Saxbabe

MSM, your orchestra sounds great on the Shostakovich. I do play in my university wind ensemble, this is my last year though. I hope to play in a community wind ensemble wherever I end up after graduating! Our most recent recordings haven't arrived yet from performing at state convention, but here are two pieces from our fall concert I uploaded: Shostakovich again, his Festive Overture: http://www.mediafire.com/?klnindnmdhz Frank Ticheli's Blue Shades: http://www.mediafire.com/?pt9v2ddjtlj We had only rehearsed a month at that point! But they came out pretty well I think, especially the Overture. Well, minus some horn fatigue here and there LOL! Both of those pieces I really loved playing. The Ticheli has a lot of jazzy stuff going on.

This is terribly sad, and too soon...his movies were intelligent and pure class. Rest in Peace, and prayers to his family.

Same here. I'm just excited about another Indy movie in general.

Wow, it's probably been since this past summer since I've posted in this thread...finally catching up on some movies as its spring break here. Been a while since I've seen any movies worth mentioning much, but tonight and last night a couple of interesting ones: Perfume: The Story of a Murderer Film: 4.4 out of 5 Score: 3.5 out of 5 Film: Wow, surprisingly good...(Just now finished it!) First of all, the cinematography and direction were stunning. I must say Tom Tykwer is another director I wouldn't mind seeing get ahold of some Potter. The film had a strong fantasy, gritty fairytale-like thread throughout, and the storytelling had you hooked to the end. Strong characters, even the ones with less face time, extremely fine turns by Alan Rickman and Dustin Hoffmann, and Rachel Hurd-Wood (from Peter Pan, now all grown up), and big props to the lead, Ben Whishaw who gave a very distinctive performance as the killer. Perhaps due to the way the original book is written (which I haven't read yet) or maybe just good acting, but at times you even found yourself feeling sorry for, or rooting for the killer somehow, a pitiful and fundamentally naive and backwards soul. Score: A big story here was the Berlin Philharmonic recorded this, a lucky streak there, Sir Simon Rattle happens to be a big fan of director Tom Tykwer, so that's how that collaboration came about...shame the director insisted on writing his own music. While really not bad, and quite lovely in places, it stays in the well-traversed realm of minimalistic "fairytale" score, with some angelic choir laid on top, and naturally, the omnipresent angelic soprano. The End Credits are decent, and all you really need to hear to get an idea of the score...really a missed opportunity. I think Alexandre Desplat would have been amazing. Notes On a Scandal Film: 4.0 out of 5 Score: 4.5 out of 5 Film: What?! The premise of this is just absurd, I'm surprised Cate Blanchett took this part. The only reason this get up to 4 stars for me is because of the amazing performances of Blanchett, and especially Judi Dench, wow. Dench totally creeped me out, actually I couldn't like any character in this movie (except, maybe Bill Nighy), but I appreciated that. I still can't get over the utterly bizarro sex scenes but this was a decent movie. It got gimmicky at times, but excellent acting and good storytelling through the use of the diary. Score: Liked the score a whole lot, good classic Phillip Glass, this is one I would definitely listen to away from the film. Beautifully unsettling and mysterious.

Wow, the last few posts bring back lot of memories! I played under David Holsinger back in 1997, we did his American Faces and Consider the Uncommon Man, he was amazing, very inspirational and funny. He looked like a windup toy when he conducts, he's very short and animated. I remember us discussing that he reminded us of JW sort of. He got so wound up in conducting he accidentally gave himself a head wound with his baton...and had to wear a bandaid for the concert...hehe... There is sooo much great concert band music out there. Reed's Armenian Dances is my own personal favorite piece I've ever played, it is simply gorgeous. Other most beautiful pieces I've ever played in band: Percy Grainger's Colonial Song, the 2nd mvmt of his Lincolnshire Posy (Horkstow Grange), and anything by Morton Lauridsen...we recently did the premiere of the wind transcription of his Ave Maria and it is just incredible. Another piece by Alfred Reed I absolutely adore is Alleluia Laudamus Te, wow, what a majestic piece, especially the recording I have of the Dallas Wind Symphoniy with organ! <_< More really fun pieces to play, Howard Hanson's Chorale and Alleluia, William Walton's Crown Imperial, the wind version of Shostakovich's Festive Overture...Malcolm Arnold's Tam O'Shanter Overture, would classify as funniest perhaps. Very Potterish madcap kind of music. Another totally hilarious piece is Charles Ives' Country Band March, there are about ten different melodies going on at any one time! Any Ron Nelson fans? His Passcaglia (Homage on B-A-C-H) is awesome (the last note is like forte, x 4) and I like his piece Lauds...I never have played any Sparke, but I love his music. And lately I really like the jazzy stuff by John Mackey and Michael Daugherty, fun to play. Johan de Meij, what a talented composer, his Lord of the Rings (No. 1) was the first "hard" piece I ever played in band, and I still think it's his best...I was at the world premiere of his Symphony No. 3 in the Netherlands and got to meet him, extremely cool guy.

Well, I do them...but have never had decent equipment. I don't know where I'll be then... But if not in Texas, I may have to find a way back for it! And yeah, Bill Vermeulen is really an amazing horn player, I love hearing him at their concerts. I have a live Mahler 5th recording they did on tour from the 90s where his playing in the Scherzo is just insane... And I didn't realize the Celebration Fanfare was unrecorded....I thought there was a boot of it floating around somewhere? The John Adams fanfare from that project...they are actually playing that this weekend, it's called "Tromba Lontana"...I have tickets but won't be able to go...too much going on to get away.

"O Danny Boy" I think counts....in George's Fenton's Memphis Belle, especially those End Titles, I always adored his soaring arrangement.

More than a year away, but might as well post now (ahem to Mark and John)... From Houston Symphony website: April 2, 4, 5, 2009 You can hear John Williams’ life-long love of the horn in his concerto, which was written as he was completing the music to the third Harry Potter film. Imagine your own picture to the concerto’s movements—Angelus, The Battle of the Trees, Pastorale, The Hunt and Nocturne. Peter Oundjian, conductor William VerMeulen, horn Vaughn Williams: Fantasia on a Theme of Thomas Tallis John Williams: Concerto for Horn and Orchestra John Williams: Celebration Fanfare Rachmaninoff: Symphonic Dances As well, Andre Previn and Leonard Slatkin are both conducting in Houston in the same general time frame. Though ironically, I have no idea where I'll be by then, if even in the state.

Well, I guess I missed the categories I was interested in seeing.... I read that Michael Giacchino won Best Score for Ratatouiile. And the Dreamgirls song won Best Song.

You can watch the pre-show Grammys live streaming right now at the Grammy.com website. They are not to the film music or classical categories but will be soon, if you are interested. I love how the rap stars don't deem these important enough to show up to. But do any of the film composers even ever come anyway....?

!!! Can't wait to hear this. A saxophone concerto with choir/orchestra? Description sounds incredibly interesting. Good luck!

Man, there is so much Mahler to pick and choose from, it can be bewildering. The first set I got to know was Chailly/Concertgebouw on Decca and those still are a collection of solid and very musical performances. There are many interesting Mahler sets around, depending on what your taste is. I would also say go for individual choices though over set. Most of my favorites are kind of off-the-beaten-path or live recordings. Rattle does do good Mahler, I love his 2nd, and if you want to get an idea of what the 10th may have been like go for his. I like his new 5th with Berlin a lot, and it is also on DVD. Zander on Telarc is interesting because - you get the bonus of a discussion disc with his recordings which I found very well done, he is a great teacher. I have tried only his 6th, all round, definitely a quality recording. Other great 6ths: Boulez with Vienna. Immaculately clean. My absolute favorite is currently Mackerras though, in a wild live recording with the BBC Phil. Fearsome playing and much humour. Not available anymore, but I can help there if you're interested. I sort of collect Mahler 5ths and one big favorite I found is Michael Gielen and the Southwest German Radio Orchestra (SWR) on Hanssler, the playing is simply outstanding and musically really great. His recordings are worth looking for. I also have a lot of Mahler 3rd, and my favorites so far there are Abbado/Vienna, Boulez/Vienna, Salonen/Los Angeles. Those performances are just stellar, that Abbado recording could wake the dead.... Still looking for the perfect 7th, what a tough work to bring off.....the 4th has tons of good choices. Likewise with the 1st, but I still like Bernstein's late recording there. And there are lots of good 2nds too, I like Bernstein too in the 2nd a lot, I always hear raves about Mehta's 2nd live with Vienna which I need to get. For the 9th, a big recommendation for Karajan's live recording on DG (this one right here). I don't listen to the 8th a lot but for it I still love Solti/Chicago and Rattle/CBSO.

Man, hard one. Again: film: Unbreakable score: Signs I like all the scores so much though! Same with the films, except for LitW...I almost picked Sixth Sense, but Unbreakable was so imaginative, mysterious...the mood that was set, and excellent use of cinematography, color, and clues tipped it for me. I still can't get past various lame things about the aliens in Signs, though the family story is wonderful. But I always loved The Village (glad to see some others do), I was floored when I found out the twist on that one and still am fascinated by the movie. Lot of great acting there.

Oh no, I wasn't referring to your post. But this: It seems to me, the intent of FSM wasn't to create a set to please JW fans, but Superman fans in general. Koray, okay, I understand where you are coming from, but many people do care about the other music and the complete presentation, so in general it is a good deal. Looking at it from a purely JW standpoint, the Rhino release is great, and makes this less of buying priority. I myself won't be able to buy the new set for quite a while myself, but, I wouldn't mind paying $120 when I am able to, as I'm interested in the full material.

Yeah...closest to me, geographically, LOL. But no cigar otherwise... I hope to go see the Rice orchestra this spring, but my schedule always seems to conflict with their performances, and it's a 2 hour drive each way for me. I have a good friend that goes there and he said he enjoys their concerts more than seeing the HSO. The Shepherd School chamber and new music series sound really interesting too. I plan to fly the coop to a more ideal location in about a year when I finish college, but have no idea where I'm off to yet. There's New York, but I can't see myself fitting in there as a Texas girl, and it's horribly expensive. There's Chicago, a lovely city and quite active. There's Los Angeles, obviously a plus if you're a lover of film music. And other areas... But where in America actually is a real cultural center? Compared to Europe...well, it just doesn't even compare, unfortunately. If you're a music lover of the classical/orchestral variety, plan to have a career in the arts (my interest is in the administrative side), and could live anywhere in the States, where would you pick? There are jobs and internships available in many places in the field I'm interested in, but sometimes I'm stumped on where I would like to go. Getting rather off topic here, sorry...just musing...

From the standpoint of "the history of music for the Superman franchise", I think this set is absolutely worth the money. When I read the announcement, my first thought was wow, that's a nice deal. If you're only interested in JW's contributions, well, that's fine, but to look at the evolution of the music over the series, an overview like this is necessary and is a treasure to have. I would love to get the set personally (especially for the book). Kudos to FSM for putting together a complete presentation such as this and doing the musicological detective work necessary to get there. We owe them a whole lot as a label for the advancement of film music history. I wonder though how limited it will be, because I simply don't have the money right now, and won't for 6 months to a year (last year of school here), eventually I hope I can snag one though. For those complaining about the price - if you don't have the money, that's one thing. Does that mean they should charge less for the product though, because you can't afford it? No. Walk into Barnes and Noble, buy a soundtrack release - you're going to pay right at $20. For one CD. 8 of those? $160. Add in the packaging. Add in the cost of the production of the documentation. Factor in the research and effort involved, and you come out to at least at $100 over what FSM is charging. If there will be projects like this in the future, FSM has to not only cover their costs but make money. $120 is IMO, far more than fair.

Well, goodness, what do you say to that article? Honestly she sounds like a b**** of the worst kind, I think she just wanted the world to know she slept with a famous composer for some notoriety herself. Who knows, the Barbie doll story could be just a fabrication. Gosh, Nyman needs to lose those glasses though.

I always planned to get those DVDs but never have gotten around to it. I saw those performances broadcast on TV ca. 1993 and that was the turning point that got me into Wagner. I was floored, I couldn't believe someone could create such a thing as the Ring. I'd absolutely love to see some of the Ring live, or any Wagner for that matter...I especially have a goal to see Tristan and Isolde. I did see a concert performance of Der Fliegende Hollander when I was in the Netherlands, with a Belgian opera orchestra. It was amazing. The chorus was comprised of big bearded beer-drinking Belgian guys and they shook the house! It must be something to live in Vienna, I wish so much I lived somewhere close to a big cultural center. The closest we have (though not so close) is Houston, which is nice and everything, but can be variable as far as quality. The opera here hasn't had anything I've been interested in for a while and is terribly expensive. But students can go to the symphony for cheap and I have heard a couple of good concerts there this year, one including Zemlinsky's Lyric Symphony, which was cool because it was being recorded for a new CD on the Naxos label, so the hall was set up with tons of microphones. But the outstanding one was Berlioz' Symphonie Fantastique conducted by Charles Dutoit with the UBS Verbier Festival Orchestra, an international youth group, averaging early 20s. They were mindbogglingly good, I was blown away by how well they played and how they threw themselves into it. The youth orchestras these days are really impressive.

Thread resurrection! Marian, how was the new staging of Walküre? We are playing Rhapsody in Blue at a concert in February, a new transcription for wind ensemble of the final orchestral version. So I am looking for new recordings as well. Will definitely check out Rattle. Can't believe how many versions of Rhapsody in Blue there have been since it was first created. Like other well-known pieces, the original was actually rather far from the piece we know today. So...any other fans of Bartok and Lutoslawski around? I just got a CD of the two Concertos for Orchestra (not the new Cinncinati one, but the older Cleveland one), and really love it. I already knew the Bartok Concerto and have a few other recordings of it, but the Lutoslawski Concerto, I have come to like as much, or perhaps even more. Seriously, you have to hear it, it's an incredible piece. Highly recommended for film music lovers. Most all I've heard of Lutoslawski's I have loved so far, especially his 3rd and 4tn Symphonies, his Paganini Variations, and oooh, the Cello Concerto. Anyone else familiar with his work?

Oh yeah, of course they do. I remember where I read an interview with McNeely about Virus, that the male "Russian" choir employed in that score is not actually singing in Russian, because he didn't know any - they are singing the names of his family and the producers etc., backwards. I always like the obvious nods to certain other composers too, quotes and such, that is often in fun (unless perhaps, you are Horner). Like JNH's homage to Herrmann in the Main Titles of Signs. I always smile at that.

Wow, neat to read this thread. Because I also have certain color associations with instruments, darker, deeper colors for the lows, low strings, and brass, and on up the spectrum to lighter, brighter colors for high strings and woodwinds. And especially with the sound of an orchestra, the way certain orchestras sound different, it is like seeing a painting, with different collections of colors...like my brain fuses art and music somehow because I really like both.

James, I'm so happy for you! It seems like ages since we first talked about this (2 yrs ago, I think!) and now it's finally here - big congrats. As a sax player myself, I very much look forward to hearing it! Do you have the finished product in your hands yet? Displayed proudly on the mantle?

I'm always up for another Night movie. Even when he doesn't strike gold, I enjoy the interesting thought-processes and creativity behind his work. And it is obvious JNH is inspired by their partnership, that alone ups the interest, definitely a very strong and simpatico director-composer relationship. I will go so far as to say - I honestly think JNH "gets" M. Night and interprets his intentions through his music, even when perhaps the audience doesn't quite follow. I did understand the sentiment behind LiTW, even though I didn't feel it was executed so well, and JNH's score was a big part of that. So...yeah, this new project looks very cool. Hmm, but something about "The Happening" tagline niggles at me. I wonder if there's any chance...you could somehow tie together events in The Sixth Sense, and Signs.....as being symptoms of a "global crisis". Just wildly hypothesizing. But the idea of a larger story arc is intriguing. Because why were the aliens here in Signs anyway? (Remember, they gassed the planet, didn't they? Could that have had lasting effects?) I'm still feeling aliens from this new movie. (Is it just me or does that poster remind of WOTW?) I like the look of the poster, BTW. Obviously whatever "happens" looks pretty serious...

Wanted to mention...the BBC Music magazine November issue had an excellent feature on Korngold, his career and his life, he was their "Composer of the Month". Pick it up if you happen to see it...it has L. Bernstein on the cover and also a great article about him.

When does the movie come out? I am debating whether I need to hear this in film first. I like to do that with JNH, especially if the score is apparently really good (and the movie is also not a stinker!) Should I hear it before seeing the movie, or wait....hmm...