Jump to content

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


The Psycho Pianist

Recommended Posts

1 hour ago, crumbs said:

I think the lack of more "textured" JW music like TLW and WOTW hurts the diversity of music in this release. My favourite track is Dry Your Tears, Afrika specifically because it's so unique in Williams' oeuvre (doubly so on this album).

 

I couldn't put my finger on exactly what was underwhelming but I think it's simply the inclusions. Everything is very optimistic and "safe." There's no representation of Williams being daring or dark or dissonant. Minority Report was a very dark score, but its only representation is the hopeful and melancholy New Beginning. Similar with Munich and Prayer for Peace (albeit a more aching piece than others).

 

Everything else is whimsical or hopeful. Nothing wrong with that, they've clearly built an album 'accessible' for the masses; it's just a very narrow selection of the diverse musical collaboration the pair have had over the last 2 decades (especially when Spielberg went through his 'dark' period after Schindler's List, which he seemed to abandon after Munich).

 

Omitting 3 of their darkest collaborations is no coincidence, but unfortunately the album is poorer for it.

 

 

Wow, thank you Crumbs, you put into words what I was struggling with about this release; You're exactly right, they skipped over any kind of dark mysterious music and entirely focused on bright, optimistic music - for the most part.  Good analysis.


I do like everything here, but rather than wishing certain things were dropped in favor of others, I just wish they had gone for 2 CDs worth of music, or had one volume 3 ten years ago and were doing volume 4 now.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

2 hours ago, TownerFan said:

 

Williams prepared a 2-movement concert suite from War of the Worlds in 2005 right after the film was released and performed it both in La and in Chicago (I was there). The first movement was called "Escape from the City" and it was made with several bits and pieces of several cues (mainly "The Ferry Scene", "Driving Away" and "Ogilvy's End"), while the second was called "Epilogue" and it was basically the same piece as heard in the end credits with an extended coda for the trumpet trio.

 

I was not aware of that! I would have LOVED to hear this, and I actually think the more 'explorative' nature of this and A.I. (and perhaps even TLW) would be good "bridges" in the Vol. 3 (inbetween the more thematically driven material).

Link to comment
Share on other sites

My copy hasn't arrived yet, but at least I got a shipping notice the other day, so it should arrive soon...

 

That being said, I for one is not lamenting the omission of any atonal, dissonant or "textured" tracks from this release.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

10 minutes ago, rough cut said:

That being said, I for one is not lamenting the omission of any atonal, dissonant or "textured" tracks from this release.

 

Booooooh! ;)

 

I'm waiting for a similar release for the John Williams/Robert Altman collaboration -- IMAGES, THE LONG GOODBYE, THE KATHERINE REED STORY, NIGHTMARE IN CHICAGO/"Once Upon a Savage Night", "The Hunt", "The Long, Lost Life of Edward Smalley" -- all from KRAFT SUSPENSE -- and possibly some KRAFT MYSTERY. Dissonance galore!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Having listened 3 or 4 times through, the track selection all feels a bit "samey." I keep waiting for something unexpected to grab my attention, in the way Williams creates OST presentations with contrasting tracks (such as juxtaposing Rey's Theme with The Falcon). I think it would've heavily benefited from just 2-3 tracks of 'harsher' music, like the sprinkling of selections from CEO3K in the first two releases. May the compact disc format be damned!

 

I'm grateful for everything here but I hope Volume IV does a better job presenting Williams as the musical chameleon he is. The noble Americana material is well-trodden territory at this point.

 

Who knows, maybe they're just not interested in that darker material anymore? It reflects Spielberg's post-Munich trajectory as a filmmaker.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I think you're right, that they truly weren't interested in recording any dark music for the CD.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I'm loving this new album and have been listening to it almost daily since it arrived.  Like others here, I do find it curious that they pretty much kept to the same tonal, lush, symphonic Americana-type sound for the selections.  Especially since Spielberg specifically mentioned in the documentary how he was struck by how different the music was for each of their collaborations.  I heard that and thought, "Really?," particularly since the three scores left off are what contain the TRULY different music!

 

But beyond that, I'm perfectly happy with it.  I haven't had the chance before to hear to full length concert versions of War Horse or Lincoln, so those are especially appreciated, as those are two of my favorite Williams scores of the 2000s.  I was a bit put off by the shorter version of Hymn to the Fallen, but after a few listens it's grown on me quite a bit.  The performance and recording are spectacular, and the piece still flows beautifully.

 

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

3 hours ago, Thor said:

 

Booooooh! ;)

 

I'm waiting for a similar release for the John Williams/Robert Altman collaboration -- IMAGES, THE LONG GOODBYE, THE KATHERINE REED STORY, NIGHTMARE IN CHICAGO/"Once Upon a Savage Night", "The Hunt", "The Long, Lost Life of Edward Smalley" -- all from KRAFT SUSPENSE -- and possibly some KRAFT MYSTERY. Dissonance galore!

 

lol

 

Thanks, this made my day! :)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

10 hours ago, Thor said:

 

And WAR OF THE WORLDS. I'd love to see Williams do a concert version of this, more abstract music.

 

I'd feel bad about forgetting that, but so did Williams and Spielberg, so I'm in good company!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

16 hours ago, artguy360 said:

I'm having some serious JW problems lately. Not only do I enjoy the faster version of the Jurassic Park theme on new JP & TLW release, but I also enjoy the abridged Hymn to the Fallen on the new JW/Spielberg CD and don't miss the cut portion.

 

Fixed. ;)

12 hours ago, Bryant Burnette said:

Finally worked my way through this set.  I'd heard the first two albums many times, but they're always worth a revisit; I always kind of forget how very good the Hook music on the second one is, and how dreadful "The Dialogue" from CE3K is.

 

Apparently I'm the only one who likes The Dialogue. The Hook selections never grabbed me much, though.

 

12 hours ago, Bryant Burnette said:

The new album is good, but the absence of A.I. and The Lost World is a black eye on the project, in my opinion.  Coulda surely squeezed Amazing Stories in there, too, if only the main theme; but both "Ghost Train" and "The Mission" deserve to be remembered.

 

Lost World and War of the Worlds are sorely missed, in my book.

 

12 hours ago, Bryant Burnette said:

But the music that IS there is very, very good.  I've never liked "The Adventures of Mutt" very much, but I got closer here than ever before.  Very cool to have a true recording of "Escapades" in its concert format.  The concert version of "Marion's Theme" is a nice addition, too.  As for the rest, I prefer pretty much all of the OST versions, but that's not to imply there's anything inferior about these; they're all fine.

 

Mutt really is more fun on this album than I'd expected. Still not a lot, but some at least. I'm still not convinced by this version of Dry Your Tears, Afrika that everyone is raving about. Amistad has become one of my most frequently played Williams scores, but the new recording sounds a bit too operatic/bombastic for the piece's character.

 

Generally, it's a nice album. The sound is great, the selections and performances are nice. And yet it doesn't do too much for me, and most pieces don't seem to offer anything that the OST versions don't have, and slightly better. It might be because Williams, during the era represented here, has already consistently been writing the concert versions as part of the soundtrack, using them for credits and the albums. Not only does this mean that the album doesn't have a lot of new material to offer, but Williams' interpretations also seem to have been fully refined at the time of the original recordings, with little to distinguish these interpretations from the OST recordings.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I have to say, I like the abridged Hymn to the Fallen.  Composers revise their work all the time, and I think that this was done because he felt it could be tightened up, not for time considerations.  And from that viewpoint I agree.  I think it works.

 

Also - I have no problem with the vibraphone player!  

Link to comment
Share on other sites

2 minutes ago, Stefancos said:

I was commenting on Joe's comment about the Hymn

 

Ah sorry, my mistake.  I honestly don't know how I feel about the abridged Hymn.  I don't hate it, but I definitely don't prefer it.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Ok, I don't mean to piss people off, just to offer my 2 cents...

 

First of all, I still haven't listened to this properly since my disc hasn't arrived yet, but I have a feeling the abridged version will be my go-to version of the hymn...

 

I always found the ost version to be a bit too long and a bit too uneventful - at least to warrant repetetive listening. I mean I get it if I approach it from a different perspective... as a monumental musical testamente, or as a study in musical build, or as a mood piece: then of course it's up to chops. But I rarely listen to music that way these days.

 

Nevertheless, it's good we now have two versions to choose from!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I'm a bit disappointed that Williams didn't record the full three-movement "Lincoln" suite as was performed with the Boston Pops in 2013. Lots of material missing from the two "Malice Towards None" tracks, making it difficult to replace the OST "Peterson house and Finale" with a more definitive version on my playlist.

 

Here's hoping Keith Lockhart records the full thing in two weeks, in addition to the full JFK suite, the Patriot concert arrangement, something from AI, maybe some Prisoner of Azkaban concert arrangements, Spacecamp, Monsignor, and of course, new recordings of 60s and 70s scores for which we only have "hissy" recordings.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

19 hours ago, Bryant Burnette said:

The new "Dry Your Tears" doesn't blow me away, either.  It's fine, but it's inferior to the OST version; and, for that matter, to the version on the Dudamel Blu-ray. 

 

I remember not being convinced by the Dudamel version either, and having similar thoughts about it. But I've only played that Blu-ray once. I should figure out how to rip the audio track and put it in my playlist.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I liked Dry Your Tears, before my 1998 trip to Africa, but I listened to the piece quite a lot during my trip, so that piece always takes me back there. To paraphrase Spielberg, "the music can tell your own story".

 

065.jpg

 

 

 

 

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

4 hours ago, Marian Schedenig said:

 

I remember not being convinced by the Dudamel version either, and having similar thoughts about it. But I've only played that Blu-ray once. I should figure out how to rip the audio track and put it in my playlist.

 

If your computer can play Blu-rays, you can use Audacity to record the audio as it plays, and that's all there is to it.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

8 hours ago, hornist said:

Am I the only one who thinks that "Dry Your Tears" is one of Johnny's weakest pieces of music. And that soundtrack is out of my top 100 list.

Yes you are alone in this I am afraid. We all think it is the bee's knees!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

7 hours ago, pete said:

I liked Dry Your Tears, before my 1998 trip to Africa, but I listened to the piece quite a lot during my trip, so that piece always takes me back there. To paraphrase Spielberg, "the music can tell your own story".

 

065.jpg

 

 

Did you meet Dian Fossey while you were there? ;)

 

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 3/17/2017 at 11:20 AM, Stefancos said:

 

I did, but I wouldn't advise doing so.  IMO, the frequency response of the HDtracks files is not characteristic of a true 192 kHz recording.  It would seem that some subsequent EQ processing occurred which lopped off virtually everything above ~27 kHz.  A true 192 kHz recording should contain content out to ~96 kHz; granted, it might mostly be room noise and very little musical content but it would be present in the signal.

I also bought TFA from HDtracks and made a quick comparison of its spectral content with that of the Spielberg/Williams Collaboration Part III files.  There is a clear distinction between them, as illustrated in this comparative spectral plot of a track from each of the two albums:
 

Spoiler

spectrum.png

 

The spectral content from 0 Hz (far left of the plot) to ~17,000 Hz (17 kHz) is relatively consistent for both cues.  Starting at ~17 kHz, however, "Joy Ride" starts falling off until it flattens out (relatively speaking) at ~27 kHz and contains minimal content of any meaningful sort up to 96 kHz.  The TFA cue, however, shows an expected spectrum of a true 192 kHz recording all the way out to 96 kHz (far right of the plot).

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Point taken, but I was trying to avoid the debate surrounding "high definition" audio.  My point really was that if a company advertises music at a certain quantization and/or sampling rate, and either/both are false claims, then there's a problem IMO.  In fairness to HDtracks, they refunded my purchase of Spielberg/Williams Collaboration Part III when I emailed them about it, so I really shouldn't complain.  (For the record, I didn't ask for a refund; I asked for corrected files, if/when they are available.)  They deflected blame onto the record label, stating that there are no standards in music mastering and the results may vary, they don't record or master anything themselves, they rely on the files that the record labels give them. blah blah blah.

Even more egregious was one of the files they offer in their free sampler, which I also brought to their attention.  It's indicated as being a 96 kHz remaster of an existing recording, but while the file is 96 kHz, the audio content is brick-walled at between 20 and 21 kHz.  A clear indication of a simple up-sample from 44.1 kHz (CD quality) to a 96 kHz file, not of a different approach to mastering/re-mastering.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

19 hours ago, Bryant Burnette said:

If your computer can play Blu-rays, you can use Audacity to record the audio as it plays, and that's all there is to it.

 

There are tools to simply demux and rip the audio tracks from a Blu-ray, which I imagine should preserve the original encoding and compression. Only last time I read about them, I didn't have any free space on my disk, and by now I've forgotten the tools, so I'll have to look them up again.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

7 hours ago, Miguel Andrade said:

Regarding the discussion about "War of the Worlds" several posts ago, I should point out that Erich Kunzel did record "Escape from the City". This was a companion track on the digital release of "Great Film Fantasies" from 2006, which also included music from the "Star Wars", "Harry Potter" and "Lord of the Rings" series. Those were all on the CD release, and both the "War of the Worlds" and "Batman Begins" tracks were iTunes exclusives.

Also the City of Prague Philharmonic Orchestra has recorded a seven and a half minute Suite from War of the Worlds, that combines a number of cues from the soundtrack.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

9 hours ago, Miguel Andrade said:

Regarding the discussion about "War of the Worlds" several posts ago, I should point out that Erich Kunzel did record "Escape from the City". This was a companion track on the digital release of "Great Film Fantasies" from 2006, which also included music from the "Star Wars", "Harry Potter" and "Lord of the Rings" series. Those were all on the CD release, and both the "War of the Worlds" and "Batman Begins" tracks were iTunes exclusives.

 

Thanks for that Info! 

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

7 hours ago, Incanus said:

Also the City of Prague Philharmonic Orchestra has recorded a seven and a half minute Suite from War of the Worlds, that combines a number of cues from the soundtrack.

 

Yes, you're right... completely forgot about that one :)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

However, we should point out that the suite recorded by Fitzpatrick and the Prague Phil isn't a JW-approved/supervised version. It's a reconstruction (done likely by ear or from second-hand sources by some orchestrator) of several cues cobbled together.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

37 minutes ago, TownerFan said:

However, we should point out that the suite recorded by Fitzpatrick and the Prague Phil isn't a JW-approved/supervised version. It's a reconstruction (done likely by ear or from second-hand sources by some orchestrator) of several cues cobbled together.

Quite.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

It's a real issue in terms of copyright. For many years a lot of those recordings used reconstructions done by ear (or transcriptions from second- or third-hand sources) and legally were justified as "covers" or "reinterpretations". But of course there are legal complications when you do these sort of things and nowadays the control of what is being recorded is very strict.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Well cover or not, i doubt you can release a new recording if you dont have the rights to the music. 

 

For instance Tadlow recorded Conan. James Fitzpatrick had to reconstruct much of the score himself because the written score was no longer available. But he must have gotten the rights to release the music from whoever owned it anyway.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

There are several static noises in the mix of this album, particularly on the left channel (Marion's Theme at 00:50 by example).

 

And that sound recording for the solo clarinet in Viktor's Tale... my god...

 

Recorded in two days... and mixed in two hours?

 

After 3-4 listening... I discover that it's not a so-well produced album...

 

Who produced it?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
×
×
  • Create New...

Important Information

By using this site, you agree to our Guidelines.