The Psycho Pianist

Is this a Williams recording/arrangement? Reading on those comments that it's an orchestration by Charles Gerhardt? It is excellent though, had no idea it existed!

1. Han and Leia (why does this not have a concert version!!) 2. Princess Leia's Theme 3. Force Theme (Binary Sunset) 4. Anakin's Theme 5. Yoda's Theme 6. Darth Vader Theme (Imperial March) 7. Luke's Theme (Star Wars Main Theme) 8. Across the Stars 9. Rey's Theme 10. Luke and Leia

Or alternatively an apostrophe after the word in a sentence such as : "John Williams' beard is one of the most iconic in the music industry"

Loved the BFG suite, had a nice flow to it and the flute performance was exemplary. Really great concert all in all tbh. I mean, I would've subbed out Throne Room for something else (Yoda's Theme maybe, or the main title), but other than that I thought the lineup was great. Agreed with others in that the STID section was just odd in the context of the concert, but it was fun to watch nevertheless.

Anyone else notice that drastic accelerando near the start of Olympic Spirit - horns were dragging and then a sudden huge tempo increase. Odd for him to conduct it that way! Rest of it is excellent though, particularly Harry Potter as mentioned above.

New dates are being added next month, including dates in the UK (presumably RAH).

The Happy Birthday variations contains a fantastic variation on percussion (35 seconds in), with timpani/chimes taking the melody supplemented by snare/piatti - leads into a glorious harp passage, followed by a classic Williams-sounding passage on glockenspiel/mallet percussion.

The classic Forest Battle from ROTJ comes to mind immediately. Saw this performed live and my God did the percussion section have a workout. I've still no idea, having never seen the score, what the huge wooden mallet percussion instrument is actually called - just that it looks impressive performed at that speed, especially when in unison with xylophone and glockenspiel

If Williams has recorded an interview specifically for it, then can we assume that the "Star Wars: Highlights" may include a piece from TFA?

The realisation dawned upon me as I heard the first few bars of "Overture" of how lucky we are to hear a new Williams/Spielberg collaboration, one that will probably never again be bettered in terms of the popularity and skill of both director and composer. Now, to critique!

Anyone else hear a little "Beauty and the Beast" in "Sophie and the BFG?" Lovely orchestration all around though, my favourite Williams material (and indeed the stuff that got me into film music) was his whimsical stuff from Hook, Home Alone and Harry Potter; so even from these previews this sounds fantastic.

Ahhh. So, this hasn't been fully announced or anything yet (beyond early speculation it seems), yet it's being shot and released prior to RPO? It does seem like the kind of religioso theme that could prompt something quite extraordinary out of Williams, at least if he scores it.

What is this Kidnapping of Eduardo? Seen it mentioned a few times, no clue what it is!

I presume there's no recording available of that performance? Would be great to hear the live version.

I have just two, TFA and Lincoln. The latter is actually very interesting, especially the violin notation in "Getting Out the Vote." A side of Williams that perhaps isn't as often seen or appreciated!

Is that the concert version of Luke and Leia's theme? Seems to be a chunk missing from the beginning, some midway through, and then that great rising dissonant clarinet/flute line at the end. Never heard that arrangement before.

There's an absolutely classic "Williams on Star Wars" monologue in there:

Well, you would get some great insights on Williams scores if you did meet Pope.

Single tickets are now on sale for this! Offer code if asked for is 2016BOWL.

I believe in the OST it's simply two recorders (soprano?), but on the YT video with JW playing it with the Boston Pops it appears to be a couple of flutes and a couple of recorders. Not completely sure to be honest!

I think it was more for effect - if you compare the orchestration of the string instatement of Rey's Theme in the actual Rey's Theme track (1:40); there is much more overt rhythm and energy, and indeed pleasing harmony. In The Abduction for example, the horns play very deliberate accented dissonant chords whereas in Rey's Theme horns 1+2 double the melody whereas 3+4 play supporting, rhythmic harmony. Also there's a lack of a sense of movement as the semiquaver trumpet and viola accompaniments found in Rey's Theme aren't present either. It reflects more the mood of the film at that moment in my eyes, it's quite clever.

Grrr. So all those hours of footage of Williams and the orchestra during the sessions is doomed to spend the rest of its days on some lone hard drive at Disney?

So, the opening was last night - John looked in fine form and conducted quite a bit more music than he did in Orlando! Odd orchestral setup with the strings on the left and brass/winds on the right, but it was impressive from a visual perspective. And he played a new arrangement of themes synced with projection mapping on the castle...and then proceeded to serenade people as they entered with the end of HWW. Quite amazing really! Watch from 1hr 48min.

The lack of choir was most certainly hugely disappointing, especially given the scale of the performance and venue, along with the obvious value of it to the relevant points within the score. Especially so as there was one for Home Alone (granted it's used much more) in the comparably far smaller Liverpool Philharmonic Hall. Overall though (I was at yesterday's performance also), I can't really fault the performance at all. The entire brass section was perfect, from the heroic trumpets on the Indy theme to the deep brass trombones when the Nazis are on screen. In fact, it's pointless singling out sections as there weren't really any weaknesses. If anything, the film dialogue mix was poor with subtitling on the entire film as some of the speech was completely inaudible due to the huge reverb tail inside the RAH!

They are extremely unhelpful via email. I've contacted them twice now, once before @KingPin mentioned his was dispatched and once since then. Both times I've got handoff, template answers that didn't provide any information I couldn't have worked out myself. Fairly unimpressed as I've also had the Lincoln score on order from them for a while now, again with no dispatch and no communication as to when it is to be sent