Omen II

Wonderful news, disciples!
 
A little matter of fourteen of your Earth years after I visited John Williams Close in New Cross Gate, today I was able to visit John Williams Close in Kingston-upon-Thames while walking the London Loop, a 150 mile long-distance walk around London.
 
Kingston-upon-Thames is a much more well-to-do area than New Cross Gate, so this John Williams Close is a gated private road a mere stone's throw from the River Thames.  It is not far from Hampton Court Palace, where Henry VIII got up to all sorts of mischief, the fat fuck.
 
My odyssey is not quite over, because since my original post a John Williams Boulevard - named after a former leader of the council in that neck of the woods - has been constructed in Darlington in the northeast of this sceptred isle.  I have been to Darlington a couple of times but not since 2008.  My promise to you: I WILL try.
 

I can count on one hand how many times I've received two separate JW releases delivered to me on the same day, plus it's our 22nd wedding anniversary today!  

Too much darkness in the winter for me.  If I was going to retire to the UK I'd definitely consider Devon or Cornwall first.

Roger says
 
"we are announcing next week's release this Friday.
 
this has been a grail release for some time, especially to get that Daedalus cue released. Similar to Monsignor, different mixes existed. So as with that release, one disc features the complete score from Armin Steiner's spectacular film mix, with a second disc featuring Len Engel's album mix we've all come to know and love. Finally it's all here produced under the love and care of Mike Matessino."
 
http://www.intrada.net/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=8910
 

Camulodunum!  Did you misbehave when you were in the army? 

Wow! Thanks for that, @Omen II!
There is so much fantastic stuff to choose from. I've never had any complaints about any Chandos recording. In point of fact, I've just ordered the Dutilleux Symphony nos. 1 and 2 (The Double) from Chandos.
Fun fact: I used to live in the same town in which Chandos is based 

NEW PODCAST EPISODE!
'SUPERMAN IN CONCERT' PODCAST SPECIAL PART 1: INTERVIEW WITH ANTHONY GABRIELE
 
The unforgettable superhero film Superman: The Movie is making a long-awaited comeback with the world premiere of John Williams‘ stirring musical score performed live to picture by the City Light Symphony Orchestra conducted by Anthony Gabriele in the splendor of the spectacular KKL Luzern concert hall in Lucerne (Switzerland) on April 29, 2022.
 
SUPERMAN is the latest of the classic John Williams’ film scores being presented in this 'In Concert' format and, after two years of postponement due to Covid pandemic, it’s finally having its long-awaited world premiere. Conductor Anthony Gabriele talks with The Legacy of John Williams about the music of Superman, how it sits into the filmography of John Williams, the many virtues of Richard Donner’s film and its stirring score, the challenges of conducting live to film, and the uniqueness of Maestro Williams’ overall opus.
 
This is the first of a two-part podcast special dedicated to the world premiere of SUPERMAN IN CONCERT. Listen to the full episode to discover the guest of Part 2…
 
https://thelegacyofjohnwilliams.com/2022/04/25/superman-in-concert-podcast-special-pt1

……to see you……NICE!
 

……to see you……NICE!
 

I think this one might be better...
 

 

I don’t want likes from ANYONE.  I only ever want want the little guy with heart eyes or the red-faced angry guy.

I went to see the BBC Symphony Orchestra in a very rare performance of Rued Langgaard's first symphony at the Barbican on Friday.  It is a remarkable piece (finished by the Danish composer in 1911 when he was still only seventeen years old) and quite bonkers at times.  There were nine horns (four of which doubled on Wagner tubas) as well as off-stage trumpets and trombones in addition to the healthy numbers already on stage.
 
I was glad to have been in row S; any further forward and my ears might have started bleeding as if listening to the boîte diabolique in Look Around You.
 
 

I went to see the BBC Symphony Orchestra in a very rare performance of Rued Langgaard's first symphony at the Barbican on Friday.  It is a remarkable piece (finished by the Danish composer in 1911 when he was still only seventeen years old) and quite bonkers at times.  There were nine horns (four of which doubled on Wagner tubas) as well as off-stage trumpets and trombones in addition to the healthy numbers already on stage.
 
I was glad to have been in row S; any further forward and my ears might have started bleeding as if listening to the boîte diabolique in Look Around You.
 
 

I went to see the BBC Symphony Orchestra in a very rare performance of Rued Langgaard's first symphony at the Barbican on Friday.  It is a remarkable piece (finished by the Danish composer in 1911 when he was still only seventeen years old) and quite bonkers at times.  There were nine horns (four of which doubled on Wagner tubas) as well as off-stage trumpets and trombones in addition to the healthy numbers already on stage.
 
I was glad to have been in row S; any further forward and my ears might have started bleeding as if listening to the boîte diabolique in Look Around You.
 
 

I feel I really should know the answer to this, as I did a course on Neronian literature and society as part of my degree!  Marian is likely to to be right on Quo Vadis, which was one of the films I had to watch.  I also remember having to watch Federico Fellini's Satyricon, which was a couple of hours of my life I will never get back.

I went to this concert yesterday and it was really nice!  Film composer Carl Davis was the conductor and is clearly a keen John Williams fan like we are.  Before the concert there was a free discussion between him and Philharmonia horn player Kira Doherty, which was good fun.  I wanted to ask him during the pre-concert talk whether he had ever listened to Thomas and the King and considered trying to programme any of it in such an appropriate venue, but unfortunately the talk overran so they could only take a couple of audience questions.  For anyone who does not know much about British history, the musical is about the relationship between the mediaeval Archbishop of Canterbury Thomas a Becket and King Henry II.  Becket was murdered by four knights in Canterbury Cathedral in 1170 after falling out with the monarch and was later canonised.  As I had the day off work, I made the most of it by visiting the wonderful cathedral which has some magnificent stained glass windows amongst many other treasures (it is a world heritage site).
 
While there was nothing in the programme I had not heard live before, there were a couple of pieces heard less often these days which I enjoyed the most, namely Born on the Fourth of July and the Love Theme from Superman.  Carl Davis mentioned that these were among his favourites too.  He had a couple of senior moments, for example reminiscing that he met John Williams when he was working on The Cardinal - I assume he meant Monsignor - but otherwise he was on very good form for an 85 year old.  He has the amusing habit of sometimes counting in the orchestra as if he were conducting a jazz band ("A 1, 2, 3, 4...!"), which is just about more endearing than it is disconcerting.  He also took the Olympic Fanfare and Theme so frighteningly fast that I thought the horn section was going to start crying!
 
This was my first visit inside the Marlowe Theatre.  It is a comfortable, modern all-purpose venue but presumably not built specifically for orchestral music, so the acoustics were ok but not great.  It was difficult to hear the horn section in particular, as they were effectively projecting their sound into a black curtain at the back of the stage.
 
The excellent Philharmonia Orchestra has a lot of brilliant young musicians, many of whom were on the last train back to London after the concert.  It was fun to hear a couple of them singing the Superman theme out loud and proclaiming it to be "so good" as they walked along the platform at St. Pancras station before descending into the Underground, as football supporters do when returning from having seen their team win away from home.
 

The Philharmonia Orchestra performed this at the Royal Festival Hall in London on Thursday.  Although I had seen this a few years ago at the Royal Albert Hall, I decided to get tickets and I was so glad I did!  The orchestra was on tremendous form and hearing the final sequence from the escape onwards was like listening to the original soundtrack - every sync point was hit just perfectly.  They are a really great orchestra when it comes to film music.
 
Although I have been to many live to film presentations before, I think this was the first time I had seen conductor Anthony Gabriele.  He got everything spot on and I am pleased to see that he will be conducting the performance of Superman in London this summer.  This was one of those concerts where you could just tell that everyone in the audience loved it, not only from their spontaneous applause at certain key moments and their reactions at the end but also from the buzz of excitement and chit chat as people made their way home afterwards.
 
The programme was free and has a nice note from John Williams inside (no doubt they copy and paste and change the name of the orchestra, but still nice to see).  You can read the programme here if you are interested.
 
P.S. I was amused by the similarity - from a distance at least - between the conductor and one of the first violinists.  They could have been twins!
 

 

The Philharmonia Orchestra performed this at the Royal Festival Hall in London on Thursday.  Although I had seen this a few years ago at the Royal Albert Hall, I decided to get tickets and I was so glad I did!  The orchestra was on tremendous form and hearing the final sequence from the escape onwards was like listening to the original soundtrack - every sync point was hit just perfectly.  They are a really great orchestra when it comes to film music.
 
Although I have been to many live to film presentations before, I think this was the first time I had seen conductor Anthony Gabriele.  He got everything spot on and I am pleased to see that he will be conducting the performance of Superman in London this summer.  This was one of those concerts where you could just tell that everyone in the audience loved it, not only from their spontaneous applause at certain key moments and their reactions at the end but also from the buzz of excitement and chit chat as people made their way home afterwards.
 
The programme was free and has a nice note from John Williams inside (no doubt they copy and paste and change the name of the orchestra, but still nice to see).  You can read the programme here if you are interested.
 
P.S. I was amused by the similarity - from a distance at least - between the conductor and one of the first violinists.  They could have been twins!
 

 

The Philharmonia Orchestra performed this at the Royal Festival Hall in London on Thursday.  Although I had seen this a few years ago at the Royal Albert Hall, I decided to get tickets and I was so glad I did!  The orchestra was on tremendous form and hearing the final sequence from the escape onwards was like listening to the original soundtrack - every sync point was hit just perfectly.  They are a really great orchestra when it comes to film music.
 
Although I have been to many live to film presentations before, I think this was the first time I had seen conductor Anthony Gabriele.  He got everything spot on and I am pleased to see that he will be conducting the performance of Superman in London this summer.  This was one of those concerts where you could just tell that everyone in the audience loved it, not only from their spontaneous applause at certain key moments and their reactions at the end but also from the buzz of excitement and chit chat as people made their way home afterwards.
 
The programme was free and has a nice note from John Williams inside (no doubt they copy and paste and change the name of the orchestra, but still nice to see).  You can read the programme here if you are interested.
 
P.S. I was amused by the similarity - from a distance at least - between the conductor and one of the first violinists.  They could have been twins!
 

 

The Philharmonia Orchestra performed this at the Royal Festival Hall in London on Thursday.  Although I had seen this a few years ago at the Royal Albert Hall, I decided to get tickets and I was so glad I did!  The orchestra was on tremendous form and hearing the final sequence from the escape onwards was like listening to the original soundtrack - every sync point was hit just perfectly.  They are a really great orchestra when it comes to film music.
 
Although I have been to many live to film presentations before, I think this was the first time I had seen conductor Anthony Gabriele.  He got everything spot on and I am pleased to see that he will be conducting the performance of Superman in London this summer.  This was one of those concerts where you could just tell that everyone in the audience loved it, not only from their spontaneous applause at certain key moments and their reactions at the end but also from the buzz of excitement and chit chat as people made their way home afterwards.
 
The programme was free and has a nice note from John Williams inside (no doubt they copy and paste and change the name of the orchestra, but still nice to see).  You can read the programme here if you are interested.
 
P.S. I was amused by the similarity - from a distance at least - between the conductor and one of the first violinists.  They could have been twins!
 

 

The Philharmonia Orchestra performed this at the Royal Festival Hall in London on Thursday.  Although I had seen this a few years ago at the Royal Albert Hall, I decided to get tickets and I was so glad I did!  The orchestra was on tremendous form and hearing the final sequence from the escape onwards was like listening to the original soundtrack - every sync point was hit just perfectly.  They are a really great orchestra when it comes to film music.
 
Although I have been to many live to film presentations before, I think this was the first time I had seen conductor Anthony Gabriele.  He got everything spot on and I am pleased to see that he will be conducting the performance of Superman in London this summer.  This was one of those concerts where you could just tell that everyone in the audience loved it, not only from their spontaneous applause at certain key moments and their reactions at the end but also from the buzz of excitement and chit chat as people made their way home afterwards.
 
The programme was free and has a nice note from John Williams inside (no doubt they copy and paste and change the name of the orchestra, but still nice to see).  You can read the programme here if you are interested.
 
P.S. I was amused by the similarity - from a distance at least - between the conductor and one of the first violinists.  They could have been twins!
 

 

Video recap of last week's concert.
 
 
There's footage of all four movements of the concerto.

The Philharmonia Orchestra performed this at the Royal Festival Hall in London on Thursday.  Although I had seen this a few years ago at the Royal Albert Hall, I decided to get tickets and I was so glad I did!  The orchestra was on tremendous form and hearing the final sequence from the escape onwards was like listening to the original soundtrack - every sync point was hit just perfectly.  They are a really great orchestra when it comes to film music.
 
Although I have been to many live to film presentations before, I think this was the first time I had seen conductor Anthony Gabriele.  He got everything spot on and I am pleased to see that he will be conducting the performance of Superman in London this summer.  This was one of those concerts where you could just tell that everyone in the audience loved it, not only from their spontaneous applause at certain key moments and their reactions at the end but also from the buzz of excitement and chit chat as people made their way home afterwards.
 
The programme was free and has a nice note from John Williams inside (no doubt they copy and paste and change the name of the orchestra, but still nice to see).  You can read the programme here if you are interested.
 
P.S. I was amused by the similarity - from a distance at least - between the conductor and one of the first violinists.  They could have been twins!
 

 

The Philharmonia Orchestra performed this at the Royal Festival Hall in London on Thursday.  Although I had seen this a few years ago at the Royal Albert Hall, I decided to get tickets and I was so glad I did!  The orchestra was on tremendous form and hearing the final sequence from the escape onwards was like listening to the original soundtrack - every sync point was hit just perfectly.  They are a really great orchestra when it comes to film music.
 
Although I have been to many live to film presentations before, I think this was the first time I had seen conductor Anthony Gabriele.  He got everything spot on and I am pleased to see that he will be conducting the performance of Superman in London this summer.  This was one of those concerts where you could just tell that everyone in the audience loved it, not only from their spontaneous applause at certain key moments and their reactions at the end but also from the buzz of excitement and chit chat as people made their way home afterwards.
 
The programme was free and has a nice note from John Williams inside (no doubt they copy and paste and change the name of the orchestra, but still nice to see).  You can read the programme here if you are interested.
 
P.S. I was amused by the similarity - from a distance at least - between the conductor and one of the first violinists.  They could have been twins!
 

 

https://thelegacyofjohnwilliams.com/2022/04/01/sally-stevens-podcast/
 
I hope you will enjoy this. Sally is a legend and a warm, kind person. Lots of interesting details on AMISTAD shared during the conversation.