ChrisAfonso
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Posts posted by ChrisAfonso
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1 hour ago, Gurkensalat said:
Doesn't the Philharmoniker use this quite often? I seem to remember several video recordings with it. The idea behind it is the make the violas more prominent, since they are in danger of being overwhelmed by the other instruments.
That's interesting, because I've heard the exact opposite reasoning - that the cellos project better towards the audience when they sit in the middle (good when they have a lot of melodic lines), and thus someone else has to sit on the outside. Whether that's the violas or second violins will then depend on the preference for having antiphonal vs homogeneous violins.
Which one's true, no idea - depends on the hall, maybe.
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I would be thrilled if he'd come back next year with a programme of, say for example, the Geisha suite, Five Sacred Trees, and a lengthy suite of War of the Worlds film cues. Something completely different. Of course for an occasion like this first Vienna concert ever it absolutely makes sense to do a best-of selection containing all the favorites (thankfully with quite a few welcome surprises thrown in the mix!). But in general it seems to me that the common program selections for concerts with film music are akin to every Beethoven concert containing the first movement of the fifth symphony and ending with the Ode to Joy.
(Slight tangent following:)
I've heard more than once from more classically-minded listeners that (regardless of the musical quality) the music for e.g. Indiana Jones were very monotonous with only the same theme being repeated over and over - and being surprised to hear that in the actual score the Raiders March is used very sparingly and the variety of music is much greater. That's a thing that I hope the proliferation of live-to-projection concerts helps with, making more of the audience aware of the actual scope and musical diversity within the score.
- Biodome, The Psycho Pianist and crumbs
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This weekend was quite an experience! Hard to put into words. On Saturday I had a stalls seat, which was great to watch Williams work his magic (I loved how he often didn't do that much and let the musicians play, but added little gestures here and there to shape a phrase or an accent) and see the energy with which the musicians played. On Sunday I was in the standing area, which meant I couldn't see much, but this had the upside of being much more able to just lean back and take in the sound of the music (which was great even way back there under the balcony) without getting fixated on all the little details catching my eye the day before (watching how certain things are played, how the players react to the conducting, etc - which is its own kind of fun, but woods and trees and all...).
And the sound really was magnificent! The pieces that moved me most were Hook (the magic of the beginning of the concert, and realizing this was actually happening), Close Encounters (just this sublime journey from chaos to triumphant harmony), Sabrina (how so many people can produce so intimate a sound, especially in the melancholic middle section), and War Horse (that aforementioned brass chorale!). And I was really happy they included the Duel from Tintin, which is just great fun with all it's twists and turns, especially with Mutter coordinating the wild bouncing bows passages with the violin section!
I greatly enjoyed meeting a lot of fellow film music friends after the concerts, even if only briefly, and sharing this moment of history (which it surely is)
- Matthias, pete, Gurkensalat and 2 others
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Hope everyone arrived smoothly or will in the next hours! This will be a day to remember!
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41 minutes ago, TheUlyssesian said:
I think single choice might be more definitive.
My choice for the track of the decade from Williams is -
This. But in truth, it's a close finish with a lot of contenders.
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I really love this piece, there's a real sense of melancholic resolve conveyed. It does everything for me that "The Rebellion is Reborn" falls short at. The character of the theme in the second half reminds me a bit of Brahms.
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Just listened to the new episode and enjoyed it a lot! Many thanks to Maurizio, Tim, and Mike to offer us this new peek behind the scenes, and great discussion of music old and new
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Is Nevada Smith related to Indiana Jones?
...
Seriously, I've never heard (of) any of these, will be sure to check out the samples next week.
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3 hours ago, Incanus said:
Star Gate and Williams Disaster Movie box for me! Awesome! Finally The Towering Inferno will be mine, one of the last glaring gaps in my JW collection!
3 hours ago, crocodile said:Stargate and Williams for me.
This is actually a perfect way to release those scores.
Karol
3 hours ago, fommes said:Ditto! I think The Towering Inferno is the last gap actually
I'll just join the pack... One of my favorite scores from my youth, and 3 Williams scores I never heard yet (other than a main title or two)
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After the first full listen (to this set in particular, but also the score in general after many years (on cd or in the film)), the thing that caught my attention the most was the different (shortened) beginning of "A New Beginning" (no pun intended). As the preceding cue ends on an A-major chord, the first few bars of this cue seem to imply an A-minor tonality, with the sparse accompaniment and all, before the arrangement becomes fuller and reveals that the beginning was actually meant as F-Major (maj7). Compared to the album version, which via the longer intro makes the tonality clearer from the start, this initial ambiguity adds nicely to the melancholy character of the cue.
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For everyone who's a Musikverein member, apparently you can buy additional tickets today (I reached the limit yesterday with 4 per concert, but was able to buy another ticket today).
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Yes, they seem to be the same. I got a few standing room tickets for Sunday at 8€ apiece (in addition to expensive seats on Saturday).
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When I bought that seat I knew beforehand that I'd trade in a balanced sound image (and good-angled view of the screen) for a close-up perspective of the orchestra, so I got basically what I signed up for - I really enjoyed the top-notch performance, only occasionally paid attention to the movie on the screen, and due to the perceptive filter of hearing the music relatively up-close and direct vs the dialogue and effects with a lot of reverb it was as close as I expect to get to hear the full score performed live as standalone music.
Due to sitting directly behind the last 1st violin stand this felt almost like a fly-on-the-wall situation in a scoring session for the movie, what with seeing the musicians work through their music up close, having a side-frontal view of the conductor (who really gave the impression of being on top of things the whole time, no matter how intricate the tempo/rhythm/hitpoint syncing got, but it's no secret Brossé is a master at what he does), noticing a lot of details in the orchestration I never noticed before (though in one instance laid bare by the missing synth ;)), and observing at which points various players started to break a sweat, started to watch the movie (surely a sign of a multi-bar rest), or heaved a small sigh of relief after finishing 15 minutes of nonstop action music
The audience in general seems to have enjoyed the concert - when it started I was bit worried about the (understandable - not everyone comes to these with as critical an eye/ear as us ;)) enthusiasm of the people in my immediate surroundings - lots of loud whoops and ongoing applause when the music started, even singing along to the fox fanfare and main theme, but it calmed down and the athmosphere in the room felt good, laughs in a few (appropriate) places, but otherwise everyone was listening and watching attentively (and there were none of the usual droves of people getting up as soon as the credits start).
All in all, Raiders 3 years ago remains the best experience I've had in the ROH acoustics-wise - like Marian said, in the boxes directly opposite the stage you get a good centralized image, and as far as I recall the film audio was actually turned down a bit compared to the music, especially during action sequences without much dialogue, leaving the orchestral sound seem very natural in the room and not really sounding amplified at all. I'd be interested to know how much the film/orchestra-balance is predetermined and meant to achieve a cinema-like blend, or if the engineer in the hall is able to mix it according to their personal taste...
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8-bit Music Theory is a great channel! I think it offers something of value, whether you're fluent in theory or not - as he demonstrates the topics he talks about through ample music examples, and all the notation snippets are played back, so you can just listen to get familiar with them.
Recently I really liked the "Mount Wario" video, which demonstrates a variety of techniques used in one track to sync it up with the gameplay in different ways.
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2 hours ago, Marian Schedenig said:
Two weeks ago I was on the edge of my seat when I feared Arya might die during the battle of Winterfell. But since then, the writing has become so arbitrary that I can't even worry much about my favourite characters.
The loss of this level of investment is one of the things I'm most sad about now. I stumbled upon spoilers before the Winterfell battle revealing that most characters make it out alive (thanks, Twitter), yet at the end of the episode, right up to the NK reaching for his sword, the show had me convinced everybody there was going to die. That, in my book, is effective filmmaking.
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Up until the middle of ep 4, I was mostly with this. A few missteps along the way, but the good so overwhelmingly outnumbered the bad things (which I always manage to mostly overlook in any media in these cases - why take my own fun away?). And even since then, there were a lot of things I really dug - the sheer spectacle, carnage, optics, acting, and most raw plot points. But as many people here have already pointed out - the writing (rushed structure, unearned character beats and motivations) brought it all down significantly. Let's see what next week brings. I still enjoy it overall, to an extent, pity about the potential for more, though. What happens is fine... as long as why is adressed sufficiently.
I'm really looking forward to eventually reading more about Arianne and the Griffs, now.
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1 hour ago, Marian Schedenig said:
He's written other stuff. He obviously either hasn't yet been able to bring book 6 to a state he's happy with, or he simply prefers doing other projects.
Given that three years ago (according to a lengthy blog post) he at one point thought he could make a three month deadline to get the book ready for publication before season 6, the former seems likely to me - he's got a lot of it done, but struggles with the rest and/or rewrites existing chapters because he's not content with what's there. The pressure of "it has to be better than the show" surely doesn't help.
However, if the latter helps him clear his head and get a fresh outlook on continuing the story, all the better for him. I know I get frustrated about the lack of WoW when it's GoT season or I'm in a phase of revisiting the books, but otherwise, there's lots of other stuff to read/watch/play/do in the meantime, what he's already written is great and was worth all the time I invested in it, conclusion or not. And when he's eventually done someday, all the better - a man can dream.
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edit: That chart up there has a highly misleading vertical scale...
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I only remember the piano sonata piece Yared wrote that is featured in the story, but that one is outstanding.
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16 hours ago, Miguel Andrade said:
I asked before I backed the project and he told me he would find a way to send it overseas.
That's nice to know! I should inquire about this, too, when the cds go out.
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Great news! Hopefully the VOD will extend to these shores at some point (same with Comrade Detective, would love to see/hear that score in context)
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I'm on board as well! Decided to go with a stall seat close to the stage for maximum orchestra observation. Looking forward to September!
On 2/19/2019 at 11:05 PM, crocodile said:By the way, among the more recent albums using London Philharmonia is John Powell's Hubris. I think it was actually first performed by them as well during the premiere.
Thanks for the reminder - that's an incredible piece and marvelously performed recording
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1 hour ago, Jurassic Shark said:
Where have you been for the last forty years - in a soundtrack monastery?
The earlier releases were before my collector's releases time, and the blue box was too expensive for a lot of stuff I'm not interested in, so this is actually the perfect occasion to finally get this
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John Williams & the Vienna Philharmonic: January 18/19 2020
in JOHN WILLIAMS
Posted
I feel sorry for this guy:
He's the only one