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To me, as a composer, there's no real "link"; there are melodic and very general textural similarities, but I consider those more a question of musical archetypes. Both the Beethoven and the Williams stem from a style that crystallized in late 18th Century revolutionary France, a kind of musical heroicism that is essentially based on the melodics of revolutionary vernacular songs (songs that also form part of the American musical core -music was always international!). It is simply an almost impossibly thankless task to go around and crib musical ideas from one's forebears. It's just not what we do! It is so much easier to be original (not to mention more fun). Therefore, I will always -unless it's a matter of conscious hommage, or unconscious plagiarism (which is mostly a children's disease plagueing amateurs, not professionals)- be dismissive of any speculation as to "other origins" of a piece of music. Like any language, a musical language doesn't originate with any one person; we all share it, practice it, form our idiosyncracies and dialects and take part in its continued, ever-expanding creation.

From my understanding, the things you didn't like about the previous album have been taken care of. There is some reverb here, but I can hear all the detail just fine. Karol As I've repeatedly said here and elsewhere - for whatever reasons Botnick added reverb to an orchestra recorded in an already airy room - it didn't need one iota of extra verb because the room was spacious and had a gorgeous natural reverb. Then Mr. Botnick added a TON or reverb to the choir - they need reverb but not a TON - so when you add the overly-reverbed choir to the overly reverbed orchestra you get a big wash of nothingness and a band that sounds distant. We used the three-track analogue tapes, which provided a real musical sound rather than a harsh digital one from 1986. We added no extra verb to the orchestra and we added reasonable verb to the choir - the result is that the orchestra has great clarity where it formerly didn't, and the choir can be heard and understood now.

There were two moments from last night that I will certainly never forget: 1. Watching John Williams quietly, privately, and casually chat with Steven Spielberg as the audience watched the scoreless version of Indy's First Adventure. 2. Watching John Williams conduct ET with Steven Spielberg sitting down next to him. Both instances were absolutely surreal. You would have to have been there to understand. Watching these two great artists together...I just do not have words that can describe it. The whole thing felt like a dream. We were about 20 feet away from them and I think that was the most starstruck I have ever been.

And no one gives a fuck about your CD cover semantics. They're all credited. No one looks in the booklets guys, that means they're ghost writers!!! I see you still haven't learned to read. Ghost means invisible in this context, i.e. uncredited.

They aren't ghost writers, and that's why The Dark Knight was initially disqualified, because their names are on the cue sheets. It also didn't stop them from nominating Gladiator, Sherlock Holmes, and Inception. In other words, the Academy doesn't give a shit about its own rules one year and then does the next.

Sorry, I should have read ALL of Scallenger's posts... ;-) (I was actually first thinking about dinosaurs "out in the wider world", but maybe that's because I am a non-native English speaker). In any case, I sort of like the idea of a new park

Just got back...the concert was great! I was seated Center Terrace behind the orchestra (where the choir would stand). We got a great view of the maestro (although during the video clips the screen covered the top of his head). I've only ever seen him conduct the LA Phil at the HOllywood Bowl, but I felt the performances were a lot stronger--faster tempos, less mistakes, better mix. Part of that is probably due to being inside a concert hall vs outdoors. Also the brass players (especially trumpets) were playing into their music stands, so the sound reflect off the stands and right onto us. I loved it--as a trombone player, I am more than happy with a brass-heavy performance. It was surreal to see Spielberg so close and hear him talk in person. The program was the same one listed online, except for the addition of Jaws Theme right after intermisison and, for encores, With Malie Towards None (retooled concert version) and Raiders March. The only weird programming decision was playing Hedwig's Theme and then directly after "Nimbus 2000" from the Chidlren's Suite. The former features the Nimbus theme extensively, so hearing its concert version directly after was a little odd. As a brass player I would've loved to hear "Quidditch" instead of Nimbus, and it would have solved weird programming decision. My favorite was probably Far and Away, since I've never heard it live before (it was not the violin solo version available on Greatest Hits). I also don't think I've ever heard the suite--it was all very familiar, I think it was just the first track of the OST plus the End Credits. War Horse was beautiful as always, with great flute solos. Indy's First Adventure was really fun--I'm glad they did the entire scene, instead of cutting it off midway like they did on the LC OST. There were also a few new bars (besides the slightly tweaked ending) when Indy falls into the lion's train car. E.T. was also fantastic. Really they all were, it's not even worth listing my favorites because sooner or later I will list them all. Violin soloist was beautiful on Schindler's List. The audience reaction seemed to be more enthusiastic than at the Bowl--again, that's probably mostly due to being indoors versus outdoors. While I was fully expected laughter during the first few notes of Jaws, the enthusiasm and strength of it surprised me, so much that I started laughing too. Spielberg said "We're definitely coming back to SF!" during one of the many standing ovations we gave--I wonder if he says that at every gig. I hope not, because I would love to do this again. Overall it was a fantastic performance and a really really fun night.

Tonight's titles... The White Dawn by Henry Mancini http://store.intrada.com/s.nl/it.A/id.8273/.f Raging Angels by Terry Plumeri http://store.intrada.com/s.nl/it.A/id.8227/.f

If he did, I would say that Peter Maxwell Davies is a much COOLER choice!

Unlike with The Hobbit, I'm sure HFR would be perfect with Avatar 2, if Cameron shoots with that format. Cameron is an obsessive perfectionist when it comes to the technical side of his films.