lairdo

In the team figure skating event, Italy's Lara Naki Gutmann's program began with parts of the Jaws score. The announcers commented on it (although missed the significance of today being the composer's birthday or even what his name is). But it was nice to hear the music in any case. (Commentator Tara Lipinski said that the performance had some "bite" to it.)

Wow, so amazing to see JW made it all the way to Boston for the concert! I didn't see this bit about the concert in the thread above (sorry if I missed it). WCRB will have a broadcast tonight (Saturday): https://www.classicalwcrb.org/show/the-boston-symphony-orchestra/2026-01-24/the-bso-celebrates-john-williams-with-emanuel-ax-and-gil-shaham 8 PM EST My wife are attending the Trumpet Concerto with the LA Phil in March, so I feel good that he will be at that too.

I'm currently reading the Swafford Brahms bio and really enjoying it. I try to listen to the pieces mentioned in the book. (I bought a "complete Brahms" CD set.) Highly recommended. Like mentioned above, Ives is on my list too. (For a different author on Beethoven, I recommend Maynard Solomon's bio which is not overly technical.) I'm also now listening to A Composer's Life on audible. Interesting to go through it a second time. Different things are hitting me from the first reading. Since I listen mostly while running, I often pause the book to jump into my library to listen to the music being discussed (if it is available). So, that's a nice way to experience the history with some musical context. (Just got past Barbara's death which was as tough to listen to as it was to read.) White Goddess - that has been on my radar because it was an influence for Peter Bogdanovich after his girlfriend was murdered. I have tried some of the Graves stuff but it is tough. So, not sure when I will tackle this one. I did start the Mann Faustus book but paused on it for now. I have too many other fiction classics I am reading. (I'm pretty obsessed with Dante at the moment.)

I received a notice today from Amazon and Audible that the audiobook version of A Composer's Life has been delayed until early October. I am bummed because although I have already read the book, I was looking forward to a 2nd journey through via audio. @Maestro - Any reason you can share for the date change?

Just finished the Kindle version today which I have been reading for the past month. (I have been alternating with Dante's Diving Comedy - no message there. I've been trying to read the Divine Comedy for a year.) I have the hardback too but could not wait for it to arrive so double dipped. And I plan to listen to the audiobook when it drops. Congratulations @Maestro on an amazing enjoyable biography. So well written. Ioved the new words - I assumed you felt challenged by JW to use some more interesting words as you reference some discussion you had with him about some word you did not know. The piece definitely flowed, and I appreciated your take on the film scores, particularly those from the past 20 years, combining your analysis with quotations from the filmmakers and critics. I was definitely inspired to re-listen to scores based on your writing about them. Many interesting tidbits about JW's personal life, some works I had not heard of - particularly the Dove poetry work - and that some works were composed long before I knew. Thomas and The King for one. I recently read Maynard Solomon's Beethoven bio (suggested by Dr. Robert Greenberg in his Great Courses series), and I found that a very enjoyable and right level of detail read. This work seems the same to me with of course the benefit of having contemporaries and the subject himself with us to comment. I enjoy Dr. Greenberg's composer biographies too but they are not as comprehensive as this book. Towards the end of the book - I think this must be in the afterword - I found JW's comment about revealing his personal life and motivations interesting and telling. He worries this exposure could possibly take away from the love of his music. That was not said in an egoistic manner; it's clear from the entire book that JW keeps his ego inside him. (I found this in the 10-minute conversation I had with him at USC when the scoring stage was renamed for his 80th by Steven and George. He did not want to talk about the event but kept changing topics and then gave me career advice! (Which I followed!)) However, I can understand what JW means. There is no real ugliness in JW's life - not like Wagner for example or Beethoven's horrible treatment of sister-in-law and taking over his nephew from her after his brother died. There's no weirdness like with Brahms and Clara Schumann after Robert Schumann went mad. There's just life. Career vs. family. Career vs. other career options. Family changes that are easy and not so easy to live through. There is loss and pain. There is joy and bliss. And a person just striving to be better every day. Living life. Hoping. Dreaming. Caring. Creating magic. I am of two minds personally. Part of me feels like I have gotten a snapshot into someone's world without his knowing. I felt this a bit from the Disney+ documentary too. Is this right for someone to do? Of course, the fact that the biography became official deflects some guilt. (I cannot imagine your pain, @Maestro, in walking that tightrope. Bless you and your wife. And her chocolate chip cookies.) However, and I think this is a strong message of the book, I am uplifted and encouraged to push myself by learning about how JW has dealt with his various challenges. Just keep working and being the best at what one does; never give up. The fact that this inspiration comes with music is a real plus. Thank you, @Maestro.

I did. But after I ordered.

This might have been reported elsewhere, but I am guessing the 3CDs is because the 2nd CD - the OST - needs to be separate due to licensing. The total amount of music would fit on 2CDs. Don't get me wrong - I like the layout - score / OST / extras. Just noting an immediate observation. It's great to be getting the alternates and source music.

I've ordered too. And I agree, the booklet by Mike (which might be an edit of the previous one) is always welcome. I like both his and Jon Burlingame's writings.

Yes, it was a nice tribute to Lalo although I cannot say that arrangement of the theme was my favorite of the various suites that exist, at least from what I heard on Saturday. That was one where I think JW conducting it (and rehearsing it beforehand) would have made a big difference.

My wife, 4 friends of ours and I enjoyed the Saturday night concert. The weather was perfect, and we are fortunate to have a great box so our view was balanced nicely between seeing the stage, the large film screen and the side "live" screens. Overall, the energy was great across the entire line up. David Newman was chatty as he normally is but I think slightly more terse which was just about the right balance between the background information and anecdotes. He related that he played on the ET recordings (although questioned if he was allowed to share that) and then proceeded to call our attention to the harp solos in the 2nd piece. The video team correspondingly provided a lot of footage during that sequence. So that was a nice use of the microphone to call out some specifics. Similar to Keith Lockhart doing something similar at Tanglewood. A highlight for me was hearing live the new arrangement of Sayuri's Theme (see this post from the Berlin debut). There is a sequence of individual instruments sounding and then leading into the almost completely solo cello cadenza other than a small harp part near the end. The Bowl quieted to about as silent as it can get. David Newman stood frozen, his head slightly bowed, as Robert deMaine performed. It was really lovely. Different in that it does not finish with a bang or any strong closure chord. It reminded me of Elegy in terms of intensity. The Superman John Williams film montage is always enjoyable - I feel like this was a slightly updated edit but could be wrong on that. Dear Basketball was fine (although I have seen it enough to be ok to not see it for a while). The Raiders suite was good although at times I felt the brass was a bit "off." Most uncomfortable was the microphone placement or mixing on the woodwinds for Far and Away which was felt almost screeching, at least from our seats. I did not hear any issues with other pieces, so maybe someone adjusted something or it was just the specific range of flutes, oboes, etc in that one suite. Indeed, we did get treated to the two encores noted previously - Yoda's Theme and The Imperial March. David Newman returned for one his many bows with his own lightsaber, matching the hundred waving in the crowd. In all, a great night of divine music under the heavenly stars.

Fixed. Thanks. I forgot about the forthcoming LP.

I ordered mine from Presto in the UK, and the set arrived weeks ago. The set is nicely produced. Mike Matessino has said many times that part of his work on the expanded scores has been to hand back definitive masters at high resolution to the publishers for them to use for their ongoing non-expanded releases. Based on the booklet notes, it seems that these were used for the Sony package. I was less sure, despite the credits, on some of the earlier scores, but certainly they have been used on later ones. Mike and others active in the groups are listed in the credits as part of the curating team (and Mike again on albums he has remastered over the years). For us regulars in this forum, there is really nothing new here. Of course, as an obsessive, that was not going stop my purchase. And in fact I have actually listened to most of it already. It's a nice companion to reading A Composer's Life (although now I am beyond 1990 in TG's book and hence past the music in the set). Sugarland Express is probably the only release that is not easily found by the average consumer (and is also out of stock at La-La Land). The box is sturdy and the over 100-pages booklet is a nice Cliff Notes of the liner notes from the expanded scores. Orchestra information, mastering (and remastering) and recording dates/locations are included as well. I would say the cost is high per disc for a box set compilation, and the doubling up of scores is probably the biggest flaw since then the original artwork is reduced to two smaller images against a greenish background. As has been reported, the doubles are Reivers/Images, Earthquake/Towering Inferno, Jaws/Jaws 2, Sugarland/1941, Dracula/Monsignor and Born on the 4th of July/Always. Keeping score separate, the set would have been 6 more discs which is probably about $5 in costs of goods. The box itself has cardboard buffers around the CDs, so the outer box would not have had to change. And while the doubling up is an efficient use of disc space to get 75+ mins per disc, most discs are under 60 mins each. The only combination that actually makes sense is Jaws and Jaws 2. This is a a small issue, and one can adjust such things in digitizing the set if desired. Overall, for non-John Williams collectors, this is a great compilation of music of up to 1990. I am not quite sure though at this price point that a lot of folks are looking for 24 hours of music vs. being very happy with either the Berlin and Vienna concerts or even a few of the older Boston Pops recordings that would give an overview of JW's work. Even things like the Silva Screen collections might scratch this itch. And course all of those albums are on streaming platforms. Hopefully all 3 sets sell and maybe even get folks to seek out the more complete releases. We'll see.

I'll be at the Bowl concert tonight. Looking forward to it, but sorry to read about David Newman's loss. Not surprised he is still conducting - I imagine that he finds JW's music soothing and he has known JW since he was born.

Loved it on first listen. Just got better and better. So happy to hear JW is there. Is he in the wheelchair? I suspect this will get recorded in the January BSO concert along with the other JW pieces. So we may have to wait until next year for a recording. Great piece. Such energy.

I attended the opening ceremonies in 1984, and it was such a thrill with John Williams came out to conduct the fanfare. I know that was at the height of his biggest films + the Boston Pops, but the audience was totally into it. I know it is very, very unlikely that even if he wrote a new piece that he would also conduct it in July 2028. But you never know. I do feel Casey Wasserman LA28 chair, grandson of film mogul Lew Wasserman, will be aware of the connection to Williams given the number of pictures JW scored for Lew at Universal.