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If he's too comfortable being called a genius, he's vain, and if he's too resistant to it, he's insecure. Everybody thinks he's lovely so I can't imagine him riding that line better than he already has.

Adrian Sutton's new Violin Concerto is beautiful and brimming with energy:

After seeing the very positive Filmtracks review, I decided to give a listen to Kris Bowers' The Wild Robot (I hadn't even heard of the score previously). It's quite an impressive piece of work. I'm not sure I'd go quite as far as Filmtracks (which calls this one of the best modern animation scores); I don't think Bowers quite reaches the heights of, say, John Powell. But it's really good -- kind of a blend of Powell and Thomas Newman in terms of the style. This cue is super fun:

I liked it, and found it moving. I interpreted the lyrics not to be about a farewell romance, but about someone trying to keep believing after their loved one has been taken away by the Nazis to the camps. The reference to Anne Frank reinforces this. I'm sure Williams and Spielberg would not have allowed this if they felt the song and video would be in bad taste - assuming permission was granted in the first place.

'Mass Effect’ TV Series in the Works at Amazon From ‘Fast & Furious 9’ Writer (EXCLUSIVE) https://variety.com/2024/tv/news/mass-effect-tv-series-amazon-writer-marvel-1236203755/ I really don't like this. I absolutely LOVE the Mass Effects games, playing the whole trilogy from start to finish was one of my favorite gaming experiences of all time. But despite the amazing characters and rich and detailed lore, I really don't think this should be adapted. And not just because they went with the guy that wrote one of these horrible Fast & Furious movies. In the games you get to have many choices. From what gender your character is, who are going to be your romantic partners, which species you save, which you let die. You can choose to be nice or a douchebag. And in the end you choose how to save the galaxy. And of course you can't replicate that with a TV series. Unless they do something like that Bandersnatch movie but for three whole seasons instead of just a movie.

I really hope that film reunites Nolan and Zimmer again, though I’m very sceptical. It will probably be Göransson again.

I forgot about that! His giddiness was sweet, and he was in high spirits about getting to see JW at the Oscars last year and how much he loved that he had his own theme. Such a great moment.

I now have a reason to be watch them. So well deserved!

Callbacks are quite literally like leitmotives, so I'm fine with the idea of it. But obviously one can go too far with it. I think a good way to look at it would be: if I strung all these films together, treating them rigorously as one really long movie from start to finish, would these callbacks make sense? One of the advantages that The War of the Rohirrim has in this regard is its animated. So even looking at it from the standpoint of a Lord of the Rings neophyte, seeing the Watcher in animation won't necessarily "spoil" seeing it later in live-action because there's still the whole excitement of seeing "what it's like in live-action!" Also, if we think of it rigorously as a "chronological" viewing experience, by the next time you get to the watcher, it will have been a looong time since you will have seen it in the little horsie doodle movie...

Are you sure he wouldn't have? The classical music world is still filled with egomaniacs, and some of them maybe wouldn't have gotten as far as they have otherwise (which isn't a justification for being like that, but maybe a reason why they've been allowed to be like that), and there are well known examples of this from Hollywood as well. But Williams is proof that you can get as far as that while still being - and remaining - a decent person.

We watched the movie last weekend and.... I LOVED IT! Almost right away I was really into it, and never lost that feeling throughout. I thought it was so cool how Williams narrates a large part of it himself basically, by Laurent asking him the right questions to get him to answer in a way that it could basically function as narration. All the stuff about his childhood, family, first marriage, etc was so much better being told by him than someone else doing it! I liked when they would put up movie posters for scores they were covering that they didn't have time to go fully into, and that some scores they didn't get into snuck in elsewhere ( like 1941 for his Air Force days or Hook for the end credits). I really just thought the whole thing was really enjoyable, and affecting. I was most affected by Ke Huy Quan's segment. What a wonderful comeback story he's had, and how sweet was it when he talked about people coming up to him asking him about his Williams' theme and how saying how cool that was. I loved it! Sure, it was very fast paced at times and I would have LOVED a longer version (the sudden death of his first wive is not given a lot of time and his second wife is never heard from!). Maybe Disney will grant an extended cut or a multi-part series extended version! I'd watch it! I hope this comes to physical media too.

Nice, congratulations! He has done so much amazing work and deserves a lot more recognition that this, bug good to see his work recognized.

For all the fantastic things he did, this release is what he's going to be nominated for? Oh well. Congratulations!

Huh, I was assuming it is the same one. It still faces the callback issue whether it is or it isn’t. But whatever. I’m here for the nostalgia. But I hope the Hunt for Gollum is a little bit more restrained (although callbacks are going to feel more natural in that one anyway)

I mean, I'm assuming its a Watcher, not THE Watcher. which is not to say it isn't risking being one callback too many but we'll see.

If you are a diehard then the Extended Edition is the way to go. If you’re a casual then is Theatrical. I always watch the EEs. But the TE were the ones that won 17 Oscars. People seem to forget that.

They only really hint at it really. It could go either way. But I imagine if Ian is in it and they are going to reveal it it would be much closer to the release of the film. Yeah it seems the Watcher is able to travel up and down the Anduin. It’s funny, PJ fought so hard to get it in Fellowship and had to film it in his own time and here it is all these years later making a return!

Quality post, @Jay!

I don't think it's false modesty, I honestly just think it's in his personality to be a hard worker. The kind of person to put everything he's got into his work and once it's done, move on and not take it all too seriously after the fact. I totally believe him when he says that he's never entirely satisfied. I'm sure he's confident in his skills as a composer, of course, but I also think he's being honest when he says he could still do better. That's probably part of why he's never going to retire, he simply wants to keep perfecting his craft. Or maybe he's just conning us all, who knows!

I believe Williams has always been collected and thoughtful enough to ask himself why would he ever let ego speak in interviews. There wasn't much career utility to that in the profession of a film composer. This is the same well-honed reason why Hans Zimmer is so modest and likeable in public interviews. I would not be surprised if it was precisely this balanced and down-to-earth character which made Barbara Ruick settle for Williams, and not some other pianist in sunglasses. @Loert, if I understand correctly, as a composer, if you wrote the sort of music Williams did, you would probably express yourself about it differently. Believe me, so would Williams's more "Old World intelligentsia"-minded colleagues, like Previn or Herrmann. So would classical music critics and columnists. And so would I. There is a cognitive dissonance about the extent to which one needs to play a pretend game so as not to threaten other people's egos. Counterintuitively to the folklore about accomplished artists and a craftsmen, less-than-perfect diplomacy is an important part of why most skilled artists, even if, on the technical front, they do catch some of the same creative fire in their own torches, fail to become papal figures like Williams. I, too, often wish for an alternative reality, where Williams would have changed gears at some mature point in his career and faced the world guns-blazing, committing his technical acumen and sharp intellect to coursebooks and lectures; to becoming an outspoken fighter for the causes that align with his work. His modesty has certainly played a big part in keeping him away from such adventures. But as the missed opportunities can and are filled by excellent educators, and concert music can be and is written by others... I think I am at peace with what he, in the end, was or wasn't willing to do.

Discogs. The disc has scratches as disclosed by the seller, who said it ripped with EAC with zero errors. I haven’t QC’d it yet myself though. Hopefully it’s good.

Apple TV is killing it. We gotta resubscribe soon to catch the second seasons of The Afterparty, Shrinking, and Severance - and probably check out shows we haven't seen yet like Silo, Masters of the Air, Adventures of Dick Turpin, Bad Monkey, Palm Royale, The New Look, Constellation, Disclaimer...

The track called "The Lost World" on the Lost World OST or LLL edition(s) is indeed a concert arrangement of the theme, though technically its both that and what he wrote for the end credits. After recording it, he updated the opening of it THREE more times, so there's a total of FOUR versions! The first revised opening happened almost right away, while they were still recording cues for the film, so it was recorded then. It was put into the end credits of the film itself, and also opens the track "The Lost World (Alternate)" on the LLL edition(s). The next revised opening also happened only a short time later. It is what got published as the official "The Lost World" track that can be played by orchestras, and Williams himself debuted it in concert in London in 1998. This version is what Erich Kunzel used for his recording: Some years later, Williams revised the opening again. This 4th opening can be heard in the FSO recording: I would assume this is the opening you heard at your concert; I haven't heard of a fifth opening existing, at least! ~ The track called "A Window To The Past" on the Azkaban OST album is actually an assembly of various different recordings from the Azkaban film scoring sessions. It's this, specifically: 0:00-1:04 (1:04) = (unknown number and name) - A unique recorder solo, potentially recorded specifically for the album 1:04-2:28 (1:24) = 7M12 End Credits - just a portion of the full cue (which can be heard in its entirely in the OST track "Mischief Managed") 2:28-3:26 (0:58) = 4M3-4NN Woods Walk and Birds Flight - just a portion of the full cue (which can be heard in the LLL track "A Walk in the Woods and Bird’s Flight") 3:26-end (0:32) = 7M2 Insert - this is the Insert on its own (you can hear it integrated into the 7M2 cue as intended in the LLL track "Lupin’s Transformation") Williams did eventually compose a proper concert arrangement of this theme, but it wasn't recorded at the Azkaban scoring sessions so probably only came about later when prepping the Azkaban suite for concerts. This arrangement has been recorded by the City of Prague orchestra, and probably others. I'd assume that arrangement is what you heard at your concert. ~ Incidentally, Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull went through the same exact thing as both of these scores. The track "Irina's Theme" on the soundtrack album is actually just bits of 3 cues edited together. 0:00-0:41 is from 1M4NR Irina Spalko 0:41-2:00 is from 7M56 End Credit 2:00-end is from 3M28 Russians Reappear He later wrote out a proper arrangement of her theme, also titled "Irina's Theme", and debuted it live in concert that summer. Luckily, that finally got a good recording only this year ~ Also incidentally, this process of making a de facto concert arrangement by editing bits of film cues together is something Williams' has done for most of his career. For Superman, for example, the track titled "Theme From Superman (Main Title)" on the OST album is actually bits of 3 film cues edited together 0:00-0:25 is from New 1M1 Main Title Part 1 0:25-4:13 is from End Title 4:13-end is from New 1M1 Pt 2 Main Title Pt. 2 This edit was so popular it was immediately written down and published as "Theme From Superman" to be played in concerts, and Williams himself recorded it in 1980 with the Boston Pops for his first Philips/Pops album And of course the year prior, the track "Main Title" on the Star Wars album is really the main title cue combined with the end credits, and that combo was immediately recreated on paper and performed in concerts that way too...