TJH132

Or worse, "engineer a prompt."

Just saw this on Slipped Disc: https://slippedisc.com/2026/04/mirga-makes-berlin-phil-debut-with-weinberg-and-williams/

I've given the concert a couple listens recently and really enjoy the performances. TreeSong, in particular, has always intrigued me and this is the best representation by far. I still can't figure out why it was never designated as a Violin Concerto since it clearly follows the format and is one in all but name. The second movement is my favorite, mostly because of the more expanded dynamics, but the outer movements have some incredibly suble orchestration that is breathtaking! For me, the abridged CLOSE ENCOUTERS suite never does the score justice. I feel like it rushes too quickly to the tonal finale instead of earning its way through all the atonality and chromaticism. It was a short concert, for goodness sake, just play the extra five minutes!

Dirk Brosse conducted the London Symphony Orchestra in a program of Doyle music in 2007. The concert was in benefit of Leukemia Research, a charity close to Doyle's heart. The show itself was "directed" by Kenneth Branagh and a featured a veritable who's who of British stage and screen actors, especially those who worked with Doyle. My wife and I traveled from Oregon just for the show. At the time, cell-phone cameras were pretty much useless and we had taken seriously Albert Hall's no photography mandate, so we didn't bother bringing our gigantic Canon Digital Rebel (my first DSLR) to the show. Of course, plenty of people around us were taking pictures and I later scoured the internet looking for some shots of the evening. I even found a couple with me and my wife!

When I saw Doyle in London in 2007, he had two movements of a violin concerto based on the score to AS YOU LIKE IT. I thought it was lovely and just needed to be completed for a future recording! That London show is still the best single concert I've ever attended! TJH

My wife and I just spent the last two weeks leisurely working our way through the films in 4k. I have to say, as someone who's never read the books, they are mostly made for people who HAVE read the books. If it weren't for my wife's encyclopedic knowledge of the wizarding world, I would be pretty lost. I did notice the final two cues (excluding credits) of Desplat's "Part 2" were by other composers (Hooper and Williams). What happened there?

I missed it this year, but while visiting a local record store this week, I saw one copy of CHAMBER OF SECRETS left behind. I was amused to see a misprint on the cover of the album. "Music Adapted and Conducted by John Williams"

That's funny you should bring up FRANKENSTEIN. While the two pieces you link to are masterful, this was the score where I feel like it was Doyle at his loudest and bombastic worst. I should say, in the earliest days of my soundtrack collecting (circa 1989), I only had eyes for John Williams scores on CD. When I decided to branch out a bit more, I bought some Herrmann. CDs were expensive for a high schooler with a part time job and I had to choose wisely. Doyle's score for DEAD AGAIN was the first soundtrack from a composer other than Williams or Herrmann that joined my collection! I've been a fan ever since.

My wife follows Doyle on Instagram and he's been posting from L.A. all week. Playing piano in a recording studio... touring JoAnn Kane Music... He's also been coy about his reasons for being in L.A. (or posting so much on Instagram, for that matter). I'm always game to listen to a new Patrick Doyle score!

Just finished a Patrick Swayze restropective of sorts and am wondering who did the lush arrangement of Alex North's "Unchained Melody" for the climactic scene in the movie GHOST. I always thought it was a little sad that the hired composer (Maurice Jarre) wasn't given the opportunity to score such a lovely scene, and it would have been salt in the wound had he been the one to have to orchestrate the version used in the film. I don't have the soundtrack, so forgive me if this information is in the notes.

Yes, I went down that particular rabbit hole... I procured a supported blu-ray player, bought an aging MacMini and read thousands of posts until I was able to get my first SACD to rip properly. And it seems to work just fine! Files are saved as .dsf which I convert (losslessly) to .FLAC for storage on my server. I mostly went through all this trouble to get to the multichannel programs on certain SACDs I've taken advantage of the new-ish Vocalion re-releases of the Charles Gerhardt discs to get hi-res and multichannel rips of some of the best film music collections ever released!

JW did get a shout out from a winner. Better than nothing.

I gave the new performance a listen and it's definitely a sonic improvement over the old recording. The orchestra and soloist perform admirably for the first two movements, but seem to struggle with the proper tempo on the third. Some of the extra eight minutes must come from the much slower tempo.

Nope, that wasn't the one. Like I said, I'm not sure how old the article is because Google will frequently serve up old stuff as new. Well... I did try that on my laptop (Chrome being synched and all) but it didn't show up. Of course, I found it on my phone once I turned it back on. Thanks for the (obvious) tip! Here's the article: https://jarijuhanikallio.wordpress.com/2023/09/07/in-the-manner-of-genuine-classic-john-williamss-violin-concerto-no-2-with-anne-sophie-mutter-the-bso-and-andris-nelsons-at-elbphilharmonie/

My Google news feed serves up all sorts of stories. Last night during a break in TV, I scrolled through and saw one about Williams' Violin Concerto No. 2. I clicked on it and read the first few sentences. It seemed like a good read, but I put my phone down and went back to watching TV. Of course, I shut the phone off at the end of the night and now I can't find the article ANYWHERE! It's like Google doesn't want me to read it. I don't know how recent the story was, but I think it indicated Andris Nelsons and Mutter had given the German premiere of the piece, if that narrows it down. The review seemed very complementary, as far as I got. Does anyone know the article I'm talking about?