48 replies to this topic

[Tom]

anyone listening live. very nice opening with brian williams.

[E.T. & Elliott]

Apparently, we all forgot about this.

[Tom]

the third movement of the oboe concerto on now--excellent stuff.

I realize that I am writing to myself, so this will be the last. They are now doing the fifth movment of the horn concerto (awesome), and then the last movement of the tuba concerto. what a fanastic lineup.

[KingPin]

The tuba concerto movement was a little disappointing. It lacked gusto in my opinion.

"Ladies and gentleman, Steven Spielberg."

[Miguel Andrade]

This was a wonderful concert, with no less two US Presidents paying tribute to Williams, alongside with his peers from both the music and film worlds.
And the performances were just breathtaking.

[indy4]

Is there anyway to watch this? Also, which presidents were there?

[king mark]

where are you guys watching this...Tanglewood?

[Foxfan]

I was there. We knew Lockhart and Slatkin were to have the primary role, but thought JW might have conducted one or two encores. It turns out there were none (unless you count a James Taylor song before the Happy Birthday Variations listed in the program.

[indy4]

Oh my god I would so love to hear what Obama and Bill Clinton had to say about the maestro.

[Miguel Andrade]

Obama and Clinton were pre-recorded. Very nice words from both, mainly Clinton.
The most amusing tribute must have been the opening one by Brian Williams.
The James Taylor song was the same he did a couple of years ago on Tanglewood on Parade, when they celebrated the 30th anniversary of Williams with the orchestra. It didn't fit the program then, and it fits even less now.

[Thor]

Damn, wish I'd seen this somewhere. Links to wherever it is streaming would have been nice. Or is it only for the exclusive few?

[Tom]

Sorry I did not post a link. For future reference, most Tanglewood concerts and regular BSO concerts are streamed live or aired a few days after at http://www.wgbh.org/995/bso.cfm. I have not checked, but I would not be surprised if they link this concert broadcast for subsequent listening.

[E.T. & Elliott]

I'm sure it was a nice concert and I did want to go prior to tickets selling out. However, Williams himself did not conduct anything. I understand it was a special occasion, but it still feels kind of awful, doesn't it? Him sitting there while others conduct his work? I can't help but be disappointed that there was no genuine Film Night at Tanglewood this year.

[Miguel Andrade]

(...) but it still feels kind of awful, doesn't it? (...)

No it doesn't.

[king mark]

Well, I hope someone recorded the stream. I really want to hear the Oboe concerto in better sound (the orchestra version)

[Incanus]

Well, I hope someone recorded the stream. I really want to hear the Oboe concerto in better sound (the orchestra version)

So would I but for the record the oboe and piano reduction is wonderful creation of its own right, where the solo instrument really gets to shine.

[Miguel Andrade]

The oboe shines quite a lot on the orchestral version as well, trust me
And KM, they only played the final movement on the concert, sadly not the full concerto.

[SF1_freeze]

Anyone has a link to the program of the concert?

[Miguel Andrade]

http://www.bso.org/P...e/Detail/37052/

[Maurizio]

Here's an article about the event:

http://www.berkshire...0|cat:0|order:6

[Pasi Tiitinen]

Oh, I was almost moved while reading all those greetings from Seiji, Bill etc.

I'm getting old.

[Miguel Andrade]

Here's an article about the event:

http://www.berkshire...0|cat:0|order:6

The one from the New York Times is lovely... not!
http://www.nytimes.c...=rssnyt&emc=rss
I wonder if at least the critic could come up with some new ways to trash Williams work, because this are always the same...
Also, if Williams is such a poor contribution to the art of music making, I wonder why this idiots who write reviews even bother to attend the concerts... Oh wait, I know, they are just jealous idiots!

[indy4]

It's incredibly condescending and uninformed, for sure, but at least he praised the music as written for film.

[Miguel Andrade]

And used on film... the way I read it, he seems to think that away from the images, this pieces won't work as fine.

[Incanus]

It is the same begrudging acknowledgement the critics have given Williams for ages, meaning that popular and loved by countless people is obviously chaff for the mindless masses while critic elite yearns for something more and obviously better. But let them have their one performance concert works.

I was truly moved by the warmth and appreciation on display at Tanglewood for the Maestro present in some of the articles and in the video on the JWFan main page.

[indy4]

And used on film... the way I read it, he seems to think that away from the images, this pieces won't work as fine.

Oh yeah and as I said he's definitely uninformed and, IMO, plain wrong. But at least it wasn't 100% criticism.

Anyways just watched the video on the main page...that is so awesome to hear Obama talking about JW like that!

[Foxfan]

The three pieces he makes reference to were never supposed to be accompanied by a film montage. They were concert arrangements.

Based on this critic's logic Stravinsky's works should never get performed in a concert setting as the music is always meant to accompany choreographed ballet dancers.

[indy4]

It think the comparison between Home Alone and HP demonstrates a very superficial understanding of music. I mean, yes there are similarities between the two works (as there are between pretty much any two JW works--it's called style), but the specific mentioning of Hedwig's Theme and Home Alone sounds suspiciously like the reviewer heard a celeste and passed judgment.

[Tom]

Regarding the Tanglewood on parade concert on the main page, what do you guys think of the concert arrangemnt of the Sea Battle from Tintin? It is played a bit slow, but there are some nice unexpected flute passages and I thought the ending was nice.

[Michael]

The Sea Battle sounded quite good! There were some mistakes by the solo horn near the beggining and in a moment the orchestra seems to have lost the tempo, but all in all I was pleasently surprised.

The opening included some stuff from The Secret of the Scrolls and it had a great closing. Sounded better than The Duel, actually! And some of the re-orchestrations sounded fantastic, especially that new celesta stuff... Also, to hear a more acoustic version of it was quite nice too.

Someone upload it to YouTube!

[indy4]

Thanks for the heads up about the Tintin material. I really like the new arrangement. There are a lot of reasons of love it - trombones are way better, especially during those glisses. The strings were really sloppy. I don't know what Williams was doing with the tempo, it started out really slow (I assume because the BSO couldn't play it fast enough on a first read) and it would speed up randomly, especially during the brass variatons of the Unicorn's theme. Weird.

Also it looks as though Williams added a boom-tzzz to "The Adventure Continues."

[lostinspace]

Great concert but Spielberg annoys me..... "our nations greatest composer"?? He is so over the top and no doubt Williams feels uncomfortable with that title. When you pay tribute to someone why can't he be be more diplomatic. Maybe it's just the British in me coming out but it just feels very tacky and cliche..... Obamas speech was great, not gushy.....

I'm just glad he didn't quote that Schindlers list better composer than I am joke.....No disrespect for JW or Spielberg but Zimmer is a better communicator (Verbally i mean!)

my 2c.

[indy4]

I personally agree with Spielberg...although I also think JW is the greatest artist in the history of earth, period.

But I don't see any problem with Spielberg saying something like that. And at the risk of sounding uninformed, are there that many famous American composers? Aaron Copland, Leonard Bernstein, George Gershwin, John Philip Sousa, Philip Glass, and Samuel Barber are the only other giants that come to mind (plus all the film composers, but I don't think anybody would be annoyed by a statement claiming JW is the best American film composer).

[Miguel Andrade]

I personally agree with Spielberg...although I also think JW is the greatest artist in the history of earth, period.

But I don't see any problem with Spielberg saying something like that. And at the risk of sounding uninformed, are there that many famous American composers? Aaron Copland, Leonard Bernstein, George Gershwin, John Philip Sousa, Philip Glass, and Samuel Barber are the only other giants that come to mind (plus all the film composers, but I don't think anybody would be annoyed by a statement claiming JW is the best American film composer).

John Adams... who is said to be the most often performed american living composer today... (I know I read that somewhere, just don't recall where)

And while I kind of agree with Spielberg on the assumption we have similar taste, there comes a point where one should't say things like that, but rather, one of the finest. Not be so over the top, as mentioned above. Williams belongs to that group of living composers that will be remembered long after they die, a group on where I can't say who's the best, where I just can say who's my favorite.

[Luke Skywalker]

In the related interview here (from the main page) http://www.ft.com/cm...l#axzz23vG8e6Rd

there is some interesting infor about williams, different from the usual things he says (or is asked about).

Very nice to read. I love his quotation of his wife hehe

[KK.]

I watched the clips and stuff on the main page. Looked like a fascinating event and I liked Obama's message. I'd like to see the whole recording of this.

[Michael]

(My own recording from the Tanglewood site)

[lostinspace]

I personally agree with Spielberg...although I also think JW is the greatest artist in the history of earth, period.

But I don't see any problem with Spielberg saying something like that. And at the risk of sounding uninformed, are there that many famous American composers? Aaron Copland, Leonard Bernstein, George Gershwin, John Philip Sousa, Philip Glass, and Samuel Barber are the only other giants that come to mind (plus all the film composers, but I don't think anybody would be annoyed by a statement claiming JW is the best American film composer).

John Adams... who is said to be the most often performed american living composer today... (I know I read that somewhere, just don't recall where)

And while I kind of agree with Spielberg on the assumption we have similar taste, there comes a point where one should't say things like that, but rather, one of the finest. Not be so over the top, as mentioned above. Williams belongs to that group of living composers that will be remembered long after they die, a group on where I can't say who's the best, where I just can say who's my favorite.

Well put. That is absolutely correct. The truth is there are many "famous" American composers whose work is played all around the world - Bernstein Copland Gershwin Sousa.
John Williams is up there but hell, what about Jerry Goldsmith, Alan Menken, Elmer Bernstein, Herrmann, Morricone etc etc then you can go all the way back to Korngold Steiner etc.

If you think JW is the best you are seriously deluded. However he is one of the greatest composers for film America has produced.

[indy4]

Okay yeah, I guess I meant JW is my favorite artist of all time. Also Morricone, Steiner and Korngold are not from America

[king mark]

I agree with Spielberg, I can't really think of any American composer who's better

It does sound a bit geeky though