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The Spielberg/Williams Collaboration Part III CD & DVD (And Ultimate Collection CD / VINYL box set)


The Psycho Pianist

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11 hours ago, hornist said:

I'm not very enthusiastic about this recording. The selection and its not the Boston orchestra. There is always some extra magic with the great orchestras( Ryan, Schindler & Lincoln) I have already almost every of them with (brilliant) LA players.

 

Yes, but the OST recordings were done to strict film timings (and possibly even to click). These will be recorded without film restrictions, letting the music flow more freely. (Although Williams does tend to keep rather strict tempos even for concert performances I think)

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Williams tends vary with his interpretations for re-recordings like this. E.g. on the Williams on Williams album the Lost Boys Ballet and Jim's New Life are played far slower than their film counterparts, which renders them rather lethargic when they should be energetic and sprightly while Theme from Jurassic Park receives a very fast performance where a slower speed would have benefitted the hymn theme in particular. I have always wondered why he chose these performance speeds for the pieces as they do not benefit from the changes. But of course he sees/hears these things differently as the composer. I think he has performed e.g. the Adventures of Mutt in concert slower than on the soundtrack which deprives the music some of its zest. Hopefully this performance will be boisterous and fast to emphasize the athletic nature of the music. The musicians are up to it Johnny! They can play fast and deftly!

 

I find that the Spielberg/Williams Collaboration album has pretty much spot on tempi for all the selections.

 

I remember how the change of speed/tempo of the performance can weigh down a piece of music when I heard a considerably slowed down version of Indy's Very First Adventure in concert. Felt like the orchestral was swimming through tar and there was a slow motion feel to the whole piece.

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9 hours ago, Incanus said:

Williams tends vary with his interpretations for re-recordings like this.

 

That's not what I meant though. Williams sometimes chooses different tempi, but he usually keeps the metre quite strict througout a cue. No doubt it's useful for film sessions to be able to keep a strict tempo so reliably, but for some pieces (especially the more "symphonic" ones), I prefer more liberal rubati, like Gerhardt used to do them (and Strobel did with the LSO last November).

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10 hours ago, Incanus said:

I find that the Spielberg/Williams Collaboration album has pretty much spot on tempi for all the selections.

 

Of course, "Scherzo for Motorcycle and Orchestra" was sped up considerably for that recording, right?  I think it's a much more satisfying recording there than on the Last Crusade OST.

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Agreed. It's easily the best version of the track. Parade of the Slave Children, on the other hands, does not really benefit from the slow tempo and lack of "bite", so to speak

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It's a rather majestic tune so it's not easily harmed by the more ponderous pace. The concert piece itself is wonderful, though, and should be performed much more often than the played-to-death 'Star Wars' main titles and such.

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6 hours ago, Disco Stu said:

 

Of course, "Scherzo for Motorcycle and Orchestra" was sped up considerably for that recording, right?  I think it's a much more satisfying recording there than on the Last Crusade OST.

 

Yes. I actually heard the SWC version first, and when I got the OS of TLC later on, I was like wth! This sounds nothing like the version I've come to adore.... 

 

But over the years, I've come to love the original version as well. 

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8 hours ago, publicist said:

It's a rather majestic tune so it's not easily harmed by the more ponderous pace. The concert piece itself is wonderful, though, and should be performed much more often than the played-to-death 'Star Wars' main titles and such.

I have only ever heard the film version in concert, which the Helsinki Philharmonic by some miracle performed a number of years ago. It was thrilling stuff, which can't be said of the Indy's Very First Adventure with the leaden pace they also did. Escape from Venice was brilliantly performed in the same concert too.

 

But yes I really like the interpretation on Spielberg/Williams Collaboration. The slower take gives it a bit more majesty I find. The film version should have that brisker pace but in the suite Williams allows the theme to breathe a bit. And yes it is brilliant and should be performed more often.

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I even like the dickless 'Always' in this version: if only Williams would have found a way to shoehorn the majestic part into it he edited out of 'Among the Clouds' at the 3 minute mark it would have been perfect.

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On 1/10/2017 at 11:02 AM, Jay said:

 

Coming Friday, March 3rd, 2017 from Sony Classical!

 

Looks like the release date was changed to March 17th.

 

https://www.amazon.com/John-Williams-Steven-Spielberg-Collection/dp/B01MRNZ615

 

 Apologies if this was already noticed, I missed a few days on the forum and it was easier to just mark everything as read :P 

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Those are the three movements of "Escapades," the concert suite he adapted from the Catch Me If You Can score.

 

Disc 4 is, I believe, an interview with or between Spielberg and Williams about the collaboration.

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Are, yes! Thanks. I realise that I already have these, on the CMIYC Amy Dickson CD.

No doubt the interviews will be moderated by that most objective of writers, Laurent Bozo.

 

I never thought that I would post this, especially with  a JW CD, but...I'm going to pass.

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It hasn't been 15 years since Volume 2, its been 22 years!

 

Anyways I for one am looking forward to this new CD very much!

The only disappointment for me is that I have to pay $32 for it instead of ~$15.

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5 minutes ago, TownerFan said:

 

I'm frankly amazed at the amount of whining and lamenting about this release I'm reading here---well before anyone has listened to it! If I had one dollar for every time somebody on this board expressed the wish for a third Spielberg/Williams Collaboration album in all these years, now I'd probably be a rich man and had financed such a recording myself. Now we're getting exactly what we were asking for since at least 15 years (perhaps also because there's people in the industry that reads and knows what JWFans think and wish), but this doesn't stop people from complaining about choices of pieces, track order, selection of players, etc. Of course it's perfectly legitimate to criticize and lament anything you think it's worth for. Of course anything has the potential to be the perfect thing according to your own specific preferences and desires. But I'll tell you a secret: we as fans are entitled to nothing when it comes to these things. Considering the age we're living in and the moribund state of the discographic industry, it's somewhat a minor miracle we're getting such a release. I really miss the days when we discover a new release almost by accident, when walking into a record store and browsing the Soundtrack section. At least we didn't demand anything but a good record to listen to.

 

Rant over. Back to lurking mode.

more to the point, why on earth would any of us desire to know if another person "is going to pass." 

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4 hours ago, Jay said:

It hasn't been 15 years since Volume 2, its been 22 years!

 

Yeah... :o

 

Quote

Anyways I for one am looking forward to this new CD very much!

The only disappointment for me is that I have to pay $32 for it instead of ~$15.

 

That's a fair point to criticise, actually. I too am not too excited to buy again two albums I already have. But I hope the whole package is gonna be worth the price.

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46 minutes ago, Tom said:

more to the point, why on earth would any of us desire to know if another person "is going to pass." 

 

What are you dancing on my head, for?

All I said was "no, thanks". Am I not allowed to dissent? Is JWfan now controlled by fascists?

Are we not allowed to say that we don't want a JW product?

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1 hour ago, Richard said:

 

What are you dancing on my head, for?

All I said was "no, thanks". Am I not allowed to dissent? Is JWfan now controlled by fascists?

Are we not allowed to say that we don't want a JW product?

You are allowed, I just cannot see how anybody would be interested if a person is buying or not buying something.  Why should one person care about another person's spending habits?  (but that is just my opinion, which you as a non-fascist should respect). 

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37 minutes ago, Bryant Burnette said:

You should probably do something other than visit a messageboard if you don't want to know what people think about something.

 

I'll be buying it, incidentally.

I want to know what people around here, particularly in this subforum, think about JW and music, not other things, again such as spending priorities. (and I suspect everyone else feels the same.  If I started telling people what I think about jars and mud, I doubt they would be interested).

 

I guess my question to you comes down to this: do you honestly care what other people are buying and not buying? 

 

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Do I, a member of a John Williams-centric messageboard, care if John Williams fans are interested in buying a John Williams release?  Of course!  Frankly, that should go without saying.  I don't feel the need to keep a fuckin' spreadchart of it, but I can't imagine why anyone would be all like, "NO! Let's NOT talk about THAT!!"  Pretty weird, if you ask me.

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ANYWAY,

 

I wonder what a 2 week delay means... surely the entire audio program has been finished and mastered for a while... is the DVD still being finalized?  Is the packaging and artwork not up to snuff and needs to be redone?  Hmmm.

 

Would be nice if it appears on Spotify and other digital platforms earlier than March 17th!

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3 minutes ago, Jay said:

Would be nice if it appears on Spotify and digital platforms earlier than March 17th!

 

I get so used to specialty label limited releases, I forget that this one will actually be available digitally.  That's cool.

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It will be interesting to see if they actually sell the Volume 3 part as a separate "album" for $9.99 or whatever iTunes and Google Play, Amazon etc usually sell Sony Classical albums for, or if it'll only be sold bundled with the first 2 volumes like the physical CDs are.

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Depending on the price, it could be cheaper to buy the individual tracks.  Assuming they don't pull the shady thing some do on iTunes where some songs are only available with album purchase (it's usually only for songs longer than 10 minutes, which I don't think any on that third disc would be?).

 

It's kinda funny that the 2 longest songs on Vol. 1 ("Adventures on Earth" and "Close Encounters") both sneak just under that 10 minute mark at 9:46 and 9:47 so that all the tracks are available for separate purchase.

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Am I correct in surmising that the first two Spielberg/Williams albums provided the Spielberg cuts on the two-disc Greatest Hits 1969-1999 album?  By my reckoning, that makes the following tracks redundant for owners of the two-discer:

Raiders

Sugarland

Jaws Main Title

Slave Children

1941

Cadillac

Motorcycle

CET3K

Flying (E.T.)

Flight to Neverland

Schindler

 

As for whether I'm buying it or not, I'm not telling! :dance:

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1 hour ago, Bryant Burnette said:

Do I, a member of a John Williams-centric messageboard, care if John Williams fans are interested in buying a John Williams release?  Of course!  Frankly, that should go without saying.  I don't feel the need to keep a fuckin' spreadchart of it, but I can't imagine why anyone would be all like, "NO! Let's NOT talk about THAT!!"  Pretty weird, if you ask me.

Okay, one last post, and then I will shut up.  Buying something is secondary sort or thing and based on one's financial situation and other factors extraneous to one's judgement of the quality of the release.  Thus when talking about the release, tell us whether you think it has good quality or bad.  The rest is just superfluous. 

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43 minutes ago, Jay said:

Appears to be from a 1996 recording with the LSO

 

http://www.jw-collection.de/compilations/hits.htm

 

The ESB and ROTJ tracks are from the Skywalker Ranch sessions, but the SW Main Title is the LSO re-recording.

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1 hour ago, Disco Stu said:

Depending on the price, it could be cheaper to buy the individual tracks.  Assuming they don't pull the shady thing some do on iTunes where some songs are only available with album purchase (it's usually only for songs longer than 10 minutes, which I don't think any on that third disc would be?).

 

It's kinda funny that the 2 longest songs on Vol. 1 ("Adventures on Earth" and "Close Encounters") both sneak just under that 10 minute mark at 9:46 and 9:47 so that all the tracks are available for separate purchase.

 

:mellow:

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Not that I need to justify anything to your pedantry, but I think I used that term because I was referring to an iTunes "unit" for sale which in general parlance are usually referred to as songs.

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1 hour ago, Jay said:

Appears to be from a 1996 recording with the LSO

 

http://www.jw-collection.de/compilations/hits.htm

 

The LSO tracks should be from this album:

 

0001653569.jpg

 

I never picked up the Greatest Hits thing, but I have all the tracks in their original releases.

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1 hour ago, Jay said:

Appears to be from a 1996 recording with the LSO

 

http://www.jw-collection.de/compilations/hits.htm

 

Gracias!  I hadn't seen that website before.

 

Interesting that the Flying Theme is from that '96 recording according to them. I always assumed it was from the '95 BPO album.

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3 hours ago, Romão said:

That re-recording with the LSO is probably my favorite performance ever of the Star Wars Main Title

It is fantastic indeed!

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