The Psycho Pianist

Unsure of where to post this - but I started a piano arrangement of this piece a couple of years ago and never finished it. In tribute to the wonderful work Kobe put in on this film, and of course his exceptional sporting career, I now have. Sheet music can be found in the video description

One snippet of the many, many standing ovations of the night...

I was on the right hand side, front row on the balcony. I've seen Williams twice before (both Hollywood Bowl 2014/16 I think), but neither of those even remotely compared to yesterday. The intimacy of the venue, the sense of complete harmony of the audience to JW and of course the complete and utter respect of the musicians for someone whom even a decade or so ago they may have regarded with some disdain. The concert met and exceeded my expectations really beyond what I had hoped for - even the presence of ASM and the numerous revised arrangements seemed somehow befitting of the venue and atmosphere. I felt as if the hall, as grand as it is, did suffer from some excess reverb (somebody mentioned earlier that this is more pronounced in the higher balcony seats as opposed to the stalls), however it's such a minor complaint and didn't in any way spoil the occasion nor mar the tremendous musicianship on display. One can only hope that this is a wake-up call for Williams to realise how appreciated he is in Europe - very strange not to see the 2018 LSO concert rescheduled but perhaps this makes that more likely?

Have to echo this. The fact that this is critiqued so intensely at all really puts into perspective just how far beyond Williams is from his fellow film scoring peers. Each and every one of the arrangements on this album reflects a lifetime and wealth of musical knowledge and expertise, finely honed and crafted and now put to task in "classicalising" (if you will) already world class pieces of orchestral music. The violin writing in this is simply masterful. Can one imagine Junkie XL knocking out a 6 minute cello concerto based off of Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice? I think we can all answer that one and the reality is that this kind of thing should simply be absorbed and appreciated whilst it lasts as the world of film music is almost alien to this level of work nowadays!

A new and revealing Jon Burlingame article on the music. An hour of material!

To be fair the music is being taken out of context here. As mentioned previously it may have been scored for some form of pre-show for one of the rides, given the sound it could well be for some type of "galactic news" thing that would feature in the queueline - anyone who's visited Disney will know this is exactly the kind of thing they would do.

Williams's letter to the LSO (from JWFan FB):

RK is a genuinely nice guy. Can't say I've heard the same about MG or SS however...

Sorry to double post but here are a few more pictures courtesy of Daniel James Chan on FB

Some pictures from the above link:

I've always adored this theme, and particularly this performance. The bit where he ascends and transitions from playing to conducting at 1:10 is just glorious - almost a kind of choreographed dance move; the 90 degree turn timed to the beat. 😅

Hoping something from A.I. is featured. Not placing any bets however, begging at least for there not to be 7 minutes wasted upon the godforsaken Throne Room and Finale...🙏

We just kind of, work through them - all the decisions are made purely on a give-take basis on the moment. As we both write together we don't usually have that process of being responsible for certain cues etc, although on occasion we have tried delegating "motifs" to be written individually then brought into the joint writing. This didn't really change the process though - usually you end up with something that sounds better than what you came up with originally!

On projects like this we work together for sure! We find that having two heads rather than one can help propel some ideas to something beyond what you might have come up with on your own. Of course, it does lead to the occasional moment where you feel like your own idea genuinely is better (!), but on the whole it probably also speeds up the process slightly - anything that may have been weird or on a tangent to the overall music arc has usually already been corrected at the source rather than much further on That's of course not to say that you don't occasionally end up with other scenarios though...

Was a 3 hour session but in actuality it only took about 2 and a half!

Thought I'd revive this thread having just seen the release of a short film narrated by Olivia Colman that me and @Max McGuire scored over the last few months. The process culminated in us recording the final soundtrack with a small string ensemble at Abbey Road Studio 1 (coincidentally on the same day as Gordy Haab recorded his Battlefront DLC with the LSO, and the day after Han Solo finished overdubs in the same room!) Below is the film - I really encourage anyone to watch it, it's only 8 or so minutes and has a very important message behind it! Also is a video with a bit of session footage from the recording (both me and Max conducted a half of the score each). Would appreciate any feedback! Thanks

The BMI Awards were last night, and was good to see Williams there as articulate as ever!

Short article just posted by Jon Burlingame with a couple of quotes from the animator Glen Keane.

I think Zimmer should've gotten a look in. After all, Zimmer noodling on his own on the piano is literally the title of this film.

It's all over it, so much of it in the first half of the opening track. Not a clue what it is - sounds glitchy to me, surely not intentional? Can't help but feel if it's not a mastering error that it's something to do with an underlying synth...

The ending is just not right for this to be Williams surely. That snare drum is clearly samples, yet it's quite clearly a vital part of the orchestration of that crescendo. Smells of a pastiche that they had budget for live recording on - however no perc in the session. Also too similar to the Imperial March structure for me for this to be Williams. I would be disappointed if this ended up on the OST as a major track, let's just say that.

Just came across this article on the Orlando Sentinel about the new Wizarding World Christmas (Harry Potter area Christmas event) at Universal Orlando, and it specifically mentions new arrangements "freshly recorded by the London Symphony Orchestra at Abbey Road." There is video from the press viewing also. Anyone know anything more about this - given it's written off of a press release/event I would imagine it's fairly accurate info as Universal surely wouldn't plug it so strongly if not?

Reviving this thread for this. Maybe Williams is providing additional music on RPO

Just seen that the original documentary can now be viewed on Vimeo at this link, with the password "breakwater"

FCL just announced CE3K will be joining the other JW scores in being screened with a live orchestra. Personally I think this may be one of the highlights, and surely one of the most testing on the orchestra! No dates announced yet but presuming they will follow in due course.