Saxbabe

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B071QWVFDR/ref=dm_ws_sp_ps_dp
 
Just saw this recording listed on iTunes. Preview clip sounds great!

Thanks for your reply Thor!
 
Sadie Roosa, the WGBH rep, claims in the email that if they are able to determine to a certainty that their organisation still has full rights clearance to the footage, that it would be digitised and made available for free anyway. In fact, if I really wanted to take my chances, I'd put up my own $60 if indeed it lead to the episode being made openly accessible. (And I might very do that in the near future).
 
I'm keen to look through a whole heap of episodes; next on my list would be where Joshua Bell performs the Alexander Courage Porgy and Bess Violin fantasy.
 
I totally understand that other people will want to see other episode; and you are right that this will indeed frustrate fundraising efforts if we cannot agree how to best expend out our money to get this done. It would be much easier of course if we knew our money went towards a definitive product/service, but as the email states, we would for the present only be spending money to see if something is at all possible.
 
Sadie also states that if they determine that there is no rights clearance, that the episodes can be made available on their premises for private ('research') viewing for a much more substantive fee; But seeing as I live in Sydney, that's a prohibitive option for me physically as well a financially.
 
Maybe we can invite forum members to suggest episodes, then based on that we can put up an opinion poll to make a short list, and then we can establish a crowdfunding page to raise the funds at least for a 'Rights Assessment' for those particular episodes. Hopefully we can spread the fixed cost across as many members as possible, and make it cheaper for everyone interested. Just my thoughts...
 
Cheers!

Yay!! New violin concert piece!! Totally can't wait to hear this 

Happened to catch The Danish Girl on a movie channel the other day...had totally forgotten Desplat was the composer!
 
I knew within literally 30 seconds it was him though (my husband is still quite amused and impressed by this ability )
 
Absolutely gorgeous score, and film....albeit quite sad - stayed with me long after.
 
What a uniquely beautiful compositional language he has....I love minimalism and like the way he dances around with it.
 
Made me think back a bit to Birth, or also Girl With a Pearl Earring, these are the type of films where I feel his voice really shines the most.
 
Eddie Redmayne and Alicia Vikander were so exquisite in this movie too, if you haven't seen it I highly recommend!
 
I wonder if the Cousteau movie is available on some streaming service/rental by now? Sounds interesting for sure.

The music of John Williams and Friends
Royal Scottish National Orchestra conducted by Richard Kaufman
Usher Hall, Edinburgh
Friday 24th February 2017
 
Like Hogmanay and the Edinburgh Festival, it is becoming something of an annual tradition in Scotland for Richard Kaufman to conduct the Royal Scottish National Orchestra in the music of John Williams, so when a new concert was announced in the RSNO’s 2016-17 schedule entitled ‘John Williams and Friends’, to be performed four times over three days in Edinburgh, Glasgow and Dundee, I decided that I would finally make the effort to be there at one of the concerts.  So it was that this Sassenach found himself on a chilly Friday evening in a sold out Usher Hall, Edinburgh’s opulent Edwardian concert hall, four hundred miles from home and wondering whether the long train journey and expense would be worth the effort.
 
There are several reasons why I should not have worried.  Firstly the RSNO would be led by the reliable American conductor Richard Kaufman, a personal friend of John Williams who in a nine-year career as a Hollywood studio violinist played on several of the maestro’s soundtracks, including Close Encounters of the Third Kind and The Eiger Sanction.  His friendship and close working relationship with Williams have given him access to rarely played Williams scores that would be out of the reach of many other orchestras and conductors.  Secondly, the RSNO has recorded several John Williams albums including less well known scores such as Midway and Amazing Stories, landmark recordings that gave film music fans the opportunity to hear those scores in all their glory several years before the original soundtracks were released by specialist labels.  Quite apart from that, the Royal Scottish National Orchestra is the best orchestra in Scotland and one of the best in Europe, while Scotland’s capital city is well worth a visit any time of the year (if a trip to Edinburgh Castle is not on your bucket list, it should be).
 
The concert began in spectacular style with Summon the Heroes, written for the 1996 Olympic Games in Atlanta and not heard in concert nearly as often as it should be.  Indeed I realised that I had not heard it played live since I saw John Williams himself conduct the London Symphony Orchestra at the Barbican as long ago as 1996 - it was the first time I ever saw my musical hero.  The RSNO more than did him justice, with three of the trumpeters stood off stage behind the orchestra, an unexpected if noisy treat for the audience members in the choir seats.  Afterwards maestro Kaufman joked, “That was your ballad for the evening” before promising that the orchestra would play some “more exciting” pieces later on!  A fellow audience member was overheard explaining to his companion that the piece was written for the Los Angeles Olympics in 1990, somehow managing to get both the venue and the year completely wrong.  Mate, the programmes cost only a quid.
 
Next up was Hymn to the Fallen from the end credits of Saving Private Ryan, the trumpet duo played brilliantly by RSNO principal Chris Hart (as he did in the first piece) and Marcus Pope, replicating the sound of Tim Morrison and Thomas Rolfs from the original soundtrack.  While there was no choir, it was a great opportunity to hear live the RSNO’s top class brass section so familiar to film music fans.
 
This would be followed by another first for me, a performance of the concert version of Jim’s New Life from another Spielberg film, Empire of the Sun.  In the film the music accompanies a scene in which Jim (Christian Bale) carries out a number of errands in a Japanese internment camp.  Kaufman took the piece at a good tempo, much closer to that of the film version and certainly quicker than the tempo that John Williams often conducts it.  Dare I say that a quicker tempo improves this fine scherzo?
 
This was followed by the first of two pieces not composed by John Williams that we would hear this evening, Maurice Jarre’s Overture from Lawrence of Arabia.  The piece owed its welcome inclusion in the concert to the fact that David Lean’s epic had been a great inspiration to Steven Spielberg in his formative years.  The percussion section earned their corn in this one, especially timpani player John Poulter who must have relished the chance to perform those bombastic opening bars penned by a composer whose primary instrument was the kettle drums.
 
The remainder of the first half really showcased the diversity of John Williams, starting with an outstanding performance of the concert version of The People’s House from Spielberg’s biopic Lincoln.  I am a sucker for that Coplandesque Americana that John Williams does so well in this score.  Again the gorgeous trumpet solo was played flawlessly by principal Chris Hart, who fully deserved the audience’s ovation afterwards.
 
The Duel from The Adventures of Tintin was another concert first for me, Kaufman explaining that it was one of several pieces that are not usually available for orchestras to perform but that John Williams had been gracious enough to lend him from his personal library.  Williams famously conducted the piece at the Hollywood Bowl to an on-screen montage of famous sword fights from movie history featuring the swashbuckling likes of Errol Flynn, Tyrone Power, Stewart Granger and, erm, Kermit the Frog, but the music is more than capable of holding its own without the aid of visual images.  It was good to see the string players acknowledged afterwards by conductor Kaufman who no doubt empathised as a fellow violinist familiar with the challenges of playing a John Williams film cue, especially one so frenetic in nature.
 
The penultimate piece before the interval may well have been the highlight of the evening for me.  The theme from the Richard Dreyfuss / Holly Hunter weepy Always is hardly ever played in concert and was another piece specially loaned by the composer for the RSNO concerts.  Pianist Lynda Cochrane and guest principal horn player Andrew McLean deserve particular credit for their performances in a version identical to that recorded for Sony Classical’s Spielberg / Williams Collaboration CD in 1990.  Taking us into the interval was the Flying Theme from E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial, always a popular choice at Williams concerts even if I was spoiled by the live to picture performance by the Royal Philharmonic Concert Orchestra just after Christmas.
 
Beginning the second half of the concert was the legendary shark theme from Jaws, the first Williams score on which tonight’s conductor had performed as a studio musician.  As is often the case, the opening string chord was accompanied by nervous laughter from many in the audience, in much the same way that Bernard Herrmann’s music for the shower scene in Psycho is now seemingly cause for mirth and merriment rather than terror.  It was a punchy, exciting performance and a bonus to see it conducted by someone who had played on the original sessions way back in 1975.  Unlike in the original sessions however, I did not see any of the violinists covering their eyes because they were too scared to watch the film!  Tuba player John Whitener was invited to take a bow afterwards.
 
Any concert tribute to John Williams and Steven Spielberg must include music from an Indiana Jones film and here we had Marion’s Theme in addition to the ubiquitous but always brilliant Raiders March from Raiders of the Lost Ark.  Williams arranged the former fairly recently, around the time of the disappointing Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, a concert version of the theme for Karen Allen’s feisty heroine in the original movie.  The RSNO’s performance of the Raiders March sounded probably as close to the London Symphony Orchestra’s film version as I have heard it played.  There was further applause when maestro Kaufman hinted afterwards that there would be a special announcement regarding Raiders of the Lost Ark and the RSNO that we would not want to miss.  I think you can guess what it is!
 
It was interesting to see alto saxophonist Simon Haram again reprising Closing In, the first movement of the three-part concert suite Escapades that Williams adapted from his Catch Me If You Can score.  He had performed the same piece with the Philharmonia Orchestra down in London at the Royal Festival Hall just a few weeks ago in their Spielberg at 70 tribute concert, so is obviously one of the go to guys when an alto saxophone is needed.  It is always fun to watch the orchestra members’ finger clicking and ‘shushing’ whenever this piece is played in concert.
 
The second and final non-Williams selection was Henry Mancini’s Peter Gunn theme, the Williams connection being that he had played the piano on the original soundtrack recording.  This was enormous fun, with several of the RSNO musicians giving extended improvised solos, most notably principal trombone Davur Juul Magnussen who I can safely say is the only trombonist I have ever seen from the Faroe Islands.  As I left Usher Hall after the concert I overheard a fellow concertgoer asking her husband, who was humming the Peter Gunn theme, “Was that Dragnet?  Or The Thin Man?”  [Insert face palm gif of your choice here].
 
This was followed by the European premiere of Flight and Technology, the final movement of John Williams’s American Journey suite adapted from his score for the Spielberg short film The Unfinished Journey premiered at the millennium celebrations at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington DC.  Maestro Kaufman related how when sharing conducting duties with Williams at last year’s Tanglewood Film Night he had wondered whether it would be appropriate to include any of John Williams's music in his half of the concert, to which Williams had responded, “No, you should - that’s why they’re coming!”  You see, the “I know, but they’re all dead” one liner is not the only gag in John Williams’s repertoire, the man’s a funny guy.
 
As a tribute to the late Carrie Fisher, the concert ended with the only Williams selection not written for a film directed by Steven Spielberg, the Throne Room and End Title from Star Wars.  The rapturous applause that greeted the final notes subsided only when Richard Kaufman turned to the orchestra to give us a little something extra from the Dark Side, the Imperial March from The Empire Strikes Back.
 
All in all this was a five star concert and I would love to return some day if Edinburgh will have me back!
 
 

Very cool!
 
I keep thinking back not too long ago to 2015 when we had so much concern for his health. He was cancelling things left and right, looking and sounding a little frailer than usual. I was definitely coming to terms with the idea that he may be about ready to quit conducting by 2016, and keeping my fingers crossed that the same wouldn't be true about composing.
 
Two years later, look at him. Not just physically, but mentally he continues to have the endurance and enthusiasm to multitask that has always inspired me. What are the odds that somebody with that much talent would ALSO have pretty much unlimited monster success leading to the greatest musical resources at his fingertips AND a variety of opportunities and projects to utilize them AND blessed with longevity in life AND a passionate work ethic that has kept him even wanting to give music to the world in his "retirement years" AND an amiably grounded and humble attitude throughout it all?
 
Seriously, what the fuck? I can't help but think about Jerry, James, Basil, Kamen, and too many others who died too soon. Elliot Goldenthal, Don Davis, Bruce Broughton et al who should be working more with better film opportunities and aren't. Thank god Ennio's still going strong, of course it'd be nice if he were a little more high-profile but who's complaining?
 
And then there's John Williams. Every year he's looking more and more like some miracle man. A superhuman! But in a way that cheapens the remarkable career achievements and life's blessings on this sweet, unassuming man, and the struggles that he's had like anyone else. At any rate, he is rather special and I've been feeling grateful to call myself a fan lately. When I was 10 years old, one of my favorite things to daydream about on the bus and in school was the new John Williams CD coming out. Now I'm 26 and it's one of my favorite things to daydream about in the car and at work. 
 
Man I just love this guy! John Williams is awesome.
 
Anyway
 

Glen posted this on Facebook a couple of hours ago
 

 
Kobe Bryant closes his eyes and listens for the first time to John Williams beautiful and emotional score for "Dear Basketball".

Here it is!
 
 
By the way, looks like we should be able to see the specific date of the premiere on March 15: https://tribecafilm.com/filmguide

About the upcoming Pops recording, here are a few thoughts:
- All the Pops recordings (and most, if not all, BSO) from the last few years come from live concerts, broadcast or not (the Williams' Oboe and Harp Concerti were both recorded live, the former wasn't broadcast, though the later one was). From what I've been told this won't be any different;
- From a bit of info I collected, it is expected to be included the Towering Inferno main titles. I'm not really sure, but I think Lockhart conducted Jedi Steps and Finale, not the concert version of Jedi Steps, but would love to be proved wrong;
- Night Journeys have been performed a few times live, by Williams himself conducting. John Mauceri recorded back in the early 90's with the Hollywood Bowl Orchestra. The Men of Yorktown march on this expanded form has surely never been recorded. Not sure if it has been performed before or if Williams prepared a new arrangement.

I was at this concert It was wonderful. JW was in great form that evening, so energetic! I've never been to a classical concert with such an atmosphere of excitement and anticipation, it was very special.
I felt the performances in general were quite passionate, they had great chemistry, it was awesome to hear how the players really poured everything they had into it. By the end I think they were getting taxed though!
I didn't have a problem with the Cello Concerto revision, perhaps a bit jarring being different but, I did like it a lot when hearing live.
And a fun note about that Close Encounters -
There was a BIRD flying around in the hall during it! Right over the players heads.
I know JW had to have noticed it (the audience sure did, I heard a couple of gasps.)
Poor bird was really startled on some of those loud passages! He finally found his way off to the side I guess, and was gone by second half thankfully.
Anyway - so glad this was put on SymphonyCast! Finally going to listen tonight!

I was at this concert It was wonderful. JW was in great form that evening, so energetic! I've never been to a classical concert with such an atmosphere of excitement and anticipation, it was very special.
I felt the performances in general were quite passionate, they had great chemistry, it was awesome to hear how the players really poured everything they had into it. By the end I think they were getting taxed though!
I didn't have a problem with the Cello Concerto revision, perhaps a bit jarring being different but, I did like it a lot when hearing live.
And a fun note about that Close Encounters -
There was a BIRD flying around in the hall during it! Right over the players heads.
I know JW had to have noticed it (the audience sure did, I heard a couple of gasps.)
Poor bird was really startled on some of those loud passages! He finally found his way off to the side I guess, and was gone by second half thankfully.
Anyway - so glad this was put on SymphonyCast! Finally going to listen tonight!

I was at this concert It was wonderful. JW was in great form that evening, so energetic! I've never been to a classical concert with such an atmosphere of excitement and anticipation, it was very special.
I felt the performances in general were quite passionate, they had great chemistry, it was awesome to hear how the players really poured everything they had into it. By the end I think they were getting taxed though!
I didn't have a problem with the Cello Concerto revision, perhaps a bit jarring being different but, I did like it a lot when hearing live.
And a fun note about that Close Encounters -
There was a BIRD flying around in the hall during it! Right over the players heads.
I know JW had to have noticed it (the audience sure did, I heard a couple of gasps.)
Poor bird was really startled on some of those loud passages! He finally found his way off to the side I guess, and was gone by second half thankfully.
Anyway - so glad this was put on SymphonyCast! Finally going to listen tonight!

Hi everyone!
So who is going tomorrow evening? I will be there!
I only have a few other friends going, due to the ticket prices and sell-out.
The program looks pretty good, aside from the pieces listed above are also:
HPSS Suite, Lincoln Malice Toward None, ET Adventures On Earth
I think I am most excited about CE3K and ET....always wanted to hear them live...Cello Concerto should be amazing too.
We did subscribe this year and go often, look forward to hearing the orchestra with JW conducting!

I just came home and turned on my computer, checked my email, and saw a note that the Houston Symphony's announcement of their 13-14 season was being webcast.
Clicked on the link, and the second the video loaded, the first thing I saw was a big picture of John Williams and heard them saying that he is coming HIMSELF and conducting here and Yo-Yo Ma too (I think Cello Concerto) and they are also doing film scores and there will be a MEET & GREET afterward. O.M.G.
I thought I had fallen into an alternate universe and had to pinch myself.
Next year is the Symphony's 100th anniversary, so there are a lot of awesome things happening. Right after they announced the JW concert, was mention of a performance of Mahler 8 with Eschenbach, which they are building a special stage extension for. And apparently John Adams is coming as well to conduct his new piece CIty Noir. And also, they have just named a new conductor who looks a lot like Gustavo Dudamel of the LA Phil.
This is all the info I know now on the JW concert, they don't even have the season brochure or concert listings up yet.
Linkage:
http://www.houstonsymphony.org
The very second I hear you can buy tickets, I'm in!
Who else is!
I live here now (I work at the Museum of Natural Science), so I would also be up for organizing whatever get-together etc. we would like to do.
Oh also - hello my beloved JWFan, yes I have been away too long, but I do lurk still!
~g

I just came home and turned on my computer, checked my email, and saw a note that the Houston Symphony's announcement of their 13-14 season was being webcast.
Clicked on the link, and the second the video loaded, the first thing I saw was a big picture of John Williams and heard them saying that he is coming HIMSELF and conducting here and Yo-Yo Ma too (I think Cello Concerto) and they are also doing film scores and there will be a MEET & GREET afterward. O.M.G.
I thought I had fallen into an alternate universe and had to pinch myself.
Next year is the Symphony's 100th anniversary, so there are a lot of awesome things happening. Right after they announced the JW concert, was mention of a performance of Mahler 8 with Eschenbach, which they are building a special stage extension for. And apparently John Adams is coming as well to conduct his new piece CIty Noir. And also, they have just named a new conductor who looks a lot like Gustavo Dudamel of the LA Phil.
This is all the info I know now on the JW concert, they don't even have the season brochure or concert listings up yet.
Linkage:
http://www.houstonsymphony.org
The very second I hear you can buy tickets, I'm in!
Who else is!
I live here now (I work at the Museum of Natural Science), so I would also be up for organizing whatever get-together etc. we would like to do.
Oh also - hello my beloved JWFan, yes I have been away too long, but I do lurk still!
~g