Omen II

I can hear some classic Williams touches even in the first few minutes. The director of this episode is Richard Sarafian, who would choose Williams (eventually!) for The Man Who Loved Cat Dancing.

The photobombing Lalo Schifrin!

Was that the nice version of the theme played on an accordion? I had been racking my brains to figure out where in the score I had heard an accordion after I saw accordionists listed in the musicians’ roster. Now I know why I couldn’t place it! Fascinating podcast from Maurizio and the gang as per. I really cannot wait for this to arrive in the post. 🧗🏻🏔⛏🔫

Thank you @Jay, it is interesting to see where everything fits and comforting to know that most of my speculative titles for unreleased music at least made some sense! I got my timings from a DVD copy of the film where the music was often dialled very low in the mix, so it was sometimes difficult to hear exactly where a cue started or ended.

🤯 Blind. Mown. Mike must have felt like Howard Carter entering the tomb of Tutankhamen with this one, so many treasures has he unearthed.

It is a good sign of how much better the remastered album sounds that I did not spot the mistake when primed to expect the film cue. The instrumental detail and clarity in the recording were evident even from the radio clip, so I didn't even think that I was listening to the same album track played in error! I am intrigued by the cue named Felicity. My best guess is that this is music for the scenes featuring Candice Rialson's foxy art student, whose character is not named in the film, as far as I can recall. Wait for me to be proved spectacularly wrong! As for the three source music tracks on disc 2, I am thinking that the first one (Dinner With Gem) is for when Hemlock gets to know Jemima back at his place after meeting her on the plane. If so, I wonder if the misspelling of the name is one of Williams's 'Vadar' moments when naming cues! In the Latin alphabet (as well the film's credits and other publicity), "Jemima" begins with a "J". Perhaps the Leave Me Alone source music is the rock track that is heard in the background when Hemlock roughs up Dewayne and tells him he doesn't like him on his flank? I am not sure about Never Quaver - probably another of the tracks heard at Ben Bowman's ranch? I am sure some of you folks know the answers already, but only a few more sleeps until I find out for certain. I suspect that I will be skipping to Falling And Swinging when I first put in the CD.

Definitely, which makes this release all the more exciting. Even if all the source music were included, it would mean that we have at least twenty minutes of score that will be new to everyone except those who were on the soundstage in 1975 and those who had a hand in this release. Incidentally, I have just checked and the music at the end of the Anna on the Stairs track is not heard in the film. The transition plays without music.

This really is fantastic news! It was great to hear the original The Microfilm Killing track, which is longer than what is heard near the beginning of the film for the scene where Wormwood is killed by an enemy agent. I believe that the scene was originally a bit longer and much gorier (Wormwood tries to swallow the microfilm in an attempt to save it from falling into enemy hands, so you do the math...). Perhaps Williams scored this longer, uncut X-rated version of the scene? On a point of order, the character Anna is the wife of the French climber Montaigne and does not climb the mountain herself. If I recall correctly, I think the end of that Anna on the Stairs cue can still be heard in the film as the climb begins, but I would have to watch it again to be sure. I know I bang on about the music for when Montaigne is injured by falling rocks, but I really cannot wait to hear it outside the film. It is a classic Williams action cue and I am hoping it might also be one of the extra album tracks discovered on the Universal master tapes. Perhaps my favourite bit of the cue is a repeated three note descending motif played fortissimo in a major key as Hemlock tries to save the stricken Frenchman. It is the same three notes as the nursery rhyme Three Blind Mice, which I like to think is an inspired commentary by Williams on the other climbers accompanying Hemlock on their ill-fated expedition. It is all the more striking because the rest of the cue is in a minor key. Damn, John Williams is brilliant isn't he?

I have calculated around 53:44, including Williams source music audible in the film. Of course one never knows what edits, alternates, etc. there might be. Even without source music, the score should be a good three quarters of an hour of Williams at the summit. Are we in for a treat!

I am! This is one of the best things that has ever happened. I am hoping of course that this includes the album rerecording as well as the original film tracks. The unreleased / unrerecorded (is that a word? It is now) cue for when the French climber Montaigne is mortally injured by falling rocks is brilliant, so it had better be on there or I will need to have words. Bill Turnbull is a gentleman, even if he supports cheating Wycombe Wankerers, so I will be tuning in to his broadcast. Thank you for the heads up, @mahler3!

Roman Simovic will be performing Miklos Rozsa's violin concerto with the London Symphony Orchestra this December. https://www.lso.co.uk/whats-on/icalrepeat.detail/2021/12/09/2122/-/rozsa-bartok.html

They could take the show on Tor. I am available for weddings, funerals and batmitzvahs.

The Royal Albert Hall performance has now been rescheduled to 25th June 2022.

Has it ever been performed in concert outside the United States? I would like to hear it performed live one day as I quite like it. Nothing wrong with a bit of patriotism.

The London Philharmonic Orchestra will premiere Danny Elfman's Percussion Concerto at the Royal Festival Hall in London on 25th March 2022. Also included in the programme will be suites from Alice in Wonderland and Batman, as well as excerpts from Howard Shore's Lord of the Rings Symphony. Ludwig Wicki does the conducting while the London Philharmonic Choir does the singing, because the other way round would be silly. Movie Legends

Many of us have been starved of the chance to hear live music over the last year and a half, so it comes as a welcome boost to see that the wonderful Philharmonia Orchestra has scheduled a concert of John Williams music this coming season, albeit in March 2022. Stars and Sorcery The concert is scheduled to take place at the Marlowe Theatre in Canterbury, Kent. This also augurs well for a London performance (the orchestra has not yet announced its London schedule for the second half of the season). Historic Canterbury can be reached in an hour or so on the high speed train from London St. Pancras and is also easy to get to by Eurostar from northern France to Ashford International, if travel restrictions have been lifted by then. Given the location, it would be great if they programmed a couple of selections from Thomas and the King - just imagine it, the age of Henry Plantagenet!

A lovely performance of Gerald Finzi's Eclogue for Piano and Strings with the London Mozart Players and Howard Shelley on the ivories, recorded at St. John's Smith Square in Westminster.

Always? Never!

I thought Josh500 was from Japan? Perhaps he would be able to translate?

A rare venture into this thread for me to recommend the harmonies of Wildwood Kin - a Devon folk rock trio consisting of sisters Beth and Emillie and their cousin Meghann. My favourite songs of theirs are Never Alone, Beauty in Your Brokenness and Headed for the Water. They're ace!

Form which country would you be travelling, @rough cut? Fingers crossed it's the Faroe Islands, St. Helena or Ascension Island! Today the UK government announced a 'traffic light' system for arrivals from overseas. There are currently twelve 'green list' countries from which arrivals will not have to quarantine, in addition to the existing arrangements with our friends from Ireland. Arrivals from all other countries are required to quarantine for ten days, either at home (for amber list countries) or at a government-specified hotel (for red list countries). The system is reviewed every three weeks, so bear in mind that things could have changed for the better or worse by July. There is a £10,000 fine for breaking quarantine rules, just so you know. Incidentally, the Royal Albert Hall is planning to have audiences at full capacity from 6th July, subject to government guidelines, which would be great.

Thank you @TownerFan and @mahler3, that was a very enjoyable discussion. It was great to see and hear the musicians speak so enthusiastically about our favourite composer. Maxine and David still look about 15 despite having been in the LSO for as long as I remember. I want to know what they are taking!

No. I refer the right honourable gentleman to my earlier post in this thread: Thank you for the reminder about the third encore. I remembered Williams conducting Raiders of the Lost Ark and Schindler's List, but I had forgotten which piece from Star Wars he conducted as the third encore. Williams conducted a slightly different concert version of the theme from The Lost World in the main programme. One of my strongest memories of the concert is of Williams crouched on the podium like a velociraptor as he conducted certain passages! A completely random memory of these concerts is that in those days you had to pay for the concert programmes (the LSO now issues free programmes to ticket holders). I remember that for one of the concerts, I left my programme on a seat outside the hall while I went to the loo and someone had nicked it by the time I got back, so I had to buy another programme. If the perpetrator is reading this, I would just like them to know that they will always be a c*nt and that I haven't forgiven them.

Williams also conducted the LSO in a performance of Chester by William Billings at one of those 1998 concerts - not as an encore, but as an ‘extra’ in the main programme.

When watching the New Year concert on TV, I usually spend most of the time counting how many women there are in the Vienna Phil this year! 😆 Although nobody has asked, here are photos of the two programmes from John Williams’s 1998 concerts with the LSO.