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New John Williams interview from the early 80s


Montre

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Yeah, it was posted a few years back; I believe through some Boston Pops archive site initially. At that time, I remember commenting on how 'stern' JW was in this.

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17 hours ago, crumbs said:

 

What's the story behind this one? 

 

Short story: Early days of Pops for JW, rowdy musicians chatting away (leftover attitude from Fiedler days), JW gets annoyed, leaves the venue and vows to quit, thankfully returns. Exact details of event are fussy.

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Back in 1984 there wasn't anything fussy about the details. The clarinet player was even interviewed and provided quite a lot of details and his opinion on Williams' actions (which, by the way, wasn't a nice opinion).

Nevertheless, when Williams was asked after about it, after his return, he never got into much detail.

 

As it was, the final drop was when some of the musicians were disrespectful during rehearsal of Williams' own "America The Dream Goes On" (apparently, not everyone identified with the overtly patriotic tone of the piece). This wasn't a new situation and there is footage of Williams addressing the orchestra with an harsher tone from around the same time, while rehearsing "Varsity Drag". As mentioned above, musicians usually talked during rehearsals, as many felt the Pops were bellow their level or artistry. Doing that during a Williams own piece, probably led him to leaving the hall and presenting his resignation.

Of interest, nevertheless, is that the resignation would only go into effect in the 86 season, as Williams vowed to keep his scheduled assignments for the Centennial Pops season of 1985.

BSO management and Williams eventually found a solution (using the Boston Pops Esplanade Orchestra more often) and Williams returned shortly after withdrawing his resignation.

In 1993, in an interview, Williams referred to all that as Union like issues, hardly going into any real detail.

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7 hours ago, Thor said:

 

Short story: Early days of Pops for JW, rowdy musicians chatting away (leftover attitude from Fiedler days), JW gets annoyed, leaves the venue and wows to quit, thankfully returns. Exact details of event are fussy.

 

I think it should also be mentioned that the Pops had a tradition of pranks (e.g. throwing paper airplanes, live lobsters under chairs, etc.) that did not go over well with Williams.

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3 hours ago, Miguel Andrade said:

Back in 1984 there wasn't anything fussy about the details. The clarinet player was even interviewed and provided quite a lot of details and his opinion on Williams' actions (which, by the way, wasn't a nice opinion).

 

Interesting! Do you have access to this interview?

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32 minutes ago, Borodin said:

I wish JW was a music talk show host, so that we could watch him but, he wouldn't have to answer questions. Interesting to see how he'd instigate the flow of discussion.

Like that interview he did with Julie Andrews and Blake Edwards about Henry Mancini? Yeah, I'd watch that show. 

 

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