Omen II
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Posts posted by Omen II
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I saw Laurie Johnson with his London Big Band about twenty years ago in Croydon's Fairfield Hall of all places. It was really good. Although Laurie Johnson must have been in his mid-seventies then, he was a positive youngster compared to some of the other musicians on stage, a few of which were in their nineties! I seem to remember that Jack Parnell and Don Lusher were among those in the orchestra.
While a lot of his most famous TV themes and film scores were just a little bit before my time, many are so familiar to British listeners even if they do not necessarily know who composed them - Animal Magic, This Is Your Life, Whicker's World and many more. His themes for The Professionals and The New Avengers should make the shortlist if ever Great Britain needs a new national anthem.
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I noticed that this new biography about Elmer Bernstein by his son Peter was available on Amazon:
Has anyone here read it? If so, would you recommend it?
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It was interesting to see the harp positioned immediately in front of the conductor for the violin concerto, given its prominent role in the work. It reminded me of those old photos of Max Steiner or Alfred Newman in front of some Hollywood studio orchestra from back in the day. I have yet to explore the second violin concerto beyond a couple of listens all the way through, but hearing it live certainly whetted my appetite for diving deeper into it.
This was my first time seeing Anne-Sophie Mutter play live so it was also my first live experience of any of the pieces which Williams has arranged for her. I would say that the pieces from The Long Goodbye and Cinderella Liberty worked best for me, possibly because Mutter's style of playing has quite a breathy, flautando quality to it which is not always to my taste but very much suits those two jazzy, vocal pieces.
As Tom mentioned above, it seemed a pity that the concert could not have closed with more orchestral Williams, as great a score as Leonard Bernstein's On the Waterfront is. I felt a little sorry for the horn player who flubbed a couple of notes in his first two solos, although I am not sure most people other than pedantic film music geeks like me would have noticed. It is amazing to think that John Williams gave the London premiere of his symphony in the same venue more than fifty years ago, with Bernard Herrmann in the audience!
I grabbed a few photos for the record.
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I have been reading The British Bloke Decoded by stand-up comedian Geoff Norcott. It is very funny, although you might need to be British and, er, a bloke to fully appreciate the references and humour. He deals with such important subjects as our favourite motorway service stations, football and, of course, why British blokes want medals for performing basic tasks.
Anyway, I was pleasantly surprised to read two positive references to John Williams in successive chapters. In a chapter entitled 'Hero Daydreams' (come on, we all have them) he writes:
Quote"I remember watching the first Superman film: the costume, that theme tune, the modest way he'd never take any credit, the fact that even the bad girls love him too."
His Williams fandom is then confirmed just a few pages later in the next chapter about the ending of Return of the Jedi when Darth Vader "decides he's had enough and lobs the emperor into a giant recycling bin."
Quote"When I first saw the film, that particular scene made my whole body come out in goosebumps. Not just the moment of Anakin Skywalker's (Vader's original name) redemption but the swell of John Williams's incredible score (before George Lucas butchered it by adding in Vader shouting 'Nooooo', like a punter who'd lost money on the favourite at Cheltenham)."
Here he is, for the uninitiated:
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2 hours ago, Edmilson said:
JW already wrote music for basketball, football... When will he write something about soccer? Perhaps something for a video about the lives and careers of
NeymarMbpappé, Cristiano Ronaldo or Lionel Messi?I'd settle for a Fanfare for Carlton Palmer if it came from the pen of John Williams! As well as in Stepmom, there are also some football scenes in Story of a Woman, but I cannot remember if any of them are scored by Williams (pun intended). The main character played by James Farentino is a footballer and is shown scoring a goal intercut with what appears to be some genuine footage of a match between AS Roma and Juventus, I think.
Perhaps our Johnny is looking at combining a concert trip to Berlin with the Euro 2024 final so that he can have it large.
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Is that Perry Botkin (front row) the composer of Skyjacked and Mork & Mindy fame? And Gene Estes (next to him) the renowned drummer?!
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I got this CD recently and just wanted to say how much I am enjoying it. I have been aware of Laurence Rosenthal for as I have been interested in film music, but I remained largely unfamiliar with most of his output, with the exception of a couple of things I had on compilations such as Meteor and The Return of a Man Called Horse.
This CD therefore is a most welcome summary of some of Rosenthal's most notable works for film and television. If you love top quality orchestral film music, I cannot recommend this recording highly enough.
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“Dip-lo-matic immunity!”
It’s just been revoked. 😢
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I certainly never interpreted the (in my opinion, perfectly reasonable) request not to record the proceedings or check in on Facebook - like I even know what that means! - as a command not to discuss the event with anyone afterwards. The only thing I was not sure about was whether details of the various clips which Mike played could be disclosed, but @mahler3 seems to have put that one to bed above.
My favourite audio clip was a recording of Williams recording the 'wild takes' with the choir for Close Encounters of the Third Kind, with Spielberg in the booth requesting various different tempi and pitches. There were a few audience questions, most of which I cannot remember now, but I do remember the LSO musicians citing Revenge of the Sith and Monsignor as their respective personal favourites of the Williams scores on which they played. Eric Crees also said that John Williams was a better conductor than ninety percent of the career conductors he had worked with.
It was nice to meet both Tim and Maurizio briefly when I arrived, both of them being instantly recognisable from the various video podcasts I had seen over the years. It is fair to say that most of the attendees were men (an observation which will come as no surprise to anyone here
), although amongst the few women there was composer Alexandra Harwood. I was chatting to another of the attendees, a bloke called Adam beforehand who had travelled down from Liverpool for the event, quite impressive when I had just a short Tube journey.
I did not stay to watch the film as I had to see a man about a dog that evening, but it was a very enjoyable afternoon. To my great surprise I was also one of the lucky winners in the raffle / prize draw. I thought that maybe it would be one CD or a Legacy of John Williams keyring or something, but it was a mightily impressive bundle of Blu-Rays, CDs and other goodies which would have cost a small fortune to purchase new.
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Although I have attended a lot of concerts featuring John Williams' music for the Star Wars films over the years, this one had so much that I had not heard live in concert before. You could tell the concert had been put together by genuine Williams fans, so well done to @mahler3 (whom I spotted waiting in the wings a few times!) and to @TownerFan who was evidently responsible for the informative and pleasingly accurate programme notes.
As well as the UK concert premiere of music from The Rise of Skywalker posted above by @Biodome, yesterday was the first time I had heard the revised version of Han Solo and the Princess in concert. It might take a bit of getting used to, but having heard it live I think it's a grower. I was happy that the full version of Luke and Leia (apparently conductor Stephen Bell's favourite piece of music from the saga) was played rather than the truncated version heard sometimes more recently. The Lucasfilm Logo, The Adventures of Han Solo and The Rebellion is Reborn were also treats which I had not sampled live before.
I thought the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra was excellent yesterday evening. I did not notice any flubbed notes at all, the exposed horn solos in Princess Leia's Theme and Luke and Leia usually very unforgiving but both played perfectly. I was in the choir seats immediately behind the xylophone, glockenspiel, vibraphone, cowbells, etc. and I loved watching the percussionists dart about between the various instruments. I had not noticed before that the opening of Rey's Theme was played on vibraphone, glockenspiel and marimba. It was also nice that the conductor made the first violins stand after The Asteroid Field, as the other sections of the orchestra usually get the love.
Here are a few grainy photos taken from my vantage point.
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The giant disembodied head of Mike Matessino revealed the momentous news of Wompi to a stunned audience over Microsoft Teams. The sense of shock and disbelief in the room were palpable as we tried in vain to come to terms with the bombshell and to make some sense of it all. The humanity!
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Another event which John Williams attended as an audience member was the concert given by the John Wilson Orchestra at Royce Hall in Los Angeles on 25th October 2013. We know that Williams attended because LSO percussionist David Jackson (also a member of the JWO) posted a photograph of Williams with John Wilson backstage. Unfortunately I can no longer find the photograph online.
It is the concert described here. I seem to remember that Larry King was also in the photograph.
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23 minutes ago, Miz said:
I enjoyed the performance too. Has there ever been film score at the Last Night of The Proms?
There have been plenty of songs from musicals at the last night, especially by Richard Rodgers. A suite from The Sea Hawk by Erich Wolfgang Korngold was played in 2005 and Henry V by William Walton in 2002. More recently the romance from The Gadfly by Shostakovich was played at the last night.John Williams has also featured in the last night with his Olympic Fanfare and Theme in 2012, for obvious reasons.
- Miz and Yavar Moradi
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Wonder Woman was scheduled for a live to picture performance at the Royal Albert Hall in London this autumn but was subsequently cancelled. Tickets had even gone on sale.
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4 minutes ago, KittBash said:
@Omen II Do we know if Williams was in attendance for the first night?
I don’t know. It is quite possible (Nottingham is about 130 miles from London and easy to get to by train) but very little information has ever surfaced online about the Nottingham concert, other than a brief newspaper review. -
Here are the dates of the two performances of the extensively revised version of John Williams's symphony, the original version of which was premiered by the Houston Symphony Orchestra in 1966:
- 1972/07/08 - André Previn conducts the London Symphony Orchestra in John Williams's symphony at the Albert Hall in Nottingham (not to be confused with the Royal Albert Hall in London)
- 1972/07/09 - André Previn conducts the London Symphony Orchestra in John Williams's symphony at the Royal Festival Hall in London, with Williams and fellow film composer Bernard Herrmann also in attendance
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This is such a wonderful idea @KittBash and gives some sense of what a hectic lifestyle Williams has led for most of his ninety-one years. Thank you for your hard work on this so far!
I can see that you have the Filmharmonic '85 concert listed where John Williams conducted the London Symphony Orchestra at the Royal Albert Hall in London in November 1985, however here are the dates of some of his other conducting gigs in the United Kingdom:
- 1976/10/30 - John Williams conducts the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra in Filmharmonic '76 at the Royal Albert Hall
- 1978/02/16 - John Williams conducts the London Symphony Orchestra in The LSO in Space at the Royal Albert Hall
- 1980/10/18 - John Williams conducts the National Philharmonic Orchestra in Filmharmonic '80 at the Royal Albert Hall
- 1982/02/08 - John Williams conducts the London Symphony Orchestra in the open air sculpture court at the Barbican Centre in London
- 1982/02/09 - John Williams conducts the London Symphony Orchestra in the open air sculpture court at the Barbican Centre in London
- 1985/11/16 - John Williams conducts the London Symphony Orchestra in Filmharmonic '85 at the Royal Albert Hall
- 1996/06/26 - John Williams conducts the London Symphony Orchestra at the Barbican Centre in London
- 1996/06/28 - John Williams conducts the London Symphony Orchestra at the Barbican Centre in London
- 1996/06/30 - John Williams conducts the London Symphony Orchestra at the Barbican Centre in London
- 1998/07/01 - John Williams conducts the London Symphony Orchestra at the Barbican Centre in London
- 1998/07/02 - John Williams conducts the London Symphony Orchestra at the Barbican Centre in London
- 1998/07/03 - John Williams conducts the London Symphony Orchestra at the Barbican Centre in London
- 1998/07/04 - John Williams conducts the London Symphony Orchestra at the Barbican Centre in London
Stepmom (John Williams)
in JOHN WILLIAMS
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I visit here for this sort of quality content.
There is one bit of unreleased music from Stepmom which really struck me when I saw the film many years ago. I swear that Williams briefly references the theme from The Towering Inferno in a shot when the camera pans over the World Trade Center. The film was released in 1998.