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https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/movies/story/2025-11-11/hollywood-bowl-names-stage-for-john-williams-spielberg-lucas-composer

The event in question: https://www.juilliard.edu/event/182056/john-williams-composers-life-night-stories-and-music Currently streaming here: https://www.juilliard.edu/live Discuss that event (outside of this news) here. Full quote:

Tonight I am co-presenting a (frankly incredible) event at Juilliard alongside composer Nicholas Britell. We'll both be chatting about John and his history with Juilliard, among various other topics, but there will also be some unique arrangements and live performances by star students—as well as the star of John's piano concerto, Emanuel Ax, who is playing excerpts from its first two movements as well as the theme from "Sabrina"! (Ax told me how much he liked that theme, so I made this request.) And good news: it's being livestreamed here: https://www.juilliard.edu/live 6pm EST. More info here: https://www.juilliard.edu/event/182056/john-williams-composers-life-night-stories-and-music

Well, I can strike "attend a JW world premiere" off the bucket list. The thing with Strauss is: He had quite a bit in common with Williams, come to think of it. Both are/were supreme craftsmen, writing predominantly "for the masses" and thus remaining mostly in firmly accessible territory without much innovation, while always making good use of modern techniques. Also, both have been accused of always sounding the same - something we in the know generally reject in connection with Williams, but something that does rather apply to Strauss, I think. And that's the problem I have with a full concert of Strauss works: His highlights are fantastic, but the rest, while certainly highly competent, inevitably feels too much like samey padding. The Symphoniker and Honeck certainly played it well though. I could have done with the Sängerknaben though… I'm generally not a big fan of boys' choirs, and here (in the three pieces they participated in) they seemed rather irrelevant and acoustically problematic. I've never fully understood the history between the many different versions of Strauss's works (I adore the orchestral version of the Blue Danube Waltz, but I understand it was originally written for men's choir), but in this case all three pieces seem to have been adaptations made specifically for the Sängerknaben. The Max Richter… sounded more or less like what I expected, not knowing too much of his output. Not sure what any of it had to do with Strauss. The slow movement was *very* slow and *very* sparse, and considering its slowness surprisingly short. All three movements ended by just suddenly ending. The lady next to me seemed to be fighting a losing battle with sleep throughout the piece. Richter himself came out for applause. The Williams didn't seem to be anything too special (not that I really expected it to be), but still one of the meatier pieces of the concert (certainly compared to the Richter). Unlike the Richter, it was actually a waltz, for full orchestra and solo violin, with some virtuoso solo passages and a short cadenza, and no fake ending. Tonal, though from what I recall, it raised the key with each segment. It's mostly comparable to Williams's other "theme" arrangements for ASM, except that it seemed to lack a strong theme, which made it a bit unmemorable, I'm afraid. After another concert half full of Strauss pieces I don't remember much of it. There was a camera setup at the rear of the hall (at the front of the standing area), and a second, unmanned camera behind the orchestra, probably pointed towards the conductor (someone came to adjust it during the intermission). They also had slight spotlights on Honeck and ASM, so I guess there's a chance a video of it might show up at some point.

Oct 25: JW World Premiere (in Vienna!) Oct 26: JW World Premiere Oct 27: Announcement of a new JW Score (possibly recording within the week) Not sure that there has been a more eventful stretch of 3 days in the history of JW fandom.

Somehow, Oma Tres returned.

Now that the collection is about to go out of print after seven years (one might almost believe this timing was planned), I feel compelled to put the following on record - for myself and Muggle posterity. The release of this magnificent set has given me so many happy memories to look back on that it inspired hours of research and whittling down, but I thoroughly enjoyed every second of writing this article. Consider it a very small but heartfelt contribution to the history of expanded soundtrack releases. The build-up itself was noteworthy. It all started when La-La Land Records published their infamous ‘2018 is gonna be one for the books’ statement in February. As the year unfolded, I became increasingly annoyed when, month after month, nothing of interest to me came out. Saving Private Ryan was a highlight from that period. Then came the glorious London Symphony Orchestra concert at the Royal Albert Hall on 26 October. I was very disappointed and worried because of John Williams’ unexpected absence and health that evening, but the accidental giveaway in the programme left me speechless with excitement: "MIKE MATESSINO has produced and annotated expanded soundtracks of many John Williams scores, including (...) the composer’s three scores for the Harry Potter series.” That single sentence also made the fabulous performances sound even better: ‘Close Encounters of the Third Kind' and especially ‘Han Solo and the Princess' were life-changing musical experiences. ‘The People’s House', played during intermission, was equally touching, perhaps even more so because we were told that the Maestro was listening in hospital. It had been a very long time since I had experienced what it was like to be excited about something as a group as well. And need I still add how satisfying it was to listen to a few Prisoner of Azkaban OST tracks the next day? Now phase two was upon me: being part of the frantic speculation on JWFan. A few questions were keeping me awake: - Would this be a Black Friday release? - Would Mike Matessino have cross-faded cues? - Would Warner Bros. have interfered to please ordinary fans? - Would this be one huge set or three separate ones? - And, most importantly, would everything be complete? As Black Friday was steadily approaching, Art of the Score released the first of two podcast episodes dedicated to the Prisoner of Azkaban on 19 November. There are no words that can describe what I felt as I was listening to the renaissance music they played to illustrate just how good Williams’ medieval writing was. To prepare for the big day, I spent November listening to all 8 Harry Potter soundtracks, a bunch of albums with JW re-recordings, LLL’s Titanic set and the Fantastic Beasts 1 deluxe edition. Then, at long last, the time had come. I had to be up early on the morning of the 23th to let the cleaner in. She never asked why I half-shouted ‘Oh my God!’ for nearly an entire minute at 9:10. More online frenzy followed as I read, reread and savoured the press release and track list. Being a member of this forum had never been more fun either: I was thrilled to be able to contribute to the discussions on the music that had shaped such a big part of my childhood. Each conversation increased the feverish anticipation I had been feeling for weeks. When she returned from work, my mother told me she would be paying for the set along with the simultaneously announced Schindler’s List expansion. I also received strict orders not to play any more Potter music until the package had been opened, along with the nickname La-La Land. When she asked why the CDs I already had were not enough, I tried to give her the talk about why this was such a monumental release, or as Jay put it, why it was magic in a box, but she started opening bathroom drawers when I was explaining what the Children's Suite was. Never mind. I was the happiest person in the world. RTE Lyric FM eased the wait between the announcement of the box and its release date with a musical preview of the Sorcerer’s Stone, as the controversial cover art called it, the next day. Hearing Aedín Gormley speak about the set in that sweet, juicy Irish accent was such a treat, not to mention all the incredible details I heard in ‘Platform Nine and Three Quarters' thanks to the station’s dynamic range compression and/or Internet Explorer 8. As usual, Mike’s introduction to that cue and the vocal version of ‘Hogwarts Forever' were the icing on the cake. Ironically, LLL’s e-mail informing us that they wouldn’t start shipping the CDs until 7 December temporarily suppressed the feelings of magical bliss because I had already had too much experience with postal services handling packages from the US, not to mention those rascals at customs who could be doing infinitely more useful things than flagging soundtrack releases. When it became time to order the set at 8:55 PM on 27 November, I posted ‘Head for the website! We'll rendezvous there!’, closed my bedroom door and told my housemates not to come in, no matter what might happen. I needed complete silence to focus on the task at hand. My concentration quickly gave way to total panic that made me slam random keys rather aggressively because I couldn’t remember my PayPal password. Meanwhile, valuable time was ticking away: normal people had finally heard about this set too. But I need not have cared because they never did either. Two minutes after completing the purchase, my father was on the phone, who had already asked WB for complete score releases on my behalf in 2005 after I had fallen under the spell of Patrick Doyle’s Goblet of Fire. I was now so giddy that I miswrote my order number in the dedicated thread. The promise not to listen to any more Potter music would have to be broken pretty quickly too. Not only were there samples to discuss (Azkaban’s weren’t the best selections), the first part of Tim Burden’s interview with Mike Matessino had also just come out. Trying to describe what it felt like to hear Mike speak about Harry Potter would be futile. Let’s just say that my finely tuned antennae, as he calls them, were truly going haywire at this point (and the poor things had already been under tremendous pressure for a month). Then we discovered that there was no ‘A’ in Window to the Past (the horror!) and what if, WHAT IF! Williams had vetoed the fabled alternate Remembering Mother or other extra content? Gormley’s soothing Irish brogue came to the rescue once more, however, this time with a preview from Chamber of Secrets and Prisoner of Azkaban on 1 December. Bilbo made things even more historic when she gave a shout-out to ‘everyone on the John Williams Fan Network around the world'. What a joyous moment. To quote Disco Stu: ‘We exist!!!' Or as Bilbo put it: ‘A smirk on the history of Irish broadcasting!' The Independence Day suite was an interesting re-discovery as well, which Alan said they played because ‘someone clearly needed a toilet break.’ Hearing ‘Map to Snow Scene' as recorded for the first time completely took my breath away, however, and to top it off, Mike wished us all a safe and happy holiday season, right after which the LSO broke into the festive march from ‘Christmas Break'. As I re-joined the thread that had been giving me sound notifications for the best part of the day, I was feeling safe and happy all right, not to mention very confident that all the alternates would be included. When I listened to the Sorcerer’s Stone recording sessions that evening, ‘Gryffindor Wins’ and ‘Love, Harry’ moved me very, very deeply. My mother never knew I was flouting her decrees thanks to the magic of earbuds and trust ‘Coke Ad 60s’ to get the mental Christmas celebrations underway in earnest. Surprisingly, it took years before Williams’ Potter music started having such a profound effect on me. Especially HP1 sometimes makes me wish I could return to a time when everything was so simple and carefree now, if only for a little while. More toil and trouble followed when the ‘Awaiting shipment’ e-mail took rather long to arrive, never mind the fact that it meant absolutely nothing. If ‘fulfilment’ changed to ‘shipment’, it meant my package was being prepared, I firmly told myself. Luckily, LLL ended that part of the ordeal after a few hours. Knowing that Mike Matessino himself was helping to ship orders made the excruciating wait a bit more special as well and on the 12th, Something Wicked was finally coming this way. The second Art of the Score episode released on 3 December was somewhat less interesting. I guess it was payback time for having asked them for the isolated score now. Some Americans started getting their sets now and I left my computer for one hour during which Bespin created an uncountable number of hilarious threads that I wish had not been closed. Any excuse to keep ranting about this release was welcome, including possible broken cases and the weight of the box. Meanwhile, Tim Burden’s second episode contained too much music, but equally interesting information. Lockdown quickly made an unboxing video for our entertainment too: another milestone for me, partly because he took the time to describe all the pictures on the discs. Then an individual who shall remain nameless graciously sent me a digital version, but Mother Superior’s instructions were still ringing in my ears and this needed to be done properly anyway: I wanted to hold the set, open it, rip it and play my own files. Just pressing ‘Download’ would do a disservice to this special occasion. Even fellow members posting pictures of their packages with excited comments were making me happy now, including mrbellamy's first Azkaban impressions. All I could do was post ‘No, sir, not one blasted, miserable package, not one!’ while others were steadily reaching the other side. I pressed that ‘Download’ button eventually, of course, and took an extremely quick sneak peak at Azkaban. To my dismay, the alternate ‘Marge Points the Finger', the film version of ‘Sir Cadogan' and the shawm, THE SHAWM! weren’t there, a cue I had never cared about in my life until now. Fortunately, the fact that some high frequencies were apparently cut off on a few cues didn’t bother me in the slightest. Four days before Christmas Eve, I got my package at last. I can still feel the box I accepted from the postman in my hands and customs hadn’t touched it either. I even got to hold the set for two seconds after some quick begging before it was confiscated, re-packaged (why?) and put under the Christmas tree. Schindler’s List was not off-limits, though, which somewhat dampened the holiday joy in the flat. The unboxing happened five days later during the third family reunion, which couldn’t end quickly enough. I was so glad my discs weren’t scratched, unlike King Mark’s, and holding the collection in my hands felt like a final confirmation that one of my lifelong dreams had indeed come true. The next morning, I ripped everything and spent ten minutes replacing Alice in Wonderland track titles with the correct ones taken from the LLL announcement, which had reached sacred status by now, as far as I was concerned. The first complete listen had to be spread over 11 days because of more Christmas obligations, but that was okay: I wanted to milk the excitement for as long as I could. HP1 was as good as perfect. 2 had a few questionable track combinations and the train station-flying car crossfade was not ideal. 3 caused dissatisfaction because some of it was out of order, that trailer cue was really weird and the absence of breaking glass and Hermione’s scream in ‘The Rescue of Sirius’ felt unnatural, but hearing the Three Broomsticks pub music was surreal. Also, I feel I have to mention JWFan’s persistent remarks about my obsession with A Winter’s Spell. I still believe it sounds better in the film and don’t recall posting enough remarks about it to justify the relentless teasing that eventually made me crack up. Then I listened to the score away from the computer, somewhat came round to the listening experience idea and spent a few happy days making my own chronological edit that would change every time we learned more about the music. In the process, I discovered that we nearly had all the necessary clean openings and endings, I learned to live with the absence of the shawm and other alternates that were apparently not even recorded. Allow me to repeat one more time just how formative this whole experience was for me as I’m coming to the end of this reverie. This set gave me the best Christmas I have had to this day. Even now, I occasionally put my hand on it or carefully take out the cases, which still smell brand-new, and I feel privileged and grateful to own it every time I do. Sometimes I even revisit the threads and promotional content to relive some of the joy I felt during those memorable months. Nothing of this magnitude will ever happen again in my lifetime, film score-wise, even if they expand HP4, the very first score that made me listen to film music. Although, if they released those tea breaks… I would like to thank the following people for their pivotal contributions to this special chapter of my musical life: - Aedín Gormley, for her two radio shows partly dedicated to the set. - Tim Burden, for his in-depth chat with Mike Matessino. - Art of the Score, for their fantastic first podcast episode. - Bilbo, for arranging the JWFan shout-out, and Thx99, for archiving both shows for me. - Lockdown, for his unboxing video. - Jay, for assisting in the making of this set. - JWFan, for the invaluable community spirit that made it all so special. - Mike Matessino, for delivering a nearly perfect result and for caring about the material as much as we do. - Warner Bros., for allowing him to do so. - La-La Land Records, for releasing the discs. - My mother, for the best Christmas present ever. - And finally, John Williams himself, who, to this day, can make the door to the magical world appear wherever and whenever I need it to. This truly was a year for the books. Mischief managed. Nox.

Hi everyone, I've attached here photos of the program and program notes. The story behind the Serenade is touching. I won't spoil it by trying to summarize it. The music itself is lovely. I'm not very good at describing music, but I will say it's appropriate for the mood it was written for and features some beautiful harmonies and several moments that sound very JW-in-sincere-mode to my ears. The work runs about 8:35 long and is very chamber-like. I wish I took a better look at the time, as I was focusing entirely on the music, but I estimate there were some 8 violins, 4-5 violas, 3-4 cellos, and 2 double basses, plus Jesse Clevenger on horn.

I disagree on one point: Rey's Theme is also fantastic. An instant JW classic, imo. The entire TFA score is a classic, and one of the best SW scores.

I've been very busy lately, I haven't had time to post much (although I always find time to read the forums, of course). But leading up to the world premiere of 'When the World Was Waltzing' I've felt such an excitement to still be living at a time where John Williams is writing new music. It's extraordinary!!! I don't know when I'll get the hear the waltz - or 'Serenade for Horn and Strings' - but just knowing that new music is being penned by Williams is such a thrill. Now we also have a new film score from Williams to look forward to. I've been optimistic about Williams's potential involvement in the project, but of course it wasn't a given. I also feel pretty optimistic that it won't necessarily be his last - at least I feel confident that Williams will keep writing music for as long as is humanly possible. And again, it's such a special feeling knowing we're living at a time when Williams still writes new music!!! Every piece feels monumental, in a way. I remember feeling the same excitement back in 2011 when he suddenly started doing lots of film scores again. And I also remember feeling similarly when he 'returned' after the uncertain Covid-years. It's somehow still feels miraculous. So yeah, I'm exited!

https://www.dailyrepublic.com/diversions/french-horn-player-will-debut-john-williams-piece-with-vallejo-symphony/article_e13cea72-29ff-45bd-9b4b-df4fc411c483.html Not sure how this slipped under our radar, but the premiere is Oct 26. Apparently it was written back in 2011 for this guy's dad (legendary horn player Dale Clevenger of the CSO, for whom JW wrote his Horn Concerto), and is just now being performed for the first time.

It is very difficult to write or talk about a piece of music that you have heard only one time. I try to give my thoughts I remember having had during this "first time". The Instagram Video of Mutter gave the beginning in parts away. Three strokes. Than a “brilliant” rising up of the orchestra, starting in the violins, culminating into a waltz rhythm. Then a waltz theme occurs in the full orchestra, and finally the violin joins in. Until that point it didn’t sound to me like Williams – neither the Concert Works Composer nor the Filmcomposer, as Williams was here really following rules of the genre of Waltz music. Williams definitely showed in the beginning that he can handle the expectations of the genre, but also his ability to do something new – other than Max Richter, who’s pieces were played before Williams and where I felt Richter could not really get out of his own style, although I really loved his pieces, also for their psychology of form (expecially the ending of each of the three pieces was very well prepared), and their affinity to Electronic Dance music, having also some extremely beautiful harmonic progressions. The next thing I remember is a presentation of the waltz theme in the horns (and other brass instruments). Here the context of the orchestration made it sound like it could fit to many post-Jaws Soundtracks (1975 and the 20 years after that). There I heard also the playfulness of Williams when he works (plays) with his themes. Then I remember the very long Cadence of the Violin, which seemed to be largely atonal or at least chromatic. After that there is presentation of the waltz theme with the violin and orechstra. And this (third) time I could compare it in its lightness to the 60’s Main Titles Williams wrote to comedies. But it sounded also different from that soundtracks. The Waltz theme is using a rhythmic formula that I can recall being used in one of (and maybe many others of) Strauss piece, but I don’t know which one, because I am also not familiar enough with Strauss music to remember his pieces and their names. I still don’t know what the title, especially the “When” in the title refers to. But having read Williams comments and listened to the piece once it would work for me, when the title “When the world was waltzing” would be an imagined movie title, for which this music was composed for. In one sentence: There is something to whistle. But this work is too complex to grasp everything that happens at first listen.

https://www.facebook.com/HollywoodBowl/posts/pfbid02nfnmvtksREqu1RmMnS9xRY8UD17kMjTxBUDs2QwiFoXxSf4b8GdQyuxVoS7Diwoxl

We talked about this quite a lot, actually. He stressed to me that his patriotism was completely forged by being a child during World War II, and the very virtuous sense of unity around that conflict. His mother and father both contributed in their own way during the war, and John followed troop movements and the news very closely. The period right after the war also seemed full of national optimism and promise (to him). And then of course there was his own time, very influential and positive, in the Air Force. His deep, idealist love of country comes from all of these experiences, and he's keenly aware how strange and foreign that is to anyone who came of age during the Vietnam War, Nixon's presidency, and all of the many scandals and terrible wars that have come since. So much so that he's become wary of programming Born on the Fourth of July in concert, just because he worries that people won't understand what the title means (if they haven't seen the film) and may project the wrong connotations onto it.

Next week ! https://store.intrada.com/s.nl/it.A/id.13246/.f?fbclid=IwY2xjawNjl85leHRuA2FlbQIxMABicmlkETBUSFNRWEJhaXFMeTVpblFkAR7nVa1zF6ZwSe2HVgNPteFRBX5AZgEi5UTaO0tsONyV0HN_ayMaXe7QzgSBLQ_aem_yYqHOWxX8JdtzLN6968wZg THE SCORE 01 - Flatliners Main Title (1:58) 02 - Pre Lab (1:35) 03 - Nelson & Labraccio (3:24) 04 - The Lab (4:24) 05 - Nelson Preps (2:44) 06 - Nelson Flatlines (2:31) 07 - Drive To Deli (1:09) 08 - Nelson's Flashback (1:36) 09 - Joe's Death (1:55) 10 - The Alley (3:39) 11 - Trick Or Treat (1:25) 12 - Labraccio Goes Under (4:41) 13 - Billy Attacks In Apartment (1:16) 14 - Rachel Reflects (0:50) 15 - Rachel's Death (2:29) 16 - Rachel's Revival (2:15) 17 - Billy & Screwdriver (1:58) 18 - Schoolyard (3:03) 19 - Rachel & Dad In Class (1:23) 20 - Nelson In Truck (1:17) 21 - Bily Attacks In Truck (1:26) 22 - Davey Comforts Rachel (0:46) 23 - Graveyard (1:51) 24 - Rachel Goes Home (3:05) 25 - Nelson Calls Rachel (1:58) 26 - Nelson Running To Lab (0:53) 27 - Nelson Goes Under (1:35) 28 - Boys Arrive At Lab (1:01) 29 - Revival Attempts (2:15) 30 - Nelson & Billy (1:21) 31 - Flatliners End Titles (5:37) THE EXTRAS 32 - Flatliners Main Title (Demo Version) (2:01) 33 - Nelson Flatlines (Demo Version) (2:56) 34 - Drive To Deli (Demo Version) (1:24) 35 - Rachel's Death (Demo Version) (1:09) 36 - Nelson Calls Rachel (Demo Version) (1:26) 37 - Boys Arrive At Lab (Alternate) (1:01) 38 - Flatliners End Titles (Demo Version) (3:14) 39 - Flatliners End Titles (Alternate) (4:31) I'm happy to bring that one to you !

If we're to believe him, and I do, he doesn't get writer's block. Sometimes he does leave the desk—to play golf, to have a drink, to drive around—and sometimes ideas have come to him that way. But mostly he's just so disciplined and devoted to his craft. "Inspiration’s a weird thing," he told me. "People in your profession always ask about it. 'How did you get the idea for this?' or 'Where did this come from?' And it's impossible, I think, for any of us to answer that very accurately. But one answer that seems to me to be applicable is that, anything that I may have done that's any good at all certainly comes as a result of the process of getting to it. Rather than having a 'Eureka' come to me, like the beginning of the Fifth Symphony, or whatever it might be." Anyone who claims "it's all a result of flash inspiration," John added, "I would say: don't believe them. If it's a 16 bar tune that a teenager writes, yes—that’s one thing. But to create an orchestra score that's 30, 40, 50 minutes long, or twice that length, it's an aspect of structuring and practice and knowledge and so on. It's hard to write good music."

I'm just happy he's still writing music. It clearly brings him joy and I suspect he wouldn't be doing the film unless it resonated with him, or he had something to say musically. It's surely keeping his mind sharp which is also great! The harsh reality is that most people his age who experience serious health issues simply recede and never fully recover. JW seems determined to stay active!

I'm so happy to hold onto the dream that John Williams' final score might not be for an Indiana Jones movie. Thank the maker! Even if William Ross holds the pen for the music that John Williams will write for this film, I'll be forever thankful. And I hope that John Williams, even from his wheelchair, will conduct at least one cue, so they can write "Conducted by John Williams" on the cover (and we can include it in his main discography! ).

Thanks ! Props to Maxime. It helps to have someone who knows & loves those scores as much as I do ! It's not a simple "work for hire, doing this in the middle of 20 other mastering projects." We know how the old albums sound (when there's one !) and if it's a good blueprint or not, and if with the current technology we can improve some elements. We spent a LOT of time on Gladiator. I probably listened to those 3 hours about 25 times full within 3 months searching for last problems to correct. It's a luxury no one has when making the album of a new film being released, simply because there's no time between the score being completed, delivered and the expected album release date. But for expanded albums we do 30 years later ? There's no excuse !

Just to clarify: I never claimed that any sessions took place this week. I simply know they're ongoing. And aren't we all lucky!

Yep

I guess the honeymoon's over and we're already bracing for disappointment lmao Spielberg isn't as fresh as he used to be either so what are we even talking about in terms of the "cost" of this collaboration? A potentially underwhelming movie and/or score from a couple legends who were made for each other? Even at their worst it's their voice I'm interested in. If it's great it'll be great, and if it's lame, who's mad somebody else didn't score it instead? Are we really contemplating a classic Spielberg movie with a weak John Williams score that should have been John Powell's?? If anything time has shown we're more likely to get a dumb Spielberg with some good Williams.

#2.34 ESB (1980) - 9m6-10m1 Carbon Freeze (Wook link)

2025 has been awesome - on top of everything you mentioned, we got expansions of Patriot, The Reivers, Black Sunday, and Jaws!

https://www.instagram.com/p/DQKoaszjGZi/?img_index=7

No, I'm very glad you told me. I'm collecting errors in the text, and this is also most useful. And since I probably won't ever listen to the audiobook myself, having other ears on it is important. The revised edition is, at this point, just a dream. But considering the new chapters JW is writing in his life as we speak, not to mention correcting errors and making other improvements, I do think it's likely. One day.

I think JW is still fully capable of writing interesting, exciting, memorable and touching music. The main theme to Fabelmans is flat out beautiful, especially in Mother and Son. His recent concert works show that he's still capable of writing dense, complex music, and personally I love the major new theme for TROS. At worst, any action music in the score will be derivative of some past action cues, but even then, I do not expect to be disappointed by this score.

Leaked photo from the recording sessions! It looks like Williams is conducting at least part of it! (Disclaimer: This photo is not real. McDonald's coffee is hot. Barbie does not move on her own. Professional driver, do not attempt.)

Once and for all, the alleged working title The Dish was a wrong assumption by whoever picked it up from the original article—“The Dish” is the name for every scoop article at Deadline.com, who revealed some of the casting members for the first time. The fact that the film still doesn’t have an announced title isn’t a novelty for Spielberg—Bridge of Spies was “Untitled Cold War Thriller” for a very long time, while The Post was called “Pentagon Papers Drama” for a while. About the fact that the two men are planning this as a final grand statement on their collaboration, I think it’s just hindsight assumption from our part as fans. Certainly they know they don’t have another ten movies together ahead of them and for the last 10 years they’ve been likely aware that each collaboration could’ve been the last one. However, the fact they’re still playing ball means that first and foremost they enjoy the actual process of doing it, without thinking too much if this is the tenth, twentieth of thirtieth time doing a movie. They love their job and they love each other. It’s really the perfect match.

Are they that close?

Damian Woetzel, president of The Juilliard School, said: "The catalyst (for this event) is John Williams, who is in Los Angeles, doing what he does—he is working with Steven Spielberg on the next movie. And that is something to be happy about." Indeed!

John Powell has just been nominated for two Grammy in the same category Best Score Soundtrack for Visual Media How to Train Your Dragon – John Powell Severance: Season 2 – Theodore Shapiro Sinners – Ludwig Göransson Wicked – John Powell & Stephen Schwartz The Wild Robot – Kris Bowers https://filmmusicreporter.com/2025/11/07/68th-grammy-awards-nominations-announced/#more-132366 Mindbogglingly for How To Train Your Dragon? *I just found out Powell wasn’t nominated for Grammy for his original animated How To Train Your Dragon. So i guess this is a consolation nomination.

I disagree on one point: Rey's Theme is also fantastic. An instant JW classic, imo.

It’s been one of Spielberg’s visual trademarks since Duel…

I think this is another winner! It’s a really fabulous piece in which Williams clearly enjoyed getting a license to have an unlimited amount of fun with the genre and style. It seems that Williams reflected not just on what Johann Strauss could’ve done if he had an expansive orchestra and richer harmonic vocabulary, but also on the subsequent experiments made by Richard Strauss and Dmitri Shostakovich, who both wrote homages to the Viennese waltz in their own unique ways. There are hints of classic Hollywood film music too, as the waltz continued to live in the scores of Steiner, Rozsa, Waxman, etc. The only (minor) quibble is that the violin cadenza in the middle sounds perhaps a bit forced in a piece like this, but overall it doesn’t ruin anything. In a nutshell, it’s a fabulous piece. Let’s hope it’s being recorded and released soon.

I don’t think Woetzel was supposed to break the news, but now the cat is out of the bag and everyone should be cheerful. He said “he’s in LA doing what he does—he’s working with Steven Spielberg on his next film.” It doesn’t take a degree in English literature to understand that he’s implying that Williams is composing the music for it.

It's expanded from 0 to 1 disc

George Lucas be like Mike Wazowski in that pic:

So they will come out in early 2026. What's the big deal? Christmas is expensive as is. Karol

Great news! John has been nominated for a Grammy for Best Music Film (Category 76) for this documentary – it doesn't matter that he's not the director. This is Maestro's 77th nomination and a chance for his 27th award. https://www.grammy.com/news/2026-grammys-nominations-full-winners-nominees-list It's worth noting that Williams received his first nomination in 1962, making him the artist with the longest run in the award's history. In second place is Barbara Sterisand (1964), who is also nominated this year.

It's incredible! So much fun, love the violin parts. It also perfectly nails that propulsive end credits type feel of "wow, didn't you just have such a great time watching this movie???"

I think it's extraordinary that this happening at all. Absolutely a-bloody-mazing. It's gonna have its detractors, for sure, but the fact that it's happening at all is one hell of an achievement. Close encounters for thirty collaborations. Can't wait to see the film and, of course, hear the score.

I guess it takes some time to approve a box containing nine complete scores.

^^ They have released a new immersive website: https://www.wickedmovie.com/ And there is a 12-minute music in it. It's basically a compilation of old music and SOME NEW! Here is the link to the music file: https://www.wickedmovie.com/sounds/music-main.mp3 Here I extracted the NEW bits and pieces: First clip, this is the highlight of the new score snippets: new music 1.mp3 For those familiar with the broadway, which songs that this score cue ^^ likely adapted from? This particular new theme/motif sounds like something Powell could have written, maybe this is original of his? new music 2.mp3 And another variation of evil Morrible theme: new music morrible 1.mp3 new music morrible 2.mp3

After a not so great day at work, this is excellent news and makes up for it!! JW:

Fantastic news! It's just been confirmed at the Juilliard John Williams event that he's "working on" the movie!

They were, from a certain point of view It depends on your definition of "original negative". The "o-neg" negatives used to make theatrical prints were destructively modified in 1997 - that means they took a knife and cut out the original sections of film to replace them with the new sections. That doesn't mean that the trimmings are gone forever, nor does it mean that they are the only negatives in existence. The "OCN"s, or Original Camera Negatives have never been modified, those contain the original camera elements from the studio/location shoots and could be used to reconstruct an original theatrical print. That's also not to get into the other various intermediate prints that still exist like CRIs and stuff. There are many ways to restore the original cut, including using the negatives, and this does not at all conflict with Lucas' account about altering the negative