notch on every piece.

The program was rather conservative. Many of them are staples to even non-Williams-conducted film music nights. After "The Cowboys" came "Excerpts from Close Encounters," a personal favorite, three pieces from "Harry Potter" (including the charming woodwinds-only "Nimbus 2000"), and "Adventures on Earth from E.T."

Williams took to the microphone and spoke mid-way through the first half. He shed light on his reasons to come to Eugene: 1. He always wanted to see the city (and toured the campus earlier that day), 2. Los Angeles recording orchestra flutist who lives in Eugene urged him to give the orchestra a spin, and 3. His longtime music editor Ken Wannberg had retired to Oregon a few years ago (and was in attendance last night). Whatever the reasons, it's nice to have him back in the Northwest. By my count, it's been 23 years since Williams brought the Boston Pops Esplanade Orchestra to Portland.

Part two of the program kicked off with "Theme from Superman" and "Suite from Far and Away." LA Philharmonic violinist Bing Wang then joined Williams on stage to perform two pieces arranged by Williams, "Tango from Scent of a Woman" and "Excerpts from Fiddler on the Roof." Both pieces were nicely played by soloist and orchestra and the crowd seemed to love it all.

The last part of the concert featured a good rendition of three pieces from Star Wars: "Imperial March," "Luke and Leia," and "Main Title." Williams left the stage and returned with Ms. Wang to give us a tender reading of "Theme from Schindler's List" as the night's first encore. After even more applause and ovations (and shouts from the crowd "We love you, Johnny!), we got a nice close out for the evening with "Raiders March." John Williams accepted our appreciative applause and long standing ovation until giving the final "bedtime" gesture and quickly exiting the stage.

It was a winning evening all around and I'm sure something my young nieces will remember for the rest of their lives!

TJH

[p0llux 392]

He didn't play "Luke and Leia", it was "Princess Leia's Theme." The solo horn struggled to hit the top note. :-(

I had my pic taken with Darth Vader too!

[TJH132 48]

Pretty sure it was "Luke and Leia." "Leia's Theme" is incorporated into the "Main Title."

TJH

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk 2

[TownerFan 4,983]

Thanks for your reports!

There's also a very nice interview made for the occasion listed on the main page:

http://www.registerguard.com/web/entertainmentarts/28745442-41/music-film-question-williams-symphony.html.csp

Some very interesting points raised, imho.

[indy4 155]

Answer: From the point of view of film, I’m not certain what that will be. Several things are under discussion, a couple of them with Spielberg, which will be for next year.

I wonder if this means JW is considering scoring non-Spielberg films?

[Incanus 5,713]

Great report! Thank you very much TJH132!

[p0llux 392]

Pretty sure it was "Luke and Leia." "Leia's Theme" is incorporated into the "Main Title."

TJH

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk 2

nope, it was Princess Leia's theme, I have it on video. Sorry for bad quality, this was recorded with my iPod touch 4g up on balcony level. Gonna upgrade to 5g soon. Goto 3:30 for Princess Leia's Theme. The solo horn....ouch!

[media=]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qssiO--3P00&feature=youtu.be

[TJH132 48]

It was "Princess Leia's Theme" after all. I stand corrected.

TJH

PS: Were you in the front row of the Lower Balcony? I was three rows behind you watching you record the show!

Sent from my Xoom using Tapatalk 2

[p0llux 392]

yes i was, Row A Seat 209 at the end of the row. Didn't know a fellow JWFan was sitting so close to me lol!

Adventures on Earth from ET:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_bOTaKytXoc&feature=youtu.be

[Muad'Dib 1,801]

Answer: From the point of view of film, I’m not certain what that will be. Several things are under discussion, a couple of them with Spielberg, which will be for next year.

I wonder if this means JW is considering scoring non-Spielberg films?

Yeah, I thought the same thing.... Fingers crossed!

[Muad'Dib 1,801]

Sorry for the double post, but that line got me thinking, and maybe (just maybe) I think I may be on to something regarding that supposed non-Spielberg project.

Now, considering Williams finally got to score an animated movie with Tintin, and his comments about how much he wanted to do that during all of his carreer but never got the chance until now. From that, many of us have been wishing that he'd score a Pixar or even a Dreamworks animated film, and maybe (again, just MAYBE) our dream is about to come true... Or not...

Before you get too excited, look here:

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1979388/fullcredits

Now of course it says that the composer for that particular movie will be John Powell, and while I wouldn't mind him doing it, nobody has confirmed nothing regarding that. But now look at the name underneath Powell: Alejandro de la Llosa, who is listed as music supervisor (whatever that means).

If you look at his credit list, you'll see not only that he has never worked with Powell, but that he has in fact worked with Williams on Tintin as an orchestrator and in Lincoln as a music supervisor.

From that little piece of evidence, I am seriously considering that Johnny will be scoring The Good Dinosaur. And in a way, it could make sense: Bob Peterson (the director) is a big JW fan (lots of Up was tracked with Williams music) and also considering the popularity of his Jurassic Park scores.

I know this is veeeeeeeeeeery far-fetched, but a man can dream, right? What do you think?

[publicist 4,643]

If anything, it means that he may score the TINTIN sequel. If Pixar or Disney wanted a Williams score, they could have made overtures to him decades before - which never happened, as far as we know.

[Incanus 5,713]

Yes I would not jump into conclusions to any direction except Spieberg at this point. And the Tintin sequel.

[Jay 37,290]

Powell's scoring The Good Dinosaur. Williams would probably score Tintin 2 if it gets made. The lackluster box office of Tintin 1 combined with Peter Jackson being tied up with The Hobbit for longer than anticipated due to the 3-film stretch seriously puts a damper on things.