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Tanglewood Film Night Aug 22, 2015 [UPDATE: Williams cancels appearance]


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I'm a bit worried about the Philly concert now, but it's hard for me to complain since I've seen him 5 times in 4 different cities.

There may be a bit more pressure on him to do that concert since it's a benefit concert that's been built into the season as part of the subscription, and they have had a couple of other tribute concerts for him that month (violin and cello concertos). They're really selling him as part of the season in the advertisements.

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Wirh a chronic back injury, he could sneeze and end up bed ridden for a week.

And it's not just the rigor of his performances, it's all the time spent on the podium at practice, too. A 90 minute concert may have 15-20 hours of practice leading up to it.

As for the "hard-living" composers who didn't see 80-- my father was an Olympic calober athlete in his youth and didn't smoke or drink the last 35+ years of his life, but only lived a year longer than his brother who smoked and drank to excess all of his live and even had to deal with cancer.

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Apart from Morricone and Williams, are there any other (well known) composers over 80 who are still working? I remember going to a film music concert by the LSO and it was conducted by Harry Rabinowitz who was 93 at the time.

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Wirh a chronic back injury, he could sneeze and end up bed ridden for a week.

And it's not just the rigor of his performances, it's all the time spent on the podium at practice, too. A 90 minute concert may have 15-20 hours of practice leading up to it.

As for the "hard-living" composers who didn't see 80-- my father was an Olympic calober athlete in his youth and didn't smoke or drink the last 35+ years of his life, but only lived a year longer than his brother who smoked and drank to excess all of his live and even had to deal with cancer.

Yep life is random that way. Just look at Keith Richards!
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9E02F24A-35D3-45AB-A5BA-62D1558E7249_zps

You could be in this.

Well, now he is:

ha ha that's an excellent cameo of stiff from the little known and very underwhelming sequel, "the Good, the Bad, the ugly, and the very Ugly". Lol
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Invest 2000 euro in a trip to the US to see John Williams, then tell me that again!

nothing to add.... :( I still remember that feeling...

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Apart from Morricone and Williams, are there any other (well known) composers over 80 who are still working? I remember going to a film music concert by the LSO and it was conducted by Harry Rabinowitz who was 93 at the time.

Wikipedia lists works by Mikis Theodorakis until at least 2010, when he was 85. Don't know if he's still active now though.

Famous German conductor Günter Wand conducted his last concerts in 2001 at the age of 89 (he died in February 002).

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Is anyone hoping to go and can't find a ticket? I might send you mine as I'm already going to Tanglewood next weekend and have no intention of going a second time unless the program is absolutely spectacular with a James Horner tribute of "Cocoon" and "Courage Under Fire", and lesser-known Williams stuff. If not I'll turn it in at the box office next weekend for a refund and/or BSO gift card.

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Back problems are no fun but it could be worse.

You have to understand that according to some members here, these back issues means he will die next week. Also, the world is coming to an end and the pink stars are falling and one could just as well shoot oneself in misery.

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Sounds depressing? Lighten up Thor. It's summer!

Well, I was referring to your (and others) posts here. As I said earlier, JWFAN is probably the only place in the world I come off as an optimist, LOL.

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Richard should have died in a motel bathroom choked on his own vomit with a needle in his arm about 40 years ago!

NOOOOO! If he'd done that, we wouldn't have had "Dirty Work". BTW, I assume you are talking about Keith Richards, and not me?

Why would we hope that?

I bought my ticket! I deserve John Williams!

Would you still go to Tanglewood if JW bails, or would you ask for a refund?

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Not surprised. He's still working on TFA in Los Angeles and as long as he's there he won't be coming to the east coast.

I felt really bad when he cancelled his May concerts, but in the end I'm glad I went. Richard Kaufman was a wonderful, energetic conductor and I ended up having a really great time in Boston.

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He did do the score for THE ACCIDENTAL TOURIST while he was out with back problems in 1988 (the only score he did that year), but that's a fairly simple affair compared to TFA. No wonder he has to cancel public appearances in favour of finishing this. I wonder if he's composing at home, lying in bed or an extremely comfortably chair or something. Probably is (or was, rather, since the recordings have started). And then leaving the rest to the Popes and Rosses of this world.

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I'm sure Williams knew what he was getting into when he signed on to score TFA (and presumably the following films). He did say the sessions may go into September. I think his back issues are the main reason for canceling all these public appearances rather than the work load TFA is requiring of him.

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  • 3 weeks later...

I was at the show, so I suppose I should write about it!

Here's scans of the program, courtesy of Stefancos!

EE90EB6B-0840-488F-807C-DEC67F34A21C_zps

A3DA90A7-1EA9-4F3C-A8BE-51C58575C37B_zps

FIRST HALF OF THE SHOW: CONDUCTOR DAVID NEWMAN

Silvestri, Suite from Forrest Gump

Waxman, Suite from Sunset Boulevard

Williams, Theme from Sabrina

Herrmann, The Wild Ride from North by Northwest

Rota, Selections from The Godfather

Giacchino, Opening Sequence from Star Trek Into Darkness

ENCORE: Shifrin, Theme from Mission: Impossible

Tanglewood has a series of screens set up so people on the lawn can see the musicians, since every show is filmed to be put on those screens. So it was no surprise to see them when we sat down, however it turns out they were mostly used to show film footage throughout the night rather than the musicians (which was fine for us because we had real seats and could see the stage anyway). The whole first half of the show ended up being a tribute to Paramount Pictures, and actually started with a montage of Paramount's logos throughout the years, set to a suite from Alan Silvestri's Forrest Gump. I surprisingly didn't even recognize the music; I didn't look at the booklet until after the show was over, haven't seen the film in almost 20 years, and never owned the OST CD! It was very nice music, though!

After that David Newman introduced himself and mentioned how many awards the various other Newmans have won (has he won none himself? He didn't mention any). He shared some nice stories about growing up in such a musical household, and seems he didn't really even get into film scoring much until after his father Alfred had passed. He then mentioned a bit about the next two pieces he would play: Music from Sunset Boulevard and Sabrina. I was not super familiar with either piece, but enjoyed them quite a bit.

Next came North By Northwest which was very fun! Newman introduced it by saying something like it was a spanish jig to open the film, which makes no sense but works brilliantly. I wish I remembered his exact words, or had recorded what he said. For The Godfather he mentioned how there was very little music in those films, but what there is is great - and he's write, it sounded really nice. It was set to a montage of scenes from all the films. His portion of the show ended with the entire opening of Star Trek Into Darkness, set to picture - complete with dialogue and sound effects. Now, Star Trek is a huge part of Paramount's lineage so of course it deserved a spot, but I was surprised it was this music and not, say "The Enterprise" by Jerry or something. Also, I had already seen the entire Star Trek Into Darkness film live to projection in Philadelphia last year, so it wasn't as amazing to me as it otherwise would have been, but its still cool because I like this music quite a bit, and its always nice to see The Enterprise up on the big screen!

After leaving the stage, he came back to do an encore; A concert arrangement of Lalo Schifrin's Mission: Impossible Theme. I am only used to the 1-minute versions that each film composer has put together for their entry, so it was very interesting to hear this much longer arrangement (it was probably 3-4 minutes). Its a great theme but I dunno if it should be stretched to such a long arrangement! I'm glad it was played though, another big Paramount franchise for sure!

to be continued......

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