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A LIFE IN MUSIC - NEW 2018 London Symphony Orchestra album of John Williams material


Miguel Andrade

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3 hours ago, Bespin said:

We'll all listen to this album on Spotify, once... then pretend it never existed.

 

Don't buy that shit.

 

As a good JWfan, please learn to separate the wheat from the chaff.

But that's my problem: is it really bad? The music is outstanding, the performances will be heavenly, I just wanted... more. Why would anyone make a 50-minute abum anyway?

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3 hours ago, Fal said:

Conductor for John Powell and other RC composers, he worked on: Gladiator, The Prince of Egypt etc. He is also conducting the Han Solo Movie (so if John Williams's theme for the film is released as it's own track it will be conducted by him.)

https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gavin_Greenaway
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gavin_Greenaway

https://www.discogs.com/artist/385932-Gavin-Greenaway?filter_anv=0&type=Credits&page=1

 

 

Is Greenaway definitely the conductor for Solo? I see he is listed for it on IMDB but they're sometimes wrong. Powell did afterall conduct his last film 'Ferdinand' himself but I suppose maybe he felt Greenaway's experience would be needed on this? Or maybe he felt he needed to be in the booth with Howard and the producers?

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10 hours ago, Bespin said:

the LSO, the LSO, the LSO... ok there is the LSO in 1977, and there is the LSO in 2018, conducted by Mr. nobody Greenaway.

 

The LSO in 2018 and 1977 is regarded as the pinnacle of the symphonic sound, and that’s down to the prestigious and extremely talented performers within the orchestra. The members of the LSO are the creme de la creme of the country’s orchestral talent, so it’s not like the standard of the LSO would get worse, because only the finest players are selected to join the orchestra. Another reason the LSO sounds so magical is because they are always so busy and playing all the time, so are forced to know their colleagues very well and form a remarkable relationship with each other. This was the same in 1977; the LSO have that wonderful sound because they know their follow players well and are always performing and rehearsing together. 

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My favorite hall to record in!!!!!! I love that sound there! It was an old church. I’ll be getting this as I love having different readings of the same things but yeH, why choose those things?! Would love to have heard them do some TFA and TLJ.

On 3/3/2018 at 10:41 PM, tmarps said:

 

The LSO in 2018 and 1977 is regarded as the pinnacle of the symphonic sound, and that’s down to the prestigious and extremely talented performers within the orchestra. The members of the LSO are the creme de la creme of the country’s orchestral talent, so it’s not like the standard of the LSO would get worse, because only the finest players are selected to join the orchestra. Another reason the LSO sounds so magical is because they are always so busy and playing all the time, so are forced to know their colleagues very well and form a remarkable relationship with each other. This was the same in 1977; the LSO have that wonderful sound because they know their follow players well and are always performing and rehearsing together. 

Very true but you can also say that about the Philharmonia Orchestra in London, the RSO, the Vienna Phil, The Berlin Phil etc etc

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On 4-3-2018 at 7:41 AM, tmarps said:

 

The LSO in 2018 and 1977 is regarded as the pinnacle of the symphonic sound, and that’s down to the prestigious and extremely talented performers within the orchestra. The members of the LSO are the creme de la creme of the country’s orchestral talent, so it’s not like the standard of the LSO would get worse, because only the finest players are selected to join the orchestra. Another reason the LSO sounds so magical is because they are always so busy and playing all the time, so are forced to know their colleagues very well and form a remarkable relationship with each other. This was the same in 1977; the LSO have that wonderful sound because they know their follow players well and are always performing and rehearsing together. 


The LSO sounds a lot better now than they did in 1977. Actually their playing on the first Star Wars is quite sloppy a lot of times, but it certainly has its charm.

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  • 3 weeks later...
32 minutes ago, Jurassic Shark said:

Here's a theory regarding the comment from the woman in the video that they packed the album full: Maybe they recorded more than 80 minutes and decided to spare half of it for a 2nd volume?

 

Ah musicians today... they record 4 pieces in two days and have the impression of having recorded a boxset of 20 CD. :sarcasm:

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  • 2 weeks later...

It's strange that this compilation doesn't include anything after HP1. That's a botched strategy if they wanted it to have any relevance at all. As it is, the album should be re-titled John Williams: 1975 - 2001, Fuck the Rest.

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  • 4 weeks later...

Digital pre-order with samples are up in some countries' iTunes stores now

 

https://itunes.apple.com/nz/album/1349374289

https://itunes.apple.com/au/album/1349374289

https://itunes.apple.com/jp/album/1349374289

https://itunes.apple.com/sk/album/1349374289

etc

 

1 Main Title (From "Star Wars") 6:07
2 Theme (From "Jurassic Park") 6:01
3 Hedwig's Theme (From "Harry Potter And The Sorcerer’s Stone") 5:08
4 The Raiders March (From "Raiders Of The Lost Ark") 5:40
5 Flying Theme (From "E.T") 4:05
6 Theme (From "Schindler's List") 4:05
7 The Flight To Neverland (From "Hook") 4:56
8 Hymn To the Fallen (From "Saving Private Ryan") 6:26
9 Shark Theme (From "Jaws") 3:12
10 Superman March (From "Superman") 4:40
 

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No one except maybe Lockhart seems to understand correctly the tempi in John Williams' music.

 

Wish Karajan recorded some JW!!! Wrong Record label I guess!

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32 minutes ago, Stefancos said:

 

Incorrect!

 

Out of curiosity, what recording are you referring to?  I know they recorded the Chamber of Secrets score, but that OST didn't feature the concert arrangement of "Hedwig's Theme"?

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I quickly went through some bits and pieces and surprisingly didn't really like what I heard... Might change my mind when I have time to listen to the whole thing, but right now I'm glad I cancelled that pre-order.

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This might be an unnecessary release, but IMO the "Flying Theme" has rarely sounded better than in that sample I just listened to.  Still not buying this of course.

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It's on Youtube:
 


Here is the premiere cello arrangement of Schindler's List separate from the playlist:
 

 

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Listening to it now. It's a very good bright recording, with impeccable performances. The Cello version of Schindler's List is simply a transposed version of the violin part, JW didn't add nothing new. I must say that both Hook and Superman sounds particularly good.

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1 hour ago, Fal said:

It's on Youtube:
 


Here is the premiere cello arrangement of Schindler's List separate from the playlist:
 

 

So now YouTube is doing country-exclusive videos, is it?

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Managed to listen to the entire thing. Performances are predictably out of this world, except for one minor 'glitch' in Jurassic Park near the end. I still can't get used to their Flight to Neverland rendition because the Boston Pops version is the only one I've listened to for months, but ordered it all the same. I really hope a follow-up album might happen, we need more of those.

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On 5/3/2018 at 7:57 PM, Disco Stu said:

the "Flying Theme" has rarely sounded better than in that sample I just listened to.

 

You're right Disco, this rendition of the Flying theme is awesome, especially the ending!

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On 27/04/2018 at 1:08 PM, Disco Stu said:

 

Out of curiosity, what recording are you referring to?  I know they recorded the Chamber of Secrets score, but that OST didn't feature the concert arrangement of "Hedwig's Theme"?

 

I don't know if Steef was referring to a *recording*, but I've heard the LSO *perform* Hedwig's Theme live in London in 2016.

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These performances and recordings are a home run—masterfully faithful, but better-sounding recordings than the (mainly BPO) versions on the Greatest Hits 1969-1999 set that I think of as "standard."

 

UPDATE: OK, strike one.  This version of Schindler's List is blown away by the 2Cellos version from last year.  I liked the lower key and the instrumental tone better there:

 

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14 hours ago, TownerFan said:

The Cello version of Schindler's List is simply a transposed version of the violin part, JW didn't add nothing new.

That's not quite correct. He didn't add new bars, that's true, but of course it's not simply a transposed version. If you rearrange a violin concert piece for cello you can't just transpose every other instrument, certain (maybe subtle) changes in the orchestration have to be made. Just saying. ;-)

 

I personally love this version very much. It really hit me. Not a huge fan of solo violin anyway, to confess.

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All these re-recordings of Hedwig's theme show how crucial is the synth celesta to the piece! (and in the past I was wondering why Williams uses a synth celesta and not a regular celesta)

They use a regular celesta that makes the melody harsh, and all these quick figures don't sound very good.

 

edit:

If the unreleased Williams scores don't get released, we need at least a compilation in a rarities cd,  including eg. pieces from The Secret Ways, the Story of a Woman, Daddy-O, Daddy's gone A-Hunting and such stuff.

These upteenth recordings of the same Williams pieces, really don't add anything at all!

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10 hours ago, lemoncurd said:

That's not quite correct. He didn't add new bars, that's true, but of course it's not simply a transposed version. If you rearrange a violin concert piece for cello you can't just transpose every other instrument, certain (maybe subtle) changes in the orchestration have to be made. Just saying. ;-)

 

I personally love this version very much. It really hit me. Not a huge fan of solo violin anyway, to confess.

Can you elaborate on which changes have to be made in such situations other than transposing?

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1 hour ago, bollemanneke said:

Can you elaborate on which changes have to be made in such situations other than transposing?

 

You generally can't just transpose everything, because of the limited ranges og the instruments. And if you transpose only the solo voice up/down in octaves, you'll most likely screw up the balance between voices.

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