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ACROSS THE STARS - Williams / Mutter collaboration album


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20 minutes ago, Jurassic Shark said:

 

What if the five additional tracks on the deluxe edition are great?

 

 

Yeah, it would be much more engaging if they thrashed each other!

If the five extra tracks are a game-changer, I will spend an entire night meticulously going over the advantages and disadvantages of buying this product. I will then come to a decision and act accordingly.

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Or maybe you could spend an entire night listening to the disc repeatedly after you drop the $25 or so and receive the set possibly?  

 

Seems like a lot of wasted time in self-debate on whether or not to purchase this release, but to each his own I guess.  I mean, it's not like the JW Conductor 20-disc set that was about $125.  If you want my humble advice, I'd say just go for it and buy the deluxe set.  Regret is the toughest thing to live with! ;)

 

 

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After a first listen through the whole album, I have to say it's a very nice one. Definitely more appealing to me than the Dudamel album. Of the tracks that haven't been released earlier, I really like the dramatic ones - Far and Away, Dracula, Tintin - and of course the more relaxed Sabrina - I've been waiting for a better violin version of that great theme!

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5 minutes ago, Disco Stu said:

 

Not included on the album unfortunately ;) 

ROTFLMAO

18 minutes ago, Jurassic Shark said:

After a first listen through of the whole album, I have to say it's a very nice one. Definitely more appealing to me than the Dudamel album. Of the tracks that haven't been released earlier, I really like the dramatic ones - Far and Away, Dracula, Tintin - and of course more relatex Sabrina - I've been waiting for a violin version of that great theme!

 

If you've been waiting for a violin version of Sabrina, it's been available since 1997 on the first Cinema Serenade:

https://www.amazon.com/Cinema-Serenade-Itzhak-Perlman-Williams/dp/B0000029W9

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12 minutes ago, Miguel Andrade said:

ROTFLMAO

 

If you've been waiting for a violin version of Sabrina, it's been available since 1997 on the first Cinema Serenade:

https://www.amazon.com/Cinema-Serenade-Itzhak-Perlman-Williams/dp/B0000029W9

 

I forgot the decisive word: "better"! To me, Perlman's playing on the Cinema Serenade albums are a bit hit and miss. I guess that's why I've never bought them.

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"Donnybrook Fair" is excellent, though I'll admit I was quite disappointed that JW didn't do anything with the main love theme (not even a short statement). I feel like there could have been some cool counterpoint or something with the fast solo violin. 

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Well I listened to this whole album on Spotify today and I liked it!  I think the middle of the album is the strongest;  The opening trio of the super famous Rey's Theme / Yoda's Theme / Hedwig's Theme just kind of felt like a "singles collection" more than an album.  But then as we get into more interesting stuff like Donnybrook Fair, Sayuri's Theme, and especially Night Journeys and The Duel, I was really digging the flow of the album.  Luke and Leia and the Theme from Schindler's List felt more like a singles collection again to finish things off, and overall I thought the album felt REALLY short! 

 

I think the Deluxe Edition will improve things dramatically, especially since most of what's being added to that are less overplayed pieces.  I can't wait to give the whole project another listen when that comes out.  Right now, i feel like this is a very nice collaboration album, but not anything I'm going to listen to a large amount of times.  But we'll see what the future brings!

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32 minutes ago, Jurassic Shark said:

What exactly do you not like?

 

How it sounds. My first time hearing that score was the John Mauceri album, which is also a stellar recording. Once I heard the OST, I was pretty much disgusted with the subpar audio. My one listen to the DE did nothing to change my opinion.

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I'm lovin' it!  I think Dracula is, pound for pound, a better track than anything from the score, and I say this having bought the expansion a few months ago.  "The Duel" is also great, and while I see your point about "Donnybrook," @Will, that just gives us fodder for Part 2 (which sounds oddly possible in one of the interviews above, and on which that love theme will hopefully be joined by the one from The Terminal and, of course, Droid Motif for Violin and Orchestra).

 

While we're at it, Maestro, let's do a violin arrangement of "Crimebuster" from Heartbeeps!

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1 hour ago, igger6 said:

I'm lovin' it!  I think Dracula is, pound for pound, a better track than anything from the score, and I say this having bought the expansion a few months ago.  "The Duel" is also great, and while I see your point about "Donnybrook," @Will, that just gives us fodder for Part 2 (which sounds oddly possible in one of the interviews above, and on which that love theme will hopefully be joined by the one from The Terminal and, of course, Droid Motif for Violin and Orchestra).

  

While we're at it, Maestro, let's do a violin arrangement of "Crimebuster" from Heartbeeps!

 

This this this! :)

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You all enjoys this. I'll be waiting for the Deluxe Edition which comes out next month. I feel this album will be a commercial success and if it's a big hit I certainly hope for a 2nd volume someday soon. 

 

A new rendering of Leaving Home from SUPERMAN would be something? Wouldn't it? 

 

"Martha Clark Kent are you listening to what Iam saying..." 

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The Donnybrook Fair has an altogether different energy and nuance to it. Much different from its original rendering by Itzhak Perlman. I loved it. 

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Great post, @David Story

 

It feels like Williams is embracing a new stage in his career, which actually feels like a surmation of his evolving style over half a century of writing. It's fascinating to hear vintage pieces in new arrangements, containing fragments of stylistic changes Williams has had over the years. 

 

I can't help but wonder if the surplus of fantastic Mike Matessino expansions, specifically tailored to revisiting his catalog from decades past, has helped inform this shift? 

 

Either way, it's glorious. 

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Another fan of this album! Years ago, I was browsing one of the piano anthologies and I remember noticing what a well-crafted piece "Nice to be Around" was, but I was never really a fan of the song as it appeared on the soundtrack and I never really warmed to the harmonica renditions. So glad to have a this lush version for violin. We're lucky Andrea Previn suggested it and Dracula. Here's to more new arrangements of older gems. 

 

And I think the Star Wars pieces with perhaps the exception of Rey's Theme will become my versions of choice. Nothing against this new version of Rey's Theme, I just love the original. I also was never that much a fan of the original Across the Stars, but I sure like this new version. I'm dying for the recorded Princess Leia and am holding on to a faint hope of a volume 2 with Han Solo and the Princess. 

 

Also hoping the world tour Ms Mutter mentioned comes to my neck of the words - Korea. It would be amazing seeing all these pieces and more performed live. 

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I'm going to be unpopular again, and offer some slightly more tempered views on this album.

 

First of all, I've never really been a big fan of solo violin stuff. Don't know why; something about the pitch and sound, maybe. Solo viola goes on my nerves immediately, solo violin is tolerable, but if I'm going to have solo strings, it's really all about cello for me (or tutti strings). Not the biggest brass fan either. I'm more of a woodwinds or piano guy. :)

 

That being said, there's no denying Mutter's abilities here. Great dynamic range and technical finesse. No one ever doubted that. But I have problems whenever more 'clean-shaven' themes are rearranged with lots of ornamentation. It throws me off a bit. There are some examples of this here, like "Hedwig's Theme", "The Duel",  "Nice to Be Around" (although that one is certainly interesting sans-harmonica!), "Schindler's List" (my issue here is less ornamention and more the lack of 'rawness'). Other tracks work better; you can still find traces of the theme's "soul" without it being suffocated with extraneous virtuosity.

 

For solo violin John Williams albums, I much rather take Gil Shaham's album over this, since the lines are written out from the get-go. But it's not bad or anything; just not as enthusiastic about it as everyone else seems to be.

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5 minutes ago, Thor said:

For solo violin John Williams albums, I much rather take Gil Shaham's album over this

 

Are you referring to his album with one JW piece - The Devil's Dance? That is a great album.

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9 hours ago, Thor said:

 

First of all, I've never really been a big fan of solo violin stuff. 

 

Hell yeah. 

Maybe you are not the best person to review this album. 

 

And I will not review any Hanz Zimmer's horrible album.

 

Deal? 

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18 minutes ago, hornist said:

 

Hell yeah. 

Maybe you are not the best person to review this album. 

 

And I will not review any Hanz Zimmer's horrible album.

 

Deal? 

 

I thought you and Thor would feel similarly cool on this album! 

 

It's got way too much Dracula and not enough Book Thief, isn't that right?

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1 hour ago, hornist said:

 

Hell yeah. 

Maybe you are not the best person to review this album. 

 

And I will not review any Hanz Zimmer's horrible album.

 

Deal? 

 

Ha, ha, no. I think I like solo violins better than you do Hans Zimmer.

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I also much prefer the cello, and I've always hoped for an album like this but for cello. Having said that, I am enjoying the new album. And I'm enjoying the more flashy pieces and think that Hedwig's Theme, The Duel, and the Far and Away piece are particularly suited to really flashy virtuosic violin parts. Williams and Mutter clearly at a lot of fun with the project, and I really can't fathom how much practice she must have put into these pieces and the ongoing maintenance needed to keep these at her finger tips.  

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I've never much preferred the solo violin, either, but Mutter's playing and Williams' arrangements have really made me appreciate the instrument in a way which I haven't before. The Harry Potter piece is perhaps my favourite arrangement on the album; the energy that Williams has written into the piece, and the vivacity which Mutter can wring from it is amazing, it's like Williams is breathing life back into that world again and reasserting his command over his work! 

 

 

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